The Singapore Beach

I am on a short visit to spend some time with my daughter in Singapore. Every morning, i go for a walk to the beach near the Bedok jetty. As i approach the beach, i see a large number of ships, big and small, anchored off the beach. In the evenings, the lights of the ships make a beautiful sight.

Walking on the beach is very invigorating. The wet sand, washed intermittently by the waves, is quite firm to walk on. I have read somewhere that while taking a walk, we should avoid concrete paths because, when our feet press the ground while walking, the pressure exerted back by concrete is not good for our knee joints. I find the wet and firm sand of the beach perfectly comfortable to walk on.

The vast expanse of water is very soothing to the eyes. The waves constantly beating the shore is an enjoyable sight. The coconut trees, with their swaying crowns, are very enjoyable to look at too. Once i came across the advertisement of a company inviting applications for the post of CEO. It was accompanied by the picture of a coconut tree. The text of the ad compared the CEO to a coconut tree, firmly rooted in the ground and yet responsive to the slightest breeze.

I also saw a group of sand artists engaged in building a beautiful castle. Castles in the air! Yes, building castles on the sand or in the air has its beneficial effects. It sharpens our imaginative power. I remembered Sudarshan Patnaik, the internationally renowned sand artist from Orissa, who has received many international awards.

I was appalled by the garbage left by some visitors on the beach. I have seen maintenance staff sweeping the beach but some rubbish reappears. This is a contrast to the spic and span city streets.

Walking on the beach reminds me of the poem 'Dover Beach' by Matthew Arnold which I had read in my school days. Its last 2 stanzas were:

The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair.
The Sea of Faith,
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore,
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furied.
But now I only hear,
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath,
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear.
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true,
To one another for the world which seems,
To lie before us like a land of dreams.
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help, nor pain,
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and fight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Once, walking on the beach, i rescued a sea-animal. Like turtles, it had a hard shell, in fact two shells, one behind the other. It had literally 'turned turtle', lying on its back. No part of it was moving. So i took it for dead and, playfully prodded it a little with my foot. Lo and behold! It turned over and started crawling! But it was crawling away from the water. With a little more gentle prodding, i turned it back towards the sea. It crawled on and on and finally gleefully entered the water. I happily looked at it till it moved further and further into the sea and disappeared.

Watching sunrise on the Singapore beach is a heavenly experience. At first the sun appears as a round reddish-coloured plate behind the thin mist in the horizon just over the sea. Then slowly, it rises as a fire-ball and the first rays are reflected on the water in a glorious and golden hue. Sunrise is a daily event everywhere but why do we not get tired of its beauty? The following lines from two poems come to my mind:

'One never gets tired of the enjoyment of beauty;
It looks new no matter how many times you look at it.'

'A thing of beauty is a joy forever.'