My very first encounter with the Sea
was at the age of little over two, at Machilipatnam/Bandar beach, of which I am reminded
only through photographs. However, at the age of nine when I first went to the
Marina beach and the beach at Mahabalipuram in Madras, the majestic beauty of
the forces of the Sea, the waves, the wind and the soft sandy beaches made a
great impact on me. Since then I always longed to be at a beach, spend time
gazing at the sea, walk along the shore in the soft sand and water.
Fortunately, this was possible at regular intervals. While at college I mostly
visited the Marina beach at Madras and Malpe beach near Udupi in Karnataka.
Then it was other beaches as well, in Bombay, Vishakhapatnam, Goa, Pondicherry,
Cochin, Kanyakumari, Rameswaram, Somnath, VGP Golden beach, at Hiroshima and Miyajima in
Japan, at Pattaya and Coral Island (Koh Larn) in Thailand, St. Mary's Island, and now at Puri and Konark. This means I have frequented beaches on the Bay
of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Inland Sea of Japan, and the South China Sea. And from young
age stories and novels related to Sealife and adventures at Sea fascinated me.
Fortunately, my wife too shares the same feelings about the Sea.
This time we have gone on a five-day vacation to Bhubaneswar,
Puri and Konark to visit the great Temples there and spend time at the beaches
in Puri and Konark. While at a beach, I have a feeling that there is nothing
better than the Sea… there is no place quite as relaxing, beautiful or pleasant,
and no place that combines simple pleasures in enjoying nature and unplugging
from daily work-driven realities. The beach helps in recharging…great amount of
happiness and energy. A lonely beach or one with few people enjoying the view
and the waves is OK for me but surely not an overcrowded one.
The happy and peaceful pleasure apart, there is also scientific
evidence of the good the Sea and the beach can do. Firstly the sunshine is a
great source of Vitamin D perhaps much more than a glass of milk. Also,
sunlight has been shown to decrease depression. Secondly, the beach sand is a
natural exfoliant. Everyone loves to walk on the beach and feel very
comfortable. This is because there are somewhere between 3,000 and 7,000 nerve
endings in each foot that awaken when you walk across those tiny grains. Wet
sand acts as a natural exfoliant and peels off dead skin cells from your feet,
and from anywhere else on your body, leaving them renewed and much softer. This
gives about that comfortable feeling. Lastly, I have heard that the sand and
the waves as they hit rheumatoid arthritis patients at the beach, they too
begin to feel better.
The attached photographs are from our recent visit to the beaches at Puri and Konark in Odisha State:
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