It was.. heart-rending when i read the newspaper regarding the Singapore Dragon Boat tragedy. I could almost feel the wails of grief from the pictures in the papers. My heart goes all out to the family member and the loveones of the 5 deceased and the 17 survivors. They must be feeling extremely heart-broken, occasionally raising their head and ask the heaven a thousand a milions times why it was their son to make up for one of the 5 victims. Dont know how many times ive wept over it too. It was just too depressing, yet due to my singaporean genes, i didnt stop myself from following up on the news.

As much as the 17 had managed to escape from this accident, the frightening scenes of the moment will be coming back to haunt them every now and then. So scary. It was no joke and not meant to be exaggerating (when i was a child, i couldnt figure out why some people are haunted by the past frightening scenes. maybe you are just one now).

Infact i could relate myself to this accident.
First year-end poly break finally arrived. My poly classmates and me happily set off to Bintan for our well-deserved holidays which we've been planning for. Played alot water sports over there and one of the incident which happened in amidst was still haunting me at times. Banana boat which is a banana-lookalike air boat pulled by a jetboat with a rope, is one of the popular water sports played by many. Speed and the bumpiness, creating lotsa fun for all of us that we played it again on the third day. We were told usually after the ride, people would capsize their banana boat and get down to the sea around 200metres away to swim back to the shores. Regardless you were a good swimmer, you will be able to do that with the lifejacket. Just move your arms and legs. It was no harm we thought. BUT BUT accident love to happen at such hour.

Probably it was a lack of communication or procrastination. One of my supposingly close guy friend asked me to leap into the sea first ( i was quite a joker active in my class that time). Splash, there i plunged into the water. WITHIN THE NEXT SPLIT SECOND, when i turned and looked at all of my classmates, together with the BANANA BOAT, THEY FLOATED OVER ME!!! YES THEY WERE STILL ON THE BOAT~

I was then swept under the boat INSTANTLY. With the superb life-jacket exerting force UPWARDS and the BANANA BOAT, with the WEIGHT of my other 10-so-classmates acting DOWNWARDS on me, i just feel sandwiched. It is life-concerning. If i were to stay there for more than 20 seconds, im not sure if i'll have the energy to pull myself out of the forces acting on ME. It could be disastrous! It might have been around 10 seconds or MORE, but i could feel myself struggling in the grey area between life and death and were doing a little flashbacks! Dont know what was gripping over me, suddenly I become very determined that i will get myself out of that STUPID shit. I was yelling in my head "I must live. family andlove ones were with me. Alot of dreams unfulfilled!!" while i continue keeping my eyes open in search for light. Umpteen tries, using my hand to push myself out from the boat, i begin seeing LIGHT under the sea. Splash, got my head out of the water and starting to breathe again. Wonderful. God(chinese)!, must have been them watching over me. Next, im feeling all the fumes in me, cursing in my mind that guy friend had almost CAUSED my de*th. Yes, thats me. Till now, infact im always, a risk averse. Life is good, i always dont like bothering risking myself for there are 39489028390293 reasons that im loving life.

Treasure life. For the milisecond when you are losing your breath, you'll be full of regrets, i GUESS. And after watching the pictures taken by the people present at the scene of the tragedy, you feel even more pity. They were ALREADY REACHING the platform and were preparing to get out of the dragonboat!! It was reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. ARGH. Its saddening me, i believe you too.