Sea'ing what's real

Standing on the shore of the Arabian Sea, at a beach in Mumbai I looked out across the sea feeling that sense of awe at the magnificence of nature in its humongous form. As I looked across the waters away from the civilization, away from the hordes of people and the urban buzz of vendors, vehicles and bright billboards, I felt nothing would ever be more real than the Sea which I grew up looking at.

Growing up in the coastal and picturesque city of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, I had the good fortune of facing the sea for a good part of my childhood. More fortunate was the fact that the ‘Al-Ghubra’ beach near our home for a long time was a calm undiscovered virgin beach in the heart of the city and was almost a private beach for us with not more than 5-6 people at any given point on it! 

The Al-Ghubra beach may not be the most beautiful beach in the world, but for me this beach was my gym, my playground, my picnic spot, my hang out, my hobby and evenings pretty much revolved around it.  The Al-Ghubra beach was a lovely expanse of unpolluted clear waters, fine sand, coarse sand, squelchy sand, white sand, and dark sand that formed lovely patterns shaped by the wind and the water dotted by millions of sea shells, pebbles  and horse hoofs all along the beach.  

I spent many an amusing evening doing plenty of digging which fortunately brought up only sand, water or the hand that dug at the other end of the tunnel instead of the odd slipper or polythene bags from Juhu beach at Mumbai.  Building sand castles with all that dug up sand was also another pleasurable activity although destroying these castles before we left was more fun!

A little bit of nature also found it way home especially when I entered the water to play with the waves. Each time I entered the water, mom had to deal with a messed up hallway and a bathroom with sand pouring out of my shoes, socks and folded up trousers.  More of the nature found its way to my home in the form of shells, ‘kaudis’, corals and pretty little pebbles of all hues which now stand  in a vase in my showcase.  My Dad argues that all I did on the beach was walk with my head down and scavenge for these sea souvenirs all along a walk. Hence he made me run on the sandy beach which usually was done with a great deal of reluctance and grumbling amidst huffing and puffing.

No visit was complete without food of course. A packet of chips or sandwiches with Kissan Tomato Ketchup were usual favorites.  For visits which were more planned, mom used to make yummy ‘Batata Wadas’ eaten with Kissan ketchup or gobi parathas which we spread out on newspapers and ate. Visitors to the Ghubra beach with huge families also brought in beach chairs, barbecue skewers, tables and plenty of food making us want to go home that was 2 minutes away and get all that!

My favorite time back then and today on the beach was during twilight when the skies and the waters assumed a golden hue and looking out into the sea became more ethereal than ever each time.  A distant ship in the horizon conjured up speculations of what it might contain and stories around it.  A sense of calm prevailed and the sea breeze became cooler after a hot day. Listening to the musical rhythm of waves and watch them gush forth and recede in their ever changing colors, I was completely refreshed everyday with this natural Real beauty that took my breath away every time I visited the beach.

This memory is an entry to the exciting Kissan contest on Indiblogger.