Leave the worry at home & bask in the glory of Tagore beach, Karwar

I have inquisitive eyes that twinkle at the slightest joy. That’s what people tell me at least. And rightly so; my eyes do a lot of talking. And they specially become chatty when I go on a holiday. While on road, they are mostly anxious about what’s going to happen next and perpetually hop from Google Maps to TripAdvisor to the road. When the driver pulls the car over, they get edgy & impatient until they discover that it’s probably nothing; the driver just wanted to take a short break. As soon as the car starts and the tires start rolling, the eyes go back to looking nervous again.

On a fine Tuesday evening of October, they were particularly feeling fidgety. It wasn’t the best day of a 10 day long road trip to northern Karnataka. We were driving on NH 66 from Udupi to Karwar.

Also read: Hidden gems of India: Sparkling Kapu beach of Udupi, Karnataka

National HIghway 66, fromm Udupi to Karwar — National Highway 66, from Udupi to Karwar

We would reach Karwar in another half an hour just in time for an evening snack. Food usually brings respite to my ever restless eyes, but today even that looked impossible. I was enquiring for a nearby restaurant at the reception when a very beautiful lady with well-meaning eyes told me that we could visit Tagore beach that is a 10 minute walk away. A beach might add flavor to an evening snack. So, we started walking our way to the Tagore beach while my eyes scanned the surroundings of a very clean, ordinarily populated town called Karwar.

Within exactly 10 mins and breathing in tons of fresh air, we were on Kanyakumari-Panvel Highway (NH 66), facing the entrance of what looked like a park. My husband looked at me and said, “What are you looking at with such a dumb face? This is it. Let’s go to the beach.”

With my wide eyes, I stepped inside and looked at the strips of green grass on either sides of the cemented pavement. Snacks and balloon vendors sat on the corners of the pavement with kids hovering around them like bees. And in front of us was the beautiful Tagore beach on the shores of Arabian Sea.

img_20161011_181153-01 — Tagore beach, Karwar on Kanyakumari – Panvel Highway (NH 66)

As I reached the beach, I realised that I was no longer hungry for snacks. I sat on the beach near a family who came prepared with a picnic basket and were exchanging jokes – probably about an aunt who wouldn’t stop praising her daughter’s culinary skills or an uncle who has recently discovered the health benefits of quinoa & won’t stop blabbering about it. They were speaking in Kannada but their tone and laughter amused me.

I shifted my glance sideways and spotted a pair of boys digging the sand. They were trying to build castles in sand and were looking at me from the corner of their eyes. When I looked at them, they returned my admiration with half-smiles.

The beach was arousing my curiosity. So, I ran a quick Google search on Tagore beach, Karwar and a few articles later, I came to know why they named it, ‘Tagore beach’. When gurudev (Rabindranath Tagore) was a young, 22 year old boy in the year 1882, his brother Satyendranath Tagore was the district judge of Karwar. This was reason enough for Rabindranath to spend some time in Karwar where he composed his poem, ‘Prakritir Pratisodh (1884)’.

In his book, ‘My Reminiscences (1912)’, he mentioned the influence of Karwar on his work:

“Here in Karwar I wrote the Prakritir Pratishodh (The Ascetic), a dramatic poem. The hero was a Sanyasi (hermit) who had been striving to gain victory over Nature by cutting away the bonds of all desires and affections and thus to arrive at a true and profound knowledge of self. A little girl, however, brought him back from his communion with the infinite to the world and into the bondage of human affection. On so coming back, the Sanyasi realised that the great is to be found in the small, the infinite within the bounds of form, and the eternal freedom of the soul in love. It is only in the light of love that all limits are merged in the limitless.”

“The great is to be found in the small”. What a beautiful line?! Isn’t this the reason why we wish to travel to far flung places – to experience the great – in our short trips. Probably, this is the reason why destiny brought us to this little, beautiful Tagore beach of Karwar. I couldn’t help but smile. I wanted to soak in as much as I could. After all, this was the place that inspired one of the finest poets of all times and found a mention in his books.