The Lighthouse- By Arathi Menon

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The Lighthouse

It was a fine, sunny morning, if you would call ’11 ‘o’ clock’ morning. Yeah, that’s the time when I usually wake up, during the holidays. But today, I had planned to sleep for some more time, but then, Amma woke me up.

“Amma, it’s a holiday”

“But Ravi, holidays are not meant to be spent sleeping. Get up now!”

“Let him sleep, Aunty“ I heard Maya say “My uncle had actually planned to take both of us to the lighthouse. But if Ravi insists on sleeping…….”

I sprang up. “Are we actually going to the lighthouse?”

“But you don’t want to. Now go to sleep!”

“Of course I do! Amma, are my clothes kept ready?”

“Mone, get them yourself. I’ll prepare breakfast”

I leaped into my clothes and ate my sandwiches with haste.

“Will you be here for lunch?”

“Most probably, not. My uncle promised to take us out for lunch”

Then Maya and I bid Amma goodbye and hasted towards the car. Maya’s uncle was waiting for us.

The lighthouse had always fascinated me when I was young. Some nights, when Maya and I do ‘sky watching’ a ray of light would emerge from the lighthouse. We used to have a fancy that it was a signal from extraterrestrial beings, a way of greeting the earthlings. Then we grew up, got enough sense to understand its source. But in us, remained a longing to know more about this light and to know how it would feel being in its source.

We ate our lunch from a restaurant. It was a vegetarian dish with a weird name and all I know of it was that it must have got sweated off on the way to the top of the lighthouse.

“My uncle says that he could see paradise up there” said Maya.

“But we could see it only after we die, isn’t it?”

“No, we wouldn’t need to die for it”

Finally, we reached it. It was a magnificent tower of red brick. Maya’s uncle explained to us the history of the lighthouse and how it would guide ships to the harbor. Then we insisted on climbing to the top of the lighthouse.

               Soon, we found out that we had to climb a high flight of winding stairs. The very sight of it got us exhausted. Maya’s uncle noted our expressions.

“How else do you think we’d go up? By an elevator?”

Then we held up our spirits and started climbing. After about fifteen minutes, Maya and I found ourselves panting, while her uncle sped past us.

“How does he do that?” I asked her “Is this how he stays fit?”

“Perhaps” she said “Don’t you feel thirsty?”

“Of course I do. In fact, I have some water with me”

“Oh, thank you! Let’s sit down for a while”

We took some rest and got to climbing again. We took some intervals between the climbing, and then we were so tired that we thought all the energy in us was drained, we found that our food supplies were over. But still, the strain seemed endless.

“Well, Ravi” said Maya, sitting down “Now that we have no supplies left, should we consider………….”

“Never!” I exclaimed “Well…. Perhaps. But your uncle would be waiting for us, right?”

“I guess he expected. He even told me that he wasn’t sure about us, getting to the top of the lighthouse. But if we climb again…. It’s okay for you, having a store of lipid, but me, I may faint, or even, dissolve!”

We reclined for a while. I thought as I looked up and down the winding stairs. The way upward seemed endless, and would have definitely given us too much of strain, enough to keep us in our beds for at least two days, but to climb down, would make us more than tired.

“I say, let’s have a race”

“Oh Ravi….”

“A race, up the stairs. Just for this once, please?”

“Okay fine!”

We used up all our remaining energy and pushed ourselves for a few more steps. Maya, as usual was ahead of me and then, at a point;

“Ravi! Look!”

I caught up with her, dragging my legs. And then, I saw her pointing at a faint ray of light.

           Then we climbed, or literally, crawled up the stairs. Our path grew brighter and brighter and we felt the breeze wiping our sweat. After the last relieving step, was one of the most memorable moments of my life. There was wind, blowing on our faces and through our hair, and the evening sky in the most loveliest shade of blue.

“It is for this, that I come here” said Maya’s uncle, patting my back “This is paradise!”

“I thought I’d see the other end of the sea” said Maya, smiling.

“You may, perhaps” said her uncle “When you go higher”

My happiness had camouflaged my hunger, but still, I helped myself with a dozen sandwiches, which were kept in store for us. Then the lamp of the lighthouse was lit. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and looked at my palm. The salty liquid now looked like diamonds to me.

                              Later, we climbed down the lighthouse, but with memories of a fulfilled wish.