Beach Volleyball World Championships: Elliots Beach

The World Championships are on. (28 Sep- 2 Oct)

In two weeks the beach is transformed to a make shift stadium and about 80 teams, men's and women's worldwide have descended on the golden sands. Chennai now seems a second Goa. There are 34 countries participating, with 190 players in all. There is a food court, DJs, a large LCD screen displays the action to the streets outside.

The last time the World Championships happened in 2008, the moral police descended on the games... the WOMEN's games of course, saying that scantily clad ladies would harm our "culture". This time nothing of that sort happened and Chennai is showing the world what many other cities in India cant do. Get a World Championship going without hitches and glitches and snakes and collapses (is Delhi listening?) or moral policing (Mumbai, Kolkata, or any damn place in India for that matter, learn some lessons here). A game is a game and the spirit is what matters.

The contestants dont mind the heat and sun and humidity. They say they have played in hotter places, come from more humid countries, and after all this is their job, to play on the beach... and they love every moment of it. They love Elliots Beach too, by the way. Im so proud.

Tickets are available on Elliots Beach from 2 pm to 10 pm.

(The pics are from 2008. I could not get my camera and go there, even though its stones throw from my house. I hope to do so soon)

Chennai Beach on a cloudy day

View of the sea from the apartment

Sunset from the terrace

The Theosophical Society Grounds

More Wall Art- Elliots Beach

Beach Art- Eliots Beach, Besant Nagar

Want Fish?

As a Bengali in Chennai, one of my first endeavors was to find out where fresh water fish is sold. Of course if you are looking for sea fish you can plop on to any market or sea side shack. Besant Nagar beach has a thriving bustling fish market. But fresh water fish still comes from Andhra Pradesh and is not readily available.

Adyar has a fresh fish stall, very clean and well maintained, with a resident kitten. So sweet. They have the Bengali favourites like Rui, Katla, Pomfret and Prawns, apart from sardines, parshe and all shapes and sizes of fishes otherwise. They also have the eternal favourtie Ilish sometimes.

The location of the fish stall is on LB Road, near the Murugan Stores and Telephone Exchange. The prices are not high. In fact sometimes it is cheaper than Kolkata prices, which is logical as Kolkata also gets fish from Andhra and its a lot farther than Chennai is.