The Underwater Escape!!!

Back again with another Escape I have never attempted before - THE UNDERWATER ESCAPE. This one is a classic but also the most watched and appreciated type of escape. I guess everyone must be knowing Harry Houdini. I am intentionally not wring Late Harry Houdini, because there's a saying in Magic Circles....MAGICIANS ARE NEVER BORN, THEY NEVER DIE; THEY SIMPLY APPEAR AND DISAPPEAR. So Harry Houdini might have disappeared!

Anyways, Houdini was a VERY popular magician who carried Magic to astronomical heights of popularity. He loved performing various escapes. One of his popular performances was this UNDERWATER ESCAPE where he was handcuffed and sealed in a wooden box which was tied with ropes and/or chains and thrown in a river or sea. The one he did at New York in 1912 finds many mentions on the net.

Well.........that's what I plan to do. Only, chains will be five times more, box will be dropped by a Helicopter instead of a Boat, and it's in Hyderabad's Hussain Sagar Lake. On this 13th, Sunday, at 11a.m., I'll perform this escape. Incidentally, i went to the Lake today and since then, there's a picture in front of my eyes I am unable to get rid of. This picture is of the water that this Lake holds. Dark Green, murky waters!! Very, very dirty!! I saw today that visibility inside the water is less than a foot!! I mean, from the top of the water, you can't see even a foot inside it, so dirty the Lake is. And does it stink!! Only silver lining was the Buddha Statue in the middle of the Lake. Buddha, no matter where he is, is always serene. So he's here too. But I am no Buddha. So, I hated that Dark Green Stinky water!!!!!!!! I am just committed to perform the magic there so I will. But I wish I don't have to touch that water, so dirty it is.

I have been practising my swimming since ten days so that I am prepared for any exigencies that might arise during the Escape (Exigencies happen often in Escapes).

A newspaper today printed a new kind of photo of me - just in my swimming trunks. This is my first photo of this nature. I was a bit awkward during the photo shoot, but do I have a choice?

Still busy running pillar to post for arrangements of the event. Too much yet to be done. Even the Helicopter is not yet finalised. I know that's not the best way to do things, but sometimes stars are just in the wrong places. Will keep working on it till all's done. No choice about that again!

So 13th may, 2007 is the D-Day. I must write again after the event is over, so that I can tell you that I went in the Lake a brown man, but came out a Dark Green Monster!!!!!:-)