Balanced Mind, Misbalanced

The plan was simple, get a small eco-hut or dorm and roam all day on the beaches  and sleep tight at night………sleep tight at night!

         The whole day passed as we treaded around 16 kilometers on bicycle. After a cuppa coffee in the evening we strolled along the beach played with the owner’s Dobberman and another Lab that was pretty comfortable in sea water……At night we got ourselves a beer each and headed to the beach with a packet of snacks and a bed sheet to make ourselves cozy on the sand, rather to save ourselves from the crabs and what nots………..It was pitch black in front of us, as was behind us. Anyways, we started our guzzling ritual looking at the stars and chatting about the wonderful times we would soon be missing. After a few swigs I saw a dark figure in the water, Rit wouldn’t believe me. It wasn’t until the figure was darker than the background that he did agree to my words. Just a little while ago he had mentioned to us how he had seen an old guy, probably a foreigner armed with just a knife wade out of water, after sunset, at Neil island a few years back. This guy too had a knife bound to his shorts, was one of those good swimmers, we thought. As he closed in on us we wondered if he could see us or would he walk into us. As he came close, he said his greetings and sat beside staring at the sea, “He said, looking for someone?” Rit said ,“No, just having some beer. Like to have some?” He didn’t bother to say anything as he took a swig from Rit’s bottle. 

        He said,“Its cold, damn cold out of the water.” 

        Rit asked, “How long have u been swimming?” the oldie didn’t reply, but said “Theres so much in there, u could search all your life and still wouldn’t be satisfied that you’ve seen all.”

        The comment sent a restless chill down my spine. All I could think of was the different creatures that inhabit that could grip me if I ever ventured into the sea. I being a listener more than a talker was taking in the conversation.

         Rit asked the old guy, “What have you seen in these waters?”

“Corals, fishes,snakes, shells what not….Don’t you wish you could go in and get hold of some of them?” To which Rit replied, I guess the wealth you talk of belongs to the Sea, most of which is life form, alive and contributing to the ecological and food chain balance, If I get a chance to watch it without disturbing them and causing an imbalance that’s enough for me.” To which I added, “I would rather not disturb them and sleep on the beach, who knows what may trigger their unhappiness. I’ve got enough land to take care of rather than going into the sea.” 

    The oldie said, “But if you got a chance wouldn’t you like to stop people who don’t play their part but rather hurt the balance?”

     Rit had a say here,“Surely, as we are trying to do now…Our ships do drop a lot of dirty oil and grey water, being the part of that team we do come heavy on our people and try that they do use the dump barges or pump the muck not in sea. Yeah while sailing its unavoidable. We do try our bit as much possible, sometimes faltering but trying to correct ourselves all the time.”

    As we neared the bottom of the bottle the old guy rose to leave, he said while you guys figure out how to stop yourself from spoiling the sea, let me search a little more……”

    Rit asked him again, “How long have u been searching?”

    Just before he was washed off by the big wave he said, “Long time, a very long time….” his last words nearly drowned by the gurgle of the sea sending a chill down my spine.

   The next day as we sat in the sunlight filtered by the coconut trees outside the hut and chatted with our neighbors, a Swede couple on the right and an Israeli couple on the left we told them of the weird oldie who was searching for something……. The two couples listened to us intently, it was only Ravi the caretaker over there who looked at us in disbelief.

    His fazed look sent the same chill down my spine………….