In those days when I used to live in Chennai, one of the predominant entertainments during the weekends was a visit to the beach. With no television and an outing to a restaurant was as rare as once in six months, the major fun visits were to cinemas and the beach. While cinemas happened three to four times in a month – our grandmother loved the movies and used to take me and my elder sister along with her – a visit to the beach used to happen may be three to four times in a year.Oh the wonder of going to the beach! I have to mention something here for those who know only the Arabian Sea of Mumbai – Bay of Bengal that touches the east coast of India at Chennai is a gorgeous blue with white foam. It looks terrific on any evening at sunset. We used to stand there waiting for the waves to touch our feet, the salty spray on our faces. The smell of the salty sea was just divine and totally refreshing. Despite protests from elder members, we used to slowly slide forward till the water used to reach our waists. What fun! It is quite therapeutic to watch the white surf curling into huge waves. We used to jump up and down quite excitedly, waiting for each wave that regularly visits the shores even today. You can’t beat the size of the waves on a New Moon or Full Moon day when the tide is high. Picking up shells was part of the outing.
Getting us all away from the pull of the sea used to be a difficult task. Once that was successfully managed, there were the hot bhajjis to look forward too. Walking back to the road across the sand takes quite a bit of time as the beach is quite wide. One can see many vendors selling their wares along the way – dolls made of shells, bangles, cotton candy, chaat, bhajjis and cane juice were just a few of the attractions. The lady who used to make the bhajjis sat on the sand and cooked them in a large frying pan over a kerosene stove. We used to bite into the bhajis almost drooling over them and then cane juice completed the outing before we caught buses or auto-rickshaws back home.
:) I did that when i was kid, but later getting wet was a disgusting task. Now back to trying to Enjoy each moment of it.
ReplyDeleteYour post makes me feel like going for a walk along the beach now! But today is the High tide day according to MET dept ;).
Some other time. :)
Reading your post i m felling that i should go for a long walk eating bhajis & enjoying the waves that will come and touch my feet too.
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely reading your blog post. Marina beach is one of famous tourist place in Chennai. Furthermore, there is a slew of churches, temples, museums, theme parks, historical sites, and a lot more. Also, check out various Chennai hotels offering good accommodation.
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