An Uncertain Love
The Sea and I : ‘Tales From the Tide’
I have always loved the sea, but from afar. The admission that I don’t know to swim has always caused listeners to look askance at me.But the thought of battling with that mysteriously alive agent, water, gives me nightmares.
Add to that a reality check: every body of water that I have ever been in, has always tried to pull me under. A tiny little stream that ran tinkling among teak and jackfruit trees, when we went for a school picnic. The pond we used to bathe in, at our ancestral home. A small lake nestled among ancient temple shrines. A laughing sea that gleamed invitingly at me. The river that we bathed in, at our paternal uncle’s family home.
Somehow or the other, my feet led me to the edge, and then I slipped in, below the surface. Timely intervention helped me stay alive. Each and every time.
And yet, I have always loved any and every body of water that I have seen, anywhere. There is this mysterious tug at my heart and my feet that lead me towards her, like a siren song.
The last lecture in College was at 6.30 pm. The students sat in rows, facing me, and I stood facing the sun sinking into the Arabian sea. It was one of those moments of perfect bliss that suffuses one’s heart. I am sure that magical moment lent an added glow and vibrancy to the words I spoke in class. I am sure my students felt it, too. They tell me, to this day, how much they enjoyed that last lecture of the day, in room no.8, of the second floor, in Mithibai college.
Every time I visit Juhu beach, the sea wears a different cloak of mystery. Depending on whoever is my companion on that beach, at the time, she changes subtly, in colour and intensity.
To me, she is alive: a seductress one moment, an avenger the next; limpid, one moment, livid, the next.
I love her, she loves me: but never the twain shall meet.
ⓒ 2024 Suma Narayan. All Rights Reserved.
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