GOA - Day 5

Day 5 : March 6th, 2011

4:10 am. We returned to our resort, got refreshed and packed our things to check out from our rooms. The decorative lights entwined to the trees in the lawn scintillated amidst the darkness in resort. The view from the balcony where we partied was something we would long for. Its been only 4 days we spent in this place and we felt so bad to leave it. I took some last moment pics of the place as other guys were still packing their stuff. We didn't sleep for the entire night as we couldn't lose a minute of those last moments. Clock ticked 5 am. I woke up Dilip and inquired about our cab. He said it was already waiting for us outside the gate!! I asked others to hurry as we had to travel 45 kms to Vasco-da-gama and catch the train scheduled at 7:10am. We handed over our activa keys to Dilip – bikes on which we roamed for about 350kms in 4 days. Oh yes, the petrol which we bought in anticipation a few hours ago was left out and we happily gave it to Dilip. We thanked Dilip, the resort incharge for all his help and wished to come back to this place again.

Way to Vasco

5:15 am. It was a foggy morning. The windows of the cab was moist with due. We dumped our luggage and jammed in the cab. I took the front seat to catch a glimpse of the lanes for one last time. The way to candolim beach, the bars & shops adjacent to lanes on the way to candolim panchayat, the Newtons supermarket where we bought all our fluids, all passed by - only to leave few indelible impressions in our minds. The cab cruised in its way and the adept driver,with all his experience, was maneuvering swiftly in shortcuts especially in blind turns. Our enthusiasm sustained but it was different this time – it was restrained and filled with an air of nostalgia. We gossiped and joked for a while but slowly, our eyelids were dropping as if we were least bothered about our safety. Half-an-hour passed and we reached the outskirts of Vasco. Few got up and then, ofcourse others had to. We recalled all our previous trips : Tirupathi, Cuddapa, Vizag-Araku. We rated Goa as the best of all the trips we made. Boys were particular in mentioning again that Ajay missed all of those trips, a comment which haunted Ajay during this trip. When we were seriously recalling the troubles in Vizag-Araku trip, Purush broke the silence and tried in vain to help Ajay saying, “Ajay, you might not understand these as you have not come to that trip”. A laughter broke out and Ajay groaned saying Purush was better of being silent with his pints. We reached Vasco-da-gama railway station at 6:10 am.

The Breakfast

We knew that train had no pantry and so decided to catch a quick breakfast near the station. Luckily, we found a hotel nearby and dragged our luggage to the hotel. Looks like, we were the first customers. We ordered all that was available to eat in the hotel but other customers started coming in, which delayed the arrival of items on our tables. Clock ticked 6:45am which worried few of our frens, as we wrongly communicated that train timing as 7 am, 10 mins before the actual time. Shankar was done and asked others to continue, saying he would pull the train's chain for others to board. A person in the adjacent table, who understood our language, turned at us surprisingly wishing Shankar to indeed pull the chain so that this fellow could finish his breakfast. We laughed and dragged ourselves to platform.

Twist at last hour !!

The trained didn't arrive yet. Cool. But we didn't find our coach number on the digital display boards on platform. We rechecked and yes, we were sure it was not listed on platform. This meant that we had to search for the entire train with all the heavy luggage we had to find our coach. We thought we were 6 people and so this shouldn't be much of a problem. The train arrived and crowd rushed in. Purush and I stayed back, while others carried their luggage to find the coach at the other end of train. Ravi left his bag with us. Purush and I tried to carry the bag, while carrying our own. Two cops stopped us to search our bags!! Purush and I were shocked to find a nice scotch bottle in Ravi's bag!!. Damn, it was 7 am already and the train was scheduled for departure at 7:10 am. No way this cops will let us go in 10 minutes!!!

