Sunday, July 4, 2010

water




Water! As usual, I do not know where to start. Of all things so far, I found water and forests most fascinating. Now the truth is I have never been in a real forest. Nor have I been under a real waterfall. As a child, I would rest on my favourite branch of the guava tree in the back yard and brood for hours together.


Or I would get into the water tank which was meant for the cattle and soak myself for hours. Nobody really noticed. Summer holidays were all spent on guava branches and cattle feeding tanks and sometimes in the store room where granny kept all her sankranti dolls.

Water had always been a fantasy. I loved getting drenched. More so, when, my mother was keen on me getting out of the tank. I sometimes wonder what would have happened had there been a pool or a pond in the back yard. It would have been real fun! I wonder why it never occurred to anybody to dig up a pond in that huge backyard! What a pity I never learnt to swim!!!

The first, and by far the only, under sea walk I had in Pattaya was amazing. I could go on for hours about it. That was the first time ever I went underneath water. I hadn’t started swimming lessons by that time and the first plunge was suffocating. And, to imagine that my first plunge was into nothing small but into the sea! Coming to think of it, what if there was a storm or a tsunami when I was having this jolly walk on the sea bed! Can’t even imagine!

Water as I had known was always safe. There was no question of drowning or getting carried away by the waves. But yes, it is interesting to try and imagine what would have happened had there been a disaster when I was under sea. Why I say that is because, yesterday I watched a movie called “The Guns of Navarone”. An expedition to rescue the 2000 British soldiers holed up on the island of Keros in the Aegean near Turkey is ship wrecked just before they land and the personnel rescue what is left of their equipment and supplies. The scene is fantastic with the violence of the storm and the determination of the men to get out of the fishing boat safe and with their supplies. One of the characters Cpl. John Anthony Miller cannot swim and the movie is rendered more interesting by the water hazards they face during the expedition. Coming back to what might have happened had there been a storm while I was walking on the sea bed, I don’t know. I cannot even imagine. The only water body I ever swam against is the swimming pool in my apartment. Sometime ago, I saw a woman swim against the tide in Pondicherry. I felt good. I never tried though! But I felt proud of the woman who swam against the tide. When it comes to water, my emotions are mixed. On one hand, I feel proud of all men and women who dare the sea and or even small bodies of water. On the other hand, I love water. I feel safe with water. I feel caressed by water. Water to me is the elixir of life. Given a choice, I would do nothing but swim. Oh! What should I say of water! I have no idea how to express what I feel. Do you watch TV? Did you watch that liril ad where the girl thinks she is under a waterfall? Right! Here are a few things I want to do in life. Plunge in huge bodies of water. Stand beneath cascades.

Now the question is, “what else do I write?” I have written everything I could express. There is a lot inside for which I know no language. How do I bring it out and write?!

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