Marina Beach

MARINA BEACH

By: Aanya Sharma

I boarded a train. My mom and dad were with me. We were going to Chennai. Chennai is a coastal city in Southern India, and I was going to the sea. I love the sea. I could watch the waves for hours!

“This is going to be a very exciting trip. Mom and dad are going to take me to Marina beach.” I thought. I earlier read that Marina beach is the longest beach in India, and the second longest in the world. I wanted to take a dip in the sea which is why, I even packed my swimwear, but mom told me that swimming in Marina beach is prohibited because the undercurrents are very strong, and you could drown. But she said that she would let me walk along the shore and touch the waves.

We reached Chennai station, and quickly took a cab to a hotel. Mom asked me to get freshened and take rest, but I could barely rest. I kept bothering her every now and then, asking “When will we go to the beach?”, to which she kept replying, “We’ll go there soon.” After resting for the afternoon, dad finally told me to get ready to go to the beach. I, almost instantly, wore my T-shirt and shorts, and packed a hat, a pair of sunglasses and a towel. As I was about to wear my shoes, dad interrupted. “No! You can’t wear shoes to the beach. They’ll get wet. Wear your flip-flops instead.” “Silly me! How did I forget that?” I said to myself, as I pulled out a bright yellow pair of flip flops that I had packed for the beach. The hotel staff arranged for us to go to the beach.

The car stopped along a busy road. The driver politely asked us to get down and walk further. I couldn’t see any sea, nor could I hear any waves. “Where is the sea? Is it far from here?” I started bombarding dad with questions. ‘We’ll see.” He calmly replied back. We started walking. There were lots of vendors selling various fruits and pop-corn to eat. Some were selling blowout whistles of various shapes. They had the longest blowouts I had ever seen. Dad bought me a few, and I was very happy.

We walked further and there were so many mini shops along the way. They sold a variety of items. There were clothes, utensils, rubber items, decorative items made from plastic, mobile phone accessories, electronic goods, and so on. Mom stopped at a shop selling items made of seashells. She bought me necklaces and keyrings with my name etched to them. She bought a few items to gift my friends too. She also bought me some other toys and stickers on the way further. Soon, I started getting a strange smell. It became stronger as we walked further. Now I started to see where it came from. There were stalls selling fresh fish, which they would fry and you could eat them immediately. I am not a fan of fish, so I left the area as quickly as I could.

The sea was in front of me. “This is Marina beach”, said dad. “Look! Its so long.” He pointed. There were a few people sitting with huge shells. The shells were very colourful. I had a closer look at them and even held them carefully. Some were too big to fit on my palm. Dad said I could have one if I liked. I couldn’t decide, so I told him to come back later. I just wanted to go and see the waves. I ran towards the shore. The waves were huge. They came towards me as if they would swallow me. Mom instructed me to hold her hand and watch from a safe distance. Coast guards and policemen were warning people not to wander away from they shore. They were discouraging people to bathe in the sea. A few waves were big enough to make it to the shore and wash my feet. We took a long stroll along the shore where the waves were not so strong.

Suddenly, Mom pushed me back. A big white horse with a rider had galloped up to me. I was in its way. Soon I was surrounded by many horses. I wanted to ride a horse on the shore. Dad paid one of the horse-owners to give me a small ride. I sat on the back of a brown horse and posed for a picture. It was so wonderful. The cool sea breeze hit my face as my horse trotted along the shore. I fed some nuts to the horse and patted it when I got off.

It had started to get dark, the waves were getting stronger and looking angry. I couldn’t see the waves anymore at a distance. But the whole beach was lit up with small lanterns and lightbulbs. It looked divine. The tourists started flocking the eateries around the beach. It was time for us to go back too. I was beyond happy. I would never forget the Marina beach!