If I could point out a place that could help you experience that quote, nine times out of ten I would tell you, “Come to National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka. One of the few colleges in the country to have a beach in its backyard. To every outsider, the beach is the biggest attraction in this college. Freshers visit the sea before anywhere else. Once inside though, students don’t mention the word beach for months at end—yet given any chance to talk about their college they will flaunt the private beach.
The NIT-K beach to me is the perfect example of our never-ending longing for something more. As time goes on in our short stay in this college, visits to the beach get less and less frequent. Most of us love the beach, there is no doubt about it. We have spent countless hours on some days watching the sun set and the tides rise. However, I have heard many comment on how the beach isn’t the same after the first few months. Some take a run in the morning to the beach gate, enjoy the scenery for a quick moment and then run back to their routines. The beach becomes an embellishment to boast about.
Time and tide wait for none….
Cast your mind back to the first time you played in the sea. The cold, foamy water slides past your feet as the rocks soften the incoming waves. The fresh breeze provides respite to the intense heat and the soothing sound of the water numbs all the surrounding noise. The water recedes leaving your feet sunk in the soft mud. I love that feeling. Everything was forgotten in anticipation of the next wave, hoping its bigger but not big enough to wet my clothes. That wait for the waves always reminds me of how we want the next endeavour to be bigger and better—but not impossible to handle. Everything was forgotten in front of the sight of the crimson sun falling behind the horizons and the crimson waters shining under it. The sun would get lost in the clouds, the sunset would not be picture perfect but still everything seemed perfect. Now, I wonder if I have ever looked that at the seemingly imperfect things of my life and tried to extract some happiness out of them. Rarely have I gone to the beach and come back disappointed.
But, if I turn around to face the college buildings, the scene is in stark contrast. All the activities and clubs, students running around from one commitment to another, the hustle bustle of student life. No one seems to have the time to slow down; they keep rushing past, deadline after deadline. They run short on time and almost always are late for everything. I have never seen an event in NIT-K—except classes of course—happen on time. However, there seems to be no such hurry on the beach. I haven’t yet seen a person saying, “Hurry up, time to go inside.” I always wonder what is it that changes within a few hundred metres.
Time and tide don’t wait but people certainly can....
They can take a minute to witness the luxury they possess. This luxury does become a decoration as time passes on, but somewhere deep down we want to always experience life the way we are at the beach. As we traverse the vagaries of life, to try and control time with our bare hands, we eagerly wait for the sun to just dip below the horizon, just to capture the perfect Instagram photo. The sun rises and falls again the next day and yet we go to see it like there is no tomorrow. We inherently look for a unique sunset every time we see it; we know we have only a short time to witness it. We grab that opportunity and pay utmost attention even though, it is repetitive. I sometimes think whether we could give that kind of attention to all the events in our life. I also suppose it has become my obsession to turn every experience into a metaphor for life. But every time I take a walk on the beach, I am left wondering, what if life felt like how those waters felt on my feet?
My best experiences of college life have come on the beach. My friends and I have sat on the sands looking at the stars in the evening after we wrote our last exams, for hours reminiscing about the best parts of the semester. We have played many games on the beach and in the waters, shared many laughs and stories.
I am guilty about forgetting about the beach for months and I am also guilty about spending countless hours on a stretch on it. I have got fresh perspectives every time I took a walk by the sea. Sitting in my cold home now, I want to get my feet muddy and my legs wet with the salty water of NIT-K beach, feel the freedom of seeing the endless expanse of blue water, feel that calmness and peace that I have become so acquainted to.
Ah! But, I suppose it is hard to stop the flow of time and tide after all!