Siddharth’s Dream Vacation

Siddharth was a young creative boy who loved nature and animals. All he desired was to be in the lap of nature and vacation, vacation and never-ending vacations. He never liked school and enjoyed the online classes during the covid times. But Siddharth loved talking endlessly about science and nature.

The amiable boy Siddharth wished to have a dog as a pet. But since he lived in an apartment, space was a constraint so he couldn't own one; instead, he got bettas and guppies. Siddharth named his bettas based on their appearance and behavior as Invincible, Red Samurai, and Peacock Samurai.

One day Siddharth was cleaning Invincible's tank and was playing with him by making the playful Invincible follow his finger. He went round and round making a whirlpool and a splash. The whirlpool sucked him into the Mariana Trench, the deepest oceanic trench on Earth.

Siddharth found himself surrounded by sea creatures, such as lemon sharks, whale sharks, cuttlefish, and sea snakes, to name but a few. Siddharth was absolutely delighted to be in this part of the Pacific ocean. To be in the underwater world was his dream vacation. Being friendly, Siddharth wanted to make friends with the sea creatures. But the sea creatures were unhappy to have a floating person with mask, oxygen tank, and other snorkeling gears, thinking just like other handy creatures, Siddharth too had dived into their world to hunt them. They called the humans "Handy Creatures" as they used hand signals to communicate and hunt.  

As most of the sea creatures were carnivores, Siddharth too feared for his life. But he was brave and patted the shark near him gently. His compassionate touch warmed the shark's heart and they became friends. The shark convinced others about Siddharth being a harmless "Handy Creature."

Siddharth called his new friend "Frisky". He told the shark "From now on you are Frisky for me." Frisky was overwhelmed to have a proper noun than just being a common noun. He jumped in and out of the water splashing water on Siddharth with his fin and licking him lovingly.

Frisky became Siddharth's guide to frisk him to the various zones—sunlight zone, twilight zone, and midnight zone in the Mariana Trench. As they were in the sunlight zone, Frisky raced at the speed of light to the twilight zone full of corals, a shiver of cookiecutter sharks, and a galaxy of starfish, which left Siddharth mesmerised about the milky way galaxy beneath the ocean. Suddenly Frisky lost his way in the dark and said, "It is sooo dark, I cannot see a thing." That's when Siddharth turned on the torch connected to his helmet. He told Frisky, "Hey dude, this is the midnight zone, let's keep going."

Being adventurous Siddharth wanted to experience life in the midnight zone. Exploring the midnight zone led them to the giant wall with a narrow opening. Siddharth insisted Frisky get inside the small hole. Frisky obediently followed Siddharth's instructions and took him inside the colossal wall, which turned out to be a cave. As Siddharth wanted to tour the cave, Frisky hugged Siddharth and bid him an emotional goodbye.

Inside the cave, Siddharth read the inscriptions and kept following the wobbly cave. Having read about Belum caves, Siddharth was certain to be in Belum caves in Andhra Pradesh located in the Indian subcontinent. At the end of the cave, there was a bright light and Siddharth found himself in a gorge. He was pleased to have found his way to Gandikota—the Grand Canyon of India.

Siddharth trekked the rocky hills to reach the road. Soon he boarded a bus to Bangalore and was thinking about his adventurous vacation from the Pacific Ocean to the Bay of Bengal admiring nature's beauty in the Indian villages. Suddenly Siddharth felt someone nibbling and tickling his fingers, which made him look into the bowl. It was his fighter fish that was playing with his fingers. Smiling, Siddharth cleaned the bowl and later narrated about his adventurous vacation over lunch to his mother.