The Western Coast of peninsular India boasts of many beaches, starting from Kovalam in Kerala, Ullal and Murudeshwar in Karnataka, and Alibaug near Mumbai. The Konkan Coast too has many magnificent beaches but are not very famous. Into this list will fit Murud, a sleepy village situated in Raigad District of Maharashtra. Not many people know about the existence of this fantastic beach, so quiet and so secluded that it looked like one of the private beaches of Rich & Famous.

The photograph above was taken on a Sunday evening. Can you imagine Juhu or Marina ever like this? We were the only people on the beach disturbing the waves but we had hordes and hordes of sea gulls keeping us company. The raucous cry of the gulls served to break the monotony of the waves as they rushed in to wipe our sacrilegious foot-prints on the pristine pure sands. The birds as usual were very skittish and wouldnt let me come closer than 30 feet. I will spend half an hour sitting still so the birds will get used to my presence and think of me as a harmless feature on the beach. But the moment I raised my camera to my eyes, all of them will take off, objecting in chorus about their Sunday afternoon peace getting spoiled. All of them will weave a large circle or two and descend again, fifty feet away, and I would resume my rock on the beach act. That is till I gave up and had to be content with a shot of them taking off.

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Murud is 165 kms from Mumbai and has hotels and cottages to stay. But food can be a problem especially if you are a vegetarian. It is a very fishy economy and the local folk seem to eat fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner

The village is from where one takes off to visit the historic Janjira Fort but that, as the Colonel will say in Irma La Douce, is another story.

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