THE SEA AND THE SEASHORE

 ---------Stray thoughts on the Sea and the Seashore

“I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore --------------finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” ― Isaac Newton

I am yet to meet a person who doesn’t like to spend some time on the seashore. This was so with us, children. Our Grandfather’s cousin whom we called ‘Appan’ used to take us to the Trivandrum beach, aptly called Sankhumukham means ‘face of the conch shell’, every Sunday (Incidentally, conch- shell was the royal Insignia of the Kingdom of Travancore). I recall that the Maharaja used to lead the procession carrying the idol from the  Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Trivandrum to Shankumugham beach for conducting the ritual bath ceremony (called Aarattu), watched by huge crowds . 

The Sankhumukham Beach   Appan used to take us to the beach by bus in the late afternoons. Once we reached the seashore, we felt an enormous sense of freedom. We built sand castles, picked shells of different shapes and colours, watched the orange crabs drawing zig-zag lines while crawling on the wet sand, and children of fisherfolk rolling, riding, and frolicking in the waves.

Seeing them, we too were encouraged to move towards the sea, to play with the waves. The waves carrying away the sand under our feet was a pleasurable feeling. At times, we ran away from the sea, towards the shore, to escape the rolling waves chasing us. Exhausted, we would sit on the white sands and eat salted fried gram, sold in small conical paper bags. 

We also took time to visit the Trivandrum Aerodrome nearby, which received only one flight daily -the Trivandrum-Delhi flight- at that time. The flight landing and taking of was indeed a rare sight. Many parents brought their children, especially, to watch the plane, which looked like a huge metallic bird. With a visit to the aquarium and Devi temple nearby, our trip was rounded of.

As we grew up, we saw less and less of the sea. Our relation with the sea changed too- it became less playful and more intense, for, sitting on the shore and watching the ceaseless ebb and tide of the waves one is transported to a mystical world, beyond all barriers. It looked as though the sea was like a human, expressing a range of emotions – mirth, melancholy, fury and aggression.

Sankhumukham today is a ghost of its previous self. The beach is now confined to a narrow band of brown sands. Huge boulders are seen dumped along the border, ostensibly to prevent sea- incursion. The coconut trees near-by look stunted.

The restless blue sea

The sea appeared not exactly blue all the time- sometimes it was dark blue, other times greenish blue or even green, yet during Sun- rise and Sun- set, the surface colour changed from golden to orange to red. The sea appeared silvery-grey on moon-lit nights. Apparently, the colour of the sea is depended on the mood of the sun, moon and the clouds.

Although people have been watching the skies and seas for centuries, no one could decipher why they both appeared blue. It was left for late Dr. C. V. Raman, the Indian scientist, to explain that the sky appeared blue due to scattering of blue rays of the spectrum (phenomenon called Raman Effect). The sea reflected the blue colour of the sky as also water particles in the sea scatter the blue light.

The sea is ever restive. No wonder, the sea is often compared to the wandering mind.  Scientists say that waves are actually energy passing through the water, causing it to move in a circular eddy motion. It is the wind that mostly keeps the ocean surface in motion. Gravity from the moon, and a lesser extent the gravity of the Sun, pull water disbursed on the Earth.

 Memories of Visits

Many a time sea looked placid, with white breakers competing with each other to reach the shore. Standing in the Kovalam beach in Trivandrum, watching the waves rolling in and quickly receding used to remind me of a poem in our Malayalam text book about mother Kerala- “The ocean waves, like fair maidens, adorn thy holy feet with anklets of silver foam, and not pleased with it, take them off and then do it again and again in a ceaseless motion”.

I saw the frightening face of the sea once, when I visited a small island called Munroe Island in Kollam district, as a part of a team to assess sea erosion. That day it was raining hard since morning. The sky, the horizon and the earth merged into one large bleary vision. Soon, the huge tides with their thundering noise burst forth, so huge forming a blue-green wall of sea, about to crash into multitude of breakers. The wild waves seemed to follow us everywhere, devouring everything on the way, huts, coconut trees, boats ---

The Sun rising and setting in the blue waters of Kanya Kumari where three oceans meet is an intense experience -with the orange rays of the sun falling on the dark rocks scattered on the shore, the image of Swami Vivekananda visualizing India while meditating on a rock or Devi Kanya Kumari in her eternal wait for Lord Siva.

Some years ago, I had a chance to visit the Dandi beach in Gujarat. It was here that Mahatma Gandhi picked up a fistful of salt from a puddle of salt water in a place close to the sea, electrifying the nation, during the freedom struggle. When I went there, the beach was virtually deserted, as dusk was settling in. I climbed on to the parapet separating the sea from the shore. The sea was placid, with a few waves moving here and there.

The sands looked clean. My host explained to me that all garbage, abandoned bottles and other plastic waste were being picked by a Gandhian living in the neighbourhood, who, as a child, had accompanied Gandhi during the Dandi March. I am told that he is now no more. What a great tribute to the Mahatma!

When you think of Gandhi can Mandela be far behind? During a visit to south Africa, I had the good fortune to travel to Robben Island, in a boat to see the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 24 long years. The area where Mandela and his co-prisoners laboured during daytime was just on the beach. With the famous Table Mountain- a mute witness to the history of injustice and discrimination -overlooking, the sea looked calm and beautiful, as though nothing has happened in the past.

