WHAT COULD'VE BEEN

Riding an old Bullet named after a city, to a place that could've been something else altogether

- By Ruman Devmane

Sometime ometime in 2018, I stood before the Pacific Ocean that relentlessly lathers San Diego. By most definitions, it's among the westernmost points of the Earth's landmass, and as I gazed into the infinitely distant horizon, I was struck by an uncomfortable realisation. I was wearing the only pair of shoes I'd carried into the United States of America and they were now completely wet. In among the moments that followed, I also realised that the sea, for all its wetting properties, holds the most layered chapters of human history.

Take, for instance, the Arabian Sea. Once a multicultural fairground for those committed to trade and conquests or both, as was often the case the western shoreline of India has a history as rich, if not more, as what transpired across the mainland. Being the gateway to India in an era when aviation was merely folklore, it's the sea that invariably penned the destinies of our lives, for better or for worse.