The Sea And Hyma 2

This time round Hyma has got a flat right on the R.K beach road...(During their previous sojourn,they used to stay at MVP colony, which had no sea view).. .A two-bed affair with a big window and a sit-out over looking the sea,..which i must say is a rare kind of gift that only very few people get to have....and even those who get it rarely have the time or mood to enjoy it....Now, she has found her most pleasurable passtime....Baywatch......Dont go by the title and drool over the prospect....Fortunately or unfortunately bikini-clad beauties still have"nt yet taken to haunting Vizag beaches....Not yet...

I got a call from her one afternoon ...They had just them moved to Vizag and the new flat...

"hey,..what do you think i am doing?"...She gleefully enquired...." standing in my balcony and watching the sea..."

"oh...Is that so,near?"...I was pleased...

"Yeeeaaaah..."...She chuckled..."i can see the sea from three of my balconies, and ships are moving like autos do on a road.".....You can bet i went green with envy...

Thus began her love affair with sea....(Ofcource it is not as if she is watching the sea for the first time...Even previously they were regularly visiting it on sundays..But not by as close quarters.)...Everyday after Bavagaru goes out to his work, Hyma settles down in her balcony, with a pair of binoculars too...(a gift from Bavagaru..encouraging her to pursue this interest).. and mounts on to her self-appointed duty....Bay watch....She laughingly says that there is every danger of her being appointed a coast guard one of these days....


...And ..she has a lovely view of it.........From the sit-out you have a broad side view of the beach road and uninterrupted sea.. Early morning sun comes and turns the waters into sparkling liquid gold....The mid-day would be languorously sultry,..as the sun shimmers down and waters seem to send a glare across,... while in the evening the moon comes and,passing her wand across, cools them into rustling silver foil... Ships can be seen standing afar,.. ...From her kitchen balcony you can watch great, smoky, lumbering ships slowly disappearing behind the Dolphin"s nose as they ease in to the harbour....During nights the sight is more enchanting .... Some of the ships pass on distantly,, as though brilliantly lit cities are gliding along.. ..While others stand silently, gently swaying ...,and sometime in the mid-night you wake up ,look at the reassuring lights and peacefully go back to sleep....

At about three in the early mornings, scores of little fishing boats with brave white sails lit up by feeble lamps, can be seen bobbing away on to the high seas from Rushikonda..... And it looks as though the sea is a big lake and has thrown up innumerable white single petalled kaluvapoolu.......Generally these boats return around three "o" clock in the evening,,...while their women gather at the shores with bowls of food, and wait for the men to get back safely.....Hyma says it is heart-wringing to watch them tie themselves to knots as the boats negotiate the crucial final lap.......Since all the catch the men bring home, hunting through out the night might just go under the sea with just one unfortunate encounter with rocks or strong currents......When they are finally ashore, it is the women now who would take charge....First the men have to be fed...as they could be ravenously hungry since usually they do not eat much while on the hunt.....Then they would sort out the catch and start in autos to different destinations...and ..Markets...


So, ...Hyma sits in her balcony ,watches the waves and marks the changes.....The sea too shrinks and waxes according to seasons...She says...In summer it recedes almost to the small out crop of rocks that were right in front of her window as crow flies.....While sometimes in rainy season it comes almost up to the beach road...literally washing the edges....When the crop of rocks do not show up over the waves, it meant the tide is full...while most dark fortnights could find them showing up ....


No doubt she is on her way to become a sort of an authority on the vizag beach.....She could tell you quite a few things about it....."Dont ever wade into the R.K beach waters", she advised me....Not only they are treacherous,--- being very deep,and are also constantly kept dredged---....but the area around, it seems, houses an incredible 500 plus hospitals and nursing homes, which keep emptying their sewerage into the bay....Industrial waste is something nasty by itself but hospital waste?....Hyma says she sometimes feels sorry for the kids who play around with the waters...


She could tell you few sea-side stories too...One was about the problems the port had to face....Back in the fifties when the Vizag port was being developed, the constant huge waves and tides proved troublesome,and hampered their work..... ...That was when Sir .C.V. Raman suggested a simple solution..." Drench a ship there",,he was said to have told them..."that would fix it"...Indeed they had sunk a huge old ship and the problem has been fixed...

"Take a look around among the visitors and did you notice any thing?", she nudged me and whispered conspiratorially...I was a bit startled and with my over imaginative brain looked around the beach, expecting some cloak and dagger stuff..."idiot",...she pointed to a man in black track suit ..."He is a guard...There are many more like him...These people just mingle with the crowds and move around...At the first instance of a mishap occurring ....they would dive in faster than those in Baywatch "...

These days, she even slowly started reading the moods of the sea,she says.....If it gives out that peculiar fishy smell....----neechu vaasana---it meant a storm might be brewing up in it"s bowels.....Then the rains come....The sea seems to merge with the skies and becomes a blur......the waters would become muddy....sometimes red too...And scores of ships are stranded, jostling for space and waiting to unload........The other day, after a particularly severe bout of rains,Hyma, who just then returned to Vizag after few days at Hyderabad agitatedly gave me a call...

"what do you think would happen?...Are......THIRTY..THIRTY ships are waiting here and i don't know when could they complete the work".....It took them nearly one month before all of them have finished unloading and done with.....and gave Hyma a great deal of work and worry, i should say...:)...She daily supervised the proceedings critically and had her reservations on the efficiency of the whole system...

"A ship has to switch off all it"s engines as it arrives till a certain point ",..she educated me on the protocol of it....."Then four tugs would come whizzing ,as busy as bees,surround the ship on four sides and royally and respectfully would help it in to the harbour"....

The most amusing incident for Hyma was when a ship accidentally strayed up to the rocks before her flat and got stuck in the sand....."I was just getting up from bed one morning", she told me between laughs...."And ran out to the sit-out as i heard a hideous screeching sound....as if a pig got stuck in snare...A large ship was there around the rocks,bellowing the siren as sailors ran around the decks in confusion..."....... Those rocks are pretty near the land and the ship should not have strayed this far....Hauling it inside proved to be a long-drawn effort...Scores of tugs came in daily and vainly tried to ....till a ship was called from Australia to the rescual..Meanwhile, Hyma, ofcource, as usual stood guard,and worried over the possible punishment the captain of the ship might have had to face...

Her biggest disappointment, sadly was on seeing I.N.S.Virat....Touted as the India"s premier battle ship, when it was announced it would be going this way,Hyma was all expectation and patriotism as she waited to see it pass on....Instead all she saw was an old vessel lumbering on like an old dowager princess, spluttering and coughing up a great deal of smoke, followed by a retinue of tugs,lot of gun-salutes and fanfare....You can say Hyma was disgusted..."and she fouled up my skies all along with the smoke", she groused....

Ofcource it is needless to say when Hyma"s big day falls on....The Annual Navy Day Show.....On that day, Hyma hastens Bavagaru to his office ,packs off her lunch,picks up her Bi"culars,,an umbrella,and.........goes up to their roof-top...---.It is no time for civilities, she tells me--- grabs the best possible seat and as happy as a child, waits in pleasurable anticipation for the show to begin........ The air-crafts zoom in, executing perfect 10 aerobatics,...mock-fights go on along the shore,...sub-marines glide under,......and later in the day, the spectacular fire-works at night ....as she and Bavagaru, watch sitting in their balcony.....

May The original couple on Kailasagiri and Hyma and Bavagaru in their sit-out continue to enjoy the seas for a long time....