The Message in a Bottle.

Meena walked along the lonely stretch of the Juhu Beach where there were no people in sight. She meant to walk right into the water and be swept away into oblivion by the angry rolling waves. The young man whom she had loved with all her heart had used her and abused her over a period of time and convinced her that she was truly ugly and therefore not lovable. It had triggered in her an overwhelming feeling of self-hate. Each time she looked in the mirror she became obsessed by her imaginary flaws to such an extent that she believed no man could ever love her. This was the third time she had come to the beach contemplating suicide. Today she was determined to succeed.

Even as she neared the water's edge she saw a glittering green bottle half buried in the sand.

"A rather unusual shape," she thought, as she picked it up and yanked out its ceramic plug. "What's this? It has something inside."

She moved to higher ground and squatted on a rock. It was a letter wrapped in cellophane and sealed with tape. She pulled it out and and tore open the tape and began to read.

"Hi there! My name is Sam Usbeck. I am travelling with my Dad on a ship in the North Sea. I am five years old and very lonely. It will take days before we dock in Rotterdam, and then travel back to my home in Germany. If you receive this letter will you please write back to me?"

It was dated June 1990 and had a German address.

"Good Grief! This letter has been in the sea for thirty years," thought Meena, "It has travelled a very long distance from the North Sea to the Arabian Sea. I can't believe that a five year old boy could write such a letter. By now he must be thirty-five years old. It will be fun to write to him and tell him that I found the bottle with the letter intact. I will also ask him if he is still lonely."

In a way, Meena was happy that she had found the bottle. Perhaps it was providential. It had distracted her from her suicidal intention and created an interest to find out more about the author. She even began to look at herself in the mirror in a different light and shed her feelings of imagined ugliness.

Meena sought the advice of a friend who was a psychotherapist.

"Am I really ugly? Do I need a facelift or cosmetic surgery?"

"I'm sure that the guy who called you ugly was never genuinely in love with you. In fact, he was probably suffering from an Inferiority Complex and tried to rub off his insecurities on you. How could an intelligent girl like you have internalized the belief that you were ugly, to the extent that you even contemplated suicide?"

Meena decided to reply to the letter.

"I found the bottle with your letter intact. Isn't it surprising that it has travelled long distance for thirty years, from the North Sea to the Arabian Sea and still has remained unbroken. I'm curious to know if you are still lonely."

She enclosed her address and mobile number and sent it off by airmail.

After a gap of several months when Meena had given up all hope of getting a reply, she received a call on WhatsApp late at night.

"I'm Sam Usbeck and I'm delighted to make your acquaintance. I must explain the delay in replying to your letter. I thought it was a hoax because I couldn't remember ever throwing a bottle with a letter into the sea."

Sam had mentioned this to his father who was now ninety years old. The old man pricked up his ears to listen and then burst into laughter.

"I wrote that letter," he said, "You were looking so lonely and miserable on the cruise. I had an idea to cheer you up and perhaps find you a friend. I wrote the letter and stuffed it into my empty beer bottle and convinced you to throw it into the sea. So you were actually the guy who tossed it into the water. I was sure it sank to the bottom of the ocean. I can't believe that it survived in stormy seas for thirty years. This is something of a good omen. Perhaps you'll find a friend after all."

Meena was surprised to hear the story and was even more so when Sam said, "I'm still very lonely. I'm a reporter for a popular German newspaper and am on the move for most of the time. Never could make lasting friendships. May I ask are you lonely too?"

It was the beginning of an interesting friendship which soon graduated into frequent video calls. But that was not enough. Sam desperately wanted to meet Meena.

"She's pretty and seems to be a lovely person. There's something so attractive in the way she talks and smiles."

An opportunity presented itself when he was asked by his paper to accompany a Business Delegation to Mumbai. He hoped to give Meena a surprise.

Meena was expecting no one and was wary of opening the door so late in the evening. Sam was standing in the shadows and could not be seen. As she was in the process of closing the door he called out, "Are you lonely Oh dear Meena? Stretch out your hand to one unfriended and your loneliness will have ended."

"Oh Sam!" she shrieked with joy, "What a pleasant surprise! You could have given me a heart attack. Come in."

A thought flashed through Meena's mind, "Could it be that an ugly duckling like me has turned into a swan?"