“Aye Khuda Hafeez, Shukriya, Meherbani “ the song from Yuva was running on my mind again and again as I lay on the beach, completely surrendering myself to the might of the waves. I just rolled over to my side, not resisting the force of the water, which pushed me over. I had let myself completely loose. Sand and water had entered every part of my body. The water that pushed me aside started flowing back to the sea, and I rolled back to my previous position, giving out a small moan due to the force of water. As the water was rushing back, I could feel the sand under my body moving along with it. It felt like heaven!
The moon had already risen, the last few sunrays lit up the sky. The sky had turned orangish-red/pink in colour. It was a magnificent sight. The sounds of the waves were soothing, they were as harsh or as calm as the thoughts of my mind. The waves hit me again, and this time the water entered my ear, mouth and nose. I coughed out the salt water, some of it got into me, but I did not mind it.
2 hours ago I had gone a little further into the sea. I remember running into it, without knowing that I had my spectacles and slippers on. As soon as I stepped into the water, I had lost my mind completely. A strong wave hit me and before I knew, my spectacles had fallen into the water and my slippers broke. The excitement of getting into the water had taken its toll. What the hell was I going to do without my specs? How was I going to manage another day?
But soon the water took over the useless thoughts going on in my mind. There were huge waves and just when they were about to hit me, I jumped to minimize their impact. The last time I had been to a beach, I had seen kids diving against the wave and getting under it. I tried the same, and it was fun. Sometimes the waves were taller than me, up to 7 feet, and there was no way to avert them. They splashed on to my face with full force. The next thing I did was to swim along with the wave and it would take me a few meters ahead towards the coast.
It was fun to watch the huge waves; I ducked under them, and watched from the corner of my eye until the last second of their impact on me. I would then fall off into the water, unable to balance myself.
It was completely dark; our room was on the coast. We could hear the waves if we opened the door. I sat on the balcony for a few minutes before I went to sleep. The waves had got stronger and you could clearly listen to them hitting the shore with great force. There was complete silence, the moon was on its 5th day, and its reflection was falling over the water. There was a cool breeze which added to the calm of the night. You could see the large number of stars in the sky. My thoughts wandered over my “complete”, yet incomplete life.
The next morning I woke up at 5:45 A.M. to catch the sunrise. I got my camera to take pictures. The point where the sun was about to rise had a hint of dark clouds, and I cursed my luck. Before my thoughts were going for crap, I saw the huge orange sun rising just above the sea. I took as many photos as possible. The colour of the sky was beautiful. I felt fresh and energized. The sun was rising rapidly, and it got in middle of the dark clouds. Thereafter, it tried to get out of them, and it was a complete solar eclipse experience – the brightness was immense. The rays had got stronger, and the sun finally rose up to the sky.
It was my dream to go to a beach in my bachelorhood days- this was yet another accomplishment. Suryalanka is a small beach in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. It is about 350 kms from Hyderabad. We made our onward journey by bus and we were back by train. 30 of us made it to the trip!
