Brown eyes glistening Hazel,
Tresses powdered with salt crystal
She descended; incognito with the fish,
her thick locks veiling the balmy sun,
into another realm
blanketed by a liquid element.
With poised physiognomy,
Oh! Did she squiggle into her wetsuit
Her skin integument by neoprene,
And a 44-pound armor, her Bloodroot;
Her lifeline’s solitary Locum tenens!
Up until her gills surfaces out
through the magic realism.
After a complete crepuscule of excitement, exhilaration, elation and insomnia, dawn finally broke out, proliferating his rays through the curtains and my pretend shut eyelids.
It was eventually time for me to jump into the pristine clear, teal waters and vanish into the vast expanse of Poseidon’s kingdom.
NO! that’s not exactly how it went. Let me Portus you real quick into the actual diegesis.
I was sat inside 4 yellow walls, façade a colossal LED television screen for an entire rotation and half around the clock edifying myself on the DOs and DON’Ts of Scuba Diving and another gyration of the needles on my watch, squiggling out black ink of my memory with the pressure around me worse than school exams and sweat profusely breaking out through every pore on my body. I ACED THE TEST!
Abstaining from boring you with the monotonous details of the training, let’s jump into the frame of ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’.
My curls waltzing with the wind paired with a touch of salt and humidity, we advanced into the salt chuck.
Suiting myself into my ‘not so shiny’ armor and waddling like a penguin to the extremity of the boat, plunging myself into the chambre liquid like an awkward tortoise on her back, I had finally set foot into Ariel’s realm.
We descended into a never-ending elevator ride towards the abyss, minus the elevator music.
Inviting me into his orb, sat the oldest man on a table coral, reserved solely for him, watching the school swim around him.
Pressure tightly wrapped her hands around my body and made herself comfortable in my ears as we de-escalated, announcing, we are in her territory.
The sea anemone waved to me with its multitude of arms accidently revealing the hiding spot of the clownfish. “Haha! Peek-a-boo”. And immediately covered its mouth giving out a little giggle.
Defying mind, body and breathe, I swam in silence, with the occasional sounds of the air purging out of my BCD and a lost fish making a little plop here and splash there in agitation, before a pair of hands blocked my vision, guiding my sight to his; we locked eyes and with a movement of fingers my physique followed a graceful pair of rubber fins. My dive instructor – Raju and I had learnt a few extra hand movements to liaise and identify the wondrous species the underworld had to offer.
Hands entwined, we cut through the water, 2 forces combined to witness the Lionfish, dozing
peacefully in his habitat.
Forthwith, a school of red snapper beckoned me enroute, leading to their acquaintance, the Pufferfish, ‘not so puffed’.
In grace, we swam, keeping in mind social distancing, Mr. NotSoPuffy lead me to the pristine white sand, also known as the poop of parrot fish.
With a nod of approval from my counterpart, I ran my fingers through the fine silt as they tried to escape my grasp through the gaps in my fingers.
For once I was certain I fit in. The only place of well-being, to feel, to know and to really feel alive. The ocean and his menage adjured me to stay, just a little longer but I was a mere visitor, stuck in suspension, between a world of mine and where I actually belong. Bidding my farewell I swim back, breaking through the placenta of surface water. I was back on the boat, dripping and drenched and a whole lot lighter after placing down my armor but most of all leaving behind a piece of me to my first love. To help make my words a reality for you, go check out : @turquoisedream.in