Me and the Tsunami

Prelude: This is a short story I wrote for "Telling tall tales" competition in TCS Delhi. The rule was that it should be an exaggerated, funny, partly real experience kind of story. And I wrote this story in just 25 minutes and sent for competition just one minute before the entry was closed. The beauty is that I was in a Tele-conference call while writing the story ;)

Story starts here...

It was fine July evening. I was riding in my bike along the Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai. My ears were filled with AR.Rehman's music flowing through the Philips headphone. The Motorokr E8 was serving its purpose by providing a good music at the best quality.

Suddenly the clouds were turning dark and it seemed to rain. I had no idea to return to my home and neither my friend at pillion. When we entered the East Coast Road beach, it started drizzle. We bought ice creams and started walking towards the Bay of Bengal. The ice cream was so cold that we spoke gibberish for atleast half an hour. It took 30 minutes to taste the salt water of the sea.

While we were swimming in the sea, the rain began dorpping heavily. It almost flooded the area. We couldn't see the difference between the sea and the coast. Sea had salt water and in Coast it was rain water. It seemed we were trapped in an island surrounded by water. But we were playing not realising this danger around us.

We were trying to play volley ball in water. But mostly it was football when we were lofted away to the coast. We swam in the sea and came back again. Most of the time the ball was above our heads as the waves carried them very high. when we threw the ball it came to us with force defeating the Newton's law. The waves started coming higher and higher that we could see the big fishes and turtles besides our legs.

When I tried to hit the ball once, it almost bit my leg. then only I realized that it was a Crab and not the football. I had hit its claws or whatsoever so hard that my blood came out oozing very fast. In next five minutes, I was about to lose my consciousness. I tried to swim to the coast along but never could reach it. I tried to search where my bike was parked but it was silently floating few kilometres inside the sea. I was shocked and started realizing the situation.

I shouted at my friend "Tsunami". He could barely hear me as very strong wind started blowing then. I could see smalls birds falling in the sea as if they were shot dead. They were unable to fly against the wind and fell down tired. My adrenaline rush increased more and I was able to hear my heart pounding clearly. Suddenly my friend disappeared into the sea and never came out. I was so terrified and my face was turning blue. I was not sure if it was because of the crab bite (?!).

The Ice cream vendor was swimming near to me and his vehicle has already joined the parking area with my bike in the sea. Of course, the parking fees is free in the sea. Nearly after 10 minutes of hard swimming I could see a bit of land and step my foot on it. It was a the roof top of the nearby ECR farm house. I had envied it for a long time. Right now that house was under my feet. What a twist of fate.

The cars, Buses in ECR and started moving to the parking area. I tried to swim through them and reach my room. By the time, I reached my apartment top and landed there the rain had stopped and flood had drained much of its contents including uses, Cars, Bulldozers into the sea. That was the first time I saw all vehicles parked in an order yet still floating. Oh! this might be the Nature's Order and the so called Power of Nature.

Suddenly Sun came out of the clouds no where and spread its full rays. I could feel the heat on my eyelids inspite of closing it. I let my hands be the umbrella to my eyes and opened it a bit. It was a bright Sunday morning and my friend sleeping nearby whispered few words in my ears, "Hey Buddy, wake up! We have to go to ECR beach this evening".