When the normally white beach turned red. And smelt so foul too.

Last Saturday, my parents finally joined us on our trip to the Thottapally beach. So did
my sis, BIL & niece Annmarie who had come down on their monthly visit home - the 2nd Saturday of the month is off for most organisations in Kerala & they spend that weekend
usually at our place.

My parents would rather be at home than drive down to the beach and I guess they are
eager to see what's so much fun about the sand and waves that makes the 3 of us drive
down weekly.

As we reach the Thottapally beach, a foul stench hits us hard - I think it must be some
dead animal rotting away nearby. My parents go, "I guess we were better off at home
than drive down to this foul-smelling place". Since it is a fishing hamlet, we guess that
it could be the smell of fish being dried.

Anyway, we have driven down 20kms and it would be futile to drive back. So, we park
the car and walk to the beach. In a few minutes, the stench does not feel that bad - I
guess our senses got used to it.

But then we are greeted with another spectacle - the beach is covered with vast patches
of red. Hey, the sand here is supposed to be powdery white. So what's with the red color ?


As we walk closer, we discover what has turned the beach red. Someone has spread out
prawn waste (mostly the head part which is not eaten) on the sand. Not only did this
give a red color to the beach, this was also responsible for the stench.


Fish-waste has great demand as fertiliser and thus prawn-waste was being dried to
be sold to those that make fertilisers.

We move away from the beach-area which was being used to dry prawn-waste and
spend some 45 minutes on the beach before heading home. While me, my wife and
BIL play some volleyball, the kids have fun building beach-castles.

If this fish-drying business is going to continue, looks like we will need to find a new
beach for our weekend visit.