CHAPTER 5

NEYI’S HIGH SEA EXPEDITION, by Loving Daddy

At five though Neyi stood three feet tall, she had the abilities of double her ages. Her slim but well-proportioned constitutions matched her personality so well that could only be found in a princess of great promise. And if her personality matched that of a princess of a great promise, her courage would match that of a warrior prince. Her agility and quick decision made all the difference. One wonders as to how a child at such tender age could be endowed with so many abilities! In equal measure one could find her determination to carry out challenging tasks. It looked as if challenges are what she craved for. Strange though it seems but her grace was also marvellous. Above all her faith in God was supreme to her. Her wise loving mom has inculcated the love of the Lord in her child perhaps very few did. Also Neyi had very special teachers in the form of Natures, Fairies, Angels and a hosts of tender and wise creations of all knowing God.

In other words Neyi was utmost creative. She was so creative because she was a gifted child. She was gifted because she was brought up in a very stimulating dynamic environment for there was nothing called dull in the whole Island. As she was brought up with all care and love of best kinds, she grew up to be not only a compassionate little soul but also a passionate tender child. Her sense of empathy with all creatures as well as things around her was dominated by her matching passionate act of kindness. Her sense of kindness was far above any fear or favour or consequences. It was as if she was born to radiate the noble act of compassion and passion with a matchless degree of comparison. She was a brave child in truest sense of the word. She was fearless in trying out her new ideas. Fear of any kind was nonexistence be it in her thoughts, words or deeds. She drew her strength of her bravery not from her muscles which at

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any rate was insignificant nor from the mind which though very sharp but it was through her sense of compassion and passion being induced to her by her loving mom at a really ,really early tender age. Even at that tender age she displayed practical wisdom as it is evident from an incident narrated below.

Once on a brilliant spring morning, Neyi was treading on the meadow outside the castle, her attention was drawn to a really interesting action that was going on for a while there. As Neyi was busy returning the greetings of the flowers and enjoying the songs of cuckoos, she saw a sea bird chasing a tender blue butterfly. The butterfly was turning and twisting as she was fluttering her much bright wings in the air to keep her at safe distance from the bird. At first it appeared to be just a fun or a part of game being played by the two. But soon the desperate gesture of the featherless flying beauty made Neyi to look into it. Neyi being very compassionate to all, in no time she figured out that it was a case of bullying. Once Neyi figured out that it was a case of bullying, she at once decided to act. Her decision to act in defence of the harmless little butterfly was lightening quick and firm. She rushed to the incoming helpless beautiful creature. Neyi comforted the troubled butterfly,” Come little one come, come to me”. Neyi who wasn’t a stranger to the butterfly won the latter’s confidence and responded with a sigh and set on her palm of the left hand. The butterfly was gasping for breath and breathing very hard indeed. Neyi brought the poor little palpitating butterfly close to her heart and shaded her from the sun with her own shadow of her right palm. Neyi lifted the still nervous butterfly to her face. With gentle smile and with a very soft tone she whispered to the butterfly to relax as she was perfectly safe. Neyi asked, “O’ my little one do tell please what the matter is?” The butterfly said, “Miss Neyi, I have been pursued by the intruding sea bird for not listening to her”. Neyi inquired, “Listening to what?” The butterfly replied,” to accompany her to a game of fishing on the sea”. The butterfly said that she was too frightened to go to sea and that too with a stranger sea falcon. When the butterfly expressed her inability to comply with the sea bird’s request of fishing in the sea. The sea bird took offence at her. As a revenge to her offence, the sea bird decided to bully her to the brink of harming her. At first, the butterfly thought it was just a

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harmless joke and did not pay much heed till the bird eyes went red with anger. With the sea bird’s eyes turning like a burning red hot charcoal and her threatening warnings, the little butterfly flew to seek cover.” Finding no one to seek help from I was desperately flying hither thither till I came upon you, my little miss”, said the little blue butterfly.

