The beach lay wide and free. It was as it
always was – calm and as empty as you could possibly want. It was our little
slice of paradise as I called it or as the children called it, ‘Sandwich Beach’.
You got to the beach by traversing an increasingly narrow strip of land till
there was barely a hundred feet from the river on one side to the beach on the
other. And what a beach it is! 11 kms stretching as far as the eye can see with
hardly anyone except for a handful of intrepid fishermen. The skies were a
deepening grey and the wind was picking up in intensity when we reached there
after a meandering drive in search of islands.
My mood was reflected
in the sky and sea which were both far from their normal exuberant shades of
blue. I was quiet that day. I didn’t feel like talking to anyone. Why would I? I
felt weary of the falsity of words that are used without thought. I was oddly
calm too inside as one is when the expected, however painful it may be, comes
to pass. A vaccum filled me sucking away my words and thoughts. An emptiness that is hard to describe grew rooted in my mind .
I walked as is my wont
for a long way on the beach. I could hear the laughter of the children as they
played. I could see S if I turned back. He didn’t much like playing in the
water. I liked to walk on the edge where the waves would lap my feet but I could
walk comfortably nevertheless. The sun was setting and the clouds grew heavier.
The air carried the scent of imminent rain. I walked back and sat on a log with S on
the high sands watching the kids.
Suddenly there jumped
up the most perfect gray shadowed being. Its sleek skin shone in the waning
sun. Its beautiful head arrowed in and out of the waters. I jumped up and ran
to the water where excited cries of “Amma, did you see the dolphins?” greeted
me. For that is what they were – dolphins! A little group of three or four
lovely creatures frolicking about. I had a silly grin on my face as I watched
them move further away from the beach and us. I have never seen dolphins in
their natural habitat before and none of the locals had ever seen them – not once! I didn't click pictures. I simply soaked in that moment.
This thoroughly
unexpected sight moved me like nothing else. I felt as though I had been given
a wonderful gift. It was a sign from wherever telling me – hang in there,
things will turn out well. On a dark evening if dolphins come to wish you well,
you are lucky indeed. We left the beach with the images of those dolphins still
vivid in our minds. My normally quiet Appu was so full of excitement that he
recounted it all to his grandmother back home. For me it was a moment of magical benediction that made my stay in Kerala truly memorable.
