Here's a song I love by Elton John titled, Your Song, and a chapter from Raised by God for your kind reading. Everybody has a song in their hearts: it doesn't matter if your eyes are blue or green, sing anytime and anywhere. Life is too short to keep that song inside of you.
I found love at sixteen. I met a dreamer. He loved the ocean as I did and was quite
the charmer.
Our love was as innocent as the tides that christened the hems of the beaches we
tread together. My love and I watched the sunsets that graced the skies in the evenings,
and on rainy days, we sat under a huge shaded umbrella at the beach.
We watched the rain till it stopped so we could build sandcastles with the golden,
wet sands. We walked hand in hand under the golden rays of the sun.
Peter built a huge castle with a tower and a beautiful garden inside. I asked him
who’d live there?
The castle looked reclusive, a secluded citadel. He answered, ”A girl, who is lost to the
outside world. She preferred her solitary abode far away from the madding crowd.
The tower was so she could see the whole facade of the city where she lived.
She’d watch without being seen, since if any inhabitants saw her, they would throw
a rope so she could climb down the tower.
They thought her a prisoner. However, she lived liberated in an enclave she owned,
surrounded by beauty and awe.” I thought he knew the girl the way he spoke of her.
I looked at him tenderly,
“Do you know someone like her? Why do you talk about the girl so?"
He had a forlorn expression on his face.
Peter replied, “Perhaps, she is right in front of me. Perhaps she’d own a citadel someday
and live without fanfare.”
Oh!!
“I don’t see why you’d think I’d be that girl. I have the whole world in front of me.
I’d never live in a citadel nor be afraid of the madding crowd.
Why, look, I am the ocean and the constellation, I will be a star in my own right.”
“That you are and shall be. I say to you, though, you will be the girl who knows not
her worth.”
“What do you want to do when you graduate?” he asked on another day.
Peter was going to be a doctor. “I don’t know, perhaps be a teacher,” I replied.
I set my sights far away from home. I wanted to reach a place where the tip of the
sea’s horizon merged with the sky’s glow.
“Where was that?”
“It was beyond the oceans, and far from home.”
As fate would have it, he left for another part of the world at the start of his
tertiary education.
He left without letting me know.
We made a pact not to disclose where we were going when the time came.
It’d be too hurtful to see the other leave. I knew in my heart we were not meant to be.
I didn’t hear from him again. Anyway, ours was young love, refreshing, unbinding
and innocent.
I cherished the beautiful memories with him. It was love at first sight.
I walked every day by the seaside, and one day ran into him coming from the opposite
direction.
He walked barefoot on the sand.
He smiled at me and I blushed. I tried to move away when I saw him walking towards me.
However, he stopped right in front of me. “Hi there,” he said. I didn’t answer and kept
on walking.
I wasn’t sure if I should talk to a perfect stranger.
He was so handsome, almost perfect with a gorgeous smile.
I suddenly thought about my appearance, if I looked tidy enough.
My hair was windblown, and I was conscious of how I looked in my shorts and T-shirt.
Even the sand under my feet fell away at his presence. My heart was thudding wildly.
I kept pace, as he walked next to me until I stopped to stare hard at him.
“Hi,” he said once more.
“I see you from over there, walking these shores.”
He pointed to a row of terrace houses further from where I stayed.
“You stay at the quarters over there, don’t you?”
I turned to look where he pointed, “No, that’s not where I live,” and kept walking.
I wasn’t going to admit that he was right. “I know you do. I have seen you there?”
And, he kept up his strides with mine. I blushed when I saw how he looked at me.
“What’s your name? I am a friend. I’ll show you a place where fish swim in shallow waters.
You can catch them in your hands. Would you like to see it?”
“There’s no need. I know where it is. I know this place very well. I walk here all the time.
I know the rocks on this side of the sea and the times when the tides rise.
I know when the sun comes up, and when it rests. I know the shallow waters too.
I am familiar with the seaside, and its surroundings.”
“See, you speak to me about these things at length. So, why can’t we be friends?
What’s your name?”
I stopped and stared hard at him. He was indeed persistent. “Shoba, that’s my name.”
He didn’t want to leave my side.
“Shoba?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that's the first I have heard of a name like that! It’s a unique name and
so befitting.”
“Why, befitting?” I wanted to know.
“Well, I think there is a meaning behind the name. Is there?” he asked.
“Why, yes, Shoba means light,” I replied candidly.
“See, that’s what I meant. You radiate light whenever you walk these shores,”
he said brightly.
I stopped to look at him. “And, you have seen this light?”
“No, but each time you walk here, it’s either during the hours of sunrise or sunset.
Isn’t that right? Unless it rains. It’s like you are part of the lighted sky.”
“Maybe, but that’s not the exact answer,” I replied haughtily.
“So, what is? He asked, smiling.
“I am not part of the lighted sky. I partake in the viewing of the sunrises and sunsets.
I am awed by the magnificently endowed skies during those hours. I am the vision.”
“You are the vision?”
“Yes, of beauty that radiates light,” I answered philosophically. He looked at me hard.
I knew he was weighing the meaning behind my words.
I didn’t ask his name, but he said it anyway.
“I am Peter. Look, the seagulls are flying away and in large numbers too.
They are flying where the seas are calm. A storm is on its way in these parts.
Do you want me to walk you back to your quarters?”
“No, I can walk back on my own.” We walked together in silence for a while.
“Look, the tides are rising. They lash against the rocks in warning.
I’ll walk you back even if you don’t want me to. At least,” he put his hand on his chest,
“I know you are safe back home that way.”
“Well, if you insist. I’ve walked alone all my life though.” I replied loftily.
“You don’t look old enough to speak of your life that way!
There will be friends like me to share your journey someday.”
I laughed at what he said. He was funny.
We became friends and met each time I went to the beach after that.
He was always there waiting for me during the hours I took my walks.
He took me to see the pool of fish between two large rocks.
I had never seen it before and never told him that.
He caught a fish and let it slip away. And we fell in love.
He said he first fell in love with my name, and I said I fell in love with his warmth.
It was funny how we met and shared the same affection for the sea.
As years passed, my solitary strolls along the golden, sandy beaches became the
markings of a poet.
I wrote volumes about my deepest feelings, and my dialogues with the sea, the sun,
the breeze, the tides and the sands were imprinted eternally in my mind.
I wrote about Peter and the lovely times we shared. I wrote about first love.
I sat for hours with my diary in hand, writing, and drawing wistful images on its blank
pages, filling up the pages with stories that touched my heart.
After high school, I left for India to study.
One day, I found the diary buried beneath layers of books and papers in a drawer.
My precious diary chronicled memories of my growing-up days.
I turned to the page where I had written about the special moments in my life.
I once stood in a garden where white butterflies fluttered past me.
They reminded me of heaven on earth.
I was bathed in the light of the Virgin Mother.
She silenced the fear in my heart.
I stood in awe of the constellation, and couldn’t erase the breathtaking
view from my mind.
I felt the love of innocence and learned of the power of love.
But, most importantly, I felt the enormity of the natural world, so free, wild,
and consuming, and was glad to partake in it.
I drew the vision of a white butterfly in a rose garden at Grandma’s table.
The vastness of the sea from where I stood, looked like it reached the skies
on the distant horizon, just as I would soon see the glow in the reddish hues
of the sands, at the breathtaking Shankumugham Beach,
in Trivandrum, Kerala - the next chapter I’d turn in life.
Read the first few chapters:
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