No sooner the little butterfly said this to Neyi. The angry sea bird landed on a branch of meadow shrub in front of Neyi who was still holding the frightened butterfly on her palms. The sea bird was very furious at Neyi for her intervention. It was evident the bird was stranger to Neyi as it was not an inhabitant of the island. The bird had no inkling as to what was stored for her. The sea bird with a stern look, looked at the little butterfly and Neyi. She rolled her red angry eyes from the Butterfly to her protector and back and forth for several times. She was at a loss as who she should take on first – the little Butterfly or Neyi. Neyi broke the ice when she said, “Hi Sea bird! Welcome to our Island!” The sea bird became more furious at the unexpected courtesy. Neyi kept her cool and said, “Well I can see that you are very angry!,” She continued,” Would you mind to tell us why ?”. At this the sea bird burst out,” I don’t think I woe you an explanation”. In the same breathe she said, “Just leave the matter to me and I am able enough to deal with the situation myself”. To this Neyi said, “well we are not seeking approval of your ability or otherwise though we would love to respect them”. Neyi went on, “All we want is to know the reason of your rudeness at our little beautiful Butterfly friend”. Neyi further said, “So would you be polite to tell us your position now, please”. The sea by then knew that it was not easy to talk irrational to Neyi and get away. The bird then decided to open up and told her that she felt offended at turning down her request by the little blue Butterfly. The sea bird insisted that the little Butterfly should have obeyed her. Neyi questioned,” why do you think the little Butterfly should have obliged to your demand?”. The sea bird with a sense of undue pride replied,” Because I am stronger and can fly far better”. The wise and compassionate Neyi exhorted the arrogant sea bird that it wasn’t proper way at looking at things. She made her understood that everyone has its share of relative strengths .If the sea bird could fly better to serve its

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interest then the Butterfly could serve the innocent flowers better than most of us, which in turn help yield better crops and set a food chain on which all of depend upon. Moreover, butterflies don’t like sea much the same way the sea bird don’t like the flowers the way butterflies do. It is perfectly okay, what we like or don’t like as long as we keep it to ourselves. The problem spurts only when we begin to force our likes or dislikes on others.

The arrogant sea bird finally saw reasons in Neyi’s explanation. She felt ashamed of herself and apologised profusely. She not only apologised but also befriended the little blue Butterfly and begged Neyi for permission to be her most loving fans. The ever compassionate Neyi was too glad to include the reformed sea falcon to be her friend. This is how Neyi dealt with challenges with compassionate heart and a rationale mind. She had the rare gift of turning around even a hopeless situation into a win-win situation. This was how Neyi turned foes into friends.

Once the sea bird befriended Neyi and her other friends, she visited the Island quite often to play with her new friends. The sea bird found Neyi very adorable and her friends very exciting. Soon there friendship grew stronger, deeper and in numbers for sea birds brought many of her good friends such as Seagulls, Kingfishers, Sea Doves, Penguins and even Eagles. These feathery friends of Neyi brought to her a flood gate of information to her regularly. They had several interesting tale to tell Neyi and her fans. This inculcated a strong sense of fascination about sea in Neyi. Her fascination grew stronger by every day. Occasionally, these visiting fans brought gift for Neyi in the form of sea shells, Carols, Sponges, Pearls and other lovely gems. But what Neyi liked the most was the stories brought by one the sea eagle. This particular eagle was called Rockety. She was intelligent, smart and brave. She was very strong and could fly very high and wide. Because she was intelligent and could fly far and wide across many seas in one sortie, she knew lot many rare and interesting tales. Also because she could brave all weathers she had seen many an adventures with her sharp eyes and recorded them in her unfading memories. Rockety

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was no less than a living sea encyclopaedia. Neyi’s ability to communicate with most creatures including Rockety was the reason for their fondness for each other. Neyi gathered appreciable knowledge about sea from her and other winged friends.

