The Beach and The beast

Marina Beach to Chennai is like Eiffel Tower to Paris. Chennai is known for this beach and no visitor to Chennai shall return without visiting this beach. A large stretch of sea shore for a length of more than 5 kilometers and a width of at least half a kilometer makes Marina Beach an interesting spot for the visitors. The beach is located hardly 5 kilometers from the Chennai Central railway station and around 25 Kilometers from Chennai airport.

From the busy Beach Road (Kamaraj Road), one has to walk along the quick sand for long to reach the sea. The Beach road boasts of a number of British era buildings. Prominent among them are the Madras University Building, PWD Building Complex and the Presidency College. Looking from the sea shore towards the road gives a panoramic view of British architecture. Those who crave for the return of the 'Golden Age' of the Raj would certainly relish the sight.

On one end of the beach a huge light house is located. This is still functional. The other end is occuppied by the samadhis of the great tamil leaders Anna Durai and MGR. Hundreds of visitors go around these samadhis everyday. The vast expanse of the beach, no wonder, is the most preferred visiting place in Chennai.

Even on a scroching sunny day, we can spot people, especially love struck boys and girls dotting all over the sandy terrain. They brave the inclement weather for the success of their love. Love or lust or a blend of both- this can be debated seperately.


Beach patrol police, mounted on horses always on the look out for miscreants. Anyway, I shall inform one thing. Chennai is comparitively a safe city for any kind of people. Anyone can relaxingly walk on the roads and other public places with minimum fear. It will be an over statement if I say, without fear, for, Chennai too is a part of Aarsha Bharatam no?

We can come across people taking horse rides, boys and girls selling "sundal"- the tasty boiled black gram mixed with cilly and salt, men and women who offer prediction of our future and so on.  Sundal vendors and astrologers will be visiting you just like the waves in the sea.

The Kannagi Statue at the Marina Beach

During my stay in Triplicane- the place very close to Marina Beach, I used to walk down to the beach along with my good friend Shivaprasad in the night after dinner. I stayed in Triplicane for an year in late 90s.




We used to spend a few minutes liesurely sitting in the sand and watching the aircrafts decending for landing and ascending for the next destination while enjoying the cool breeze from the sea. Those days I used to wonder, if ever I could get a chance to fly. God had granted that wish a few years later. Little did he know that, He could stop the waves in the Bay of Bangal from occuring, but not my wishes!!

On one pleasant evening, after a long gap, I went to Marina Beach recently. The Beach was ravaged by the tsunami in 2004. Tsunami could down the beach but not kill it. With more vigour and dynamism, the Beach attracts more people now.




This time, the most attractive thing I came across was a monkey. The monkey looked so sad and tired. Its eyes were telling everything. The miseries it endures and the hardships it weathers in the everyday life to eke out a living. It had a chain around its neck. The master too looked so unhappy.

Both the biped and the four legged had only one mean to earn their living. Begging. The monkey, while spotting the visitors catches hold of them and would not leave till they leave a coin or two. The monkey had to play different tricks to prompt the passers by to dole out some coins

As I have been watching the action with curiosity, the unhappy master started abusing the monkey. He said "I am maintainig you for no use. You are not able to fetch the targetted business. I made you general manager to satiate your ego. I made you feel that you are no less than the managing director, ie, me. 



I made you feel that this business will not survive without you. I provide free food, accommodation and transportation.  Despite  all these generosities from me, you are far below achieveing the target. This is outrageous and unacceptable..I have so many other alternatives. Hiring another monkey is not a difficult task for me. If you need comforts and luxury, you have to work more and more. You have to crawl when I saw crawl, you have to jump when I say jump."

The master was at his ranting best. It was quiet embarassing to see a slave being admonished so harshly by a master. As I have been walking away from the two, I could not stop looking back. The monkey story could look so unconvincing. Take it as a figment of my imagination if not as a convicing story. It could have originated out of a kind of hallucination.  Or, was it a result of putting myself in that hapless beast's position for a while?