Beach: this third place in Chennai makes room for everyone

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Youngsters relaxing at the Besant Nagar Beach. | Photo Credit: Johan Sathyadas J.

When we talk about the spaces beyond home and work where social life happens, we are really talking about ‘third places’ where you can unwind after a long day, meet people habitually, build longer conversations, put the phone down, take a breather, and most importantly, just be. At a time when social isolation and the loneliness epidemic have become talking points, the idea of a third place feels relevant.

For a Chennaiite, even as pedestrian plazas with mini-music concerts, parks, gyms, and cafes flood the city, there is something about the coast that hits different. As you walk barefoot on the sands of Marina, it shape-shifts into a picnic spot and reading room, a place for frisbees riding the wind and watercolour workshops, cricket mornings and bhajji breaks , people thronging to watch screenings of cricket matches or cozy up for a moonlight cinema; you realise the beach becomes a little bit of everything for everyone.

On a Sunday morning, as some play and skip at the beach, gynaecologist Sarah Nazneen and her husband Muhammed Naleem paint on their canvases with 10 other people. “We conduct art workshops here every weekend. It is mostly about watching the sunrise and painting leisurely to relax ourselves,” says Dr. Nazneen. “We found that many across age groups want to show up for our beach workshops. We make sure to clean the spot after we finish, of course,” she adds.

As much as the beach is a playground, and perhaps a gym, it is also a vast reading room for this poet from Arakkonam — Balachandar. He always carries a book when he drops by Elliot’s Beach for the Bessy Reads initiative. “If I read elsewhere in public, somehow attention still falls on me, but reading at the beach makes me feel invisible in the grand scheme of things, which is what I want. You also don’t need to come here with an agenda. Even though cafes count as third spaces, you still have to look presentable, but that doesn’t ever apply to the beach. It is very liberating and there is no sort of rush to leave.”

Seeing college students gathering by the tide and sharing corn fritters, the corporate crowd unclenching their jaws to the sound of waves, senior citizens ambling along the shore, and families spilling into the seating areas on the Blue Flag stretch of Marina, one realises that in those unpretentious spaces, there is no need to be useful. And somewhere along the coast, the beaches are where the city collectively lets out one long, pent-up sigh.

Chennai / arts, culture and entertainment / Made of Chennai / Madras Week

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