Sea Change

Author's note: I started writing this story for a previous prompt but wasn't able to get it done in time. I finally got it done and wanted to put it up even though it doesn't really fit this prompt, so here it is anyway :)

***

Ritu woke up to the sight of clouds gathering rapidly in the sky. She sighed, flipped over, and went back to sleep as the wind started to howl. No tourist was going to want to go scuba diving when it was raining. And it wasn’t allowed either.

Ritu disagreed vehemently. She knew the sea would turn murkier and it wouldn’t exactly be safe, but there was something majestic about the sea when it rained, that just could not be witnessed while sitting comfortably ensconced in the hotel bed, watching the only TV channel that the hotel offered for free. She shook her head at the tourists who came all the way to Andaman from the mainland and spent their time watching replays of Bollywood songs on the TV, instead of walking along the sandy shore, breathing the fresh, salty air and going in search of the little crabs that resided in burrows on the shore.

The rain lashed against her window. A flash of lightning illuminated her sparse room, but she merely sighed and burrowed deeper into her bed.

The rain had slowed down to a drizzle when she woke up. The sun peeped out from behind the clouds uncertainly, and then disappeared again. From her window, she could see that the waves of the sea were still choppy.

Ritu was disappointed. She loved the rain, but it was no good for business.

She decided to go to the hotel anyway where she would, under normal circumstances, be assigned groups of tourists to teach scuba diving to.

“Might as well pass the time here.”, she thought as she walked up the stairs of the Blue Lagoon, the hotel that employed her.

“Ritu!”, hissed her friend, Sana, who was the receptionist of the hotel and the reason Ritu stayed in business. Sana would divert gullible tourists from other scuba diving instructors to Ritu, claiming that she was an internationally certified diving instructor and celebrities like Hrithik Roshan had learned to scuba dive from her. The celebrity changed depending on which part of world the tourist was from (Sana had once shamelessly claimed that Ritu had trained Jessica Alba for the scuba diving scenes in ‘Into the Blue’).

Neither was Ritu an internationally certified instructor, nor had she met any celebrity in her life. She had grown up around the sea and didn’t remember a time when she didn’t know how to swim or dive. But since concealing the truth was good for business, they did so and later, laughed over the rapt, open-mouthed tourists who hung on to every word of Sana’s wild tales about Ritu’s scuba-diving experiences with celebrities.

“Ritu!”, she hissed again. Ritu looked up and immediately sidled up to her.

“You’re telling me that a tourist wants to go scuba diving right after the storm?”, she said, excitedly.

“Yes. I just got a call from Room 306 saying she wanted to go scuba diving, and could I please set her up with a trainer.”, said Sana, imitating the slightly high-pitched voice of the caller.

Ritu giggled at the admonishing look that Sana received from the other receptionist. “So where is this tourist?”, she asked.

“Go and wait by the boat shed, I’ll direct her there.”, said Sana, filing some papers.

“Alright!”

“You know what’s weird though? She didn’t seem to be worried about the fact that it had just rained. I mean most tourists stay in, right? But she didn’t seem to mind at all.”, said Sana, thoughtfully.

“Maybe she’s already a trained scuba diver… but then why would she ask for a trainer?”

“Hmmm… I don’t know… or maybe she doesn’t know its not exactly safe to go in the water after it rains…? Do you think we should warn her?”, said Sana.

They looked at each other guiltily.

“Or maybe… you could just go with her and if it turns out that she wasn’t aware of the situation, you could do some theatrics – you know, sniff the air, study the sea with an intense look, test the water with your hand – and then declare that it isn’t safe to go scuba diving, after all. And then bring her back and tell her you’ll take her tomorrow.”, said Sana, shrugging her shoulders.

“Hmm… that’s not a bad idea… and if it turns out she is a trained diver and just wants some company on her dive… then I could have the time of my life!”

“Yes, you could. Now, go! She’ll be waiting for you, and I have a lot of work to do.”, said Sana, busily starting to file papers again.

Ritu skipped happily to the boat shed. As she turned around the bend, she saw a 60-something lady standing by the boat shed, clutching her sun hat.

A 60-year-old lady?

“Maybe I shouldn’t take her diving.”, thought Ritu, feeling even more uncertain than before.

“Hi.”, said the lady, with visible nervousness, as she reached the shed. “Are you Ritu?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’m Nalini. I was told you are my scuba diving instructor…”.

“Yes ma’am… but..”

“Alright let’s get started then. What do I have to do?”

“No… ma’am, actually… um… have you ever gone scuba diving before?”

“No. This is my first time.”, she replied with a mixture of pride and nervousness.

“Oh… then… um… I don’t think it’s a good idea to go diving right now. The sea is still choppy from the rain…”, said Ritu, shielding her eyes with her hand and theatrically looking out to the sea.

