My First Novel: THE ADVENTURE OF A BUBBLE (Chapter 1: The Beginning)

They say that the beauty of the world does not lie in its materialism, but in the tiny crumps of the unknown of which this world is actually made of! Having said that, there always exists someone, who can interpret the language of these tiny crumps, put them together, and present to you the big picture out of those numerous valuable realizations. Here, I am going to present you a novel (my first novel), not on people, not on some fictional character, but on THINGS; things that surround us, things to which we are connected somehow, things which have become so well a part of our life that we hardly notice them changing, evolving, developing, interacting, and teaching!

From the very bottom of an ocean, a tiny bubble, whose name is ‘En’, rises to the surface. While moving up, he finds many that try to eat him up or throw him back down in the dark entangled world of stones and weed. Soon, he notices another bubble, but he was moving down, not rising up. En asked, “Why are you going down? It’s dark and unsafe there!”

The other bubble said, “I was once like you, young and fresh, enclosing fresh air inside and ready to rise and exhale as vapour to those clouds in the sky.”

“Then what happened to you now? Are you not fresh and young now? Didn’t you touch the surface or the clouds in the sky?” En asked.

The bubble said, “Yes, I reached far beyond the clouds in the sky, I even saw things I have never dreamt of. I have been to places I don’t know names of, I have been in shapes I never thought I could get into……but…..”

“….but in my desire to achieve the greatest heights, I forgot to notice the things that could have helped me sustain my freedom and my victory!” he added.

En said, “What things are you talking about? When I was down there in that dark pit, a faded voice taught me that we need to focus on things we want to achieve. I couldn’t see but just hear that voice every day. It seemed as if these voices were just echoing in my head! Then, why do you think you should have noticed other things in your journey to the top? Doesn’t that mean losing your focus?”

The bubble replied, “I didn’t say ‘other things’; I said ‘the things’. These things were those which were necessary for me, which were destined to be a part of my journey to success; they were not meant to be just noticed, but they were meant to be loved and lived.” Saying these words, the bubble turned away and continued moving down.

“Hey, where are you going? I have doubts, questions; I need answers…..stop! stop!…..hey! what’s your name…..I don’t even know your name….hey….!!!” En yelled out loud.

The bubble slowly moved into the dark depths and while moving down cried out in fading voice, “Boy, don’t ask me for answers; I had my experience, now it’s your time to have yours! Go….explore yourself out there……out there (voice fading slowly)….out there…!!!”

En stood there in the middle layers of water, confused and worried. “Should I keep moving up? Or shall I wait for another bubble to pass by and ask about his experience? What should I do? There’s no one to answer me, guide me!” En murmured to himself, continuing to be in the state of confusion!

Suddenly, from far dark depths of the ocean, En heard the same voice he used to hear when he was down there in the dark. The voice murmured indistinctively, “You are losing your focus, you have to rise……move on, don’t be distracted.”

Hearing those words, En quickly started moving towards the surface with no motive but one – ‘rise’. Soon, En saw the first bright ray of light. He was so excited that he raised his speed and moved as fast as he could to see what’s out there!

“Oh! I have always dreamt of this day, when I’ll rise to the surface and see the real world out there, with all its beauty and colourful shine.” En thought in his mind being so curious to see what’s above the surface!

Finally, came the moment when En touched the surface. But as soon as he touched the surface, he lost his shape and burst out into vapour in the flick of a second. All this happened so quickly that he didn’t even get enough time to notice the change. To his surprise, this was not at all expected!

“What has happened to me? Oh! I lost my shape…..I…..I’m no more that round bubble enclosing fresh air inside…..what….how this happened…I never knew this would happen to me….so suddenly…!” En cried out in surprise.

En was no more a bubble now. He was no more protected in a shell; he was not in his own control now. Something was dragging him up. The slow and swift winds were moving him round and round like a cyclone.

“Ah! What’s pushing me up? Why can’t I control myself?” he cried helplessly.

Then, after struggling against those soft winds for long, En surrendered himself and left himself loose. He started thinking, “It was better down there in the dark. That poor bubble was right….I made a wrong decision. Down there, at least I was my own master.”

Then another thought crossed his mind, “But what about the voice that I heard, that told me to move on? It was never wrong before……how can it be wrong this time? No! The voice can’t be wrong, I have to move on! I think I can if I try…….if I try the right way..!!”

“But what can I do? I’m helpless in this cyclone.” he thought.

En started looking around for help. He found something…..yes! For the first time, En got an IDEA; an idea that he created himself; an idea that was not borrowed from someone’s words. He thought, “What if I let myself loose for a while and be in the flow. The circling winds of the cyclone will raise me up, and when I’ll reach the top, and then I’ll collect my energy, put my efforts and get myself out of this mess.”

En left himself loose and moved with the flow and as he believed, he got himself out of that cyclone safely. En said to himself, “Oh! I was so wrong not to believe that voice. Now I believe that the voice is always true. But now that I’m far away from those dark ocean depths, how am I going to hear that voice here and now?”

Questions, only questions were emerging in the mind of this little guy who had just experienced the first glimpse of reality. If I were to ask you to imagine the scenario of “En bursting into vapour while coming out of that surface and losing his control” to be similar to the one that we experience when we enter this world of materialistic adulthood from innocent childhood, would you be able to make the connection between the two? Of course, you would be! When we enter this materialistic world, we have to lose our shape. We have to re-shape ourselves; we have to change our form (from protected childhood to vulnerable adulthood i.e. from bubble to vapour). And this change is form is so quick, that we hardly notice we have entered adulthood; just like En, who changed from bubble to vapour within the flick of a second, which he hardly noticed.

En being caught in the cyclone is similar to a human being caught in the material desires of this world; easy to get in, but very difficult to get out. Man’s desires make him vulnerable to the winds that stop him from reaching his destination. To succeed, the person has to remain in the flow and act only when he believes that his efforts will not go unnoticed or wasted.

This was chapter 1 of the novel; the other parts will soon be published on the blog, as sequels; starting where the previous one ended. Hope you enjoyed the first part of my first novel, which is inspired by nature.

©Varun K. Sharma