The Sea Comes Home

By Veena Adige

Three-year-old Pinky had come to Mumbai from Nagpur for a holiday at her grandparents’ house. She was enjoying the visit when one day, they decided to go to the beach.

Pinky’s grandparents took her to Juhu beach, where Pinky played in the sand, making sand castles, sand laddoos and many other things. There was sand all over her-her hands, feet, face and even in her hair.

After a little while, the tide started coming in, and the seawater came near her.

‘Oh, the water will wash away my castle,’ she cried.

Her grandparents then took her near the water and made her stand. When the receding waters carried the sand beneath her feet, and she felt she was slipping, her grandparents held her by her hands and allowed only her feet just touching the seawater.

‘Lovely,’ said Pinky, making her grandparents swing her like that for quite some time.

‘It is getting dark, and we have to go home,’ they said.

Pinky had enjoyed it so much that she asked them to take her another time. This time she wanted her feet to touch the water and again, her grandparents obliged and swung her in the water.

Pinky’s parents came and took her back to Nagpur as her vacation was over and school was starting. Here she missed the sea very much.

‘Mummy, I want to feel the water on my feet. Please swing me in the sea.’

Her mother did not know what to do. There is no sea in Nagpur.

Mummy tried to tell her that, but Pinky was adamant. She wanted to feel the sea on her feet.

Every day she asked her parents and started crying because she missed the sea.

One day, Pinky’s mother filled the bathtub with water.

‘Come Pinky, see, here is your sea’, she said.

And Mummy lifted her high and allowed her to play in the water without touching the bottom. Mummy held her, and she gleefully played in the water, splashing and laughing.

Finally, Pinky had found the sea in her own bathroom and did not need to go to Mumbai for it!!!

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