1. What is Skydiving?!

"Are you crazy?!","So is it like you'll jump from a plane without a parachute?", "Like from what height and how long are you up there?", "Are you tied to something or you're just falling off?" were some of the questions I faced when I told people I did a Skydive in Dubai above the stunning Palm Jumeirah islands. Yes, you jump off from a small air plane, you are tied to an instructor (tandem Skydive is what they call it) who jumps along with you, so he does all the heavy lifting for you and you just experience the pure rush!

My jump was from about a height of 13,500 ft that gave me a free fall of 50 seconds before the chute  is opened by the instructor and then about 3-4 minutes of the view of the Magnificent Dubai from the sky, before I safely land on the ground.

2. Is Skydive risky?

Yes it is. But so is driving on a highway, playing on the beach close to the waters, flying in an aircraft, playing a tough sport and so on. The odds of something going wrong in a skydive are less that 0.0007% is what the statistics say. Though you're asked to sign the waiver just before going for a skydive and the clauses might scare you, that should not stop you even for a second. Just go for it and you will feel proud of yourself later.

3. What does it feel like to Skydive?

I myself was extremely curious to know that! No matter how many articles I read or how many videos I watched, I really couldn't imagine what it would feel like. We would have highest jumped from a compound wall or a half floor as kids and would land within a fraction of a second, so how is to keep falling for 50 whole seconds?

There I was, in the air plane that takes 15 minutes to get to that altitude, and my videographer asked me - "Okay, we're in a plane up, how are you feeling?", and I say - "I'm very very scared". He asks - "But are you still gonna jump?" and "YES" comes my answer! In few minutes, the door opens and cold air gushes in. Without giving me much time, Norman (my instructor) says let's go and we're at the door. As per his instructions I lifted my head up, bent down and he slowly tilted to the left and WHOA - We're out of the plane! In that split second I expected to land but I didn't (our brains can only recall landing immediately after jumping right?) And there I am falling off looking constantly at my videographer (he jumped a second before us) because he'd told me - "You want good photos? You better look at me and not look down".

The whole feeling is only of wind, high speed wind hitting you at 210 km/hr and you don't really know that you're falling. The ground is so far below you that you don't see anything moving relative to you. So your brain cannot feel that you're actually falling. It's probably the same feeling if you stood at the front of a train that moves at 210 km/hr and that's it! Yes of course, you cannot speak or hear yourself even if you scream, you cannot move your hands too much because of the wind and it's very cold at that altitude. After 50 long seconds (yes, it's really long when you're falling, trust me!), the chute opens and you suddenly come down to 5 km/hr - so that might feel a little hard for some people, but next comes my favorite part of a skydive. You are HIGH UP there and 5 km/hr feels like you're not falling at all. You would believe if someone told you, there's an invisible platform you're standing on. Look around and it's ABSOLUTELY MAGICAL - nothing like you would have ever seen before or felt like before.

4. How do you feel after Skydiving?

I'm not gonna just tell you that you'll feel overwhelmed, confused, exhausted, excited, dizzy, thrilled or anything. You might feel these or you might not. But there's one thing I can tell you - You're never the same person again! It's not that you'll never fear again, you will. But you will also know that you are capable of facing that fear. It's not that you'll never feel tied up again, you will. But you will also know how to break free, and that you can! It's not that you will be able to achieve anything and everything, but you'll surely know YOU can succeed in any field if you just DECIDE to JUMP and trust that you'll survive through all the challenges on the way.

Go ahead and experience it for yourself. It's a must-do adventure at least once in a lifetime. Is skydive in your bucket list now?