By the Shore

This year I went back to Goa for Christmas unlike last year when I was there for New Years and a friend's wedding.

I sat by the seaside listening to the sounds of the elements with the seasoning of human voices and I thought about nothing at all as I stared into oblivion.

Actually I don't know if nothing at all qualifies as a figure of speech for explaining what I thought about.The mind is like the ocean you see, even when it is calm on the surface a deep sea diver will tell you a different story about it's depths. There are high tides and low and sometimes even whirlwinds and storms that differ in intensity and just like the visitors on the shore see a different avatar according to the time of their visit, so is the case with the mind.

It like the ocean is a passive witness to several stories unfold around it and an active participant in many itself. It stands the test of time and carries the load of ships and boats alike. It emerges victorious against some tempests and sometimes it drowns in it's own sorrow and then soars strong and happy like a falcon the next day to unfold legends as it expands it's wings to soar high like a wave waiting to touch the skies.

The ocean is deep and yet not equally everywhere, it is vast and yet you can capture a part of it in your palm and yet it will wash your feet with it's gentle wave like a giant who seems either oblivious of it's strength or too humble to be affected by it.

As I sat lost in thought, a boy with a pamphlet came over and anchored the sailing thoughts. He had come to check if I would want to explore some parasailing.He was carrying a little life jacket and assured me it was safe, so there I was heading right into the middle of the ocean on a motorboat to try something I had never done before.

The mind was nervous and the heart was in sync, I was venturing away from known territory to the flight of the unknown.It was going to be fun I told myself, so while I had to jump from one boat to another, trust my life on a parachute of sorts, I just knew it was going to be worth the experience and believe me it was.

The ocean seemed different from up there, till now I had always seen it from close from the shore, but from up above it looked like an electric blue blanket swaying in the wind. It seemed to speak a different language, a different world, it was however the same big  vast expanse which seemed orange in parts as it reciprocated the colours of the setting sun.It was just a different angle that I was looking at it from and it seemed so different.

Perspective sometimes changes the truth or should I say truth sometimes changes perspective, believe me - even the ocean is open to it :)
Sanchita Johri

My Soul is a DJ

I can’t believe they played that song on the radio today. It had been so many years since I had heard it… or maybe not. I think I probably heard it almost everyday, some part of my soul had gotten used to humming it. Then I realized that there were so many songs that my soul hummed to itself almost like a background score to my thoughts. Every song had a little memory attached to it. The images seemed distant but the song as fresh as sipping a hot cup of tea on a winter morning!

There was this song that our Rickshaw puller used to play on his little black radio making a remix version of it with the water bottles and tiffin boxes clanking away all the way to a school called Tender Hearts in Lucknow.I can’t believe I still remember the name Chitrahaar – The MTV of those days ;) and even the Aakashvaani that happened before the Mahabharata started( Main Samay hoon), then the Pop era with the Philips Top Ten, the boy bands, the songs played at socials in school -all of it now seemed like a medley in my head!!!Then there was these MJ songs my brother played several times on his “oh so new disc man”! The Tamil songs our Van Driver Raju Uncle played on our way to school in Muscat, the songs of the several Antaksharis played in the garden with my dad and songs that we practiced hours together on the school stairs with “my gang of friends” to just see who remembered the lyrics more!Then there were Christmas Carols we learnt at choir and my dad played them for a month before Christmas every year at home, in the car and any other place where we could hear them. The sounds of the aarti during Diwali sung by different members of the family and also songs sung during the weddings of cousins getting married.There were songs that I had begun associating with different people like a song that one of the teachers sang in school ( it was the same song every year- lest we forget), songs sung by people in college as performances in college fests, the song that spoiled the walkman for repeat play during the first break up and of course the song that we thought would play in the background when we met the person of our dreams!

There were so many songs in the past and there will be so many more in the future, but for the fear that the DJ in my head takes over, I paused to hear the song playing outside the window- The song of a little bird on a tree!

Sanchita Johri