Do you have a favourite place you have visited? Where is it?

I sat on the beach at Kovalam

Watching India go by

For life comes to you

If you sit very long

Beside the Keralan Sea.

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The fishermen first

Will catch your eye

Pushing out their boats.

They cast their nets

Swing back to shore

Dragging the nets behind.

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And the tourists join in

As they pull the nets in

Beside the Keralan sea.

And the cameras click

As they pull the fish out

And they wriggle live on the shore.

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A red and white lighthouse

Surveys the scene

From its perch up on the rock.

And palm trees line

The sandy beach

Along the Keralan shore.

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If it’s shopping you want

There’s no need to move

Besides the Keralan sea.

Sit where you are

No need to shift

The shops will come to you.

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With acres of cloth

Or fruit on their heads

The sellers will come to you.

If it’s not what you want

There are ‘sin’ glasses too

Or reading if you prefer.

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Families come and swim fully clothed

Saris and all in the sea.

They all have such fun

And bring gran along

As they splash and have fun in the sea.

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Nuns will appear,

with children who play

Their habits of every hue

And the whole of the beach

Is a colourful scene

Playing in front of you.

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On a darker note

There are youths who run

With abandon into the sea.

They have made themselves drunk

Have not learned to swim

And all too easily drown.

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Police whistle and shout

And call the kids in

Warning of Kerala’s currents.

If you’ve not learned to swim

You shouldn’t go in

And risk those dangerous tides.

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If you sit long enough

A goat or a cow willwander on up

And want to make friends with you.

You could get bored on a Keralan beach

But God only just how.