[Mystic]

The captioned subject had been on my mind for the past 5 decades to capture the beauty in photos. It was a big deal to do the same in the world of no internet and no smart phones to easily capture HD photos. After having just returned from San Diego enjoying the beauty of the Pacific walking on the trails on the coastline, I thought of publishing the same on my home land capturing the same experience with Bay of Bengal. Why calling my adda is that when my friends come to our house to meet and find that I am not there, they usually donot wait for my parents to tell where I am. They come directly to the concrete wall on the beach road where I am hanging around with friends.

It is morning 4 am and this is the time we usually wake up on most days as a legacy from previous generations. As today is a photo shoot day, had to wait until 5.30 am for dawn and I started my Jimny. My wife wondering on why take a car to a place few feet from our house. I told her that today, I am going to capture my adda in camera to share on teambhp and I want my Jimny to be part of photo shoot. My Jimny after having connected the battery negative terminal due to extended stay in USA, started in an instant but the gear lever refused to move from P to D. I thought the car is angry with me that I left it unused for a while. I started reading as usual teambhp pages for an instant solution but could not find a relevant thread. My wife using natural built in Indian Juggad brain told me to make jerk to the little car by just moving the seat back and forth. The gear lever immediately came to D. Who said my wife is not a petrolhead?.

I have been going on this beach road since my engineering college days in early 80s with my Bajaj Chetak every day religiously even on the days of having fever. After engineering, I decided to not leave our beloved Alma Mater called Andhra University College of Engineering which was established before our Independence by spending in the campus for a decade doing research in structural engineering. But money is not easy to come by staying in Visakhapatnam and how do I sponsor my son for his UG in USA without earning Forex. I with a heavy heart left my adda for 3 decades in search of forex across dozens of countries. Now I thought enough is enough as my only child has already become a professor in USA. I took a volunteer retirement from the rat race to spend my sunset years at my adda ( back to pavilion ) watching sunrise everyday including the days when it drizzles ( go for walking with an umbrella).

Fortunately, Visakhapatnam has changed over the decades becoming a smart city and a clean city to our delight. Even the beach road from palm beach to Ramakrishna beach is closed for traffic from 4 am to 7 am so that walkers especially the retired lot can have meetings in the middle of the road without the nuisance of usual traffic. The same road in the evening is so busy that one cannot find a parking place bustling with crowd even on working days as if there is a permanent fair on the beach road.

The photos are self explanatory capturing the natural beauty but recently, a lot of tourist attractions have been built by Indian Navy on the beach road and also they have an annual Navy day celebration in December for the public to see our mighty Navy.

The last photo was taken in the evening at our adda when the sky suddenly changed colours for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, it was back to normal.

[Mystic]

This is how it looks like on a Sunday. Lot of activities with thousands of walkers.

[alpha1]

This evokes immense nostalgia.
I stayed and worked in this coastal city some two decades ago ...
My memories fail me a bit, but this coastal road area was almost as clean, neat, well-constructed as your current photo depict!

The road from Sewage treatment plant to Rushikonda beach was starting to get widened (hill side area). We always use to remark that Visakh and the neighborhood has that "hollywood" feel with sea-coast adjacent to the smooth winding roads, beach or cliff on one side of the road and uphill slope on the other side

[Mystic]

Some events happening at my adda. Beach cleaning equipment with fat tyres for the important event.

[Mystic]

Some photos from today’s rehearsal of Indian Navy operations.

The Indian Navy's Operational Demonstration (Op Demo) is an annual event that showcases the Navy's combat prowess and capabilities. The 2025 Op Demo will take place on January 4 at RK Beach in Visakhapatnam.

The event will feature a variety of activities, including:

High-speed maneuvers by warships

Flying operations by aircraft

Amphibious assault demonstration

Live slithering operations

Combat free fall by marine commandos

Horn pipe dance by the Sea Cadets Corps

Beating Retreat Ceremony by the ENC band

[Kkumar]

Vow, what an excellent way to spend the retirement life. Nice to see such wonderful infrastructure in your part of the country. Thank you for sharing.

[Mystic]

Today is the D Day for the Naval Demo - Jan 4, 2025. I am happy to say the police did a wonderful job for managing the crowd. I think they perfected the technique as this show has been happening for decades every year. The timings are from evening 4 to 6 pm and the weather is perfect.

This reminded me of the Chennai air show recently on marina beach where there was a stampede resulting in some lives lost and to add fuel to fire, the weather was extremely hot in the mid day of the air show.

Some photos below: