The feel of a cool breeze through my hair, the warmth of the sand under my feet, and the sound of waves crashing on the shore is what I have been missing the most for these past five weeks.
Before the lockdown, I spent most of my evenings sitting at Ramakrishna Beach, with a newspaper cone filled with muri (puffed rice) mixture, watching people go by and making stories about them in my head. Kids would be building sandcastles, vendors selling soap bubble jars and face masks of superheroes, people on evening walks with their pets, and couples trying to find a private moment amongst all that din.
Now, cooped up in my apartment with just Netflix for entertainment, I think of all those evenings I spent at the beach with my friends, arguing about politics and discussing web series, the opening of new restaurants, and movie screenings. We spent hours sitting and singing our hearts out as one of the friends strummed popular Bollywood tunes on his guitar. Strangers would look at us sing and then break into a warm smile or people just randomly joining for a song or two.
My friends and I, now spend hours on video calls making plans for post-lockdown times. Guess what tops everyone’s to-do list? An evening at the beach.
My first evening post lockdown will be spent at the beach, enjoying muri mixture and watching people go by as the setting sun paints the sky in several hues of orange, pink and blue. Once I get to go to the beach again, I will look for the street artist who paints himself silver and walks around the beach entertaining people every evening. Seeing him again, whose whereabouts I have thought of several times during the lockdown, might bring back a sense of normalcy. And unlike all those times I noticed him from afar, this time I will go up to him and say hello.
Aishwarya Upadhye
