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A lovely day at the beach... and then some!
Posted 13th November 2008 at 12:05 AM by hasita
Last Sunday we all decided to go to the beach.. Chennai's Gandhi beach, that is. For the benefit of non-Chennai'ites, this is one stretch of the long Marina beach, though another stretch by itself is called Marina beach by the locals.
It was going to be 12 of us, DH, me and my step-daughter, my SIL and her family (her DH is here on a short holiday from Dubai), and finally her SIL, co-sis and family. I was reluctant at first to go along, but DH coaxed me into joining in. But I'm glad that I did go as it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings in the recent past.
The guys had all decided to jump into the water and came all geared up with towels and a change of clothes. To add to the fun and games were a few kites and a football. And of course, the bacche-log by themselves are fun and games, na?!
As soon as we reached the beach and started walking towards the water, I looked up and behold! I saw a rainbow in the sky!!! Half a rainbow actually. I yelled out for everyone to see it.. and we kept looking up and walking, admiring the array of colours!!
And then the water.. it was grey and fierce! Slashing the slanting shore with slathering sounds... The waves came fast and furious and not many ventured out into the sea to wet their feet even. The whole scene looked sinister and scary. It was in sharp contrast to the lovely rainbow.
Seeing this, the guys dropped their plans of setting foot into the water as the kids would definitely not want to be left behind, so we did not want to take a risk. Two of the kids were quite tiny as well as the most stubborn of the lot, hence better to be safe than sorry.
Wasting no time, the kites were brought out. DH and SD started playing catch with the football. Rest of us took turns flying the huge kites. The strong breeze was great for them and they kept flying higher, joining the many other kites on the beach.
I took hold of one of the tiny tots - 2.5 years old - and started showing him the kites his father was flying. He started grinning. Horses on the beach were galloping past back and forth. Showed him those, yet again he grinned, this time with awe, saying tik-tok, tik-tok. Then came a man and his monkey. When I pointed out this to the kiddo, he grinned once again, he was thrilled. Each time I kept turning 180 degrees, showing him the various items of interest, and believe you me, it was a wonder to see his eyes! Filled with amazement and pure, simple joy.
We had steaming hot chukku kapi (ginger coffee, it tasted like ginger tea, actually ), but hot and yummy and I took one more to help cure my sore throat.
The breeze was getting stronger and the tea was flying from the cup itself!
Soon it started getting darker by the minute as clouds suddenly gathered up right above us. We reluctantly decided to pack up early. Since it was a long time before dinner, we decided to go to CitiCenter, Chennai's by-now-famous mall.
DH's BIL from Dubai wanted to give it a 'dekko', and someone mentioned that the kids would enjoy as they have a "fun-city" in there. I've been to CitiCenter before but not seen the Fun city part of it.
Each one got onto their bikes or into autorickshaws and we reached Citi center. After refreshing ourselves (looked into the mirror and saw our hair all over the place! - due to the breeze), we started strolling in the mall.
At Lifestyle, the kids as expected stopped at the toys section. Seemed like the respective parents were in no mood to spend, so we all did some toys-window-shopping and moved on. It was a Sunday, so the mall was jam-packed as expected. We just skipped the shops and went straight to the top-most floor to "FunCity" ... yippeee .. the kids were delighted!
This place turned out to be a small area with so many varieties of card and coin-operated games. My SIL had a couple of cards in her purse. We purchased some amount "points" to add on to these so we could play the various games. This place was like crazy! Though one game is situated next to the other, just to move across you had to turn sideways and try to get across. Just packed with kids and adults alike, all engrossed in trying to win a few "tickets". You can purchase a gift with these tickets.
DH tried a game where one can test their physical strength by banging a huge hammer down on an anvil which gives a score. The score is anywhere from 1 to 15. I held the hammer to see whether I should try but gave it back to him in a moment.. this game was not for me! DH and his BIL kept taking turns on this and enjoyed themselves. Men can be quite vain about their physical strength.
An hour passed by very quickly and we had to usher the children out. After picking up their gifts, we moved on to have dinner. All had decided on simple idly-dosa type fare as they were tired of having non-veg every second day since a week. Being a veg, I was only too happy that I do not have to see all eating n-veg stuff yet again!
We decided to eat at Saravana Bhavan at Mylapore. Most of them moved on on their bikes. But four of us, DH, SD, my SIL's SIL and myself decided to walk as it was barely 15 mins. away. DH and SD have a habit of running a race on the road/footpath when we take such walks. So they ran, halted, ran again. Both had aching knees the next morning!
I passed Chithra m'am's (Chitvish)'s lane, and turned to look if she was around but did not spot her.
On the way, pizza was bought for the kids as they insisted when passing "Pizza Hut".
Finally we reached Saravana Bhavan, but had to wait for some time - it being a Sunday and dinner time, the place was crowded. Kids had their pizzas, and we adults had dosas, parottas and idly. Topped it off with paans for us all and ice-cream lollies for the bacche-log.
Since it was already past 10 and kids had school the next morning, we said our good-byes quickly, boarded our respective transportation and came home. The tiny tot who was with us feel asleep in the auto itself.. he was tired after a most entertaining evening.
It was going to be 12 of us, DH, me and my step-daughter, my SIL and her family (her DH is here on a short holiday from Dubai), and finally her SIL, co-sis and family. I was reluctant at first to go along, but DH coaxed me into joining in. But I'm glad that I did go as it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings in the recent past.
The guys had all decided to jump into the water and came all geared up with towels and a change of clothes. To add to the fun and games were a few kites and a football. And of course, the bacche-log by themselves are fun and games, na?!
As soon as we reached the beach and started walking towards the water, I looked up and behold! I saw a rainbow in the sky!!! Half a rainbow actually. I yelled out for everyone to see it.. and we kept looking up and walking, admiring the array of colours!!
