Barnacles

My Seaside Experiences – View from Sea level

Till I was in primary school, it was smooth sailing for me. I was in good books at home and school. But once I moved to Hr.Sec school for 6th Std, my studies went wayward. Especially from 6th to 8th Std, there was only extra- curricular activities in my mind, no curriculum interest in me. During this period, my dad was posted in a far off town and he visited us only during his holidays.

This became convenient for me to deceive my mom to pursue my own agenda. My mom had a habit of applying coconut oil heavily on my spiky hair to that extent, it would drip out. In hindsight, that might be the reason, why my hairs still remain black till now. At that time, my school mates made fun out of it. But the reason, I hated coconut oil in my hair was different.

During the period, I stealthily took bath in pond and sea without the permission of my mom. When I returned home, there was two indicators which exposed myself to my mom. One is wet trousers and the other is disheveled hair without oil. The first problem could be sorted out by smuggling an extra trouser (or) at times even drying out by sitting out in sunlight. But we couldn’t sort the second problem of hair without coconut oil. More often I get caught. The std excuses of “ a friend pushed me in” “ accidently fell in water” was not working for long time. Our school had two big ponds inside it. During school days, especially in Saturdays with half working day, we go for swimming in the school pond. I always told my mom that I have extra classes on Saturdays. During holidays, with friends we go out for taking bath in sea. Sometimes, I take permission from my mom. When I sensed that my mom won’t give permission, I slipped out stealthily to sea shore without permission.

During summer vacation, it almost become a daily affair to visit seashore along with friends and take bath in sea. Our regular plays were generally restricted to shallow waters , gliding with waves etc. As we gradually learnt swimming, we started moving little deep. Those days we were fascinated to watch a small fishing boat anchored regularly about 200 meters away from the shore. One day we planned to swim up to the boat and touch it. As we were not skilled enough to take such risk, we all brought a 5 litres empty plastic can from home. In those days, every household used to have the 5 litre can to purchase kerosene from ration shop . Slightly leaky cans, which were discarded, were used as a bouy for our swimming. The empty cans were the ideal floating devices. Holding the cans under the chest with one hand, we four boys slowly started swimming towards the boat. As we moved forward, now and then I turned back to check how far the shore has moved away. It was a quite different terrain. Unlike the unending waves close to shores, there were no waves as we went deeper. With lot of excitement and some fear, we moved slowly and all the four remained close to each other.

When we reached close to the boat, the size of the boat appeared very big. Keeping my eyes at sea level, the view shattered my preconceived notions. Though the boat is anchored, it is not stationary; it looked like a big monster bouncing up and down and laterally in all directions. Finally I touched the boat to feel a slimy surface. I looked around to see any scope of getting on to the boat. It was unmanned. There I realized that climbing on to the boat from water is a herculean task. There is no hold to your hands and feet and the object on which you try to climb is also moving irregularly. It would need a extraordinary skill and stamina to climb from water. As a last ditch effort, in search of a hold I tried to put my foot on the bottom. Suddenly I felt a sharp cut and pain on my left foot. With my alarm, we all rushed towards the shore. After reaching shore, I saw a pinch of flesh scooped out of my left foot. Later, I learnt that it was “barnacles” a shell like growth on all solid surfaces in sea, which has knife like sharp edges. One day later, my mom noticed the wound and questioned it. My explanation of falling down in road, did not match with the nature of wound in my foot. Still she could not found out what actually happened.

The physical scar in my foot and the memories of the incidents still remained with me.