“So?”

“So, ma’am, it won’t be very safe for us to go diving right now. We can go tomorrow. The water will be dark right now, and it’ll be hard for us to see underwater. And it smells like its going to rain again.”, she said, vigorously sniffing the air.

The lady thought for a bit and then said, a little uncertainly, “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just go and do it. I want to go diving.”

Ritu stared at her. She had never met someone who was so nervous yet so resolute about something they wanted to do. “Yes ma’am… but it would be unsafe…”

“No, it won’t. We’ll be fine. Let’s just go.”

Ritu was starting to get annoyed now. She hated it when people from the mainland acted as if they knew more about the ways of they sea than she did.

“Let’s just go. I want to get it done with.”

Get it done with?

“Ma’am but…”

“Do you want me to give you a bad review?”

Ritu looked at her, stunned. She didn’t want to get a bad review and mar her perfect record but at the same time she didn’t want to take a risk of that level. She thought for a moment, swallowed hard, and then decided to take the lady to the little lagoon that was usually used to take tourists undersea walking. That’d be safer than the open sea, she thought as she disgruntledly gathered the scuba diving equipment and set off at a vigorous pace towards the lagoon.

“How long have you been scuba diving?”, said the lady conversationally, striving to keep pace with Ritu’s long strides.

Ritu realised that her demeanour could possibly be a tad impolite, and she really didn’t want a bad review, so she slowed down, put on a small smile and replied, “Ever since I was a kid. I’ve grown up swimming and diving in the sea. It’s like my second home. So naturally, I decided to become an instructor”

“Wow… that’s nice.”, said the lady, thoughtfully, seeming to have forgotten about giving Ritu a bad review.

Ritu smiled a little. A slightly awkward silence descended on them as they walked towards the lagoon, their bare feet sinking into the wet sand and unearthing scores of tiny shells.

“I’m here on a solo trip.”, said the lady suddenly. She had clearly been building up to the moment and was nervously excited as she revealed it.

“You’re here alone? Oh, that’s nice. That’s pretty common these days. Many people come here on their own.”

“Many people?”

“Yes.”

“Even women my age?”

“Oh yes! Lots of them. Many of them come here after their retirement for a solo trip. Many even come with their college or school friends. So, yeah there are many women of your age who come here.”

“Oh.”

Ritu looked at her curiously. She seemed to be a little agitated.

They reached the lagoon and Ritu helped the lady slip on the equipment. As she put on her own equipment, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the lady was gingerly toeing the pristine blue-green water and looking somewhat scared.

Ritu shook her head slightly but led her into the shallow waters and started instructing her on the various hand signals used underwater to communicate between themselves, how to use the oxygen tank and so on. As she continued, the lady grew progressively more nervous, and the fear was writ large on her face.

Ritu was used to this – many tourists had a similar reaction – and hence, she droned on.

“Alright. So, I have told you everything that there is to know before diving. Do you have any questions?”

The lady looked at the water and gulped.

“Are there any sharks?”

Ritu almost burst a vein from controlling her laughter. Tourists’ fear of sharks never failed to amuse her.

“No ma’am. Sharks usually don’t swim in such shallow waters.”

“Are you sure…”

“Sometimes they might though.”, added Ritu, as an afterthought. The lady’s inordinate fear amused her, and she decided to have some fun.

The lady looked up at her, alarmed. But Ritu had already pulled on her mask and snorkel to hide her laughter.

“Don’t worry ma’am! They won’t eat you. I’m right here with you.”, said Ritu, reassuringly. “Let’s go now.”

The lady looked even more alarmed. Ritu reached out to hold her hand, “It’ll be fun, ma’am… let’s go.”

“No!”

Ritu looked at her, trying not to show her exasperation. She was the one who had so desperately wanted to go scuba diving.

“Ma’am, I was just joking. There are never any sharks here.”

But the lady was already wading out of the water.

Ritu sighed. She couldn’t even leave the lady alone.

“I feel sick.”

She did look rather green, thought Ritu as she guided her to one of the many gazebos that lined the beach and offered her some coconut water. The lady declined it and looked out to the sea. Ritu sat next to her, not knowing what to do.

The choppy sea waves crashed onto the rocks that lined the other side of the beach, sending spray high into the air. The seagulls called out occasionally. There weren’t many people on the beach.

“I’m scared of water.”, said the lady. “I’ve forgotten how to swim.”

“It’s okay ma’am. You don’t need to know how to swim to go diving.”, said Ritu, putting on her reassuring trainer’s voice. “I’m here to guide you so that you can enjoy this experience of a lifetime…”

“I shouldn’t have said those things while leaving…”, murmured the lady, cutting off Ritu.

Ritu felt slightly uncomfortable. The lady seemed to be on a completely different train of thought.  

