Travelogue of a Learner

 My favourite shoes took me one day to my favourite destination,

Wanderlust having stirred my soul for an imminent resurrection!

With my dearly-bought shoes off, came the real joy –

Aiming for a natural pedicure was merely a ploy…

The sand healed my feet that have hardly ever trodden bare,

I sank, I tripped but never got hurt – nature catching me each time with care.

As I tried to grasp the grains of sand with the toughest grip,

Like my short-lived Insta-story, I watched it through my fingers slip…

                                                                                              

Before the vast ocean, a mere speck, I stood.

Leaving behind my larger-than-life social media avatar, for good!

Its robes of green and blue masked perfectly

Its unfathomable depth and the life it nurtured, gently.

The world may have judged the woman in me for my garb, my guts, my goal,

But the endless ocean - ‘You welcomed me as I am, filling my parched soul…

For, as I hesitated to reach out to you, your waves swept over my feet.

My mind may have settled for a mere dip but inundation was your treat!’

 

Shunned by the night in my city but egged on by the all-embracing ocean,

The rare glow of bioluminescent plankton set my feet in motion …

It lights up the waters, as seafarers quipped, on the darkest of nights –

Can I be the light, I wondered, for humans in their toughest of fights?

Bridging the gap between the world we live in…

And the world we ought to live in?

 

A boat ride the next day took me to a faraway beach…

With islands, pebbles, shells galore - but a gigantic rock stood far out of reach.

I wondered how it stood so tall – what is rooting it strong underneath?

Weather-beaten and ravaged by time – what has it not endured – this monolith?

‘As the waves lashed upon you, you stood unwavered –

Against the onslaughts of life, to my strength can I stay tethered?

And let the world speculate, as over the troubles you tower …

Are you “Comfortably Numb” or resilient with power?’

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