And then the water.. it was grey and fierce! Slashing the slanting shore with slathering sounds... The waves came fast and furious and not many ventured out into the sea to wet their feet even. The whole scene looked sinister and scary. It was in sharp contrast to the lovely rainbow.
Seeing this, the guys dropped their plans of setting foot into the water as the kids would definitely not want to be left behind, so we did not want to take a risk. Two of the kids were quite tiny as well as the most stubborn of the lot, hence better to be safe than sorry.
Wasting no time, the kites were brought out. DH and SD started playing catch with the football. Rest of us took turns flying the huge kites. The strong breeze was great for them and they kept flying higher, joining the many other kites on the beach.
I took hold of one of the tiny tots - 2.5 years old - and started showing him the kites his father was flying. He started grinning. Horses on the beach were galloping past back and forth. Showed him those, yet again he grinned, this time with awe, saying tik-tok, tik-tok. Then came a man and his monkey. When I pointed out this to the kiddo, he grinned once again, he was thrilled. Each time I kept turning 180 degrees, showing him the various items of interest, and believe you me, it was a wonder to see his eyes! Filled with amazement and pure, simple joy.
We had steaming hot chukku kapi (ginger coffee, it tasted like ginger tea, actually ), but hot and yummy and I took one more to help cure my sore throat.
The breeze was getting stronger and the tea was flying from the cup itself!
Soon it started getting darker by the minute as clouds suddenly gathered up right above us. We reluctantly decided to pack up early. Since it was a long time before dinner, we decided to go to CitiCenter, Chennai's by-now-famous mall.
DH's BIL from Dubai wanted to give it a 'dekko', and someone mentioned that the kids would enjoy as they have a "fun-city" in there. I've been to CitiCenter before but not seen the Fun city part of it.
Each one got onto their bikes or into autorickshaws and we reached Citi center. After refreshing ourselves (looked into the mirror and saw our hair all over the place! - due to the breeze), we started strolling in the mall.
At Lifestyle, the kids as expected stopped at the toys section. Seemed like the respective parents were in no mood to spend, so we all did some toys-window-shopping and moved on. It was a Sunday, so the mall was jam-packed as expected. We just skipped the shops and went straight to the top-most floor to "FunCity" ... yippeee .. the kids were delighted!
This place turned out to be a small area with so many varieties of card and coin-operated games. My SIL had a couple of cards in her purse. We purchased some amount "points" to add on to these so we could play the various games. This place was like crazy! Though one game is situated next to the other, just to move across you had to turn sideways and try to get across. Just packed with kids and adults alike, all engrossed in trying to win a few "tickets". You can purchase a gift with these tickets.
DH tried a game where one can test their physical strength by banging a huge hammer down on an anvil which gives a score. The score is anywhere from 1 to 15. I held the hammer to see whether I should try but gave it back to him in a moment.. this game was not for me! DH and his BIL kept taking turns on this and enjoyed themselves. Men can be quite vain about their physical strength.
An hour passed by very quickly and we had to usher the children out. After picking up their gifts, we moved on to have dinner. All had decided on simple idly-dosa type fare as they were tired of having non-veg every second day since a week. Being a veg, I was only too happy that I do not have to see all eating n-veg stuff yet again!
We decided to eat at Saravana Bhavan at Mylapore. Most of them moved on on their bikes. But four of us, DH, SD, my SIL's SIL and myself decided to walk as it was barely 15 mins. away. DH and SD have a habit of running a race on the road/footpath when we take such walks. So they ran, halted, ran again. Both had aching knees the next morning!
I passed Chithra m'am's (Chitvish)'s lane, and turned to look if she was around
but did not spot her.On the way, pizza was bought for the kids as they insisted when passing "Pizza Hut".
Finally we reached Saravana Bhavan, but had to wait for some time - it being a Sunday and dinner time, the place was crowded. Kids had their pizzas, and we adults had dosas, parottas and idly. Topped it off with paans for us all and ice-cream lollies for the bacche-log.
Since it was already past 10 and kids had school the next morning, we said our good-byes quickly, boarded our respective transportation and came home. The tiny tot who was with us feel asleep in the auto itself.. he was tired after a most entertaining evening.
Total Comments 21
Comments
-
Hasitha,
Nice to know your outings at the Beach..the contrast scene of rainbow and grey waters..the kid's amusement when seeing new things...your visit to the mall .. passing through our Chitvish's house...dinner at Saravana Bhavan..a very nice jist of what happened on the sunday..
Enjoyed it a lot..
sriniketanPosted 13th November 2008 at 05:55 AM by Sriniketan
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Hasita,
Nice to know you had a great evening..the color of the rainbow and the greys of the fury of the sea are see in your words...you should have given chitvish a call....
enjoyed along....Posted 13th November 2008 at 06:00 AM by Shanvy 
- Hasita,
Nice to know you had a great evening..the color of the rainbow and the greys of the fury of the sea are see in your words...you should have given chitvish a call....
enjoyed along....Posted 13th November 2008 at 06:01 AM by Shanvy -
Hasita
This is a wonderful treat for me.. I too went along with you to Gandhi beach and had chukku coffee with you.. very good narration. Liked the drive to the mall and then to saravana bhavan.. thanks dear. I felt like I went on a sight seeing trip with you.
Only doubt is you mentioned step daughter where did she go and at the end you say the tiny tot is a he.. so could not follow that small part. Thanks for writing.. really good!Posted 13th November 2008 at 06:59 AM by Anandchitra - Well written, Hasita.
Marina Beach is a place for everyone. In a city starved of open places, Marina provides a relief for children to run around and play. Just watching the waves, sitting along the shores, is a pleasure.Posted 13th November 2008 at 09:16 AM by Nivedi
