A Beach for Every Season

“At the beach life is different, time doesn’t move hour to hour, but mood to movement. We live by the currents, play by the tides and follow the sun.” – Sandy Gingras 

The beaches along the Indian-Arabian Sea coastline represent an eclectic mix of activities in the public domain. The dynamics of these diverse activities relate to the context in which these beaches are nested. Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) has three distinct pristine beaches along its coastline i.e., Kovalam Lighthouse, Varkala and Shangumugham. These beaches express a distinctive way of life, which reflect the socio-cultural fabric of its society. The Kovalam Lighthouse Beach is popular among Indian tourists as it offers scenic views of the light house and pedestrian promenade with restaurants and shopping. The Varkala Beach, towards the north of the city, is popular among foreign tourists who are enthusiastic surfers, paragliders and sunbathers. The Shangumugham Beach is popular with the locals as it acts as a family leisure destination.

The Poetic Sunset

The Lighthouse Beach at Kovalam is a visual delight with the picturesque landscape of a curved shoreline, a groove of palm trees and a lighthouse at the far end on a rocky outcrop. The beach is defined by a pedestrian walkway with cafes, curio shops, homestays and hotels to fit all budgets. Kovalam got its initial patronage from Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi of Travancore, who constructed Halcyon Castle as a royal retreat for the family in 1932. Kovalam got onto the tourist map of India after the establishment of the Kovalam Beach Resort designed by architect Charles Correa in 1974.

The beach is located south of Thiruvananthapuram, about 16 kms along the National Highway 47 Bypass Road. It is a must visit destination for any tourist. By nature of its location, the beach is more structured and oriented for travelers from other parts of India and abroad. As it is situated away from the city, it is less popular with the locals.

The Backpackers Paradise

Popular with the backpackers’ community, Varkala Beach is a delight for travelers from outside India. It is also recognized as a destination for adventure sport enthusiasts and sunbathers. The strong winds and high waves along this part of the coastline are ideal for surfing and paragliding. It has a very active and vibrant nightlife with cafes and live bands playing music of different genres from rock to the blues. Interestingly, the pedestrian promenade along the high cliff is dotted with several cafes serving European cuisine. After sunset, these cafes are teeming with tourists having a good time. The souvenir shops found between these cafes sell Indian handloom and handicraft products from all parts of the country like the Pashmina shawls of Kashmir, Bandhani and Pithora folk art works of Gujarat and granite sculptures from Tamil Nadu.

The geography of the beach is very unique as it sits on the lower level of a cliff. The Varkala Cliff along the beach gives this place an interesting landscape and morphological character. It is an 80-foot-high red laterite cliff formation where sediments belonging to the Mio-Pliocene Age (1.3 million to 25 million years ago) have been exposed. Thus, the Varkala Cliff is the site of a distinct geological heritage.

The Beach with A Local Flavor

Shangumugham Beach is next to the Trivandrum Airport and forms the physical edge of the city along the Arabian coastline. The beach has remnants of history dotted on it with 300-year-old Mandapas for religious rituals and royal rest houses of the erstwhile Travancore Kingdom. It is along a straight line, which runs parallel to the road that connects the airport to the city. The very fact that it is one of the large public spaces for the city makes it attractive for the local residents to unwind and catch the cool breeze in the evenings. This beach gets crowded, especially on the weekends.

The beach is quiet in the mornings; one can find only local fishermen going about their everyday routines: parking their catamarans, drying their nets and fishing. The fisherwomen are busy selling their fresh catch of the day along the roadside. Activity picks up around 4 in the afternoon when young adults and kids hang out after school hours in groups enjoying the sea breeze. A few kids engage in volleyball, soccer, cricket and kite flying. In a while, the street vendors start trickling in from the neighboring fishermen’s enclave. The roadside vendors serve a variety of street food like sliced raw mango (Manga), gooseberry (Nelli), Chickpeas Masala (Kadala Masala), filter coffee (Kaapi), tea (Kattan chaya), bhajjis of different kinds made with bananas, chillies, onions and potatoes. Local brands of ice-cream and colour soda are quite popular. By 7 pm, when the sea breeze sets in, the family crowd begins occupying the public space.

One can find young couples with toddlers, elderly citizens, middle-aged couples and teenagers all occupying the public realm and enjoying their evening at the beach. 

One particular observation to be made is that there are only a few people actively engaging with water on the beach, as taking a dip in the sea is not common in the local tradition of having a good family time. Thus, the sea, the sunset and the starry night are enjoyed as a visual spectacle. 

On the weekends the beach gets festive with seasonal activities like the circus, local music bands and special festival markets. One also gets to see a string of twinkling lights of fishing boats on the horizon after sunset. By 9 pm, the last of the hawkers head back to their hamlets as the crowd dwindles and the beach goes quiet, only to be animated again at the onset of dawn. It is like an urban landscape where the paint never dries.

The Leap of Faith

The King’s Palace, the ritualistic Mandapas, street hawkers, vendors, fisherfolk, school kids, families, senior citizens and even the odd pony and camel on the beach ‘performing’ in the public space reflect local sensibilities. The socio-cultural space of the local beaches gives it a unique identity, which is very much rooted in the life of the city. With the intention of image-engineering the civic space, the State and society should be sensitive in retaining its pluralistic nature. The Shangumugham Beach is truly the ‘people’s place’ where the social and economic divisions of society get blurred. It also has a true sense of a place as argued by Christian Norberg Schulz in the book Genius Loci.