Serenity Bygone #PlanetOrPlastic

Serenity Bygone

Roohi slipped her hands into her jeans pockets and slackened her body as she allowed herself to relax from the long walk she had taken to come here. Staring at the horizon in front of her, she realised the atmosphere here was unusual. Awfully hot and dry.

Nevertheless, it was the place she cherished above all. Waves of a shallow light blue crept towards her before running away, only to repeat the process in a cycle. She understood its beauty and its dangers and found true fascination by the way the wave softly crashed against the rocky beech, their curling fingers displacing the sand, by the way the wind ushered them gently back towards the shore, by the vast expanse of water, by the way the sun set, looking as if sinking into the sea itself, by the way the sun light shone off the rippling water, its golden light gnarled in the twisted glass like waves, by the way the beautiful smudges of colors across the horizon created a sight so astounding it swept her away from all the worries, just like the waves creeping over seashells and stealing them in a matter of seconds.

She tried to snub the hitting sensations of exhaustion and suffocation, but they took her in, overwhelming her to the point of lassitude. It was as if the strength of the ocean and the heavy dense dry air was robbing her of her ability to breathe. Roohi looked up the sky and felt nauseated in the pit of her stomach. The sky had suddenly turned into a shade of black and red gray, swirling into a smoke like existence of different shades, opening up a bottomless pit into it. She watched in horror and staggered a few steps backwards, as the mighty ocean rose up, allowing its water to gush up into the inky unfathomable hollow in the sky. In a matter of a few seconds, the entire expanse of the water was sucked up by the smoke of devil incarnate. Roohi couldn't believe her eyes, the scene that was unfolding in front of her was terrifying to say the least. She saw that there was nothing she could do as all that remained on the now waterless swathes of land was the hoard of countless beautiful lives struggling to breathe; wriggling, and contorting and twisting and gasping out spits of water from their bodies, which were about to go numb, to any feeling or pain. Petrified, Roohi just stood, unable to stop this atrocious reality happening in front of her. She looked around frantically, to see if anyone else had witnessed this horrific scene, but she found not a single soul in sight. Tears stung her eyes and she dropped on the ground on her knees. She wept and she wept and she wept.

Realizing it was all her fault - her fault that the ocean disappeared, that it was sucked out of life, she just couldn't stop her sobs. Agonized, she tried to think of something, anything she could do anything to bring it back.

She was the one after all, who dumped plastic into the ocean. She was the one who had thought of the ocean as a drainage pit for plastic and waste materials. She was the one who had been encouraging the use of single-use plastic materials by buying them and asking her friends to do same. Intentionally or no, she had been a part of these horrendous acts. And now she was the murderer of countless beautiful lives. She had to face the consequences. Every one would have to. Because everything that happens around us is the consequence of our own actions.

She could have acted differently though. People could live very well without plastics but couldn't survive without oceans. Roohi couldn't. She should have chosen between plastic or ocean, between right or wrong, between beautiful and crudeness. Because if we want change around us we have to change ourselves. If one person can create a ripple, then thousands or hundreds could create an ocean of change.

But it was too late now. Too late.