Manjeshwar is a small place just inside the Kerala border as you travel from Karnataka to Kerala on the coastline. Though Kerala is dotted with beaches and some of them are tourist friendly and advertised wildly, the beach at Majeshwar is virgin clean and relatively unexposed to invasions from tourists.
My family and I went there one year end and we were the only four people there. The lovely beach had no plastic bags, or popcorn pieces or even any coconut shells. It was only white foaming water and rocks. Pristine clean and white, we enjoyed the sunset in the solitude. We wrote the outgoing year in the sands and watched fascinated as the waters took the year away, preparing us for the new one. It was fun, being there, just the four of us, with only the setting sun, wind and the sea as our companions.
It was unforgettable, lovely and dreamy. We spoke little, just enjoyed the breeze, the waves as they galloped towards us and took away the past year. We watched as the moon rode over the waves, as the stars began twinkling and there was harldy any artifical lighting, vehicles or tourists.
It was the best possible way to start a new year, away from the maddening crowd, away from the hustle and bustle of the Bombay, away from parties, telephones, newspapers and TV. It was a coccoon for our family, sheltered from the outside world, a life all by ourselves. It was fun, good and unforgettable.