In
Cannanore (now Kannur) in North Malabar, Kerala just a few meters from my ‘boarding
house’ at school, there was a small beach we called the baby beach. The beach
was so small that it could take not more than fifty people at one time. Besides
our school, the possible claimants to the beach were the local church, St
Theresa’s convent and school and the DSC Centre. In those days none other than
our school laid claim to the beach. There were no ‘visitors’ from the other
institutions in the vicinity for reasons of their own. The DSC Centre had
another exclusive beachfront of their own. The Church, oh well, is it
blasphemous to lay claim to a beach…I wouldn’t know…but they did not. Anybody
from the convent was always welcome to the beach. But visitors from the convent
to the beach were rare…during normal hours – that is another story.
Imagine a
private beach 24X7. It was a clean beach with white sands which I can today
assure you will rival the beaches of Rio, Hawaii and Goa. It was a beach with
no hawkers and no shit. The best time on the beach was on full moon nights when
the tide was coming in high. Occasionally we stole (please forgive us, of
father! It is never too late to pardon) wine from the rectory larder and made
our way to the beach by way of the tree leaning onto the terrace of the
boarding house. We went there on rainy nights during the monsoons too. The roaring
Arabian sea was a sight to behold from close quarters on those thunderous wet
nights. We were not frightened by the foreboding dark waters hitting us on the
shore. We felt comforted and relaxed. It was as if there was a bond between us
and the sea…a bond of understanding each others’ ways.
But then one day we flirted with danger – all
in jest we thought. Occasionally we went to the beach on a new moon day too; just
sitting on the shore and watching ship lights on the horizon, across a clam
sea. On one such night we decided to play a prank with Venu (No, Not the Bard
or NV; a third Venu who is today a child specialist). He was a bit timid type
and thought ghosts from the graveyard of the church roamed the area on new moon
nights. We told him that ghosts existed only in stories and persuaded him to
come to the beach on a new moon day and see for himself. Satish ( a Kerala
state schools pace bowler those days who
actually bowled faster than Sreeshant, even in those days, but never really
pursued cricket and is today settled in Singapore) was already at the beach, covered
in while bed sheet, atop a scraggly tree standing beside a disused well. What
was meant to be a prank turned serious when Venu spotted Satish before we could
and ran for his life in all directions before falling into the disused well.
With a fractured skull and limbs he lay in the hospital for a month. The bond
was such that the incident as it happened was hidden from the subsequent
inquiry. Venu told the inquiry that he just fell into the well on the dark
night by accident while visiting the beach. We did get reprimanded for going
off to the beach at night, as if it were the first time we did it, and wee made
to promise that we will never do it again. Such promises came easy those days.
Post the
incident, Venu was convinced that there were no ghosts…After Venu came back as
a full boy, we continued with our escapades as usual and now with Venu joining
us.
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