Portrait

the beaches

i took my time with this post. mostly because, amidst having been very busy, like the best things in life, the beaches i have grown to be in love with usually leave me speechless. i just dont know how to explain how very attached to the sea i am, how it is more than emotional, more than nostalgia, more than spiritual…it is an attachment that is almost physical, something that lives deeper than i can ever know.

i’m not even going to mention each place by name. from the beaches of pasikuda to unawatuna, from the beaches of wadduwa to arugam bay, from the galle face green to dan-haag, holland, from wellawatta to hikkaduwa, if there is a beach, a patch of sea, i can be content. there is nothing quite like the solace, the peace of mind it brings, sitting on a beach feeling the sand trickle from between your toes, letting the salt-wind get in your in hair, watching the ocean rise and fall like it is breathing, staring out into the vast open-ness of blue. my relationship with the sea is intimate, it has an effect on me that no one or nothing else in this world does. its effortlessly romantic, effortlessly calming. i guess i am really an island person, although a very ‘city’ person as well. i could never live too long away from the sea, without seeing it, tasting it, being able to atleast get my feet wet. i actually get depressed when in a landlocked situation for too long. my cousin will probably never forget the hell i gave him in central london, begging for a beach, some tiny bit of sea. the kids in my family were always brought up as one with beaches. we all learnt to swim in the sea, and not in a pool. all our earliest and regular holidays out of town as a large group were to the beaches in the south: unawatuna, hikkaduwa. the one thing i recalled thing summer in the hague, holland, from my trip there when i was 6 was my day at the beach. whether it is the unspoilt, quiet greatness of pasikuda, or the crowded bustle of the galle face green, or the tourist infested chaos of sunbathing and basking in the shallows of unawatuna, potuvil and kalutara, being close to the sea will always make me happy. my story of the sea has already been told here, and for those with a little extra time and the curiostity to find out about first periods in mirissa and skinny dipping in unawatuna, i suggest you take a look.

the sea is a most fascinating, amazing thing. its infinite expanse of water, stretching as far as the eye can see, is like the sky. it reminds me how little i am, how interconnected i am to a larger system, a universe of life.