By telling us your country of residence we are able to provide you with the most relevant travel insurance information.
Please note that not all content is translated or available to residents of all countries. Contact us for full details.
Shares
We finally took a trip. It is no easy feat to bring out 6 working cousins with the common gene to disagree, to sync up their calendar and embark on a journey of 680km to Gokarna. I bid adieu to the two tiny turtles in my room and went over the details with my mother for the umpteenth time about the routine to follow- switch on the UV light, give the turtle food, remove the uneaten food, clean the water every day (the water filter was yet to be delivered) and turn off the light after 6 hours. I was reminded that she did manage to raise a human and could keep Squirtle and Blastoise alive, till I return. The journey consisted of long winding highways, Bollywood music and shady restaurants. We traversed through rustic villages with huts made of red soil and reached our destination. Waving to the school children rushing off to their school of 4 rooms, we parked the car where the road ended, slung our backpacks and started toward the smell of the sea. We had been to another beach on the same coast a few years earlier during off-season and found ourselves as the only family ruling over the whole beach. I was looking forward to the secludedness and peace during our current stay. But alas! The beach was bustling with people, with half of them with skin tone not possible in our tropic India. Having being raised in a controlled environment I was only ever with the trusty shade of Brown and had only ever seen such contrasting colors on screen. I was amazed by what lay before my eyes. Early the next morning, I went for a run and saw some folks sweating it out by the salty waters. Nearby, an Asian was teaching intricate Yoga poses to a British lady. Smiling, I continued my run and saw something stand out in the clear waters. There in the sand lay the greenest and shiniest turtle I ever laid eyes upon. My first thought was how cool it would be to get my turtles a playmate. My second thought was of the late-night documentary that put the survival statistic of baby turtles in the ocean on a very low level. I would save the turtle, I thought and leapt, but the little one started digging itself into the sand and popped up a few steps away. I was determined to get ahold of the guy and started chasing it. This sequence went on for quite a while until I was reached the end of the walkable beachside. Dejectedly, I gave up on the endeavor. I was starting to feel hungry and I stopped to stretch my body to give a break from all that slouching and started my way back. The sun was shining now and people had started filing in. The scene reminded me of looking inside a kaleidoscope. I saw a fit and handsome guy in his late fifties just chilling and playing with his very young son. An Indian couple, the woman wore a customary choora, giggling about on their honeymoon, I could make out that they were younger than me. I saw a man shouting to his teen kid to come back from the water that was just reaching his belly. On the other hand, a tall Russian woman equipped her year-old baby with a float tube and took on the deeper waves. I even saw an American walking along the shore with a jap mala(rosary). That night as my cousins took to foreign liquor and bonfire while I snuck away with a blanket to lay on the beach. As I lay there breathing the fresh sea air and enjoying some quiet, my thoughts returned to the little one that got away and how great it would be to protect the turtle from all the dangers of the world. Suddenly the power went out and all the hotels lost their light and I saw the stars, I saw them twinkling with such intensity that I was afraid to blink. And I knew, the turtle was in his world and I was in mine which I still have to explore.