Exhausted though he was, he was determined that he could not possibly allow Death to claim him, despite the severe cyclone attempting otherwise. Not after the pains he had gone to for the past few months.
Yesudass, or Yesu had had a fairly good and laid back life, born as he was into a fishing community in the Katupally village, north of Chennai. Long days spent out at sea with friends, and longer nights spent at the local liquor shop with even more friends had pretty much defined Yesu's life since he had started working- that too had happened early due to the advancing years of his parents who had conceived Yesu more as an afterthought quite late in life.
Most of the trouble had begun when he had gotten married to Nina, one of the most beautiful and sought after maidens in his village. His parents were almost senile, and it was his mother's wish that he marry before they were to completely lose their senses as it would facilitate a peaceful and regret free demise.
Nina, being the headman's daughter, was entitled to a grand wedding- and a grand wedding it was! The labourers from the neighbouring ship yard under construction were drawn irresistibly to witness the spectacle.
The "first night" as it is known was to take place that very night and Yesu was literally bursting with excitement and anticipation! He had seen a pornographic video once and it had vividly remained in his memory. He could barely wait to live the very dream that had consumed his nights leading up to the wedding.
Little did he know that an earthquake had occurred in Indonesia creating near panic among the local officials who immediately issued a warning against the possibility of a tsunami similar to the massive one that had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in 2004.
Yesu gently made the beautiful and shy Nina sit on his lap, nuzzled her neck and held her tightly. Just as he was ready to kiss her tender lips, there was a loud knock on the door. Ignoring it, Yesu started disrobing Nina who protested due to the incessant knocking on the door.
A very grumpy and irritated Yesu could only frown as his friends kept asking him for intimate details of his "first night" as they sat together in the local school which had been turned into an ad hoc shelter. The tsunami had not happened at all and Yesu was livid with the police inspector who had very dutifully evacuated the village just as Yesu had begun to live the fantasy that had consumed his mind for months.
He was a literal nervous wreck by the time the sun had set and Nina and Yesu found themselves alone in their bedroom once again. But this time, Nina fended off every attempt made by Yesu to get close to her!
"I think it is a sign from God that we aren't ready for this yet", stuttered Nina. "We should probably just go to sleep now."
Yesu's mind could very easily have been diagnosed as that of a demented and delusional person's by the end of the first week. His friends who had also got to know of the facts could not keep from guffawing in his presence. Soon the whole village got to know of Yesu and Nina's predicament and the local temple priest called on them with very sound advice.
"It had been a threat issued by the God of the ocean that had interrupted the nuptial communion. So it logically follows that you two should begin to sleep within the same room only when there is a sign from the Lord of the waves that all is well. Nina, I command you to not allow Yesu into your bedroom until he is able to capture a large fish!" said the priest gesturing with his arms nearly a meter apart.
"But that is impossible! You know what rotten luck I have at fishing! Are you doing this to take revenge for the time when I made fun of your fake predictions and astrology?" cried out a deeply perturbed Yesu.
But Nina had taken the God man's advice seriously leaving Yesu only one way out of their predicament. With a new found energy and zeal, he would awake hours before daybreak and set out in his fiber glass catamaran. He would rove the seas looking very much like the captain Ahab chasing Moby-Dick.
Day after day, he would return with the usual catch of small fish. He would silently spread his bedsheet on the pyol of his house and promptly fall asleep due to the exhausting work. Days congealed into weeks which very quickly turned into months. Yesu and Nina had not had a physical relationship as yet, and both of them were getting frustrated, Yesu more than Nina. They had bought in to the God man's story too deeply to realise that the dredging being done within the ship yard under construction next to their village had muddied all the waters and scared away the fish.
Come November, the whole village motored their boats out of their berths in the sea into the safer backwaters, as it was cyclone season. Yesu however, continued to fish in the sea with single minded determination. His friends tried pleading with him at first and then with the God man to change his definition of a "large" fish, but to no avail.
The day when the Fishing board sent a vehicle with the loudspeakers blaring out a "Cyclone Warning" was when Yesu had reached his breaking point. He was sure that if his luck were not to change soon, he would definitely lose his mind permanently.
He silently slunk away when his friends who had come to keep a watch on him had been sufficiently distracted by alcohol induced intoxication.
To say that the sea was rough would be a huge understatement, as huge an understatement as calling the sun a 100 watt bulb, or the planet Jupiter a mere pebble floating in space. Of course, scale does matter, and if you are a giant organism, many hundred times the size of humans, then the waves in the sea on that day would have seemed like ripples. As far as Yesu was concerned though, the wind and the waves were DEADLY!
