Rajiv Trivedi swims to glory – fastest swim across sea from Lanka to India

Do you know the youngest Arjuna Awardee ?  The Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961 by the Government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. The award carries a cash prize of  500,000, a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a scroll.

Elsewhere, a Senior IPS Officer Rajiv Trivedi created record of sorts by swimming from Lanka to India in 12 hours 31 minutes on 25^th March 2011.   New Indpress reports that he started from Talaimannar in Srilanka and reached Danushkodi (Rameswaram tip) in the shortest time recorded thus far.   He reportedly had reconnaissanced the route several months ago and was accompanied by another DSP Bala Saheb Ghatge.  Rajiv Trivedi,  is currently posted as the Additional Director of the AP Police Academy in the ranks of senior IGP.  He was the Contingent Commander of the contingent of Indian police officers which served in the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the year 1999-2000.

The great achiever is stated to have reached Talaimannar by boat on Thursday and stayed in the boat itself overnight.  The newspaper report quotes him as having had some noodles on a kerosene stove and having jumped into the waters at 4 am sharp when it was very dark.  He had with him an electronic shark deterrent system to avoid sharks as this portion is shark-infested.  He said he met several dolphins and a variety of fishes on the route.  There are systems utilising advanced three dimensional electrical wave which repel sharks via an electric field that induces spasms in the shark’s snouts.   

He is not the first man to swim across from Srilanka to India – Kurtaleeswaran, Meher Sen and Bula Chowdary had all achieved this feat and Rajiv has been the fastest.    The basic principle of swimming is buoyancy. It is an art to float in water and move around faster.  Swimming in a pool is much different than on a river or on a vast might Ocean.  The long distance swimming is more of endurance and stamina.  

Achievements are nothing new to Rajiv Trivedi.  In Jan 2010, he completed the famous Standard Chartered Full Marathon Mumbai as a tribute to martyrs.  He ran the distance of 42.195 Kms. in a creditable time of 3 hours and 37 minutes.

Sure, you would remember Ashok Kamte, ACP Mumbai [on whom Ashoka Chakra was conferred after he was killed in the dreaded 2008 Mumbai attacks].  Rajiv Trivedi and Kamte were together at Sarajevo.  A month after the attacks, famous Gadge brothers of Mumbai planned a long distance swim from Dharamtar to Gate of India to honour the martyrs and Rajiv was to join them.  Eventually he did not.  Gadge brothers swum in the Straight of Gibraltar but tragedy struck as Vinod Gadge got entangled in a fishing net. 

This busy Police officer is known for his fitness and has been actively encouraging all to keep fit and slim.  

His earlier achievements include becoming the First IPS officer to swim the strait of Gibraltar when he swam from Spain to Mount moosa in Moroccan coast.  Only 65 people have crossed the strait of which 18 are Indians.   He had tried to swim across the English channel but after a distance of 40 km had to stop due to high tide.  

The youngest Arjuna Award winner was Kutraleeswaran [1981 born] famous in Tamilnadu as a marathon swimmer.  He swam across the English channel in 1994 when he was just 13.  The very same calendar year, he  swam across 6 channels to break Mihir Sen’s record of swimming across 5 channels in a calendar year. Kutraleeswaran entered the  Guinness Book of World Records for this feat.

He was awarded ‘Arjuna Award in 1996’  Tamilnadu State Board text book in Tamil has a lesson on him.  Unfortunately,  he was not recognized as much as he deserved.  He is no longer an active swimmer and went on to study MS at the University of Texas, Dallas.  

With regards – S. Sampathkumar