Short Story: An Ocean of Despair by Maliha Iqbal

Maliha Iqbal’s short story with an eye-opening premise captivates the reader into the narrative leaving behind footprints on your psyche of its strong characters.

The place where I was born was called Bora, it was the largest island of the Mourinho archipelago, located off the coast of Sri Lanka. It occupied a tiny negligible spot on the world map. There were just around 13,000 people on the islands and most of them lived on Bora, whose land area was probably around thirty square kilometres.

For me life was fun and had a simple pattern- my mother woke me up every day for school and then I hurried off on foot to the school with a couple of friends who lived close to my house. My house was near the shore and the school was about half an hour’s walk further inland. At night, when I lay in bed, I could hear the waves rising and falling on the beach. In the afternoon, coming back from school, I would rush out to greet the waves. I loved running on the beach, without a purpose, without a care in the world. My hair would fly in different directions as I would feel my feet pressing against the soft, damp sand. The wind would come rushing towards me, always with a tangy hint of salt in it.