But in his delusional state, Yesu was convinced that this was nothing but another taunt from the Lord of the Ocean. Barely had he launched his boat a few meters into the roiling waters when a huge wave bodily lifted him and his catamaran and flung it across at the rocks that had been piled along the breakwater of the shipyard under construction. His boat got wedged between the boulders and Yesu was lying in it in a semi-conscious state. The heavy rain poured, poured and poured until it seemed that all the air in the atmosphere had been replaced with water. The wind blew with such force and venom as if to reassert its presence. The huge droplets whipped around by the wind hit Yesu's face with lashing force.
Yesu groggily looked around at the sea as the waves broke onto the breakwater from both sides. In the distance, towards the sea side end of the breakwater, Yesu thought he had seen a boulder standing as tall as him being rolled by the huge waves. He held out a single fist and spat out an angry curse at the Sea God, only to be hit by a wave that had managed to sweep onto the high breakwater. As he tumbled and rolled along with the wave, he saw in the brown, foamy and turbulent waters a huge black shape with fins and a tail. It was as big as a motorcar and Yesu was sure that it was the hugest fish that humanity had ever laid eyes upon. He latched onto the barnacles growing on the underbelly of the large marine creature that feebly thrashed as it was deposited onto the breakwater. He lied down beside it and fell unconscious.
The storm had passed, and the following day had dawned with a brilliant and azure blue sky. The news channels were the first to arrive onto the breakwater, followed by the villagers and last but not least, the police and paramedics.
Yesu had been revived by one of the paramedics who very readily allowed the television journalists to interview the man who had captured a baby humpback whale with his bare hands! The glucose shot in his arm had managed to bring him to his senses and the saline drip gave him sufficient strength to begin to comprehend the happenings over the last twenty four hours.
The whale carcass was still lying where he had lain along with it.
"How are you feeling right now Yesu?" cried out a hyperventilating reporter who seemed obsessed about reminding the viewers that her news channel had been the first on the spot.
"I really caught a big fish didn't I?" cried out Yesu in Tamil.
"Heh heh, the humpback whale is actually a mammal, a warm blooded creature very much like you and me, it is not exactly a fish, but Yesu here, the amazing fisherman who had lain unconscious and had been protected by the carcass of the whale is fortunate enough to have survived this amazing ordeal, I don't think he would be worrying very much about the distinction between fishes and marine mammals." said the reporter into her mic in one breathless sentence. It was all said in English though, and was lost on Yesu.
That night was the beginning of an extremely satisfactory and a joyous married life for Yesudass and Nina.
Yesudass, or Yesu had had a fairly good and laid back life, born as he was into a fishing community in the Katupally village, north of Chennai. Long days spent out at sea with friends, and longer nights spent at the local liquor shop with even more friends had pretty much defined Yesu's life since he had started working- that too had happened early due to the advancing years of his parents who had conceived Yesu more as an afterthought quite late in life.
Most of the trouble had begun when he had gotten married to Nina, one of the most beautiful and sought after maidens in his village. His parents were almost senile, and it was his mother's wish that he marry before they were to completely lose their senses as it would facilitate a peaceful and regret free demise.
Nina, being the headman's daughter, was entitled to a grand wedding- and a grand wedding it was! The labourers from the neighbouring ship yard under construction were drawn irresistibly to witness the spectacle.
The "first night" as it is known was to take place that very night and Yesu was literally bursting with excitement and anticipation! He had seen a pornographic video once and it had vividly remained in his memory. He could barely wait to live the very dream that had consumed his nights leading up to the wedding.
Little did he know that an earthquake had occurred in Indonesia creating near panic among the local officials who immediately issued a warning against the possibility of a tsunami similar to the massive one that had claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in 2004.
Yesu gently made the beautiful and shy Nina sit on his lap, nuzzled her neck and held her tightly. Just as he was ready to kiss her tender lips, there was a loud knock on the door. Ignoring it, Yesu started disrobing Nina who protested due to the incessant knocking on the door.
A very grumpy and irritated Yesu could only frown as his friends kept asking him for intimate details of his "first night" as they sat together in the local school which had been turned into an ad hoc shelter. The tsunami had not happened at all and Yesu was livid with the police inspector who had very dutifully evacuated the village just as Yesu had begun to live the fantasy that had consumed his mind for months.
He was a literal nervous wreck by the time the sun had set and Nina and Yesu found themselves alone in their bedroom once again. But this time, Nina fended off every attempt made by Yesu to get close to her!
"I think it is a sign from God that we aren't ready for this yet", stuttered Nina. "We should probably just go to sleep now."
Yesu's mind could very easily have been diagnosed as that of a demented and delusional person's by the end of the first week. His friends who had also got to know of the facts could not keep from guffawing in his presence. Soon the whole village got to know of Yesu and Nina's predicament and the local temple priest called on them with very sound advice.
