The body on the beach

There was dead body on the beach yesterday morning. A young man, by the looks of it, in the prime of his life; face all bloodied, washed up on the sands.
Most of us taking a morning constitutional  were brought up short at this sight, and we stood there a few minutes paying our respects to this young life so rudely snuffed out.
We learned later on, that this was one of a group of young men who set out to celebrate their reunion on Marina Beach. All except one, decided to go for a swim, and then apparently a huge wave carried the swimmers away. The Bay of Bengal had been acting very rough and stormy these past two days, what with the torrential rains in Sri Lanka;  we here in Chennai are after all just a ferry ride away from Lanka.
Two bodies were washed  up on the Andhra coast, one on our beach, and yet another way down near Mahabalipuram. The others, badly hurt, managed to survive, and are struggling for their lives at the Medical College hospital.
  Sad end to a day begun in high spirits.
The west coast bordering the Arabian sea is known to be treacherous ; the jagged coast line of natural harbors is in truth made up of razor sharp laterite rocks that can rip your body to ribbons. The beaches are enchantingly inviting especially the lesser known ones south of Mumbai like the Aqsa beach. You tread the sand happily and walk out into the ocean to wet your feet,  the water seductively draws you in, and slowly without an inkling you walk into it. All at once the sand under your feet gives way, and you go hurtling down into  underwater ravines,and of course, that is the end. The jagged laterites tear you up before you can probably gather your wits, or whats left of it, to attempt an escape.
We always used to  read about it, and the dead were always the very young: teenagers, college students out for a picnic... Aqsa never claimed old or even middle aged lives. It craved the lives of the young. Warnings were of course put out, but the young, bless them, do not know fear. Lucky to be young, and not feel terror at every passing incident both national or otherwise.
Take the Egypt debacle for instance. What is one to believe? The newspapers make Mubarak out to be some kind of a monster spawned by Western, read USA, powers. Not entirely true of course, the papers in India have vested inetrests.
The Egyptians are protesting about unemployment and the spiraling cost of food.  Familiar themes?
History has shown us that no government can hope to last if food becomes expensive. This very basic requirement is the stuff on which political regimes hang in balance.
The fear is about what will the face of the future be? In India, too we need a change, and like in Egypt, we will probably be veering towards the religion based party that has made Gujarat such a success story. The same will happen Egypt, but,and this is a terrifying but,what if fundamentalism gets the upper hand?
Could it be a "Second Coming"? Are we all poised on the edge of the collapse of a "civilized " world?
Its strange and self contradictory that as we go on towards being what is so often called a "global village" ,we are increasingly insular and violently intolerant. I shudder at the prospect of a "Gotterdamerung".
Blessed are the young, so intensely caught up in their lives,they cannot see beyond their deadline at work,the weekend end with the one they love, or of course, how can I forget: the prospect of a raise!

The young....
In one another's arms, birds in the trees...
  ...at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

 W.B.Yeats: Sailing to Byzantium