The waves were calmer and sky was partly cloudy with moon playing hide and seek. The beach was strewn with sleeping homeless people.
As though an invisible magnet made me to follow that glowing green figure, I was walking like a somnabulist in my shorts ,tees and barefoot. Could feel the edges of broken sea shell in my feet.
Readers must be wondering what prompted me to this night sojourn in the dead of the night.
It all started with that stone which I purchased thinking it to be emerald from the struggling Telugu actor Raja.
After dinner in the hotel Victoria we went to sleep. I kept that stone on the night table near the bed. In the middle of the night I got up and found a holographic greenish shadowy figure coming out of the stone and beckoning me to follow. I was in NREM (non rapid eye movement) phase of sleep, a kind of slumber. After I started popping sleeping pill my sleep pattern has become installmental, a kind of part time lover,it comes and goes. Like a zombie I got up in my shorts grabbed a few Bank notes strewn on the dressing table and took my mobile, as such this type of action is part of regular going out habit so it was more of mechanical action than a planned action.
My wife was in deep sleep ,the shadowy figure vanished near the door, somehow I had this feeling that the stone was the reason of that figure appearing before me,so I was cluching the stone in one hand my cell phone in other.
I opened the door,the shadowy figure was there in corridor,it glowing green figure in that half lit corridor.
The gate keeper of the hotel was in half sleep ,I waved at him,he was not surprised as many people perform puja of the sea in the night, sea is the symbol of the origin of evolution. I don't think he could see the green glow in front of me,it was for me as I had the stone. When we stepped in the beach then a sweet fragrance wafted on my face and I started hearing a mystical tune as though someone is playing pan flute.
I couldn't break the invisible force which kept pulling me,I looked back at the illuminated hotel and went on following that illusive figure,the mystical sound and fragrance kept lingering. Somehow I was feeling as though the figure was trying to show something to me. Is it leading me to the cove where it is said some people had sighted mermaids. I remembered to have read about the statue of a black mermaid in Copenhagen. Hans Christian Anderson wrote the story The little Mermaid and suddenly I was transported to that fairy world created by the author. The beach has become illuminated by different colour of diffused light, it was full of people in ancient gears. It was a show of myriad colours with floating figures . I felt important as though that show was put for me exclusively. At that patch of sea beach i was the only living being.I was dazzled.
I couldn't take the strain of the long walk on the rough beach. I sat down but the green figure was frantic, I waved at it conveying now leave me alone.
It turned red from green as though in anger and gestured at me angrily and cursed me.
I said Jay Jagannath loudly, heard Raja's voice shouting my name.
"Roysahab where are you?"
I heard the voice of my wife too.
Suddenly it felt like I have come to my senses after a trance,I took a deep breathe of the Ozone rich beach air.
In a weak voice I replied, "I am here !" I raised my mobile with torch on. I was more or less lying on the sand with exhaustion and that stone had vanished in the thin air, that green wisp of human too melted in the dark sea. I looked at the sea and it appeared to me as though a distant figure is bidding good bye and became one with the sea. The fishy smell of the sea shore was back and that mystical music sounded like "pearly shell " by Billy Vaughn orchestra has stopped.
It turned red from green as though in anger and gestured at me angrily and cursed me.
I said Jay Jagannath loudly, heard Raja's voice shouting my name.
"Roysahab where are you?"
I heard the voice of my wife too.
Suddenly it felt like I have come to my senses after a trance,I took a deep breathe of the Ozone rich beach air.
In a weak voice I replied, "I am here !" I raised my mobile with torch on. I was more or less lying on the sand with exhaustion and that stone had vanished in the thin air, that green wisp of human too melted in the dark sea. I looked at the sea and it appeared to me as though a distant figure is bidding good bye and became one with the sea. The fishy smell of the sea shore was back and that mystical music sounded like "pearly shell " by Billy Vaughn orchestra has stopped.
My wife was breathless due to the arduous trek of May be 2 km or so,Raja was holding a torch.
Raja gave a guilty look and said ,"I sold the wrong stone to you!"
"Where did you get the stone from ?"
I asked.
He said ," it was lying somewhere here and that is why when memshaheb rang me and informed me that you have walked out with the stone then I realized you would be somewhere here. I went to your hotel and with memshaheb straight came to this place.!"
Then he asked," Sir where is that stone?"
I showed my empty palm and said ,"Vanished!"
Raja gave a guilty look and said ,"I sold the wrong stone to you!"
"Where did you get the stone from ?"
I asked.
He said ," it was lying somewhere here and that is why when memshaheb rang me and informed me that you have walked out with the stone then I realized you would be somewhere here. I went to your hotel and with memshaheb straight came to this place.!"
Then he asked," Sir where is that stone?"
I showed my empty palm and said ,"Vanished!"