Two cops – a senior and junior fellow- asked for permits for carrying liquor bottles. Purush and I were unaware of any permits. We blanked out, thinking,"Oh No..Not again..”. Meanwhile, Shankar joined us and we asked him if he knew about any permit. He said “Yes”. He got it from Newtons, Supermarket where he and other boys happily purchased the Goan branded bottles the previous night to take back home. A momentary relief dawned upon me. This cops will let us go now and we can find our berth was what I thought. But I was wrong !! The cops pointed at the permit license paper showing that the destination written on paper was Orrisa and not A.P. Since we were going to Hyderabad, he would fine us for an invalid permit. Shankar again enacted before cops saying he was unware of Orrisa being written on permit while purchasing in the shop. (Actually, the permits are not given to other states like A.P. And so, shop fellow wrote Orrisa on it which Shankar was aware of). Cops, obviously, wouldn't buy any of our stories and fined us Rs1200 per permit. We had 2 permits and so 2400rs it will be. We could have purchased double the number of bottles in A.P. for such extra fine. The junior cop reminded us of the scarcity of time we had. “Sirf dus minute hein. Gaadi nikal jaayegi”, he kept saying.

Just when I was thinking of a figure to negotiate with the cop, Shankar throwed his figure, “200 Rs”. I blanked out again. Cop was pissed off and aggressively shouted, “2400rs ke liye 200rs ?”. I had a figure in the range of 500rs – 700rs. Before I could put my figure, cop gave us one final chance, “900rs bharo aur niklo. Sirf dus minute hein gaadi ke liye.” I asked Shankar to give whatever cop asked for and end the trouble. Cop scribbled his sign on permit and let us go. We rushed to the other end of the train and grouped with other friends. We explained to them whatever fuss has happened, which left Ajay, Ravi and Purush a little unhappy for having bought the bottles in Goa for extra cost.

The boundless permit

We put the permit matter to rest and were discussing about “Doodh Sagar waterfalls”, the sight of which we can have at around 9.30am. So it was a matter of stretching our sleepless night by 2 more hours. The train halted with a creaking sound when we entered Karnataka borders. This time Karnataka cops were checking for bottles. The permit ghost continued to haunt us and we explained to them whatever has happened showing our permits. Karnataka cops, with their own due justice, put their statement to us saying, “You paid fine to Goa cops in Goa state. Now you have entered Karnataka and so have to pay fine for an invalid permit.” We paid another 300rs as fine this time. We discussed the legalities of the whole issue and were wondering if cops in A.P had the actual right to fine us in Hyderabad station. Purush broke his usual silence and furiously expressed his wish of breaking the bottles if any further fines are imposed. We accepted whatever has happened and whatever awaited us.

Doodh Sagar Waterfalls

We were awake till 9.30am to catch a glimpse of this much hyped waterfalls. We caught a glimpse of a small strip of waterfall from a hilly landscape which were few kilometers away. It ended in a moment and wasn't worth the effort to watch from this train. Anyway it left us with little more time to gossip more. Everyone of us crashed on our berths to have a good sleep after a sleepless night.

The longest halt

We woke up late in afternoon at around 3pm. The heat did it and we couldn't sleep any longer. We ate some of the eatable stuff which boys had brought at Newtons the previous day. Bread, jam and different flavors of Real and Tropicana juices : Orange, Apple and mixed fruit. Shankar obnoxiously bought Tomato juice. Gosh, he managed to empty it by end of the day. The train reached Guntakal junction at around 5pm. We knew that the train is going to stop here for 5 more hours and will resume at around 10pm. A halt of 5 long hours!! Ajay,Purush and I got down from train while others slept with the luggage. We were surprised to see only 3 coaches of the train at the platform. The remaining part of train was separated and was on its way to Howrah. Oh Boy!! 5 hours at platform. We went out, sipped tea and thought if a movie nearby in the town would be a nice idea to kill our time. We came back at 6.30pm and allowed others to hang out. Shankar, Ravi and Ajay headed out to bring us dinner from the town. Pravin entertained himself with his laptop watching movies. Purush and I gossiped for a while.

