Marina Beach

Reaching Chennai in the night of 12 Aug, the first thing that was palpable was the heat and humidity. My first exposure to Chennai was an evening on Marina Beach with Pankaj and Nirmal, on a fisherman’s boat, with waves lapping on its beached keel, Nirmal’s phone playing Golden Hits, the bottle and snacks on a plank and the sea wind hitting us with its ferocity. The lighthouse beacon in the distance welcomed distant ships. Marina is a big big beach, both, in length and in width. From where you get down from your vehicle, you can’t even see or hear the sea. You have to actually walk some distance on the sand, skirting your way carefully around the ‘night-birds’ before you reach the sea shore. The sea here is more violent than the one at Mumbai or Goa. But then the mythical links of this side of the continent abound with tales of hard fought battles between Gods and demons.