Kaup

I have always loved the sea. The rolling waves, the grainy sand, the cool breeze, the occasional fisherman hauling his highly odourous catch at the end of the day... I love it all. And since I reside in the interior(New Delhi), I haven't had much of a chance to visit, revisit and dwell on the splendour of the ocean.

Manipal, however offers promising oppurtunities. With Malpe and Kaup flanking the university town, the ocean is right at my doorstep.

Which is why last Saturday evening found the five of us(Udita, Neelav, Swapnil, Fernon and I) frolicking about in the salty waters at Kaup.

It was a most monotonous and spiritless day, with classes in the morning where our professors demonstrated the very latest methods of boring a class of eighty-odd students to a near-death condition with pinpoint accuracy. After class, as I was planning to catch up on a bit of long-overdue sleep, Udita calls and Operation Kaup begins. Five-thirty finds us at the Manipal bus-stand, boarding a bus to Mangalore(Fernon assures us that Kaup lies somewhere along the way).

The first time I went to Kaup was back in December, and I will never forget my first glimpse of the beach. All one can see is the vast, watery expanse, guarded by big black boulders sticking out of the sand. In the distance is a lighthouse which stands tall and proud, reaching out to touch the sky.

So down to Kaup we went. We had our fun, fooled and kidded around in the water, threw sand in each others faces(and hair), and had a good time. Soon it was dark.
Its surprising, how fast it grows dark on the beach. In a matter of minutes, the yellow sunshine faded to bright red and then to pitch black. With nightfall came lightning and the storm.And then the lighthouse powered on its twin beacons, two huge white rotating rays of light puncturing the darkness of the night. The scene was unreal, surrealistic; it did not belong to the real world, it was right out of a novel. It was quite something to see the huge waves coming at us, and then miraculously shrinking to the level of our knees as they reached the shore.

It was humbling, to look at the waves reach a crescendo, and then mellow down to a slow funeral march and finally die as they reached our knees; so much like life itself. I couldn't help but ponder on how vast the ocean is; how we are nothing more than mere traces, small drops in the big picture.

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect end to our little outing, turning it into quite an adventure. Due to the storm a power failure occured, with no prior warning at all. So we made our way back to the main road, in pitch blackness punctuated at regular intervals by lightning, which produced a great effect indeed. Back on the road, and we find no autos...which was a disaster, because it meant we had to trudge a kilometre on foot, with it raining cats, dogs, monkeys, pythons and the like. Thankfully, we met an auto coming towards us after ten minutes otherwise the whole lot of us would've been down with pneumonia.

The rest of the day was just like any other. We came back, had dinner, and went back... only to lie on our beds and have the images of today flash in front of our eyes...

Lady in White

Here's the song Savya and I wrote in Physics class

As i wallow in unsolicitated boredom,
The Jailor keeps me in my place.
Lost in coherence, lost in uncertainity,
With her i cannot keep up pace.

Listen to me, Lady in white,
Just get right out of my sight.
I can't bear you anymore,
Out, Out, you miserable whore.

As i sit peacefully writing this song,
You swoop down on me before long.
Torn to bits, shredded to pieces,
Thrown down into a bottomless recess.

Listen to me, Lady in white,
Just get right out of my sight.
I can't bear you anymore,
Out, Out, you miserable whore.

The time has come,
my freedom is imminent.
The Lady will leave and the messiah arrive,
and soon in boredom again we shall thrive.

Listen to me, Lady in white,
Just get right out of my sight,
I can't bear you anymore,
Out, Out, you miserable whore.

Going Home...

I sit here in front of my laptop, a suitcase, a couple of bags and a guitar scattered around me. Exams got over yesterday and my train leaves in about seven hours time. By this time day after tomorrow, i'll have reached home.

The hostel is completely empty and bears a deserted look, since almost everyone went home yesterday. Me and a couple and friends are the only people still left. The contrast is tremendous; just yesterday loud music was blaring from numerous speakers, people were shouting their heads off and everyone in general was contributing to the mayhem.

Its hard to belive that i've been here five months already. It seems as if i came here just yesterday, with my brother and my mom dropping me off at the front gates, and i anticipating the great adventure that college life is supposed to be.

An adventure it surely was... i had a great time. Five months just passed by in the twinkling of an eye, and i'm leaving the place with mixed feelings. Five months is not a long time, yet i've made a few extremely good friends here. I'll surely miss them, but then, home is waiting to take over...

Looking forward to going home and the next semester as well...