Neyi was a good swimmer for she was trained by the Friaries in the pristine lake in the island. By seven, she mastered all know skills of swimming and undertook powerful dives almost like her dolphin friends who lived in the lake too. Her dolphin friends aided her with their skills of manoeuvring on the sea as well as under the sea. One of her greatest swimming skills was her ability to hold her breathe for a quite long time. Her slender limbs were no less than what fins were to dolphins. Slowly but surely she was aware of varied aquatic creatures. She was also aware of several sea phenomenon because of her affinity with her feathery friends and her dolphin friends. With her increased knowledge of sea creatures and also their natures, her desire to be with them increased more than ever.

Many in the Island including Neyi’s mom were astonished by her increasing interests of sea and abilities as a swimmer. Neyi’s mom was pleased to find that her loving daughter was doing extremely well in mastering one of the most important life skills. However, she had her reservation to give in to Neyi’s interest of being at the sea at such a tender age. She, therefore, tried her best to divert Neyi’s interest on sea by cultivating interest in playing music, painting, dance, art, sciences and games of strength, endurance, faculty and skills. Neyi being an exceptionally gifted learner, mustered those lessons too, quite comfortably in a short surprisingly short span of time. Neyi had ears for music and grace of princess. She sung very sweetly and danced most elegantly. She not only captivated her fans with her gift of music, art, dance and oratory skills but also influenced profoundly on elements all around her. Being an intelligent girl, Neyi was a quick learner and multi tasker. Learning came to her quite easily. Being inquisitive and experimental she was good at sciences. Being mentally alert and logical she was good at mathematics. Being adventurous, she was brilliant at Geography and history. Being healthy and energetic, she was found time to pursue a fairly large number of subjects simultaneously.

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Above all being noble at heart with firm faith in God, she was most interested in sociology strived to uphold the principle of harmony and wellbeing of every one. Not a day passed by without greeting Neyi with a lesson to learn. Every day she had the opportunity to add on to her wealth of experience and knowledge. These lessons, experiences, Knowledge, skills accelerated her creativity with amazing degree.

By Nine, Neyi stood 4.6 feet tall. Her personality bloomed into a fine Greek athletic, sharp, intelligent and refined young girl. Her qualities of head, heart and hands were such that none equalled her or surpassed her. If at 5 she knew about twice her age, by 9 she knew thrice. The God’s grace, the bountiful natures and her several mentors form mom to angels to all elements shaped her into a very promising child.

Things were going fine and nice. Neyi’s mom was too absorbed in guiding Neyi’s all-round growth and development. She was very happy at Neyi’s rapid progress at teaching –learning process in every front. However, her happiness was in for a sudden rude shock. It just happened over night. It was so powerful that every creatures on Island felt it with terrible fright. The lives of many were never to be same again. It was a tsunami struck at the dead of night when most of the inhabitants of the Island were fast asleep. The tremor was so severe that many were traumatise before they could figure out what it was! Though the strong castle and all its occupants were safe but most part of the Island bore the fury of the tsunami. Several animals were washed away, plants uprooted and vast stretched of the Island inundated. The deaths and destructions were seen all around. The sea beaches were littered with the remains of several sea creatures. Some giant sea waves were still knocking the shores with great force at regular intervals. A high velocity wind with heavy shower was lasing the island since overnight.

Little brave compassionate Neyi was moved much, as she saw the suffering of helpless creatures through the window of her balcony at the castle. She was impatient and her heart was aching to save them from further suffering. She along with the chief fairy and her mom, at once initiated and drafted a plan to

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undertake a rescue operation. She named it as “COUNTER TSUNAMI OPERATION”. The plan was to be executed in three phases. First priority was to bring back all marooned mortals to safety and provide them with medical aid. The second phase was to provide shelter, potable water, food and sanitation. The third phase was to take stock of the scale of damage and rehabilitate the bereaved. It was also plan to study the cause, effect and suggest possible measures to prevent and protect the island from such disasters in future. Neyi was to lead the first phase. The chief Fairy was to lead the second phase and Neyi’s mom the third phase.