Thanks to the TVs in the railway stations, we got a chance to watch India vs Ireland WC match. There could be no better way to pass our time. The crowd gathered and we cheered for India chasing the Ireland target. Yuvraj, Dhoni on grease were setting up the momentum but Dhoni lost it and got out. Yousuf Pathan chipped in and played a match of his style, hitting sixes and boundaries which eased off the pressure on Yuvi. Finally Yuvi hit the winning shot and thats it – India won the match. The crowd cheered. Absolutely, a fantastic feeling to watch a cricket match cheering with a bunch of strangers. The clock ticked 10.00 pm and we got back to the train. We enjoyed our dinner and crashed on our berths. None of us couldn't accept the fact that next day morning, we have to sit in our offices – an extremely different world. The endless freedom we had in Goa will be bounded by a cubicle in our offices. Like all good things do come to an end, this end though displeasing was not a surprising one.

Day 6 : March 7th, 2011

We reached kachiguda railway station in Hyderabad at around 6am. We were still skeptical of a fine from a cop in this station. We scattered in different directions and safely reached the exit of the station. Pravin and Ajay took an auto. Ravi alone headed to Sec'bad. Purush, Shankar and I grouped in another auto. The very idea of going to office today after coming from Goa was disturbing and I, on my way,decided to bunk my office. Others carried on with their duties at office and Ajay was made to sit for the entire night to complete his tasks. This aptly reminded us of the end of freedom which we enjoyed in Goa.

People who have seen the recent Dum Maro Dum movie might very well understand when I say, “Goa jannath hein yaar”. No matter how many times you visit a place, the impression which you get in your first visit remains forever. My first visit to Goa was definitely special due to all my friends who joined the trip. We had only one chance and couldn't wait any longer. It was Now or Never. I'm glad that we did it. I'm sure my frens would feel the same.

***********************************THE END**************************************

GOA - Day 4

Day 4 : March 5th, 2011

The delirious night ended when we all woke up late in morning. Thanks to resort management, things were all cleaned up and no troubling questions were asked. We realized it was our last day in Goa and were disheartened by the fact. We had to visit Aguada Fort (famous DCH spot) and Arambol beach, 40 kms from Candolim. We got our tickets booked for next day's travel in train. It was a 22 hours long travel back to Hyderabad. So, 2 guys, Bhanu and Kiru, decided to leave in advance today by bus at 6pm today in Panjim. After a little dilemma, we wanted to stick to original plan to visit both Fort and beach, which was an aggressive target to meet by 5pm. Obviously the other two guys had to be content with only Aguada Fort. As usual, we had sumptuous lunch in Anand Sagar and headed for Aguada Fort.

Aguada : The DCH fort

This fort was only 5kms to our place of stay. The sun was scorching and we reached the fort around 2pm. We were aware that this would be the last day and we realized the fact that we didn't care much about pics in this trip. Clicking random crazy pics of our group was usually the pastime for us but may be, this time, we had better things to do. Finally, we sprang back to life and got back to retro photo clicking mode all over the fort. The DCH spot and some crazy other things were enjoyable enough. The only pain was the scorching heat which was sucking out energy from our body.

After an hour or so, the tired, tanned and burned bodies of ours were craving to go back to our rooms. It was getting late to Bhanu and Kiru for their bus.

Farewell Frens

While we looked again for the lost Volleyball, we bid farewell to Bhanu and Kiru in evening. Ajay and Ravi accompanied them to bus stop. Running out of time and finding no buses, Ajay and Ravi stretched their capacities to offer ride to Bhanu and Kiru until Panjim, 15 kms away from our place, to board the bus back to Hyderabad. Bhan jaan wanted to stay back with us but on other hand, he was worried about 22 hour journey too.

Saturday Night Markets

We dropped our idea to go to Arambol, 40 kms away and instead opted for the local Saturday Night Markets. This was probably one of the best calls we made. We went to Mackeys, the saturday night market at Baga. I donno why but I got feverish again. Then I recollected that I was never well during the entire trip in the first place. But somehow, the unwell feeling didn't struck to me until the last day.!!

