The day began to break at the far end of the sea. The breeze was picking up speed. The morning light spread in the sky.
Sareek opened his eyes to look at the sky. Once again, he had fallen asleep on the sand of beach. No, it wasn’t at night that he got there, it was early in morning, before there was any sign of the Sun.
‘What would have father said,’ thought Sareek imagining his late weak and frail father standing at a distance looking at him with a face devoid of any expression.
“This is your fault. You should have listened,” said Sareek and the imagined figure turned and walked away into the sea
Sareek’s father Faras was a fisherman. He struggled all his life with earning enough for the family of four and things took a turn towards bleaker light as Faras became an alcoholic.
Sareek had to quit school and also his dreams of becoming an engineer. His father wasn’t in any condition to work properly anymore and the family desperately needed the money. So, Sareek started going with his father out to the sea, before the morning arrived, to catch fish.
Sareek always looked at the water as the small narrow boat was steered by his father. With time, Sareek was the one steering and his father sitting and then when Faras passed away, Sareek hired a neighbourhood boy to help him out.
The life of a fisherman was quite the challenge; there were many in the profession. Sometimes the sea was generous, other times it was very harsh. On top of it all, Sareek was not happy doing it.
Unknown to Sareek’s family, Sareek had started doing milk deliveries as well. Hence, his life as a fisherman was slowly ending, with Sareek finding himself more often on the beach to catch a few more hours of sleep and as the morning broke each day, it ignited a hope for a better future in Sareek’s heart. Sareek quit the fisherman’s work to look for more steady income elsewhere.
Sareek today runs a very successful tiffin service business with his sister. He still wakes up quite early in the morning and goes to the beach to continue on with his habitual hours of sleep.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
As the Morning Arrived
Early Morning Memories 