Not that diary

I could have spent several days or weeks just looking at the seaside activities that form a part of the typical day at Papanasam beach in Varkala. I must start by admitting that I only caught the sunrise once. That too from my room which faced the Arabian Sea and was close enough to hear the waves crashing all through the night. The sun rise was lovely but my pillow felt lovelier so I went back for a snooze! Had I ventured out before the crack of dawn I would have seen a dozen or more priests create little mounds of sand and prepare the prayer material for religious visitors who arrive at dawn to perform specific rituals.   This is what the scene is like just before breakfast time when the priests have started their prayers. Around the same time local fishermen who have been parked out in the sea the night before come back with a haul of fresh fish. We saw the dots of light every night where their tiny boats were bobbing up and down on the huge...

  A few weeks ago, with moderate encouragement from my sister, I found myself at the seaside town and health resort of Varkala in Kerala. After an hour’s taxi ride from Trivandrum we found ourselves at Papanasam Beach (Paap = Sin, Nasam/ Nasham = Destroy). There are two legends about this beach. The first is that Brahma (creator of the universe in Hindu mythology) instructed a Pandyan king to build a temple here to wash away sins. The second legend is that Narada, at the request of some pilgrims who confessed wrongdoing, threw his valkalam (piece of cloth) and it landed here where pilgrims now come to dip in the holy waters. This post is about the sandy beach and the lovely surroundings which you cannot miss. A more tongue-in-cheek take on Varkala is saved till my next post!   If slowing down is what you need (and I sure did) then this was the perfect place for it. Luckily we arrived towards the end of the tourist season so ...