Death at Om Beach
- Luka Hewitt
- Apr 3, 2015
- 3 min read
A few mornings into our Gokarna stay, we noticed a few people gathered on the beach staring out into the water. We went out to see what was happening, and found out that an Indian guy had drowned in the sea the afternoon before, and his body hadn't been recovered - we realised then that the boats and jet skis we had seen from a distance the day before must have been attempting to get the it. It was really sad, and we had been pretty worried about the water ourselves after there was a whirlpool in the water a few days before that two people had to be helped out of. The water was pretty crazy at that beach, and so you really had to be careful... Especially the Indian tourists as it seemed most of them either couldn't swim or were pretty poor, and a lot of them had been drinking.
A European guy called Sammy had offered to go out to try and get the body after spotting it floating in the distance, and so took some rope and borrowed a kayak from one of the cafes. On his way out we started to question the cafe owners, asking why the police who were standing nearby weren't doing anything, or why the local fisherman weren't taking their boats out. Turns out its apparently "bad luck" to have a dead body touch their boats and so they weren't prepared to go and get this young man and reunite a dead son with his family. It was fucking ridiculous.
Police watching Ash and other tourists going to recover the body
Once Sammy had reached the body, he started shouting and waving to us, indicating that he needed help... And so Ash put himself forward. He and another young man named Nirin went and got a two-seat kayak and began to make their way over to him. I felt sick and tears pricked my eyes instantly. I was so worried about what Ash would see, but I felt proud that he had put himself forward for the awful job, and knew that he could do it - he's a good egg! Twenty minutes later they were almost at the shore, with the poor man lay across the back of Ash's kayak and Nirin swimming behind it. Our friend Bas had got a sheet and met them in the shallow water to cover the body before bringing him onto the shore.
It was a horrible experience, and a man was sat on the sand watching them carry over his brother, just crying into his hands. Once they'd put the body onto the sand I went over to Ash and gave him a big hug and checked that he was okay. He said that he was fine, and I assured him that him and the two other men had been heroic and should be proud of themselves.
With everyone talking about the incident for the rest of the morning, it was horrible to find out the this man was the third or fourth to die on this small beach in just the first three months of the year. Why didn't they have lifeguards here if it was so dangerous? Someone pointed us to the "Danger" sign at the beach entrance when we asked this, and told us that people swan there at their own risk.
I just wonder how many deaths will it take before they decide to put a lifeguard on the beach? Or how many drowning incidents in the whole of India before they decide to teach swimming in schools, or lower the price for private lessons? It's so sad to think that some of these deaths could have been prevented through such relatively small measures. We have looked up the incident on Google since, and found the following:
"Engineering Student from Davangere Drowns at Gokarna Beach
Sun, 05 Apr 2015 - 12:47:35 |
Source: S.O. News Service | Posted by: Staff Correspondent
Gokarna: Surajkumar Varma (21), a native of Jharkhand, who is an engineering student at Davangere, drowned at Om beach at Gokarna in Kumta taluk. His body was found on the sea shore on Friday, according to a report here on Saturday."
Thoughts are with his family x
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