Mermaids have always fascinated both men and women.  Fairy-tales about them are enjoyed by mariners and non mariners alike. They have been a mysterious phenomenon for centuries.

‘Mermaid’ needs no explanation, a marine creature with the head and upper body of a beautiful young maiden and with the lower body of a fish and they are usually found singing songs or combing their thick hair. They have been the source of inspiration for many stories, novels, poems and films. They have a different image in different stories, in some they are very affectionate, willing to sacrifice themselves for their love and in some they are wicked and evil. This has always given a distorted picture about them.

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My wife is very fond of horror stories and films and she has got a good collection of those. One night she was reading a novel about a ‘Ghost Ship’ and I was surfing through the net.

Suddenly she asked me “Honey, have u ever seen a ghost ship”.

“No I have not seen, but I am living with a ghost”, I gave a spontaneous answer and in reply, a pillow was thrown at me.

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Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, the saying goes…and if that’s true..I wonder about the head and thoughts of the man who built the Taj.. The beautiful sparkling white wonder.. one of the seven wonders of the world!!

I have often heard lovers address their beloved and say,
‘When you die…I’ll build you a Taj Mahal !’

On hearing this, their dear ones are sure to be floored and proud to be spoken to with such deep and profound feeling.

When I tried this method, you won’t believe how shocked I was with the response! These were her exact words,

“Are you eagerly waiting for me to die? And planning to live happily in your Taj Mahal after that?

If you still want to make one for me, fine!..

I don’t want a white Taj Mahal , build me one in a different colour!”

Shattered by this heart-breaking comment, I managed to croak,

“I’m going to make one for you in Black!”

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At times, I feel that this world is a mysterious place. Untold facts still haunts its inhabitants. The obscurities are alike in land and the sea. When we refer to Sea mysteries, the first thing which comes to our mind is the “Bermuda Triangle”. It has always been a synonym of inscrutability.

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I walked back to my villa after sensing her.

I felt someone calling me. I just turned back. But to my astonishment there was no one. No one! This voice is familiar to me. A familiar voice, seems little aged. I knew this voice but couldn’t recollect. I stood there for a while thinking. I shouldn’t have responded that suddenly. It couldn’t complete. It was a voice seeking something.
I could see nothing. Except her. It’s awesome to witness the day’s first spokesperson diving into her morning gown. I stood still thinking.
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When ever, I have a chat with my non mariner friends, they often talk about the dangers hidden in the sea , the sea accidents, ship wrecks etc. But sea is not that dangerous and the land is more dangerous as the sea. If you just have a quick overview, we can find that land tragedies are more in number than sea tragedies. Villains like Earth quakes, Land slides, Volcanic eruptions, Epidemics, have plundered plenty of human lives and possessions. Of course, we have been able to forecast and resist these calamities, to a certain extent, but there are some dangerous Silent Killers, who can’t be predicted , averted or even given any scientific justification. Such a destroyer rests in the Oku volcanic plain along the Cameroon line of volcanic activity- Lake Nyos.

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Labour is the source of all wealth. Marx was right. Every human advancement has Human effort as its base. Every landmark in human history is a product of human toil. The Pyramid, The Chinese wall, the Taj Mahal every thing has a lot of human pain behind it. The Suez Canal and Panama Canal, which changed the pace of commercial advancement, saw a lot of human blood and sweat. In fact Panama saw more blood than Suez.

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