A Crabby Day

Just as we arrived at the beach, the light Malvan breeze hit my skin and the briny scent filled my nose. I jumped with excitement and wore my bathing suit, ready to swim in the water. Ever since I was little; I remember always being excited whenever I saw water; be it a swimming pool, a beach or even just a bathtub. That’s why, when I found out that Malvan beaches are some of the most scenic with clean shores, I knew it would be worth every moment of being there. My dad said that there’s always something in every one of the beaches that would make the experience one of a kind. Little did I know that aspect for me would be… crabs?!

As soon as my feet touched the water, I saw a little crab, digging its way out of a hole in the sand. I shrieked! I always found crabs disgusting and their fierce claws made it only worse.

My family hails from the coastal belt so they love their seafood. As family stories go, my grandmother has told me stories of how my dad would tie a string to the crab’s tail and play with it, whenever she bought live crabs for seafood dinner on weekends. Assuming I would enjoy the same, one fine Sunday during my vacation, she came home from seafood shopping and showed me a little live crab. Little did she know that I was different from my dad. It was a sight that curdled my blood. I screamed my lungs out and dashed like a headless chicken from one room to another with the fear of the crab.

And after so many years since that incident, these crabs on the beach brought back that fear. I ran towards the rocks on the beach and sat on top of them constantly keeping an eye for any more crustaceans walking around. In the crab’s defence, these weren’t gross big crabs but rather small white ones. I tried reasoning with myself, “It’s okay Ananya. It’s just one tiny crab smaller than the size of my thumb, it’ll disappear soon enough.”

After about 2 minutes I decided to try going back into the water and looked around, thinking it was over. But how wrong I was. As I looked around, I saw 3-4 more crabs. As I waited and watched, I realised that there were hundreds of tiny little crabs going in and out of the miniscule holes on the sand. I was terror-stricken! There was no way I was stepping anywhere on the sand or taking a dip in the sea.

I could see my parents, all my cousins and uncle and aunts having fun in the water. I was pulled apart because I wanted to enjoy that as well but couldn’t get rid of the fear. My mother kept waving at me to join them. I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. I know they didn’t want me to miss out so my father decided to come towards me to coax me and kept telling me that the crabs are harmless. “Ananya, they’re just a bunch of walking shells. They are not going to do anything to you?” But there was no way anyone would be able to convince me. I wanted to scream and tell everyone that these crabs are horrifying and wanted to ask everyone to just take me home.

But nobody was willing to understand. Sunset was getting closer and the sky was turning into beautiful hues of orange. But I was unable to enjoy the sight. Tears kept streaming down my eyes.

My mother was frustrated and furious with my behaviour. She had hoped that this would be the best day of our vacation for me, knowing how much I loved water. But I couldn’t help it. It was fear deep inside me that made me even tremble.

Finally my grandparents took pity on me and said, “Let’s walk back to our car in the village.”

I had mixed feelings. I had known it would be a memorable experience, but I didn’t expect it to be one in the worst way.

“What memories did you make by just sitting on that rock all day?” As a matter of fact, I went back to it every time we visited a beach. Ever since that day, whenever my feet touched sand, my first thought always has been, “Will there be any crabs here?”