It was cold winter evening on the beach
The people loitering on the beach or gazing at the blue waters were thin and sparse. The air was whiffing cold and I felt a bonfire would be wonderful to spend the star lit night, gazing in askance,contently or in awe at the sea.The waves of the ocean lashing gently on to the beach, against the sun that was gently hovering down in the horizon, enhanced the wonder of Nature. Sublime, caressing! It seemed like the shore and the ocean were engaged in foreplay. Could the ocean be tranquil as this? The question came back more often to my mind as I left the seaside. By then the sky was heavenly inundated with golden, twinkling specks that seemed like glow worms. They as always reminded me the insignificance of the bipedal ones down on the beach. I left him watching the gently lashing waves, still not quite convinced about my riposte and standpoint. His mind, I sensed was much as not as near calm as the ocean and the tempest was very much alive.
Perhaps that is the way human mind is. It often does not reflect in the facial muscles. Sometime to some it is the opposite, it mastitis in the face and all over the physiological being.
“I’m dispossessed”, was his curt retort to my query about who and where he was from. It was he who initiated and opened the conversation. And was not in my temperament to ask a stranger who he was and where he hailed from. With my characteristic apathy to strangers and discomfiture, I was confined to a good extent and more than often. If I were to be a salesman, which I detest and is unable too, to barge into any, everyone and at all times, it takes a considerable length of time for me to be anywhere proximal to the comfort zone with another. And, I was somewhat offended by his brusque reply.
We chanced to be sitting at the far ends of the disused stone bench which lay on a neglected but quite corner of the beach. I fail to recall who occupied the stone seat first. But it was he who initiated the opening conversation and then exclaimed,”Goddamn ocean this, hardly behaves like one .Look at the damn waves they seem to be of a shallow ces pool.”
“Cesspool”! It was my turn to exclaim and in silence. I looked guardedly into his eyes. This man terms the vast and beautiful ocean, a cesspool?
Tucking my palms into the jacket pockets, I suggested, “Relating this vast confluence with a shallow pool is rather strange. Is it your mind that refuses to see the vastness that is in front?’
He got up agitated, and gesticulating his fingers at me,said in a cold voice, “Man when you wear those leather boots you do not know what frost bite is.” He turned around and walked towards the water.
It was a cold winter evening on the beach!
8 comments:
hmm..such is the difference scattered everywhere, sometimes noticed, many times apathetic.
the whole story reflects the way of our disposition towards things happening around..
My God,that's where you start a fiction with.I mean a cerebral one Anil.What a setting up and words.
Btw Anil,such men are fastly increasing in number.The ever ending dissatisfaction and contempt.
Wow wow! You play with words!
I loved the piece; this is what I think. Such people dont see the beauty or something so worse happened that they cease to see beauty anymore. When you stop observing, you stop living :)
The same scenario presents itself differently to different individuals according to mental disposition and physical circumstance they are placed in.What the vast sea under the starry sky means to a fisherman ready to set upon on his catamaran for day's catch is far from the vista it presents to a nature poet or the imagination of a painter with a brush.
Beautifully portrayed in this small piece.
@KP has "stolen" my words; so all I can say is: ditto!
Hmmm..., to add:
The ocean scene is not going away from my mind, you set it so beautifully!
You have captured the dramatic scene very well. One could feel the sea breeze. A haunting landscape.
Fiction or real?
Guess it is the state of this man's mind that made him miss the scene. When one is agitated, nothing but one's misery comes foremost.. else one should know how to seek solace in the vastness of the ocean or nature. He tried..
@ Adityasaravanan,
Yes I agree with you. That is when we forget to live, I suppose.
@ Melange,
Thanks friend. I value your comment much.A small attempt at what ever..!
@ Insignia,
Yes , that is why I sometimes feel that there were lot of moments in life that were lost. B, thanks.
@ KParthasarathi,
You are absolutely right. Mental disposition !
@ NRIgirl,
Thanks for the comments.
@ Balachandran,
Thanks dey.
Just recall the moments of the starry night in the "Old Man and the sea".
We can only mix words to describe about the sea , from the shore whereas fortunate souls like EH could feel it differently. That is the difference between us ordinary mortals and men like him.
@ HappyKitten,
Just a fiction. A kind of an alter ego , you may deduce.
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