The island, with the three odd coconut palms jutting out
like three fingers, so islandish in nature, almost like a slice cake of Andamans
or Bahamas may be, didn't remain an island anymore. The monsoon had gone a few
months back and the flooded patch of lowland that lent this tiny place the aura
of an island is now dry and exposed. There is dried yellow grass, and human
trails like hair partings serpent their ways to the knoll, with the three
coconut palms still swaying in the afternoon breeze. With winter round the
corner, cobwebs in the yellow grass now shimmer with the morning dew till the
sun decides to take a harsh late morning stand. Sometimes it feels ridiculous
now to look at this place, which like a treasured pain yearned for, was once so
distant and inaccessible that you had to think of either swimming or bringing in a boat. It
also seemed like the perfect time to reach this little island would be the
midnight, with the moon or the fireflies for company. And the
mere thought of taking a crash date of adventure to reach this place seemed so
secretly justified a desire. And then the water, that once had shielded this
little paradise from random visitors, starts ebbing off, leaving the shiny
apple-snails stuck in the mud and the water lettuce dying a slow roasting
death. Then the mud starts getting foot-marked; visitors treading on the
half-baked surface still oozing with the scent of the wetlands. Then sprouts
the slumber ferns with their perfect clover leaves peeping through the tangles
of dying Spirogyra strewn across like green hair of some unknown maiden. It's now you know, that place, no longer a secret paradise, can be visited by
anybody. By that time, the yellow grass has arrived, and with it the human trails
that trample it. You don’t know when it exactly started, but you start to realize
the fading charm, the desire that is no more. The longings now seem so
foolish to visit this place in dreamy nights in mist and firefly lights. I am
yet to know what another monsoon brings and how many monsoons a man has to enjoy
in his lifetime. Or I’d rather say, endure in his lifetime.
