Turtle

A heated day of the month of May did not end up as a usual night at a quiet coast of Odisha. Murmurs of some movements in the sand had sent a secret message through the waves to the sea, which was then muttered to the sky at the horizon hurriedly. And then the night sky just fell onto the sea. The sea seemed clad in silver galaxies and a waxing moon, as they reflected on its surface. The three worlds had come together to weave a rare magic. And as the moon pulled and pushed warm and reassuring waves of reception towards the shore, hundreds of thousands of tiny Olive Ridley Sea Turtles rushed out of their sand cradles and ran towards the sea.

Flocked around by hungry predators on the shore and up until the shallow waters, they had chosen to run this race of survival together at night to increase their chances of making it to the safe seas. Blindfolded in darkness, the lunar lights skimming on the sea were their only clue and rescue. But, the ecological balance of lives dictates that only one out of every thousand sisters could make it to sea.

As soon as she cuts off from the chain of hiding and racing, her haste just dissolves into the deep sea. Riding on massive water currents, she now floats effortlessly in the vastness of boundless space and imperceptible time, from one ocean to another. My picture of divinity lies in the pensive submission of sea turtles to the rhythm and pace of the ocean, which renders her with ageless wisdom and generous longevity. Both gods and devils have trusted just her to hold a long breath of harmony amidst the toil of churning for continuance.

Almost invisible to us for most of her life, she reads through celestial coordinates and carries within her the magnetic imprints of the earth ever since her birth. It is these imprints which would guide her reappearance on the same beach she was born on, to sow into the sand, the seeds of another era of magic that would stitch together the land, the sea and the infinity.