The Young Man and the Sea
It was summer season. I had gone on a tour to Orissa. My five friends had accompanied me. We were of the same age group. We had jobs in the same firm. Our boss was a very generous and intelligent man. He knew the techniques to take out good results for the company. Through lots of incentives and inspirations he kept the officers and workers up and doing. We young officers were in his good book. This tour, he allowed for us, on company’s cost. He had a good say among the board of directors. It was an easy task for him to get approval of this tour. I was made the team leader. My friends lovingly called me GN. We had checked in a hotel at Bhuneshwar. It is the capital of Orissa. We found the town good and clean. Roads were wide and clear. Traffic was not so heavy. Orissa people were simple and straight forward. The hotel attendants were honest, prompt and active. They as well as the manager took every care. My friends were very jolly and accommodative. They took little time to adjust anywhere. There also they had adjusted well. The manager of the hotel procured vehicles, food packages, railway tickets etc as we required for visiting holy and tourist places. The rates were reasonable. We had visited almost all local sites including the famous Lingraj Temple. The Dolphin Park, Chilka Lake, Konark Sun Temple, Ratnagiri, Udaygiri, Khandgiri, and Nandan Kanan etc we visited on hired vehicles. In a weeklong time we enjoyed the trips very much in and around the capital town.
Then we planned to shift to Puri. The manager gave me the address of a new hotel there, named Nilgiri Hotel. He had phoned the hotel manager to reserve two front rooms. It was just near the Gourang Mahaprabhu crossing. Rooms were on the first floor. They were facing the sea. We came here by train. By auto we came to this new hotel. The manager was waiting for us. We checked in the reserved rooms after doing the due formalities. Both the rooms were spacious and well furnished. The waiters brought our bags and briefcases from the lobby. They opened the big windows. Sufficient sunlight spread everywhere. The windows were well grilled and curtained. The outer terrace was full of small flowering plants. Pigeons were moving up and down making their usual love sounds. Beyond the window we had full view the Bay of Bengal and its long sandy shore. We were charmed to see the surging sea. Its turbulent waves struck the shore in quick successions. The existence of the rising and falling waves was short-lived. Its emergence and disappearance on blue sea-water gave the message of ephemeral aspect of life. People on this earth come and go in a short time like these waves.
It was just mid-day time. People were taking baths in the sea. The young ones were frolicking in the high rippling waves. Some of them were on inflated tubes. Men, women, boys and girls were in festive mood. Some stood on the vast stretch of the beach and looked at the waves. All wished to wash away their anxieties in the saline water of the Bay of Bengal. We could not resist our temptation to touch the sea water. After being fresh we called the waiter and ordered for the lunch. He said, “O K Sir, Please come in the dining hall after half an hour.” We then came down in the hotel’s lobby and taking due suggestions from the manager we frisked away. After a short while we became a part of the mammoth crowd. Our joys knew no bounds to get at the shore. Sights were wonderful. Blue sea-water, rising and heaving, thrashed the big heaps of sands. The sea and the sky seemed to meet at the distant horizon. We took a handful of the sea water and sprinkled overhead. It was a queer experience. The vast kingdom of God seemed all the more mysterious, holy and sacrosanct. We bowed in reverence to the sea-god. More than half an hour had passed. Our eyes wished to capture the unending beauty of Nature in the shortest possible time.
One friend said, “I am hungry, let us go back to the hotel.” The second said, “We have already taken bath at the former hotel in the capital town….” The third interrupted, “Don’t think we are going to jump into the sea just now.” Then we all planned to enjoy sea-bath very next day. It was 2 PM. Thirst and hunger rose to its peak, though eyes were not ready to be diverted from the sea. We were highly amused with wonders of the sea. Our eyes were not ready to move towards the new hotel or towards anything other than the waves and people frolicking on them. But we had to reconcile. Anyhow we plodded towards the lodge. Sand surface was hot. It was hard to move barefoot. With strain and effort we came to the hotel. There was rush in the lobby. We just sat on a vacant sofa and chairs. The waiter was pleased to see us. He requested us to move to the dining hall. We followed him. The hall was full of people and their humming sounds. All were taking mid day meal. A round table with six chairs was cleared for us. We took seats and waited for a short while. Then delicious dishes were served. It contained all we had ordered. I felt a bit of difference in the taste of vegetable preparation. But it was o k. Then we took rest in our rooms. Again watching the turbulent sea from the window was a happy pastime.
