Passions Of Learning // Camren (Converted)

3/4

It is twilight. Camila is at the dining table. They are having coffee. Her father asks her how it’s all going. Whether she has made any headway in learning to speak and write English. Camila is happy and she tells him she has made progress in leaps and bounds and when she speaks she runs her fingers through her hair like Lauren. Her father notices the change in her; she’s happy and motivated to learn and has now become more confident with this language. He turns to the news channel. Camila picks up a steel glass tumbler and looks at her reflection. Her face is out of form in the concave image. But she likes her image and herself.

“You have only a few days more.” says her father. “I am trying to put you in St. Marcellina. I have spoken to some people. So see that you converse well and fluently in English when you are called for an interview.”

Camila's heart is like a song. Outside the sea is calm and the night is pleasant. The stars have come out. And in the starry light the mangroves look like cultured pearls, the trees look like pebbles, and the sea, ink blue.

The next morning Camila goes for a walk on the shores even before dawn. The pre dawn wind cuts like a knife. She wraps her stole around her and walks. Oh, how she loves to walk on the sand. A wooden stump wet and putrid lies on the sand. She thinks of the children who might have played with it. She leans against the cliff and watches the sunrise. All around the place tiny rock splinters and dicey sandstones are strewn. Bright pebbles glimmer in the golden light. There are many sea-shells lying rounded, withered, shriveled, sharp and broken by time and tide. They line up the shores. The shoreline stretches as far as the eye could see and further too. The reddened Eastern sky and the blazing horizon, the otherwise blue benign sky exhilarate and enliven the place. Camila feels life is so beautiful. She is not aware of time. She turns back home and to her surprise sees Lauren talking with her father. She is standing awkwardly in the backyard holding the grill with one hand, talking and after a while, her father shakes hand with her. She sees Camila and walks towards her.

“Hello, what are you doing out there in the cold?”

“I am taking a walk, enjoying the beauty of sunrise.”

“Isn’t it wonderful to walk on the sand?”

“It would be more wonderful with you” she wants to say but she merely says, “Yes.”

“So did you see the sun rise?”

“Yes.”

Now she ambles up closer to her. She waves a packet at her and gives her the packet, which is a CD and tells her, “This is for you. It is called ‘Voluble’ in other words Text to Speech. There are at least a dozen voices. You can write any matter on the space provided or import any passage from Word document and click on the voice of your choice. It will read out to you in Oxford English.” Then she adds, “It’s a gift from me to you. I ordered it especially for you from London.”

“Thank you so much,” She tells her pressing the packet to her heart.

Lauren goes on to update her on how to use it, how to install it in her PC. They walk with the wind on their hair. The smell of sea is mixed with the warm sunlight and dawn.

Everything spelt of peace around her, the peace of daylight, the peace of triumph, the peace of relationships and the peace of being. Camila carries the packed CD in her hand. She is in a hurry to see its contents. She cannot imagine how thoughtful Lauren is. She is the best ever teacher who inspired her to speak and write English. They walk back to the house. Her shoes are covered with sand. She leaves them out on the steps, washes her feet and walks in. Lauren follows her.