Riding The Crest Of A Wave

Last week end I took a break at a sea side resort in Pondicherry (aka Puduchery, as it is called now). Much to the chagrin of my wife and kid, I anchored myself for a few hours in the comfortable pool side chairs placed alongside the beach and indulged in my favorite activity – gazing at the sea.

The air was crisp and pollution free and the waters clean. Being a full moon day, the waves were bigger than normal. A few catamarans were returning to shore after the day’s catch. I observed men with oars battling the power of the waves as they attempted to manoeuvre their boats toward land, but with little success. Despite their best efforts, they found it tough moving and they appeared stalled in one place for quite some time.

Then suddenly, one catamaran caught on to a mighty big wave and reached shore in no time. One by one I saw, the other catamarans following suit. It was then I realized that the oarsmen were waiting and biding time to catch a one big wave and ride the crest to reach ashore.

This set me thinking – what does it take for us in life to catch and ride the crest of a wave?

My ancestors of this land have been master navigators who travelled across the Bay of Bengal to reach and conquer distant places in South East Asia. This happened at the time when there was no navigating equipment. How did they manage it? They learnt to find reach their destinations using the position of the sun, moon, and stars and by observing the patterns of wind and waves. They learnt to use the forces of nature to augment their efforts.

To go back to the catamaran story, the past wave patterns do not give a hint of the one forthcoming. One needs to analyze the external environment, be patient, agile and adept to figure out which waves to ride.

And patience here is an extremely important virtue.

In life too, in addition to putting in one’s best efforts, one needs to wait some time to catch the right wave. It is all about making right choices, putting the key factors into place and then waiting for right favorable external environment to manifest our desires. Only then can we ride the crest of a wave to reach ashore.