Daily dose of chai, sipping slowly
I slip through the blanket
And squint
at the sunlight trickling in
through the blinds.
I hear the sea before I see it.
Pushing away a branch poking in the ribs,
I pass a few logs; scattered
on my way to reach the shore.
Sand, greets me first, the tourists later.
A man asks
if I wish to ride a boat,
“Banana boat- top class” he clarifies with an air of pride.
I shake my head.
He understands the ‘no’
and moves to another tourist.
“Banana bo-”
I hear him from a few paces ahead.
I suppress a laugh escaping my lips.
Yet another tourist somersaults in the water,
his friends chase him to the first wave.
An older man braces
for the approaching wave, the biggest
“It is the seventh wave” the boatman clarifies.
I agree.
The sea makes me more agreeable,
more than I would like to accept.
The boatman is happy with my agreement.
‘How much for the banana boat ride?’ I ask.
Gandhali Sawant is a Mumbai, India- based poet, with a passion for children’s literature and science fiction. Her poems have appeared in ‘Love As We Know It’ an anthology of poetry by Poem Pajama and ‘Masques’ by CultureCult Press. She is currently pursuing Doctoral Research from the Department of English, University of Mumbai
