One day somebody asked me—
“Where do you hail from?”
I sat in deep thought, munching on my pencil.
“What’s the matter?”
“I have been to many places in life....
But I suppose if you ask about my origins,
It is Island Corayyo.”
“Ohhhh....what place is this,
Never heard of it...”
I gave her my secret smile—“I daresay you haven’t.”
“Tell me something about this place.”
“Tiz’ a very strange place.. this Corayyo,
Its population numbered;
The seas surrounding it are turbulent,
The coast flanked by hostile rocks.”
“My!! Must be difficult to visit the island?”
“Extremely so.....”
She bends, rapt and eager,
“Tell me more!”
“There are springs, quite abnormal,
At times they are neutral, and yet at others,
They boil scalding hot—
There are craters everywhere,
Visited by no one,
Rumoured to have nasty things brewing deep,
Brought by falling meteorites—
There are patches of forest strewn about,
Deep yet cheerful,
The only source of food and nourishment for the residents—“
“And what about the weather?”
Amused I reply,
“Dark and brooding, It is
Almost daily cloudy.”
“Do you never see the sun?”
“A few days the sun does peek,
But the clouds cover it up again.”
“Does your Corayyo have any folklores?”
“Legend has it, It was a small island
Thrown up by the sea,
It was so unstable at first, That the sea would have gobbled it again,
But the Sun Goddess reached out,
And pulled back its child lovingly from the abyss.
I remember there was a tsunami
On Thirteenth of August, in 2007,
The waves would have killed everyone,
But that day the Sun shone so brightly,
The coming danger was known,
And everyone hurried to the mountains.
The waves couldn’t kill,
Everyone escaped unhurt,
The homes were broken;
The forests destroyed,
But with time they grew back again.”
“Have there been any calamities ever since?”
I give a short laugh.
She gives me a funny look, “Why do you laugh”? –
“Nothing. Well, yes, there have been many storms and
Earthquakes, But nothing that
Corayyo couldn’t overcome.”
“Where do you live ?”
“Ever since that tsunami ,
I have become afraid ,
I live now on the top of the mountain, alone.”
“Ohhh........”
“Is there anything else you want to ask?”
“What’s your favourite place in Corayyo?”
“No place at all. I do not like it much”—
“But then!! There must be a place,
That you must frequent a lot. What is it?”
I give her a look.
My reply is quiet—
“At the Heart of the island, amidst
All the springs and craters and forests,
Is a clearing. It is where I go the most.”
“I suppose it must be a beautiful spot,
That is why you visit it??”
“It is barren, level piece of land,
No house or landscape adorns it,
No one lives there,
The soil is dead,
So there are no flowers or trees.”
“Whoa. Depressing isn’t it?
Why do you go there?”
I choke back tears—
“I have no where else to go.
Like I said, it is the heart of the island,
The Centre of Corayyo.”
