Shells, starfishes & a bunch of friends: Part 3

Midnight nuisance

Around midnight, everyone went back to their rooms with a tough task at hand. I took to the comfort of the sofa bed in the ground floor relishing over the events of a day well spent. I smiled remembering CK's joke about renaming Papori's starfishes as alpha, beta and gamma. Gradually, sleep got better of me as thoughts changed to dreams. I wondered why Ina, Mina and Dika were taking a motorcart ride while I sat down on the beach resolving official issues on a strange laptop. Somebody was shouting at me from the cottage asking me to come back.
“Partha... wake up!” somebody shook me up. I sat down trying to figure out where I was. Upasana's scared face told me something was wrong. “There is something up in our room.” she said.
“Ok... don't panic. Let's check it out.” We went up to the second floor and heard some strange chirping somewhere in the room. The silence of the night made the noise scary. Finally, we concluded the noise to be coming above the thatched roof. Common sense told us that it was perhaps a bird although we couldn't rule out a snake. But then, snakes don't make that much noise on rooftops. The chirping finally stopped after sometime.
“Don't worry! Go back to sleep” I tried to convince the girls, “It's just a bird and it won't harm you……just a little frightened to see your faces.” Upasana mumbled something as I stepped down the stairs back to my sofa bed. “Call me up if you feel too scared.” I shouted back from the ground floor.

A confusing morning – scores settled

The morning brought in a new confusion. I woke up to find that we had apparently missed our appointment with the rise of the Sun God. A look at the hands of my wrist watch indicated it was already six in the morning. “Traitor!” I cursed my mobile alarm. An investigation into this crucial failure showed that I had messed up while setting the day of the alarm. Lazily though, I got up and limped to the entrance to draw away the curtains. And lo.... surprises never cease to amaze me. This one was more of a shock. The main door was open. “Did I forget to lock the door last night?” my heart skipped a beat, “I think I did or maybe... I didn't...” I looked around to see that my wallet was still on the table. Further scrutiny confirmed that nothing was stolen from the room... everything seemed to be in its place. Mixed feelings of relief and confusion shrouded my lazy morning brain as I stood at the doorway thinking over the incident.

“Good morning Partha !” a familiar voice rang through my ears. Surprisingly, the voice came from outside the cottage. A familiar lanky figure came jogging towards the cottage. “You missed the sunrise!” CK said with a smile. “Oh!” I said, still trying to come into terms with what was happening. “It was you, not me!” I smiled back. It was his turn to be confused. “Don't worry! You left the door open and I was just concerned as to what happened.” I added, in an attempt to explain the situation. CK nodded, then as an afterthought said “You guys didn't budge an inch when I tried to wake you up, so i went alone.” I felt angry with myself and then with Mani and the girls. “It was beautiful... and there were lot of people on the beach to witness the event,” he added, while I swallowed back my anger. I looked out from the door towards the blue sea. It was still early and worth taking a walk down the beach. We missed the big event but then it was still a beautiful beachside morning.
“Get up lazy bums! It's morning and you missed the sunrise.” I shouted from the ground floor. Mani grumbled. Upasana's voice came ringing from the second floor, “What is the point of waking up if sunrise is already past?”
She always has a logic ready however wild it may be. “Maybe because it would be worth it”, I shouted back.


Fifteen minutes later, the troupe of sore eyes and yawning faces finally assembled together for our beach venture. It was an enchanting sight at the beach. The sun was warm and a cool breeze brushed our faces. The horizon was filled with quite a few small boats; early risers out for work unlike us. A group of noisy teenagers played Frisbees nearby . “Dhat dhat dhat.... dhatdhatdhat...” a motorcart came to a halt beside us and the driver looked at us expectantly.
“This is fun!” Upasana shouted over the din of the engine. The motorcart of dangling legs and excited faces raced along the beach while the morning sun lifted our spirits. On the way back, Mani decided to take on the driver's job. It was an amusing scene with the driver and the girls trying to give directions to Mani in their own way. While the driver's instructions were concerning the clutch operation, the girls went all out shouting at Mani to give back the control to the driver. Five minutes later, we landed safely in front of a tea stall and there were sighs of relief.

The morning passed on and before we realised it was time for us to leave Mandermani. A morning breakfast of maggi and coconut water at the seaside stall was just about perfect to celebrate the end of our stay in this coastal village.
We went to the reception to clear out the last of the formalities and the payments.
“It was an owl, Sir.” the receptionist said when we inquired about the noise last night.
“Ahaa...it was an insomniac one.” I replied, much to the amusement of a few tourists checking in.

“All done!” Mani said, putting in his final signature on the register. It was noon when we finally boarded our Sumo. A few minutes later, we were back to driving on the beach on our way back. There were people enjoying the waves in the afternoon sun and new tourists were still pouring in. As the Sumo climbed onto the tarmac, it picked up speed. All of us were tired. The girls had already dozed off. But this tiredness was refreshing in a kind of way, breaking the monotony of office life. The music from the stereo player hummed on a sweet melody. Much as I wished to stay awake, the eyes refused to do so. We drove past a milepost which declared that we were still 116 kms away from Kolkata. “We would need another.... mmmmnnn... two hours... maybe less....” I couldn't remember much after that till I woke up amidst the blaring horns of Kolkata traffic.
Welcome back Home!


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