Wednesday 25 July 2012

when the sky fell in love with the sea

 A young girl stopped her sprint during her evening play.She stopped gaping at the magnificent beauty of the sunset across the beach.
She gazed at the sky and said,  ' The sea is so beautiful. You (sky) and the sea, together, bring in such rapture.Are you in love with the sea?". 
 Children are so innocent , uncluttered and inquisitive.
Well, as usual there came no reply.She repeated her question to the adults around her.Adults are peculiar creatures.They can easily ignore any question that is a little rhetoric.
'Oh! Cutie Pie', the old woman exclaimed in reply to her question.
The fat man with a cigar in his mouth just smiled.
"mysterious" , she thought as she ogled at the fat man.
'I'm busy.Get away ! Ask your mother ', said her dad.
'Oh baby , did you go pooopo?", asked her mother in return.

These elders are always like that.They do not know anything ,she thought.
But the question was building in her like the China wall.She could no more think of anything but the mystery that lies before her.She doubted the sky fell in love with the sea since ,together ,they were so beautiful.

Marking that day , every single day she sat across her balcony in wonder.She gazed at it with acute vision ,not missing a single hint.She observed the silhouettes of birds flying across the auburn pattern with a few clouds in white having shining reddish-orange outline.Her gaze then shifted to the sea with it's jittery waves allowing the sun to color them in red.She looked at the quivering reflection of the sky and the sun.

'Ah !' , she exclaimed,'I know ,I got the hint.You (sky) blush, everyday, when you have to bid farewell.Every evening your sun turns red as he approaches near her (sea). Oh Sky,  you are in love with the sea.'

Her curiosity grew.Every evening she watched the romance of the sky and the sea.She was elated.
One fine evening as she saw the sunset, her face grew pale.A sudden descent of sorrow over-powered her and she burst out in tears.
' Yours (sky)  is an impossible love. I understand why you are mourning. You can never meet her.Miles and miles away , even if I walked,I can never see where you meet.I understand why you come here everyday only to meet her.You never give up.', she finished in tears.

She went back to play , but, she didn't have the mood, she sat there on a rock in sadness.

A tall, frail man was loitering across the beach, he muttered to himself inaudibly.Sometimes he counted on his fingers , another time he would pull out copious notes and scribble .He stopped across a rock and shouted , "found you !!!".

The young girl, who was sitting across the same rock, was pulled aback in surprise. As she glared at the shaggy-haired man in white coat, she realized he wasn't referring to her.She watched him, as he dug out the sand, collected a large black magnet and slipped it into his pocket.He caught the attention of the girl.

'Oh Child, why are you crying?', he enquired in a composed but caring manner.
 Not very used to questions the girl asked him in turn, "Who are you?".
The man said he was a scientist.
"what is a scientist?" ,she asked.
" Scientist is a person who studies nature , derives laws based on these observations.
"oh!I'm a scientist too,then", her eyes twinkled as she said this.
"Interesting,",the scientist smiled,"what have you been studying my dear?".

"I have observed the sunset.I had a hypothesis that the sky was in love the sea.I was ,in fact, right, my observations proved them.But,I also observed that the poor sky can never meet the sea.They are in love but it is an impossible love.My hypothesis is a paradox",she said sadly.

The scientist was impressed, however, with the tiny lass and her observations.Her understanding of the universe, though naive and faulty, her conclusions had a power, a depth in thought.

"Brilliant observation, my dear",he said in a composed manner as usual."But a little
      naive.Love is an emotion that exists among living-things.The sky you see is not a flat surface with clouds and birds.It is infact a tiny view of the universe around you."

" What is universe ?" , she asked.
" Universe is anything that you see around you and in the sky.The stars, the moon,the sun and all those tiny objects you see in the night sky and even huge celestial masses like galaxies.All of them constitute the universe of which earth is a part."

The girl looked confused.She probably hated the scientist for answering the question.Yet, she realized that the mystery of sunset was more mysterious than she thought. She realized she knew nothing of love.She became more curious.She interpreted from what little she understood about the scientist's claims of the universe that the earth in itself, an immensely huge object, is a part of something called the universe. So the universe must be gigantic.
She then started to feel a little insecure.Her pride was abating."I'm just a tiny speck of the universe.I'm so unimportant.", she thought. But children are wise.Well, they are wise and I mean it.Her thought continues, "If I knew everything about the universe.I will be important."
After sometime, she looked back at the scientist and asked, " Love is such a beautiful thing, why can't it exist among non-living things?".
The scientist understood that the girl is inexperienced and must gain knowledge.
He said, "My dear, that question cannot be answered in a day .You must learn more and the question will answer itself."

This little girl is extraordinary ,I tell you, infact, all children are extraordinary.The environment and our elders change them , they kill their imaginations, disregard their doubts and decline their intuitions.Eventually, they make the child think and live like them.

Coming back to the story, the girl did bade a farewell to the scientist.She said,before leaving, "Thankyou for trying to answer my question.From the little knowledge I gained from you, I ,however, answered my question.", she smiled wittily ,"the sea is a part of the universe.The sky is nothing but the universe.They are a part of the same body.They meet in the universe."
Well, it did confuse the scientist too, as it did to many of the readers,
The scientist did not answer this time but smiled at her reassuringly as he patted on her shoulder.
He watched the child run across the beach, feeling nostalgic of his childhood days.Thinking of the virility , fearlessness and optimism of a child that he had to revive in him.  


2 comments:

  1. wow. i loved it! great use of words :)
    we are indeed insignificant in this universe

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