Neyi knew time was crucial as a second in emergency can make all the difference between life and death. She promptly set into action. She gathered together all her feathery friends of 3601 on the terrace of the castle. She chaired the meeting. At the meeting it was resolved that each team of ten would fly to the shore of the Island and 100 nautical mile beyond, as the crow fly. As they fly they would maintain steady one degree apart between every adjacent team. Their main objective was to take cognisance of the situation aerially and report back immediately to the control room headed by none other than the Rockety-the eagle. While all the birds flew in all of 360®, Rockety was gliding high geostationarily above the castle, constantly communicating with them. Soon they collected a sea of disturbing data. They saw thousands of carcass of plants and animals floating. Several more thousands on the verge of death. The young ones separated from their parents’ and parents lost in the wilderness.

Taking stoke of the first-hand information, Neyi moved to the Island Lake and took her aquatic friends into confidence. She asked her dolphin friends to swing into rapid action, which they did. The dolphins called out all her near and distant relatives to strengthened Neyi’s rescue operation. Soon a little over a thousand, 1005 to be precise, dolphins and her near creeds assembled in the lake. Neyi’s instructed them to go out for search and evacuation of the stranded, as the major part of the Island laid submerged in the flood water. They were supported by Neyi’s feathery friends from the sky above as a radar.

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Neyi’s team of Aves and Pisces worked hand in hand. The uprooted trees were made into rafts. These rafts were employed to transport the tsunami victims to the safety of the highland.

In the high land, the fairies under the wise leadership of the chief fairy organised shelter. Her team provided water, food and medical aid for the tsunami victims. The entire highland which was consisted of a range of gentle slopped mountain plateau was turned into relief camp. The stream fed with snow melt water was channelized to the camp. The food stock from the buffer stock of the castle was made available to the needy. Several teams of high expert medical and para medical fairies nursed the sick and injured.

It was then Neyi’s mom turn to undertake a study to ascertain the quantum of damage unleashed by the dreaded tsunami and present ways and means to rehabilitate the victims. She also was tasked to study the cause & effect of the tsunami and suggests possible preventive or protective measure from such disasters in future. Neyi’s mom set up a very dynamic group of team consisting of senior fairies, Neyi and her Ariel as well as her aquatics friends. Though most of them were tired but still they were ready to work with Neyi’s mom with full of energy and spirit, for such was her personality. They were too happy to work for her. Her words were considered as command by them. Neyi’s mom herself took the arduous task of travelling the length and breadth of the Island to figure out extend of damage. She was also mindful of examining all possible clues from the debris to infer the cause and effect of the tsunami. The fairies too presented a report along with the sample of all evidences to explain their findings. According to the report, the tsunami was of a magnitude of 9 plus point on the Richter scale. Its epicentre was at 10,000 nautical miles to the north-west of Island. It was struck at the depth of 700 miles below the ocean floor. When the heap of evidences were examined, a bitter sense of emotion passed over Neyi’s mom beautiful face. Neyi never saw her mom so taken back my emotion. Neyi’s mom did her best to hide her feelings but could not. She bend down and picked up wooden insignia of the ship on which Neyi’s sailed. She hold the insignia on her soft palms and kept on gazing with tears rolled down her youthful face. All her memorise came back to her in flash. She

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recollected how the happiness on the ship was turned into despair in a winkle of an eye. How Neyi’s brave and handsome daddy was dutifully tried to steer the ship and her people to safety without success! How the powerful waves struck the ship time and again! How the angry sea swallowed people! What must have happened to Neyi’s daddy? Is he still steering the ship? Has he been to safety? He must be longing to have glimpse of her loving daughter? Is he still in distress? Or is he still alive at all? Many such thoughts crossed her mind. Neyi who was till then given to understand that her loving daddy has gone for a very long distant voyage and can returned in any day, realised that hard fact of her life which was kept hidden from her. Neyi then knew how important it is for her to trace her daddy. Neyi’s mom drew a deep breath and continued to carry on with the task in hand leaving aside her personal grief aside. She was in for another jolt.

