Prahlad Kakar
Ad Filmmaker & Co-founder of Lacadives
ADMAN PRAHLAD KAKAR HAS HAD
MANY AN ADVENTURE IN HIS LIFETIME,
BUT THERE’S ONE THAT STANDS OUT—
DISCOVERING THE MARINE TREASURES
OF LAKSHADWEEP AND MAKING
THEM ACCESSIBLE TO THE WORLD
WITH LACADIVES.THE BIRTH OF
A DIVE SCHOOL
MY INTRODUCTION TO
SCUBA DIVING WAS PURELY
ACCIDENTAL.It happened on
a cold, windy day in Mauritius.
I had gone there on a business
trip with a friend; since we
were doing nothing on a
Sunday morning, we decided
to accompany some friends
to a local diving school. We
convinced the instructor to let
us tag along with the divers
to a nearby dive site at Trou-
aux-Biches. Once there, all
the divers kitted up, rolled
off the side of the boat, and
disappeared, leaving the two
of us and the boatman rocking
on a rough sea. I get seasick in
a bathtub, and I definitely had
not found my sea legs by then.
Looking slightly green behind
the gills, I urged the boatman
to drop us back to the shore.
But he could not leave the
divers behind. As I was about
to upchuck my breakfast into
the heaving ocean, the boatman
took pity on me and gave me a
mask (which I had never worn
before) and snorkel, and told
me to jump off the side with
the reassuring final words,
“I promise, you’ll feel better”.
With a prayer, I scrambled
off the boat into a very cold sea; the shock of the chilly
water cured half my nausea,
the other half disappeared
when I put my head under
the water. I could suddenly
see everything below the
surface—the divers, the reef,
the fi sh. It was an introduction
to a whole new world that
I had never even imagined.
After the brief swim, we
convinced the very French
instructor Hugh Vitry (we
nicknamed him His Royal
Baldness, for obvious reasons)to take us for a beginner’s dive.
He had never seen Indians
dive before, so his reluctance
wasn’t unwarranted, but our
persistent pleas paid off. The
next day, before we could think
things through, we found
ourselves clad in a
5mm neoprine wetsuit.
Then came the moment
of truth: my friend, a very
nervous Pradeep Upoor, asked
me to inform the instructor
that he couldn’t swim.
I blurted it out to Vitry mid- COURTESY OF PRAHLAD KAKARA hawksbill turtle
greets a scuba diver.Scuba divers navigate
an underwater cave in
Lakshadweep.The tentacles of an anemone
provide protection to nests
of clownfi sh.
PEOPLE & PLACES