Concert @ Mackeys

Mackeys was a big street bazaar bounded by Baga river. You get to visit offbeat, trendy, flashy and cult fashionable clothes, jewelry etc with wide choices to purchase. The biggest advantage is for girls who can dig deep and leave the pockets of their boyfriends empty. They will simply love that place and yes, we liked the girls who loved that place. We took a stroll and spent most of our time near a music concert stage, first played by Indian band and then by a bunch of foreigners, which we liked. We did some street shopping and even more of windowless shopping. We really liked this place and headed back to Anand Sagar for dinner.

We finished our last dinner at Anand Sagar, and thanked that silly srikanth once again for having let us know about this place. My fahrenheit was rising and ravi dropped me at resort. He joined others at Newtons, the supermarket nearby, to buy few bottles to carry home and few arrangements for our food in our next day train journey. I crashed in my room, dosing a pill to kill my headache. I asked my frens to wake me up when they return and they did. Shankar woke me up reminding me that we had only one more night left at Goa. That was a strong motivation enough to combat my illness. I won't let this night slip out of my hands. Like others, I wanted to make the most of it.

After packing our stuff in rooms, we went out again to explore another market near Anjuna, which was way bigger than Mackeys. It was around 11.30pm that we entered a light filled bright market, which was bustling with a nocturnal crowd. There were few streets in which only foreigners displayed their fabric and jewelry collections in shops. The local Goan sellers were fluently speaking in Russian and English, which will simply blow you away. There was this dance floor which we explored and hard rock music on other end. Pravin continued his endless shopping and finally, we all grouped and left the impressive market. It just set us in the right mood for whatever hours we were left with.

The Last Night

On our way back from the market, we suspected if our bikes would run out of petrol. Luckily, we found a local seller at past midnight who obviously added his extra costs. Petrol may not be needed to drive our bikes but it definitely burned our pockets. It was around 2 pm and we headed our way to Baga beach. Being very familiar with many popular streets of Goa, we knew exactly where we were going. We crossed the colorful Titos lane, parked our bikes and headed to a serene beach carrying our pints.

So here we were on the verge of an end of 4 beautiful days & nights. The crowd on the beach was calm but the waves were raging furiously with anger. The 6 of us sat on the shore, while Ajay was opening the pints with ease for us using his belt buckle. We all felt nostalgic about Goa, and loathed ourselves for having no choice but to get back to the mundane office lives on Monday. As usual, I threw the question to others asking what they liked in Goa. Everyone expressed their feelings and felt that this was the best trip they had in their life. This was Ajay’s first trip and he cherished it more. I summed up my feelings saying, “Goa is not about beaches, bars or fashion. The soul of Goa lies in the freedom it offers.” We had the freedom to day anything and everything in those 4 days. We had the opportunity to be truly ourselves-even Ajay did. I again shared the anecdote of that French Guy who met in Palolem beach. I thought, if a piece of blank paper is handed over to someone and asked to write few words about the “purpose of life”, many of us would write long essays and even ask for an additional paper. But I felt there would be few people, like the French Guy I met, who would simply leave the paper blank, which would aptly convey that there is no real purpose in life.

It was 4 am already and we didn't want to leave. We had to catch our cab to Vasco-da-gama at 5am and we are still here in Baga. We celebrated the last moment and wistfully, left the beautiful beach and colorful lanes to cherish those moments in our memories.

GOA - Day 3

Day 3 : March 4th, 2011

We slept for real long hours that night and woke up lazily at 10 am. Ravi and I were forced to wake up a little early as we had to vacate our room and adjust with our frens upstairs. New bunch of gang barged in our room as we were packing our things lazily. We went upstairs and woke up others. Our plan for today was to explore Palolem beach in South Goa, 80kms away from our place of stay (Candolim). We quickly rushed to Anand Sagar for lunch and started our journey on activas. It was really a very exhausting ride on activa, specially when you start late afternoon in scorching sun. In retrospect, a taxi ride would have been more comfortable but yes, the hard fun is always reserved for us and we took it by our stride. Our route briefly explained by a localite and as found during our journey was Candolim(0) → Panjim(15km)->Vasco Da Gama(45km) → Margoan(60km)→ Palolem. I'm not so sure of the distances though.