"It had been a threat issued by the God of the ocean that had interrupted the nuptial communion. So it logically follows that you two should begin to sleep within the same room only when there is a sign from the Lord of the waves that all is well. Nina, I command you to not allow Yesu into your bedroom until he is able to capture a large fish!" said the priest gesturing with his arms nearly a meter apart.
"But that is impossible! You know what rotten luck I have at fishing! Are you doing this to take revenge for the time when I made fun of your fake predictions and astrology?" cried out a deeply perturbed Yesu.
But Nina had taken the God man's advice seriously leaving Yesu only one way out of their predicament. With a new found energy and zeal, he would awake hours before daybreak and set out in his fiber glass catamaran. He would rove the seas looking very much like the captain Ahab chasing Moby-Dick.
Day after day, he would return with the usual catch of small fish. He would silently spread his bedsheet on the pyol of his house and promptly fall asleep due to the exhausting work. Days congealed into weeks which very quickly turned into months. Yesu and Nina had not had a physical relationship as yet, and both of them were getting frustrated, Yesu more than Nina. They had bought in to the God man's story too deeply to realise that the dredging being done within the ship yard under construction next to their village had muddied all the waters and scared away the fish.
Come November, the whole village motored their boats out of their berths in the sea into the safer backwaters, as it was cyclone season. Yesu however, continued to fish in the sea with single minded determination. His friends tried pleading with him at first and then with the God man to change his definition of a "large" fish, but to no avail.
The day when the Fishing board sent a vehicle with the loudspeakers blaring out a "Cyclone Warning" was when Yesu had reached his breaking point. He was sure that if his luck were not to change soon, he would definitely lose his mind permanently.
He silently slunk away when his friends who had come to keep a watch on him had been sufficiently distracted by alcohol induced intoxication.
To say that the sea was rough would be a huge understatement, as huge an understatement as calling the sun a 100 watt bulb, or the planet Jupiter a mere pebble floating in space. Of course, scale does matter, and if you are a giant organism, many hundred times the size of humans, then the waves in the sea on that day would have seemed like ripples. As far as Yesu was concerned though, the wind and the waves were DEADLY!
But in his delusional state, Yesu was convinced that this was nothing but another taunt from the Lord of the Ocean. Barely had he launched his boat a few meters into the roiling waters when a huge wave bodily lifted him and his catamaran and flung it across at the rocks that had been piled along the breakwater of the shipyard under construction. His boat got wedged between the boulders and Yesu was lying in it in a semi-conscious state. The heavy rain poured, poured and poured until it seemed that all the air in the atmosphere had been replaced with water. The wind blew with such force and venom as if to reassert its presence. The huge droplets whipped around by the wind hit Yesu's face with lashing force.
Yesu groggily looked around at the sea as the waves broke onto the breakwater from both sides. In the distance, towards the sea side end of the breakwater, Yesu thought he had seen a boulder standing as tall as him being rolled by the huge waves. He held out a single fist and spat out an angry curse at the Sea God, only to be hit by a wave that had managed to sweep onto the high breakwater. As he tumbled and rolled along with the wave, he saw in the brown, foamy and turbulent waters a huge black shape with fins and a tail. It was as big as a motorcar and Yesu was sure that it was the hugest fish that humanity had ever laid eyes upon. He latched onto the barnacles growing on the underbelly of the large marine creature that feebly thrashed as it was deposited onto the breakwater. He lied down beside it and fell unconscious.
The storm had passed, and the following day had dawned with a brilliant and azure blue sky. The news channels were the first to arrive onto the breakwater, followed by the villagers and last but not least, the police and paramedics.
Yesu had been revived by one of the paramedics who very readily allowed the television journalists to interview the man who had captured a baby humpback whale with his bare hands! The glucose shot in his arm had managed to bring him to his senses and the saline drip gave him sufficient strength to begin to comprehend the happenings over the last twenty four hours.
The whale carcass was still lying where he had lain along with it.
"How are you feeling right now Yesu?" cried out a hyperventilating reporter who seemed obsessed about reminding the viewers that her news channel had been the first on the spot.
"I really caught a big fish didn't I?" cried out Yesu in Tamil.
"Heh heh, the humpback whale is actually a mammal, a warm blooded creature very much like you and me, it is not exactly a fish, but Yesu here, the amazing fisherman who had lain unconscious and had been protected by the carcass of the whale is fortunate enough to have survived this amazing ordeal, I don't think he would be worrying very much about the distinction between fishes and marine mammals." said the reporter into her mic in one breathless sentence. It was all said in English though, and was lost on Yesu.
That night was the beginning of an extremely satisfactory and a joyous married life for Yesudass and Nina.
3 comments:
i sppose this katupally is a more sensible version of ur Katpadi.."seriyana katpadi da nee" remember??
ooooh! shivers me timbers! i like
Someone should direct a humorous short film using this as a script
And upload it to YouTube too :)
Soopper entertainment
Post a Comment