This time it was a nail. Not an iron rail but a nail of sea dragon. Every one present were woe struck at this. The nail was sharp, curved and 10 cm long. Surely such nail could belong only to a predator of great size and great strength. This was least expected. The problem got aggravated. Was it a tsunami that struck the island or was it a sea dragon? Was it a combined effect of both? Was it that the powerful tsunami emptied the fragmental remain of a dead dragon of distant past? No one had the answer to these questions. Neyi who always loved challenges, rose up to the occasion and assured her mom of her efforts in seeking some of these answers.

But first thing first. The trail of destruction left by the disaster was immense. It took almost about a month to rehabilitate the brave tsunami survivors. According to the rehabilitation plan, a township was being setup on the high plateau of the Island. With the water receding, people gained confidence and many walked away into their native places.

As soon as the situation on the Island improved and the normalcy returned. Neyi decided to take an expedition to high sea, to unearth some clues to some of those question that came alive when Neyi’s mom saw the wooden insignia of the ill-fated ship. Her chief concerned was her father’s where about.

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Neyi’s successful handling of “Counter Tsunami operation” proved that at a young age of 9 years, she has come of her age by miles. Neyi’s mom, going by her daughter desire to search out her father, felt new confidence in her child’s adventures. However, her tender motherly feelings prevented her to grant her permission to Neyi to undertake such an expedition. Neyi was determined to take on the challenges knowing fully well the severity of such a challenge. She convinced her mom that there are things which are more important than life and death. It is God who provide us with rare blessings of challenges to prove our worth to him. It is in crises we know ourselves. She quoted her mom’s word of wisdom that with God’s grace everything is possible and mom blessing never goes unanswered. At this Neyi’s mom hugged her loving wise brave little daughter and kissed her. Pearls of tears rolled down her eyes and said, “O’ Neyi my daughter, how I wished your daddy would have been here at this moment to see you talk so wise and brave”. She continued, “I am so blessed to have a child like you”. She told Neyi, “Baby I’ll be quite lonely without you”. She declared,” I’ll become purposeless to imagine my days without you nearby me”. “My seconds will turned into hours and hours into weeks and week into decades”, she said. Neyi who was listening to her mom’s concern patiently and said very tenderly, “Mom will you like daddy to be left alone in the wilderness and forgotten?” “Besides, mom, isn’t it just proper to save this beautiful Island and her people, who took all trouble to shelter us when we needed the most?” Neyi said. Neyi’s mom said, “well then my sweet child let me a part of your expedition’. Neyi said, “Mom, Your presence in the island is a must as the rehabilitation and the new township being built”. But Neyi was too young to remember her daddy face when she saw him last. When Neyi was reminded of this, she sung her daddy favourite song. She said,” I’m sure daddy would recognise me with that song easily”. Beside I have this insignia of his ill-fated ship to show him. So, Neyi eventually convinced her mom to take a high sea expedition.

Neyi, with the help of her well-wishers, built a boat strong and large enough to carry her good stocks of necessities in it. Amongst other she carried lot of books, books of all subjects, for she took great pleasure in reading them.

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She invited her dolphins and Feathery friends including Rockety and her new owl friends too.