Palolem Beach

Shankar & Ajay, Bhanu & Pravin, Kiru & Purush, Ravi & I paired up on activas. Thanks to our non-uniform speeds, our four activas got scattered  and we rarely met between our ways. The journey was fun in a way as we viewed contrasting landscapes in Goa – from a crowded North Goa to a calm, scenic South Goa. We crossed ghat roads, red mud lands, shady coconut trees and a real soulful Goa. We reached a spectacular beach Palolem, the only beach we visited in South Goa. As usual we parked our vehicles and got ready for beach volleyball. The guides again pestered us to go for a ride on boats to visit “butterfly islands”, a hill within visible distance. We were not really keen to explore that and had only 1 hr to spend.

The beach volleyball was fun, as always. Ravi was diving like Yuvraj singh to hit shots while Bhanu was standing like Rahul Dravid, a solid-wall. We played for one hour. Kids playing cricket nearby caught my attention and I stood as wicket-keeper for some time. Really felt, we could have also made some preparations for cricket in the trip. A bat and a ball would also be an ideal bet in a beach for some real funtertainment.

The French Guy

After I quit wicket-keeping, I took the volleyball and sat on the shore watching the sun and waves. An innocent looking foreigner walks behind me and asks if what I caught was a football. I corrected him. We started chatting and he told me that he was from France. He spoke broken English and his accent, at times was difficult to pick up. When we were discussing about the geography of India, there was this one word - “Norf”, which took atleast 5 mins for me to understand. He meant “North”. I didn't bother to ask his name. He told me that it was his first day and first time in Goa and he is gonna hang around for a month. He was waiting for his girl friend him to join next week.

We spoke about places to visit in India and cricket. I wrongly predicted that India might not win the world cup, despite a strong batting line up as it had a poor bowling side. But I didn't claim any other team could win the WC either. Obviously, I am excited that my prediction went wrong and India raised the WC. The french guy told that he has to learn playing cricket too and opined that it is a tough game compared to the unintelligent baseball game of US. I thought he despised US and liked UK more.

The interesting part of the conversation happened when we spoke about careers. I told him what all a typical techie does which amused him. Contrary to that, he said he left his job in France tourism a while ago. I asked him why. He said, he had no particular reason and he just wanted to quit. This stuck somewhere in my mind and I was lost for a moment in my thoughts. He said, later he plans to go to Australia and work there for living. That's the reason he was learning english from his girlfriend, who was a english teacher herself. He lamented that he has to improve a lot on his communication.

The rest of the gang joined me, as we were running late to return to our rooms-80 kms away.

Return to Candolim

It was 6pm already. Shankar & Ajay, Bhanu & Pravin paired up as they did on onward journey. Ravi wanted to help Kiru who drove the full onward 80kms as Purush, the non-driver of activa didn't want to test his driving skills on a highway. So Purush and I paired up. We came across the ghat roads on our return way and took some snaps on the ghat roads which was fun enough. Also, I happened to get a glance of a beautiful sunset on the way.

The only discomfort I had was I left my glasses back at resort and it got highly difficult for me to ride entire 80kms at late evening without my glasses. The insects attracted to the vehicles headlight and a busy highway added pain to my eyes. We agreed to meet at Vasco so that Ravi could switch to my driving seat. A little mis-communication happened at the rendezvous point and Purush and I fell behind others, forcing me to drive the entire journey. My eyes got bloody-red and I had to take frequent breaks and wash my eyes during my journey. Purush looked sorry for being helpless. But tasted a good tea on our way back. I had to device some ways to charge up and keep my eyes open during my drive. It was a learning experience for me to act with caution while driving during late evenings.

Fun part was we reached Candolim from the opposite side of where we started. Obviously, we were lost and took a different route from original but were eventually happy that we reached home safely after a tiring ride of 160kms.

The Lost Volleyball !!

