Monday, October 14, 2013

Backwaters

It is barely 6 am and the light is wonderful. We are about 30km out of Chennai, on the East Coast Road. The Muttukadu Boat House brings back memories of how a college senior fell into the water just as she was getting off the boat, and how quickly panic gave way to embarrassment on realising that the water was only about waist deep at that time. 

But that was low tide time and it is not to be taken as an excuse to jump into the waters here. Muttukadu was one more of those open stretches of backwaters along the coast, until a boathouse was opened here by the Tamil Nadu Tourism department, about forty years ago. Even then, it had to struggle to keep itself going. The boat rides that would take you under the bridge and then circle back to the pier were thrilling by themselves, but there was nothing more at the spot.

Not that there is much more available now for the typical holidaymaker out for a good time. The boathouse is bigger, some restaurants are nearby and there are different kinds of boats available. This early in the day, however, we were watching the pelicans and the cormorants, as a solitary fisherman punted his way towards the shore. Hope all of them had a good catch!


3 comments:

Hilda said...

Sounds perfect for someone who wants some peace and quiet, and beauty.

Shantaram said...

@Hilda: That's what folks in the apartments out there are hoping for, I guess!

Shridhar Padmanabhan said...

Even about 15 years ago, the water was only waist deep at low tide. Remember bumping into an xl senior here on a sunday, and when i said hi - he said he was hoping to be somewhere i wasn't :-)