Sleepy Nuem

Nuem is a little hamlet near Kananguinim in South Goa. Its tiny beach nestles in a cove where you can stand just waist deep for a long stretch into the water. The action of the tides is performed here like in a theatre. You can sit on the stone walls that frame the little beach and watch kids playing cricket and football one moment and then a few hours later watch the waves gambol and do their own thing in the same arena.

Up on that hilly plateau stands mining machinery rusting away. The strata here is rich in iron ore and was being mined upto a decade ago. The remains of a chute can be seen at the top and barge loading equipment lies around at the base of the hill. It's great walking up the hillock; you are rewarded with a magnificent view of the sea and the little chapel near the beach.

Once we came here for a Sunday picnic and found the chapel feast mass in progress. I walked up to the plateau with the kids and watched the confraria in procession around the chapel, with a lovely Konkani hymn being played stridently. We climbed to the top of the plateau. I saw a few burnt out coconut leaf fronds on the ground. With no electric power on this barren top, villagers must be using these dried fronds as torches for their nocturnal journeys. Just as in the ancient days.

As we walked down I showed the children a hillside cave. They walked in happily until I told them it was the lair of a tiger. They walked out cautiously, in great awe.

The jagged rocks lying around the beach are rich in iron ore. They have been battered by the seawaves for centuries and are now as sharp as razor blades, well almost!

My feet share a moment with the tiny insects that scutter around the sands bedore zipping back into their holes. Folks all over the world are not aware of this, but the dog in the pic below is actually the Happiest Dog in the World! He also thinks he is cooler than Snoop Doggy Dogg....

The tide has run out and a palm fringed highway stretches out before us. Up ahead villagers have laid a palm trunk across to act as a natural bridge. Just get your balacing act right, else you'll end up in the drink alright.

And God so loved this place that he hired a bunch of clams to form a Hard Rock Heart. The shells haven't yet finished their job, but they are getting there...