At the beach

What is there to say, really, about the beach?  It's great! It's relaxing! There is always too much sun! But there are waves and there are restaurants and we got this really good deal, so we are happy, happy, happy!  Goa is mostly too noisy and alcoholic and drug soaked for us, but we have found a quiet beach (Palolem, in south Goa) which serves great tandoori fish and we are paying a FRACTION of the usual cost (lots of places around here cost 1000 and 1500 rupees - we're paying 350! - picture me dancing  - Nathan is getting very good at bargaining), so things are good!

 

Nathan has great memories of going to the beach as a kid.  He tans like a chocolate chip.  The sun has never been MY friend and it was always inculcated to me that the sun is EVIL, so my beach tradition is somewhat (!) less than Nathan's, but still, I know how to swim and catch a wave (on a boogie board, not a surf board). 

 

The Indians don't really have a cultural tradition of the beach, here in India.  At least, they don't really act like they do.  Bathing suits, for instance, are not "de rigueur" for Indian ladies.  They go in fully clothed, in their saris.  And they don't really go in past their knees.  The kids, who also go in with all their clothes on, all hold hands, stay in a group, and scream and shout when the baby waves hit them behind the knees.  I mean BABY waves.  It's very cute.  Cute, but loud. 

 

And I begin to understand why these people don't have a beach culture.  First of all, they don't really know how to swim .  I mean, there are no public pools in the cities, except at the fancy hotels, where the vast majority of the populace here does not go.  So they don't really have the opportunity to have swimming lessons.  Maybe this will change soon, with the increase in middle class here in India, but really, the facilities would have to be built, and in such a crowded place, where there is such a shortage of water, it would be practically criminal to erect a bunch of pools.  But, perhaps it is criminal everywhere, considering the water situation in the world. 

 

So water shortage, poverty, lack of swimming knowledge...all good reasons not to have a beach culture. The other thing is, the Indians really value light skin (this is why I'm such a big hit here).  So they're not going to go to the beach to get a good tan.  They're already tanned.  They have tans that most light skinned people (like me) would kill for.  So, another reason not to go to the beach.  And yet, they have this huge coastline. 

 

Such irony.

ACDB