Marina

It was the eve of a Friday. Me and my friends, Nanda and Ragavendar, boarded a train and headed towards Ritchie Street, hoping to retrieve a camera we had given there for repair. We carried enough money to settle the expenses, and a few extra bucks that would come in handy if we built an appetite along the way.

We got off the train and journeyed on foot towards the shop. The walk was long and tiresome. Our hunger levels started crossing wildest expectations, but we were bound to keep our desires in check. We had a job in hand.

We paid the camera guy his wages and had about 200 Rupees to spare. Surely it wasn't enough to feed the three of us satisfactorily. We were as hungry as a bear. With a mighty effort, we tamed our raging tummies. We had to. We had other plans in mind.

Ragavendar had suggested that the seashore would be a wonderful place to spend the evening. It also came with plenty of food stalls. I thought it was a brilliant idea. We started heading towards it once the job was done. The walk back to the station exhausted us, but we managed to board a train somehow.

A short while later we were on the shores of Marina. It was a little before dusk and a full moon glorified the evening sky. It was a marvellous sight, but it took little of our notice. We had something else pressing our minds, Food.

We were very careful in spending the little money we had. We thought of buying a two litre bottle of Pepsi, but that would have dented the budget and left us with no money to eat. So we contented ourselves with a bottle of cool water. We then started strolling on the loose sand towards a food stall that lay ahead of us. The cool winds wiped the perspiration off of our foreheads.

We ordered a plate of bhaji for each of us and gobbled it down like a pack of hungry dogs. We ordered a few more, but our appetites grew insatiable  We soon ran out of money and had to force ourselves to stop. The only money we had left was for the journey back.

We then decided to move closer to the sea to have a clear view of the torrents. Night time had fallen upon us. The moon had the whole place dimly lit. The breeze grew stronger as we moved forward and a beautiful sight awaited us. The moonlight was so intense that the seawater glimmered in it, forming a patch of light on the tides. It almost looked as if there was a highway laid on the seas. I have never seen a view as such. We lingered near the salty waters for a while, admiring the scene. The shore that stretched to left of us appeared as if engulfed in fog- with yellow lights, from the food stalls, emanating from it. The winds from the ocean were making our times memorable.

Later we sat on the sands, a few feet away from the water, took a collective deep breath and eased our muscles. Even if I had been alone at a place as such, I would have had a good time; being with my friends made it better. We had the usual chit chat, passed jokes, laughed and had the time of our lives. The occasional gusts delighted us. A kid approached us with a tin of snacks and pleaded us to buy some. We weren't able to get him to leave, not until we promised him that we had no money left. We had a good laugh about that too.

An hour passed by as such and it was time was for us to bid goodbye to the shores. We dragged our heavy footsteps away from the beach and parted ways, promising each other to spend another evening together at the waterfront in the upcoming future, only next time, with a lot more money.