Just another friday evening

Our most spectacular evening in Chennai was wandering along the waterfront on a Friday evening. The beach was bustling with young couples, families, and packs of young boys all enjoying the pleasant evening in the wide open space of the beach. However, I found it quite curious that people were still quite concentrated in areas even though there was ample space to spread out. Food stalls busily prepared food-fried veggies and fish, fruit bowls, and drinks for their customers. Ravens pecked through the trash piles and cats wandered below fish stands. Further down the beach, fishing boats and nets replaced people. But where we were, the beach throbbed with activity--carosels spinning girls (in their bright saris) mercilessly to the chugging diesel motor, kites darting across the sky in front of the setting sun, young boys doing flips off a rudimentary springboard and playing around in the surf. People appeared so happy gazing out at the sea, chattering wildly, eating contentedly as the sun set behind their backs over the noisy, congested city. We did not see another westerner all evening on the beach and so enjoyed taking in a seeminly typical evening on the beach in a city of 6 million.