Tranquebar - The Land of The Singing Waves

For over 200 years, it served as the only Danish outpost in India. Today, ruins of grand colonial structures in the sleepy ozone-rich town of Tranquebar are reminiscent of its glorious past.

- Mary Ann Isaac

In a land forgotten by the world, singing waves tell stories— of voyagers it allured to its golden shores, and of missionaries that changed its cultural landscape. The turquoise waves foaming white bring to shore fishermen in vibrant boats, who sort through the catch in their bright green nets. Look closer and you find them swaying with the palm trees to the tune of Tamil music blaring on their phones. Further down the beach, women dressed in brightly-coloured saris carefully lay down varieties of fish on the sand to dry.

Tranquebar, also referred to as Tharangambadi, stands overlooking the Bay of Bengal in Tamil Nadu. Even on the sunniest day, sunbathers in Tranquebar are shielded from harmful UV rays—owing to the ample ozone present here, at the only ozone-rich beach in India. The drive to the town takes you through nondescript villages that seem to have never caught the wave of modernisation, and yet, exude a unique charm. Homes built with mud and bricks, plastered in cow dung, and sheltered with low-thatched roofs, continue for miles. Plumbing and electricity are almost nonexistent, but there are hand pumps and wells. Lush green paddy fields line the narrow two-lane road till the horizon.