“We can go back if you want, ma’am… maybe we can try tomorrow, if you feel up to it?”

“No! No. I can do it.”, said the lady, getting up suddenly and decisively. “I am very much up to it. I can do anything I want.”

“Oh… um… ma’am.. are you okay?”

Nalini turned and looked at Ritu, her eyes filling with tears.

“Ma’am… um.. please sit down… you don’t need to force yourself to go, if you don’t want to…”

Nalini sat down and wiped the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. She took the coconut water from her.

They sat in silence for some time.

“I’m scared of water.”, she repeated. “But I told everyone at home, before leaving that I will go scuba diving. They laughed at me.”

The sea grew slightly calmer. A seagull landed some feet away from them and explored the sand. The two ladies watched him.

“They said I’d be too scared to do it… they were probably right.”

“But I thought you wanted to go scuba diving?”

“Not really. I just wanted to prove them wrong.”, said Nalini, toying with the straw in the coconut. “I’m scared of water.”

Ritu’s interest was piqued but she didn’t want to be too prying. She shamelessly loved indulging in gossip but had been strictly instructed by the hotel agency not to get too invested in tourists’ personal lives. However, she realised that this was an opportunity that was worth ignoring that advice and so, she waited in silence for her to continue.

“I just wanted to do something that they didn’t think me capable of… something unique… something they had written me off as a failure about. So, I chose to do this solo trip. Because they laughed very hard when I said I would travel alone. But here I am!”, said Nalini, with a small, almost victorious smile at the end.

“Here you are…Yes! That’s amazing!”, said Ritu, excitedly forgetting her instructions.

Nalini looked at her with a surprised smile.

“That’s amazing!”, said Ritu, feelingly. “That’s so brave of you!... Why scuba diving though?”

“I told you. I wanted to do something unique. Something they wouldn’t expect someone like me to do. And scuba diving is something that they would never expect me to do. Even the solo trip… something they would never think of someone my age – someone like me doing. Basically, something unique.”

Ritu nodded her head and waited. She was bursting with questions but knew better than to ask.

“But now you’re telling me that there are many people – many women – my age who have already done this… so, its not really unique, is it?”, said Nalini, looking slightly downcast again.

“It doesn’t need to be unique to the world to be unique to you. As long as its unique to you… that’s all that matters.”, said Ritu, matter-of-factly.

“But I thought I was doing something different, something unique, something that no one had done.”

“Doing something different doesn’t necessarily have to mean doing something no one has ever done. It can simply mean something that you have never done. If it is something unique to you then it doesn’t matter whether or not it is unique to the world.”, repeated Ritu, in a thoughtful manner, carefully choosing her words.

Nalini stared into the distance before nodding her head slowly, her lips pursed up.

“Maybe you’re right.”

The day was getting on. A little crab had emerged from the sand and had made its way to Ritu’s leg. She bent down and tried to pick it up, but it scuttled away as suddenly as it had appeared.

“Have you ever gone snorkelling, ma’am?”, she queried, giving up on the crab and looking at Nalini, who was lost in thought.

“No. What’s that?”

“I think you’d like it. It’s not as scary as scuba diving may seem… and you’ll have fun. And it’ll be something unique that you have never done too.”

“But what is it? Does it involve wate… No, wait hold on…!”

But Ritu was already pulling the protesting Nalini along back to the lagoon.

“Ritu… no! Hold on now…!”

“Relax ma’am… you’ll have a lot of fun, I promise you… here… this is how you put on the mask…”. Ritu’s reassuring trainer’s voice was back.

She put on her own mask and firmly grabbing Nalini’s hand, led her into the waters.

Nalini gasped under her mask as Ritu pulled her underwater.

“I can’t breathe”, she indicated, with panicked gestures.

“Breathe.”, instructed Ritu.

The golden sun rays filtered through the clear water and danced on the coral filled seabed. Schools of tiny fish flitted in an out of the large corals. Ritu turned around and watched as Nalini looked around in wonder, forgetting that she was having difficulty breathing. Ritu never tired of seeing the look of amazement on tourists’ faces when they realized that a whole magical world existed once they dipped their head underwater.

She let go of her hand to take out some fish food that she carried with her and Nalini immediately floundered, kicking her feet vigorously. A nearby school of fish swam away, alarmed.

Ritu giggled, sending bubbles through the water, and took hold of her hand again. She scattered some of the food and a shoal of brilliantly coloured fish swept up the food. Nalini hesitantly took some from her and held it out. A rather brave solitary fish swam up to her and plucked it out of her hand. She immediately let go of it and drew her hand back.

She giggled. After a long time. Bubbles shot up through the water.

The sea grew calmer. The sun shone brighter. The seagulls called. It was a beautiful day.