She draws me to herself – beautiful and sensuous.. there is no one like her!!! Her brown skin rough in parts, soft and pliable at other place. I watch her from afar, her beauty glistening in the heat of the summer sun, blushing red.
Extremely hardworking, she produces all that her children need. Her ability to sustain and nurture knows no bounds! Everyone grows and glows under her care. She extends her arms to all who need her love feeding anyone who is hungry. I cannot remember anyone she has turned away.
I don’t remember when this fascination for her began. Maybe since the time this universe was conceived?
As an entity who is bound to the seas and who has no fixed home, I have been attracted by the sense of constancy and the permanence that she symbolizes. She waits for me – this wanderer, each time I decide to come ashore from my voyages across the world.
Thiruvananthapuram as usual or Mumbai – I wonder as I look for a port to disembark. A part of me wants to go to Kolkata. But east or west, I knew it was towards her that I was heading. The blue seas are no replacement for her love.
I see her from the middle of the ocean, perspiring in the summer heat, as I get ready to drop anchor at – yes, Thiruvananthapuram it will be this time, as always! It always holds a special fascination for me.
I long to touch her heated body, grasping it in my arms and making love to her, achieving the ecstasy that only both of us can experience. Somewhere, a small doubt creeps into my mind- Will she love me like she did before?
Yes! She sees me now. She is waving at me as I jump ashore and pull her into my arms! I smell her fragrance as we unite in our love.
Our bodies come together in unison as lightening strikes. We hold on to each other as only the ones truly in love can. She refuses to let go of me. I don’t want to go. I spend time with her and our children. There are so many now!
Three months pass; four and then five. She blooms under my love, bedecking herself with flowers and beautiful green robes. Green – that is the colour that she looks her best in. I look at her with pride, my beloved beauty!
It is time to go. The wander lust is getting to me. This permanence, constancy and the predictability of my beloved now suddenly become stifling! The sea beckons and I get ready to leave.
She cries, holding on to me. I feel miserable leaving her like this, to raise our children all alone. She has never asked me for anything other than my love. Makes me feel like a wretch!
But a wandering soul like me cannot be tied down- it is my identity and may be my destiny. A destiny that keeps me away from my beloved for almost half a year! Sometimes during my saner moments, I think that maybe this is all for the best. After all, was I to stay permanently with her I may lose the charm of the mysterious, passionate lover. I would then become more demanding, make her ignore her children; I might even end up harming our children through my constant presence – and if I did, I knew she would not spare me! She was a mother first and a lover later.
I hit the Bay of Bengal and start sailing through it. A sudden feeling of grief sweeps over me as I pass Chennai. I disembark. She is there again, my unfailing love, arms outstretched for me.
“One last time”, I think as we kiss and make love.
Then it is good bye forever until June next year when I, Sameer* will come across the Arabian sea to meet her again – my beloved Vasundhara*!
(The monsoons symbolize a season of life, love and romance in South Asia when the dry parched earth rejuvenates and becomes green again. The heated land mass of the Indian subcontinent draws into herself the monsoon winds every year in June. I have tried to depict here the romance of the monsoon winds and their attraction for this land)
* –
Sameer – Wind/breeze in Hindi/Sanskrit
Vasundhara – Earth in Hindi/Sanskrit
(Image source: Google Images)
