Marina

Saturday 26th May 2007 was jillu's first visit to the beach
we should have chosen besant nagar beach but since Marina beach is closer we went there
I love beaches and playing in the water and the reaction i expected from her was the same

the trip to the beach didnt go like the way we planned , we started late and had a tough time finding parking space in the beach , by the time we got to the water line it was almost dark and jillu just refused to get down in the water
she started screaming and crying and didnt enjoy the water at all hmmm so we concluded that beach trip was a failure and started walking back to car ,
appa suggested we sit for a while and voila our crying madame became a toddler full of energy
she had a whale of a time playing in the sand
at first she just plopped on the sand with her legs spread and her beach bucket and spade in front of her , K taught her how to build a mound and how to use the bucket

the first few times she got her hands dirty , she didnt know what to do and kept saying amma amma meaning clean it for me after couple of minutes she became a sand girl, squealing ,laughing watching the sand fall through her fingers , on her head, legs every where and in the end she refused to come back with us insisting that we stay for a while longer

the other attraction in the beach was the manual meery go round , she sat in one of those tiny cars and enjoyed the ride with flashing colors and music.

so though she is scared of the water , she enjoyed the sand and the outing

what saddens me is Marina beach has changed so much
when i was a kid Marina visit was a must every sunday , my memories of marina beach and what it is today is totally different
1. then there was no vendors in the beach , they were restricted to the pavement , today u have no place to sit in the sand everywhere u can see a bajji shop, a meerygo round, 100's of ice cream carts, horrible the ambience is just lost
2. the water was clean those days , now a days u can see garbage floating in them , flowers , plastics and u cringe to keep ure leg in the water
3. sand used to be clean , now its a litter zone
4. no body used to dare be in the beach after dark , now people seem to come only after dark

wish i could show jillu the old beautiful marina instead of the current pathetic one .