XXXII The Ocean Promenade

Danny smiled to himself, he was back at his New York flat driving from Boston, he was sitting out watching the seagulls and sipping coffee as his mind brought back memories of that nightmare Sunday when he had fallen into the well that was a part of their apartment blocks’ backyard he was amused that he could see almost every person detail so vividly, even the way the older boys managed to take him out of the well, the commotion as they managed to step out of the well with him on their shoulders and then eventually 4-6 boys carrying him like a log and one of them asking where the hell’s this kids house? And just then Bobby who was transfixed to the spot shouting to them that he knew, someone wanted to know if Danny was alive? Danny was the one who shouted back saying “Yes! I am ! I am Alive!”. 

Soon the posse reached Danny’s house where they saw my father’s friend Arvind, wearing his customary stoll, kurta and jeans opening the door with a look of agitation, Daniel’s parents Mohan and Sarsu too rushed in, he noticed the look of shock had drained the blood out of their face, Stella, Daniel’s sister too came out of the kitchen were she was helping out Sarsu, the older boys who were carrying Daniel quickly explained what had happened, Dan’s mom noticed that he had his eyes open and then tried speaking to him Dan wanted to assure them all that he was alright but the sounds around were so cacophonic he just gave up that attempt and soon passed out.

Reflecting on the incident the adult Dan now sitting outside his 12^th floor, Brooklyn, New York, apartment, Ocean Promenade, was wondering as to why and how this memory from the deep side of his childhood had suddenly cropped up - now - into his head, why now? He muttered? What’s the significance ? he continued muttering as he noticed a group of gulls making out some truly amazing manoeuvres over silvery blue waters of the ocean that looked more like a floating city of Noah from the book of Genesis with the boats and yachts bobbing up and down, forward and backward or creating patterns on the water as they sailed, Why now? Dan wondered. But he couldn't any immediate answers. 

But the one thing that Dan knew about the incident is how later on in his life he had come to use the incident, the old water well increasingly came to symbolise to Dan his country India, the decadent wall, the shallowness of the water, the rusty pump, the toads, the mud, the slush, the frenzied crowds, everything about the old water well eventually came to represent India.    

New York was bright and sunny, the radio from Dan’s drawing room was playing a Reo Speedwagon song, he liked the group, Dan placed his coffee mug on the coffee table and then walked to pick up his guitar and then walked back to the balcony, he sat down and started strumming and singing, there was a woman at the far end of the apartment block also standing out on her balcony and looking down in Danny’s direction, Danny chose to sing Dan Fogelberg wasn’t really focussed in doing justice, he was strumming and almost shouting out the song, generally getting into the rhythm, the New York sky looked brilliant in its blue and white spread, the nimbus clouds especially had turned out wearing their best shapes, it was windy and the world outside seemed giggling and laughing and honking their way through the day.  

Danny knew he had a long day ahead, he was hoping to utilise the free time in hand to start on his musical based on Shelley's Prometheus Unbound , he smiled to himself as he thought about the way the musical would end up when it was combined with a byronesque undertone, "will turn out to be whacky" he muttered to himself and smiled even broader as his mind ticked off the other things he had to finish for the day, he had to file his reports, and had to book to his tickets to Bolivia and maybe drive down to the office for a meeting, his trip to Bolivia was to unearth the truth of the situation emerging in that part of the world, there were rumours of a conflict brewing in the country, Danny wondered why was it that it was always the older parts of the world that had seen civilisation for thousands of years that were perennially in conflict? And why was it that the newer parts that were hardly 200 -300 odd years old that were comparatively at peace, is it that the older a civilisation the more bitter its differences ? the more sharp its divide? What has age got to do with conflicts? Dan was an International Political and Economic Affairs Correspondent currently engaged with Reuters. He was actually a ‘Conflict Zone’ political analyst and specialist who loved covering news and events from the most dangerous parts of the world - Bosnia, Serbia, Rwanda, Palestine, Ecuador, Afghanistan - he had done them all, he was considered a rare talent in the field of International Journalism and had even been awarded as a young and emerging International Journalist by an International group of Journalists specialised in War zone journalism.

He had started off as a freelancer more to fund his days spent roaming the world, often accompanied by Bobby, so they would deliberately choose to travel to these troubled areas, grab some pictures, write some notes and send them across to some of his friends working for the Times London or the New York Times, they would then help him sell the pictures and wire him back some money. But soon what started as a casual effort at survival became Daniel’s profession. While Bobby ended up working for the UNPKF. And he was now able to live off it, quite comfortably, even if it meant he had to tread some of the worst known parts of the world, and that too at short notice, and without much of a cover or security back up – like the politicians loved to travel - for him it was a passion and risking his life to unearth the essence of a conflict is something he had come to enjoy from his childhood, from the days he fell into the well, so it didn’t really matter.       

Dan stood up and leaned on his balcony wall and kept strumming and singing, he was wearing a thin cotton cargo short and a thin , almost transparent, loose floral print shirt that was flapping wild because of the wind, his unwashed hair was also being hurled on all sides because of the wind, he occasionally kept looking at the figure from the other side of the block who was still looking in his direction and then looked out at the sprawled out ocean, everything seemed fine in life.  

The mobile phone was ringing. Dan was too immersed and so couldn’t hear for a while but when the ring persisted the sound managed to reach him and then he stepped in to pick it up – he turned it around to check the ID of the caller – It was Annie, from the other side of the Atlantic, or had she returned? he had read news about the weather at London. Wasn't very good. the Thames was overflowing, some parts of London were reported to be flooded, London was experiencing its worst weather in a century. 

Daniel flicked the answer key right on his Samsung and then said Hello? Annie ?