Parachute Man - Little Andaman

My travel companion, Zoli is an extremely friendly guy. He made friends with the hotel manager straight away on Little Andaman. Zoli is also a multitalanted guy, so the hotel manager was delighted to find out that Zoli had some engineering background.
"There is a scientist on the island! He could do with your help, I'm sure. Can I tell him, you are here?"
"Yes, of course!" - answered Zoli.

A few hours later the scientist was knocking on our door, holding a piece of paper and a pen. Rather shy, he started to explain that, since the age of 15 (now 45), his dream has been to fly like a bird! "I will success!" - he kept saying, with his broken English, "but why does my parachute spin?"

"Oh, dear!" - Zoli held his head, not even knowing where to begin tackling the problem.
Parachute Man had a 35 m2 rectangular piece of windproof material with strings tied to each corner. The strings he tied to his shoulders and wanted to catch wind while running.
"I can't run! Why??"
"Your parachute is too large!"
"I even tried using a propeller secured onto my back and riding a motorbike to help me take off, but my parachute just keeps spinning! WHY?"
"The strings must be of exact same length and there must be more than just four of them and the parachute has to have a different cut..."

Little Andaman's scientist was all ears, he was very excited to have found someone who knew so much about flying. He learned about different currents and about air pressure at different heights. He learned about the difference between parachutes / para glides and the way their size should be worked out for each individual. Zoli made someone extremely happy and lead him closer to success. There was so much energy and determination in our scientist, we grew fond of him in no time at all. He didn't know the impossible!

Next day we were invited for breakfast at Parachute Man's house. There further enlightenment had taken place, but most importantly Zoli made a strap, which would be much more comfortable to fly with. Due to the lack of materials to choose from, Zoli decided to make the strap out of kitchen towels. Luckily there was a sewing machine in the house, so the mission was completed pretty fast.

Parachute Man sat in his new strap, his face was glowing with joy, when he was pretending to fly while secured to the bars outside his window.



The next and very important lesson to learn was how to land. Zoli showed him what the right way of reaching the ground was and as a good student Parachute Man was practicing, practicing, practicing, not even taking notice of the neighbors gathering in front of his house. In his garden, from a pile of bricks he kept jumping obsessively because Zoli (the clever white man) told him how very important this was.

This was an extremely special experience for all of us. We've all learned something from each other to take away with us. We are all driven by our dreams and by accomplishing them, we move forward. That's the only way of moving forward, so accomplish your dreams, they are possible! Fight for your dreams, your day will come too. "I will success!"

He will success! Zoli will send him a second hand para glide. :)