When it comes to 'The Beach", the Marina it is.

While there are a lot of good things about Kerala, a nice expansive beach does not seem
to be one of them. Atleast the beaches I have seen from Trivandrum to Cochin. Possibly
Varkala beach is good, but I have not been there.

During my weekend trips to Kerala, we ensure atleast 1 visit to the beach since Aman
loves playing on the beach. But the closest beach that we have at Thrikkunnapuzha is
10 kms from home, has black sticky sand and is a small strip of beach. Plus not very
clean too, due to having human habitation nearby.

This is how it looked when we were there 3 weeks ago. It was about to pour heavily,
as can be seen by the dark clouds in the snap. Though taken by my phone-cam, the
snap looks kind of good - maybe it is due to all the darkness overhead & on the beach
contrasting with the foamy white waves.


And here is Aman having fun on the beach playing with sand and his new volleyball.


The next bet is the Thottapally beach, which is comparitively bigger and has white
powdery sand and quite big too. This one is kinda unique because here the backwater
meets the sea during high-tide. But the downside is that it is like 20kms from home.

This was where I used to come with friends in the late 80s whenever I could manage
to get my hands on the keys of our Maruti-800. I was only 16 years old then and even
though I knew driving, I was not old enough for a license and thus the car was out of
bounds for me. But, it did not prevent me and my friends from pooling money for the
3-4 litres of petrol needed to drive down and back. Petrol cost just Rs.9 a litre then.

My wife & kid are in Chennai for a week and so the other day, we drove down to
the Marina beach to spend some time on the beach. Being quite late (9PM), the
crowd had thinned and the place looked much better compared to how crowded
it usually is during the evenings.

A nice cool breeze was blowing, which could easily lull you to sleep. I took out the
folding-mat that I keep in the car and stretched out on it on the beach. The breeze
not only keeps you cool, but drives away the mosquitoes too. Ofcourse, the joy is
short-lived as I discover sand flying all around, courtesy my son whose favourite
beach activity is not building beach-castles, but sending sand flying all around.

As I looked around at the huge expanse of sand that the Marina is, I felt glad that
we had it in Chennai. Nice powdery sand, which is non-sticky, lots of beach-area
which is well-lit, huge parking, etc - it was all that you could ask for in a beach. I
usually avoid the Marina because of it being crowded, but I found that if we are to
come there late, the crowds are gone.

Chennai might be infamous for its round-the-year hot weather & rude auto-wallahs,
but I doubt any other city in India has such a nice expansive beach. A good place to
spend an hour or two.