31 December 2006
Two Years On
In the beginning, there was water and only water. The whole earth was a sheet of water, the entire place covered by sea. It was from the sea that the earth emerged. Even now sea forms three-fourths of the earth. Actually, ‘earth’ is a misnomer for the planet we live on. A better and more apt name is ‘water’.
Sea waves always, for ages, from the beginning of the earth, rush to the shore in a non-stop, relentless rhythm. As if the sea is avid to reach and hug land. And when it does so, the waves burst into peals of pearly, bubbly laughter. They are over-thrilled at the reunion. Reunion with the land that was once an integral part of them. Well, they seem to remember that the land, and the living beings there on, came from water. Is it this affinity of the water for land, this ‘blood relationship’ between them that attracts waves to the shores? And beyond the shores. Onto interior land, into main roads, cities and dwellings. When the sea’s longing for its separated self, the land, reaches a crescendo, it sends tidal waves of passion, engulfing in their massive fold landmasses and masses of people.
The great human tragedy on the Black Sunday around this time two years ago, covering a good part of Asia, had benumbed the whole world.
Man is back on the beaches. Children have returned to their frolics on the sands.
Fishermen have taken to the seas yet again. And the waves have resumed their traditional pastime of advancing towards and retreating from the shores. Man’s love for the sea and the sea’s attraction for the land are re-cemented. Everything has resumed its natural way of functioning. And that is life. It forgets. It forgives. It reconstructs. It recuperates. It recoups. It goes on.