TO THE BAY OF BENGAL

I imagined you to be great and vast but at my first glance I realised that you were greater and much
vaster than what my young mind had imagined. I witnessed your ancient yet ever-new beauty
through the coastal town of Digha. It was my first day at Digha. I was sitting on your shore. It was
dark and there was high tide. I opened up all my sense organs to you. I wanted to see you in the dim
moonlight; I wanted to hear your calm yet mysterious roars. I desired to satisfy my sense of olfaction
through the genuine smell of your salt. I also wished to taste the wild spirit that takes voyagers again
and again to you despite the life risks. Above all, I wanted to feel you by heart. I longed for you to
enrich my soul by awakening me to the deepest layer of my mind. O sea, you didn't let my desires go
in vain. By nature, I am not at all a calm guy, rather I am quite restless. But that day when I saw that
even the horizon was engulfed by your water and you effortlessly intermingled with the dark sky
which was as vast as you, a cloak of tranquillity covered my mind. Yet, a lot of new different feelings
were triggered within me. Two of them are worth mentioning. Firstly, I realised how small and
negligible the entire mankind is, in front of you, the fathomless and never-ending creation of nature.
Secondly, I wondered why the silly human beings engage themselves in war and waste their time in
irrational activities even when a lot of your mysteries are still awaiting to be discovered. They are too
immature to understand what natural beauty is awaiting them to heal their mental wounds and
soothe their mind.
That will be a remarkable night to me forever. The next day I witnessed you in the daylight. I was
standing in solitude in front of you from the Shankarpur beach. I was on a concrete platform but was
very near to you. The high tide was receding and the sun was scorching but your cool wind
overweighed the sun's heat. A wave suddenly jumped on me and drenched me. I was astonished at
your power of mind reading. O sea, how did you know my long desire to come in contact with you
not only by hands or feet but through my whole body? I felt that I was united with you by my soul.
Just within 24 hours you had endeared me so much that I grew sad when I remembered that the
very next day I had to leave you and go back to the jungle of concrete.
By that time I didn't realise that another side of yours is yet to be unveiled. I opened all the buttons
of my shirt and started walking along the shore away from the main beach. Your cool breeze
touched my body. I closed my eyes and I walked a little ahead. On opening my eyes I couldn't believe
my eyes. The beach further was completely devastated by the sea during Ampaan nearly two years
back. But its effects were very prominent even after two years. The embankment was shattered and
the lonely, broken trees seemed helpless. I could not believe that it was the same sea whose beauty
pleased me shortly ago. O sea, you might be cruel but I won't regard you as unjust because what you
did was the fate that the criminal human beings deserved. But O vast, great yet savage creation of
nature, can you not hear the deep pleas and cries of the helpless, hopeless and homeless poor
humans?
O the majestic lord of water, can you hear me? I don't know whether I am the right one to represent
the whole mankind but even then I kneel before you and beg pardon. Please forgive us. We know we
have repeatedly harmed the sanctity of Mother Nature. But she is merciful. O sea, you are colossal
and enormous. Please let your greatness be bestowed upon these poor creatures. We swear not to
repeat our atrocities. We don't want to see your furious and monstrous waves again. Please promise
that you will not show us your maddend self again.
Can you see a young heart praying in front of you? Can you hear him? Will you keep your
promise?....

Anway Laha
Class- X (Oak)