On the appointed day Neyi and her friends on board the ship “DAD”( Daughter and Daddy ) set sailed to the high sea. Neyi’s mom, the chief fairy along with host of Islanders came to send off Neyi and her companions at the shore. Neyi waved at them. The sea was calm and the morning sun was pleasant. The Rockety unanchored the ship. The two pet dolphins of Neyi led the direction in the water. The feathery friends led by the Neyi’s sea eagle surveyed the sky, team after team, turn by turn. The sails of the ship soon got inflated and strengthened by gentle breeze. Neyi steered the ship, as hosts of Neyi’s well-wishers on shore bade her goodbye and great luck! They kept watching Neyi’s ship till it grew so small that it was difficult to discern it on the horizon. Neyi too found her well-wishers on the shore too tiny to figure. Neyi and her team were in Great Spirit. Weather conditions being conducive, they made good progress. They were sailing at a pretty good velocity of 70 nautical miles per hour. By sun set, where the sun set late at 8pm IST, they had sailed a good 700 nautical miles. Stars begin appearing first a few and then many. The owls replaced the Eagle. The breeze turned a little harder as well as little chill. Neyi and companions had early supper of sea fish, bread and washed down with cream canned milk. A strong sense of emptiness was felt by her. For it was her first day away from her dear mom and other loved one at the Island. She knew well how much she meant herself to her dear mom. She also knew her mom’s world rounded around her and her world around her mom. Now that she was far away from the comfort of home into the rocking sea, she was missing them a lot. Neyi being strong, soon stabilised her emotions. She knew she was leading an expedition and she got to be even headed. She realized that she got to conduct herself in a balanced way. Also her love for her loving daddy gave her comfort, even being away from home and mom. Another reason that constantly drove her motivation was curiosity to discover the secret of tsunami. Added to these, she was also aware that her companion were also working very hard for the common cause and she must do all she can do keep them inspired. Neyi took out her piano and played a soothing tune

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to entertain her companions. Her companions enjoyed the music at the end of the hard day. They thanked Neyi. Together they said a prayer to God and retired to rest, leaving the charge to the able owls and the sincere dolphins. Neyi went to her cabin and did some writings of the day’s proceedings and planned out her strategy for the next day. Read her holy book for a while and sent a prayer of gratitude to heaven and went off to sleep. Being tired and quite contended with the progress of the day, she soon felt in deep slumber. The whole night the owls, some sea eagles and the two faithful dolphins coordinated the progress of the ship. As they sailed into the high waters, the waves grew bigger as well as energetic. The wind blew swifter. The sea eagles, the owls and the dolphins made good use of the conditions in their favour. They increased the speed to 80 nautical miles per hour, once it even reached 100. But they were aware of Neyi’s forty winks might get disturbed, so they maintained at a gentle average of 60 nautical miles per hour. They took great care to maintain the direction and gentle speed. In spite of their best efforts, at a time, the ship was hit by some lofty waves. The splash of water at a time made into quite high though not scary. A few tiny islands stood on the way of the ship. The clever owls, the brave eagles and of course the gentle and swift dolphins negotiated them very well, without a single scratch to the ship. After hours and hours of sailing, eight hours to be precise, the entire world plunge into total darkness. All stars disappeared suddenly. Things would have been a cause of concern, but for the united efforts of owls, eagles and dolphins. Their powerful night vision came very handy to get through this lightless period. This phase of total darkness lasted for over half an hour or so and then however, a beautiful radiant glow appeared behind them. A new day was born. Neyi by this time was already up and was in her prayer. As soon as she had done with her prayer, she got to the deck and took stoke of the progress made by the ship. She was pleased with night’s progress. As the day’s dawn gave way to brilliant morning, Neyi found a great many new friends. Amongst other, there was a young blue whale, a couple of albatross, a couple of sea dolphins and a great many deep sea fishes of many bright colours. Neyi was too happy to welcome them in her team of expedition. Neyi communicated to them so well that soon they grew her great fans and promised to serve just for the sake of

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pleasure of it. They could not help but do exactly that, for Neyi’s personality was such influencing. With breakfast over dry fruits and canned milk and honey, the guards changed their positions. Neyi once again took charge at the steering. She consulted the map. Checked the position of campus and maintained a steady direction of 36 degree of south west. The ship gained new speed and sailed smoothly on gleaming sea.

CHAPTER -6

NEYI’S DEEP SEA EXPLORATION

…………………to be continued …………..