In the evening we went eastward to join the religious ceremonies performed at the famous Juggernaut Temple. There was heavy rush all around the prestigious place. Hindus of all walks of life were seen there. Few non-Hindus were seen doing their own business. There was a big macadamized space in front of the temple. People said that this vast space and the wide roads are used for the purpose of Rath Yatra every year. We then entered into the majestic temple premises. Saw with awe the artistically built temple structure. It was constructed some six hundred years back by a Kalinga king. Its sacrosanct interior consists of the holy deities of Lord Juggernaut, Balram and Subhadra. There are few other small temples in the vast premise. Here many poor people take meal freely. Few people paid something to the fake priests for that meal. We took a priest to explain some important things about the temple and meet us at the sea shore hotel. He told us many things that actually we didn’t know at all. Till late in the night spent time inside and outside the temple. We then finally came back. The manager was waiting for us. We took dinner and went to the market on the beach. A big market was held on the wide sea-beach. Many things were sold there but most of the things were made from the shells and corals found in the sea. Late in the night we returned and slept a sound sleep. In the morning the sun’s bright rays awoke us. We talked for a while our yesterday’s experience. Then one by one we got ready. It was 9.30 AM. Every one of us was eager to jump upon the undulating waves. We took tea and rushed towards the sea. There was heavy rush. Men and women, boys and girls, children, foreigners, etc were taking baths or enjoying the superb sights. We took off the dresses and on our inner underwear jumped into the sea water. The waves gushed over heads with immense force. When the waves ebbed we got up the saline water and rejoiced. This bathing, jumping and playing with the turbulent waves continued for two ours. The unusual frolics gave heavenly pleasure. The sun rose overhead. Hunger and thirst started their works. Some of my friends indicated me to be out. I too felt the need to go out. We had enjoyed to the full. But one thought came to my mind just then. It changed the whole thing. It took me to the threshold of death. I saw the death door from close range. Even today I shudder to remember that horrendous incident. Its spectre continued for years to haunt.
When I was about come out of the sea water I thought to wash away the sea sands spread in my hairs. I bent a bit with my head down to wash. But instantly a furious wave came, threw me down and dragged me along the shore with my face and stomach downward. First of all I was stupefied as to what and how it happened. In the mean time the big mass of ongoing wave water started receding. The down going water pulled me flat towards the sea. I resisted hard by thrusting my fingers into the sandy sea bed. I could hold my body being swept away by the fast receding bulk of the wave water for few moments. For this I remember I struggled hard. I tried as much I could to fight against the powerful flow. But I was defeated. I didn’t hold strong support. Sands turned helpless. My fingers got released. My whole body was at the mercy of the receding wave. I was then being swept away towards the Bay of Bengal. In those highly critical moments only one idea flashed that I couldn’t meet anyone. Then the total scene instantly changed. I was pushed in a very big hall of darkness. Nothing was visible. Only one small door lurked at a great distance. From there was a faint haze. May that door would have been the heaven’s inlet. In the big hall of gloom there was absolute peace. Peace in its all consummation. It was a queer experience. I had never felt such thing in my life. Mentally I was far away from my watery ambience. My body was in absolute rest. I was fully conscious, not of this world, but of that big hall of gloom. There all the basic human-instincts of Love, Anger and Fear had vanished. I was mentally transported to a new world. This seemed to be a small link between the heaven and the world I had left. I neither liked that world nor disliked. I was quite nonchalant. In the mean time an alternate, stronger, wave came upward. It pushed me forcefully, back to the shore. This wave was more powerful than the former. I was thrown up with great force. My body was lobbed at the safer region. The worldly consciousness sprouted forth. I got up. My friends were at a loss to find me vanished. They regained their cool to see me. They began asking me many questions. I was gasping and wheezing. My body was trembling and shivering. I was extremely tired. All the peace, I had felt in the vast hall of darkness, had vanished. I was unable to utter a word. They came near me. I signalled them to let me restore proper breathing. Normalcy returned slowly. After ten minutes I became able to open my mouth. But I was fearful. The waves looked ferocious. I answered in short, few of the questions of my friends. My mind was swirling. It was preoccupied thinking the sudden change of spiritual, mental and physical states. Where had the absolute peace gone and this tumultuous, shocking and alarming state had come, I failed to understand. What I was few minutes before and what I was, after being back to life, remains still an enigmatic riddle of my life. One thing, I can confidently say now, is that I could see from the closest range the mysticism of the peace of death and struggle of life on the earth. Men uselessly fear death because it has a lot of gifts in its treasure for them.
I was panting hard. My head was still not clear of sands. My friends were weary of my sudden change. I didn’t say them anything about the hall of death from which I had just returned. No one knew of my narrow escape from the clutches of death. It was strange and miraculous. God had granted me a new lease of life. Bizarre and weird was my journey from life to death and back. I was stupefied. All zeal and jest had gone. My friends were then impatient. They held my hand tight and pulled me out. We came to the dry sand heap. I saw back the roaring waves. It was frightening to look at them. I fearfully left the roaring sea. Soon we were in the hotel. I sat on a sofa and bent my head so that the chin touched the chest. Friends were at a fix to see me in such an alarming condition. They requested the manager to intervene. He came to me and very politely asked me several questions. At first I spoke nothing. He insisted me to tell the truth. At last I opened my mouth. I said the whole accounts in breathless tones. The manager held his head by both hands and thanked God. He was amazed at what had happened with me and how I was saved. Later on he disclosed that there were several deaths of the ignorant tourists due to the circular motions of waves. In such conditions the on going and down coming waves causes such circular motions of severe nature. When anybody falls in its trap he looses chances to come out alive. My friends looked at me with their mouths ajar.
We lived there for four days more. They regularly took bath in the bay but I didn’t dare. Once on intense insistence of my friends I took bath in the sea but I had to take help from the seaman. He put a flattened tube around my waist and held my hand firmly. We both started going 5 meters up and down in the mysterious sea-waves and enjoyed conversing with the god of sea.
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