At Chilka - Part 2 ( last )

... I knew this will probably be my only trip to Chilka. I wanted to see what it mattered the most. I wanted to see how this lake merges into the sea and changes its tender,delicate watery dance into a lively,aggressive jump and dive of tidal rhythm. I decided to walk the shores of the island. It would be a long, heavy walk on this beach sand but it did not daunt me. I wanted to reach the tip of the island "The Sangam" before it was sunset but I could not hurry with my pace as I had company.
We started our walk to see the lake-sea confluence. I walked close to the waters to see how the character of the lake changed. The tender ripples in the green waters, which,earlier, settled for kiss of the banks, now, asked for more. Half way down, the once gentle ripples metamorphosed into puissant currents and started the touch and go game. Each time these currents touched the shores, they teased the shores to follow their trail into the apple green waters. But the shores wouldn't. Close to the tip, having failed with the taunts and entreats, the currents assumed the form of of waves and came ashore. They flattened the sands and etched their memories on those defiant shores, only to be dried to permanence by the sea breeze.
At last, I reached the tip of the island before the sun sank and left those sands.
Here, the sea swallowed the green lake into its azure vastness. The dying twilight bathed the no-longer-green waters in orange hues. The waves basked and roared in this golden glow.And, these waves are what the waves are meant to be. They jumped high into air and dug into the shores with a thunder clap and formed huge dunes facing the sea. I had to descend a meter high dune to get my ankles wet in the Bay of Bengal. Never mind I did it. It was close to sunset and I had the whole sea before my eyes. This was not the first time I had seen sea, or Bay of Bengal as a matter of fact. But I felt something for the first time - I felt my heart to be empty. I had nothing before me. The tip where I stood was the present, the sand I walked was my lovely past. The future laid unknown and enigmatic as that blue sea. The azure on earth before my eyes was empty without a visible speck of life on it. Not a ship, not even a bird was there. Could be that aquatic life laid camouflaged in its blue belly. But to a naked eye it was a blank unending eternity with blurred horizon in fading light.
For an hour and half I was riding the crest of my life and was waiting to see the Bay gulp the lake. When I reached the tip, my intended destination, life seemed empty in the aftermath of success. I did not know what I wanted to do after reaching the sea-lake confluence. But I knew one thing, I wanted to be there again in all the hovering improbability, because I wanted to feel empty again.I wanted to hit the ebbs and lows of emptiness. I wanted to feel my emotions drain into those blues just as the green waters did. I wanted the sunset to silence my pounding heart for a brief moment. A moment in which I could spend a lifetime.
When you strike a guitar chord, it vibrates, it moves left and right. In its moves the chord breaks off all the dust that settled on it and finally returns to where it belongs and waits for another of such movements. My soul is like that. It bears the millstone weight of emotions and when struck by a musical note or a nostalgic whiff, it rides the crest, hits the ebb, dumps the load and returns to where it belongs refreshingly empty, of course only to wait unconsciously for the chords to be struck once again.