Vacation in Tarkarli

This is long over due - I made a weekend trip to Tarkarli a month back with friends of friends who quickly became friends. The train leaked, the sky remained dark, and I had a cold and fever. We stayed at the MTDC resort on the beach and it was a really neat experience. The place is in the middle of nowhere and I had fun. Some pics here.

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Sand between her toes

She loved her evening walks along the beach. She had loved her walks along the beach for as long as she could remember. Growing up in a small seaside town, she accompanied her grandfather to the sea shore everyday. Her tiny hand in his gnarled old hand, she felt safe, and the soft sand made her feel like she was walking on the softest of cotton. When she came to the city to study, she missed her town and its beaches. She missed the sand on her bare feet, and she missed her family. Eventually she got married and moved to another city, far from the sea. She watched while their new house was built, and her husband made a pretty garden, but the sand remained in her memory. She went on short trips to the sea with her husband, and hated it when she had to go back home. Her kids grew older, and went off to college, and the house became empty again. She was no longer in love with her husband, and she knew he felt the same. They had frequent arguments, and made no efforts to make up. One day, as she watched her husband stumble home during the day, she knew something terrible had happened. Her younger son, the apple of his father's eye, had been killed in a motorcycle accident.

Of course, she never remembered any of this now. Medicines made her groggy all the time and she did not recognize the walls where she now lived. All she knew was she was grateful to the kind man who held her hand and walked silently with her along the meandering shore, and looked at her with amused eyes as she stopped every once in a while to feel the soft sand push itself up between her toes.

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