The sea and beyond.

And then suddenly there were just the men, the sea, the warm-beach sand and the shadows. I was lost staring at the vast expanse that lay in front of me. Water! The element; It made three-fourths of the earth. The waves lashed relentlessly and the noise around faded. The sea had called me to her feet again. She does it again and again. And I relent.

Was it not last week that I found myself with KK at good old Shangumugham? Tell me who else has the temerity to accompany me on an exam week to the beach. Was it not a few long years back that I wet my feet at KanyaKumari? We had stayed at the Kerala House. Ajayan had accompanied us. The cheerful guy who did a bit of shopping there! (And yet last week I saw the same guy with wet eyes, as he said goodbye to a house named ‘Thankom’ in a quite sub-urb of Trivandrum. Long story that.)

And yes, Goa was fun! Literally drenched myself in the salt water! The white beach sand et al. And Kovalam yesterday boasted the same white sand. In places we had black sand as well. Much like the sand at Papanasam! And was it not a small detour that had taken us to Papanasam, not so long back. Somatheeram in 7^th standard, Allapuzha beach as kid… Yes, I have repeatedly subscribed to the sea breeze. I have been the mystique sea-lover all my life.

I have always loved ‘the sea’ taking me over. Lashing me and surrounding me. Only to go back unobtrusively! Yeah. In his last months I had accompanied my old man to the sea front many a time. At some point I had lost count. The sea goddess at Shangumugham and the quite sea breeze upfront were all twice a week experiences.

The beach always had a mystery. The mandapam and the Indian Coffee House! In my ninth, for Christmas we had gone there and I met Kiran and Arun Gopal there. Later in life I have been to the self same beach with Kiran et al innumerable times. I can’t forget the sands of Allapuzha. Those were the days when my father was part of the board at Foam Matting India. The rest house was very close to the beach and the lighthouse was then as is now an intriguing column of concrete silhouetting the horizon. I have since not been to that place I lovingly treasure. And when I joke to Aswany about the sands of her beach (she hails from the land of narrow roads and backwaters) little would she know that I am in fact relishing my days with my father in the green of health. That was long ago and life has taken me to a place remote and strange.

After all the chilling at the beach(Veli, and Shangumugham), we left to Pippinmoodu and our good old ‘Viswanth’. Gluttony is a sin, nevertheless a pleasurable one. (wink). The gym followed and then we watched ‘Pattiyal’, the film that Vignesh was telling me about just the other day. Pattiyal is ‘A’ rated for its violence and objectionability.

And thus ended the better part of another day in my life!

I still crave for the sea.

I still hear the bell at the Inchcape rock (ICSE days, dude, long story that!)

And I still search for the sea-temple, the one with a thousand bells (from ‘The Song of the bird’ Anthony Mello S.J).