In Sydney, Australia I saw that all important tourist places were located along the sea, the famous Opera house jutting into it, the Zoo with animals which you normally do not see in our parts a few steps away, a huge aquarium swarming with fish of myriad colours and shapes and the coral reeves full of busy life.

But the most unusual sight I ever saw was a temple dedicated to the Navagraha (or the nine Planets) on the sea- coast in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. It was not a conventional temple, but, one on the confluence of the seashore and the sky, open to the elements. The nine stone idols representing the planets were erected on the sand and priest was seen performing puja standing knee- deep in a sand pit in the middle, filled with sea water, which bathed the idols at regular intervals. The one who had visualized the open temple, might have certainly had a great imagination and a vision of the whole universe before him.

 

Man & the Sea

 Sitting on the seashore quietly enables us to think deeply about the relation between the man and the sea. From time immemorial man had intimate association with the sea --fishing, travel, sports, trade, exploration, wars and so on. Many of the epochs in human history are associated with the sea.

The seas have influenced our religions and cultures. Lord Ram crossing the sea with the help of Monkey- God Hanuman and Biblical story of the sea parting for Moses are etched in our memory.

Science and the sea   Science has also brought us close to the sea. Many scientists believe that life originated around 3.7 billion years ago in deep-sea within warm, rocky structures called hydrothermal vents. Experiments conducted under lab condition show that deep sea vents had ideal conditions for origin of life.

Look at the birth of the continents.  About 800 million years ago there was only one huge land mass-the Super continent of Rhodinia- and it began to break up into smaller fragments. About 251 million years ago the fragments started aggregating and they fused together to form another super continent called Pangea. The sea enclosed within its curvature was called the Tethys Sea, while the sea called Panthalassa surrounded it from outside. Pangea later on divided into the northern Laurasia (North America, Europe, Asia minus India, separated 250 million years ago), Western Gondwana (South America, Africa) and Southern Gondwana (Australia, India, Antarctica) continental mass. Over millions of years, they drifted away from each other and developed into present day continents. What a dramatic story indeed!

Geographical explorations: Navigations of the seas were carried out by early explorers, some of the most prominent being Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama and James Cook, each of which led to civilizational consequences.

The explorations carried out by Charles Darwin in iconic “Beagle’ to Galapagos and back, after collecting plant specimens/ fossils as supporting evidence led to his propounding the famous Theory of Evolution.

Wealth from the Oceans

Fish is a part of staple diet for millions of people, and, also is an important source of protein.

Around 60 million people are employed worldwide in fishing (39 million) and fish-farming (20.5 million), and approximately 55 million metric tons of fish worth about $8 billion are caught each year (FAO). 

The value of key ocean assets is conservatively estimated to be at least US$24 trillion. Oceans contribute $1.5 trillion annually in value-added to the overall economy (OECD). By unrestrained human activities we are only squandering away the non-replenishable wealth from the sea.

Fury of the Sea It is not that the sea is always benevolent towards us. The Tsunami that occurred only a few years ago unleashed death and destruction in countries like Japan, Thailand and parts of India. But the reverse---man causing destruction of ocean wealth- is also sadly true. Micro-plastics and oil spills in sea water are a danger to the health and well-being of man and other beings. Perhaps the sea is only settling scores against the wanton destruction caused by human activities!

The Sea as we experience it

 The sea has inspired our imagination in several ways through paintings, poems and literature. Some of the great painters who have used the sea as medium are Katsushika Hokusai (The Great Wave), Claude Monet (Impressions on Sunrise), Ivan Aivazovsky (The Nineth Wave) and Winslow Homer (The Gulf Stream). These paintings make us wonder which is more profound, the actual sea or the surreal one—the impressions of the sea in the minds of artists?

There are many beautiful sea/ocean poems written by great and not-so great poets. Some of the great poems include those written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edward Spencer, Mathew Arnold and Emily Dickinson.  

Among the poems published in recent times I came across one by Belinda Stotlar and liked it

The perpetual cadence of the vast sea
Stirs a restless desire that engulfs me.
Like an infinite force I dare not impede,
Briefly rushing in - only to then recede.
Beckoning me to leave life's safe shore,
Into deep waters of mystery and lore.
(Source: www.familyfriendpoems.com) 

Among the world-famous literature with focus on the sea, I can think of Hemingway’s The Old man and the Sea (1952) which won Nobel prize in 1954, Herman Melville’s masterpiece Moby Dick (1851) and Virginia Woolf ‘s highly regarded novel The Waves (1931).

Virgina Woolf’s writing has a primordial quality about it, and is also at the same time lyrical and melancholic. In The Waves the distinction between prose and poetry disappears.

See what she writes in the first chapter of The Waves. “The sun had not yet risen. The sea was indistinguishable from the sky, except that the sea was slightly creased, as if a cloth had wrinkles in it. Gradually, as the sky whitened a dark line lay on the horizon dividing the sea from the sky and the grey cloth became barred with thick strokes moving, one after another, beneath the surface, following each other, pursuing each other, perpetually.

As they neared the shore each bar rose, heaped itself, broke and swept a thin veil of white water across the sand. The wave paused, and then drew out again, sighing like a sleeper whose breath comes and goes unconsciously.”

After reading this Photographic description of the sea, do you wish visit the seashore and watch the sea again?

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