A short Story by Harsha Prashanth
Raghu was very excited. This Sunday, he was going to Besant Nagar beach with his younger cousins Sonu and Monu. They were coming from Delhi to Chennai just to see the awesome beach. His cousins had never seen a beach before as they had no coast in Delhi. It was a hot, dry and merciless dust bowl.
Raghu was looking forward to eating vadapavs at his favourite Goli-vada pav shop near the beach. He loved the feel of the wind brushing against his face and digging his feet deep into the wet sand of the beach. But his aunt (Sonu and Monu’s mother) would say “Woh mitte ke neeche ek bada saamp hai!” Just to stop the kids from making their feet muddy. Sonu and Monu believed it, Raghu knew that wasn’t true. Besides he never understood Hindi.
There was much more to the beach than munching vada pavs. One could go on horse rides, shoot balloons of different colours and eat neon coloured cotton candy. The cotton candy part wasn’t true however, as Raghu’s mother never allowed him to eat that sweet devil.
But all of that was nothing compared to the main purpose of coming to the beach - Putting your feet into the blue waters! The relaxed feeling of the water tickling between the toes, drawing figures on the sand (Raghu draws Tridents and other things related to Greek myths) was really a joy. What more could an 11 year old boy like him want?
Meanwhile, in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Shyam was having a very unlucky day. His father had scolded him for not completing his math homework, and then his teacher too. He was also banned from meeting his friends who always stole a fish or two from the local fishermen. “My son is under bad influence” his mother would say. Shyam’s mother didn’t know all the other mischievous acts his friends did. Today was the only day Shyam was allowed to go to the beach.
Shyam loved the beach mainly because of the coconuts. There would be a coconut water seller at every nook and corner at the beach. He liked to sit on the big black rock, his favourite spot to watch the sunset and sip the cool and refreshing coconut water watching the sky turn from orange to purple to a dark shade of blue.
That was one of his two desires. The other one was about footwear. He longed to have the perfect shoes, so he could walk comfortably along the rough streets of Andaman. Every day he had to use his old and torn slippers which were not at all comfy. He only wore them because he didn’t want rough feet for the rest of his life. His parents didn’t buy him a new pair and they could not afford it. He sat on the rock wishing that a nice pair of shoes would magically turn up.
In Chennai’s Besant Nagar beach, Raghu was enjoying his time playing in the water. Sonu and Monu were busily waddling around, giggling away and gargling salt water. “Chee Chee, spit it out!” said their mother. They were having the time of their lives. Raghu’s mother warned him not to go deep into the water, but he didn’t pay attention. Suddenly, a harsh wave pushed Raghu down. He managed to get back to the shore safely. The beach time was over, his mother was furious and rubbed Raghu’s wet head roughly with a towel. “Didn’t I just warn you?! Enough, get your shoes and lets all go to eat dinner”, said Raghu’s mother.
Raghu looked down at his feet and noticed his Crocs were gone! Those sea-green beauties that helped in many adventures and muddy puddles were lost. “Grandpa would be so disappointed. It was my best birthday gift from him ever. Mother is going to yell at me and kill me maybe if I tell her this now”.
The sea-green beauties, Raghu’s precious crocs, by the way, had not been torn or destroyed. These Crocs were immune to rough environments and didn’t give up that easily. The pair hadn’t been separated either. They both were having a great time surfing on the waves and doing lots of dare-devil stunts. The Crocs became salt-water crocs, ruthlessly swimming across the Bay of Bengal.
On the way to their unknown destination, they saw many types of marine life. They saw jumping dolphins and porpoises and tried to jump with them. They passed colourful corals and hid in them to avoid some ferocious sharks that came by. The crocs could see flying fish above their heads and tried to catch them. They had had plenty of training from jumping with the dolphins. They even got a glimpse of an underwater school of colourful fish. Though they met all sorts of marine life, they avoided choking or harming any of them.
But where were they going? That was still a mystery.
Shyam was going to finish his sunset watch at the beach. None of his wishes seemed to have come true. He was going to go back home when he saw two bright objects glistening under the setting sun. Shyam went closer and to his delight found two lovely pair of sea-green Crocs! He was overjoyed! He looked around to see if this was anyone’s lost shoes. No one was there. That meant that it was all his. Finders’ keepers. Losers, well he didn’t know who the losers were. Who cares? He just found a nice pair of shoes. He walked back home, feeling comfortable in those new pair of shoes and showed them to his parents. They were very surprised. He was so lucky! All day long, Shyam and his family were full of smiles.
Poor Raghu was in his bed thinking about his shoes. Just in time, Grandma came in to tell him a story to cheer him up. “My shoes…” said Raghu. He really liked his crocs. Now they were gone. “Come on Raghu.” Said Grandma. She thought for a minute. “Did you know that lost objects sometimes end up in the hands of another owner?” “So?” said Raghu. “Your shoes could have been found by some other person. Probably somewhere in Sri Lanka or something.” Raghu was finding that hard to believe. Grandma’s stories were always fairy tales.
But who knows? Sometimes fairy tales become true!
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