Indian Girl, 11, dives 40 feet for underwater greeting
Tisya sends out wishes for Nuakhai fest
ADubai-based 11-yearold Indian girl on Friday dived off the coast of Fujairah to send out an underwater greeting on the eve of the ‘Nuakhai’ agricultural festival celebrated in her home state of Odisha in eastern India.
Tisya Panigrahi, a Grade 6 student of Raffles World Academy in Dubai, was accompanied by her father Priyadarshee Panigrahi in the dive – both are certified scuba divers.
‘Dibba Rock’ dive
The duo dived some 40 feet into the sea at the ‘Dibba Rock’ dive site to wish people on the occasion of Nuakhai. The word ‘Nua’ means new and ‘Khai’ means food; the name Nuakhai is representative of the fact that farmers are in possession of the newly harvested rice – symbolic of a new ray of hope.
Both divers travelled on a diving boat to their dive site and jumped into the sea in full diving gear. After descending to a depth of around 40 feet, amid colourful coral reefs and diverse marine life, they took out celebratory placards and sent out their wishes. One of the placards read ‘Nuakhai Juhar’, which is the traditional way to greet people on this festival, while other placard read ‘Happy Nuakhai’.
Tisya said: “Diving is something that I enjoy a lot and the idea of doing something extra while diving was nice. It was fun to hold the placards and pose for pictures and videos.”