When I returned to resort, boys told me that there was a brief power-cut in the resort. Boys sat in the lawn for a while and when power resumed, they returned to rooms upstairs leaving the volleyball somewhere in the darkness in lawn. Now they couldn't find it and assumed, that the new gang who arrived in resort would have sneaked in the ball. I felt bad again for the carelessness we showed. We really had loads of fun with that ball in 2 days at beaches. Further, I took trouble on Day 0 to make sure I bring the ball along with me and now its gone. It was as if Tom Hanks in “Cast away” has lost soccer ball, his only fren in a deserted Island. We thought we could check with Dilip and new gang the next day.

A Noisy Night!!!

We had our seats bumped up badly after our ride. Kiru brought us dinner from Anand Sagar. I crashed on bed for a while as I couldn't open my eyes. The much awaited night was yet to come. We assumed that Goa was meant only for partying hard but somewhere deep within, I felt, there was a broader meaning to fun in Goa which I realized on the last day. With that notion, we started our party in balcony. Wine, pints and scotch tempted us and slowly, we made the start. Ravi and Shankar, were double excited, which gave them a kick at the end of the party. Pravin continued with his classy wine. Bhanu and Purush teamed up for pints. While Bhanu, with all his experience, guided us on the party process, Purush surprised him by putting new pints on table, everytime Bhanu thought he was done with. Purush was hellbent to empty the pints in fridge and insisted Bhanu, who seemed heavy and helpless. Purush completely enjoyed it and we enjoyed his excitement.

I wanted to play the moderator role and was more into leading the group discussion. We spoke about a topic on marriage and Shankar, unusually spoke in never ending lengths. Glasses kept breaking, voices peaked the decibels. A noisy night was building up and the resort incharge, waking up from his sleep, frequently reminded us of the inconvenience being caused to other guests. (There were few foreigners in our adjacent rooms).  I tried in vain to control Shankar and Ravi, who got  uncontrollable with voice. The discussion didn't exactly proceed as I wanted to. I had much more to ask and speak in lengths with the rest of the group. I was not sure when would really be the next time we all could meet and talk so freely. To avoid any trouble, we had to put an end to the noisy night at around 3.30 am.

GOA - Day 2

Day 2 : March 3rd, 2011

We all slept tight. When I woke up, I found boys emptying the pints for a breakfast. Surely, an atypical way to start a morning. In a way, it was economical. We got ready and headed towards Viva Goa for breakfast. On our way, Ajay pumped the volleyball and it was all set to get hit. Our plan for today was to enjoy all water sports in Baga, visit Anjuna beach and reach Vagator hilltop before sunset. Clock ticked 10am. I called up Dileep and he arranged for 4 Honda activas on 250rs per day tariff. We had no time to lose and so gave up on breakfast and returned to resort. Voila!! Our activas are ready. We grabbed keys from dileep and chose our bikes purely based on color. Ravi and I chose red. 

We headed out on our mopeds. The first thing we ensured was to fill petrol in bikes. Boys were hungry and we chose a veg hotel on our way. Open the menu and phew..Dosa 60 rs. 'Same cost for 2 pints', we groaned!! We grabbed quick breakfast and hurried to Baga. The local water-sport business people crowded us and we dodged, bargained for long to finally agree on 4 sports – Bike, Bumper, Banana and Para Sailing – all for 500 bucks. We left all our belongings on a paid sun-bath-bench and rushed for Bike ride on water. I must say, we enjoyed this a lot as it pumped our adrenaline high. The heavy bike dashes the waves and it takes real effort to make it jump. Sad that you can't do it on your own and a expert will actually ride the bike. The bumpers were fun too where 2 people sit on a rounded tube and are dragged by a boat. So you get this feeling that your bottom is being bummed up badly but thats the challenge. To hang on and get bumped up more. Ajay and I paired up to do this. We were screaming, “C'mon..bring it on..”. Then came the scary Banana. Bhanu was saying Na-Na.

The Banana

Its scary 'coz none of us are swimmers and for all possibility, you will be toppled right in the middle of river. We were not sure if our life jackets will save our life. The pseudo swimmer Pravin was giving few life saving tips to others and Shankar, asked us to rely on his unreliable water intelligence reports. 4 members got on air filled Banana tube. 2 more experts rode with us who will implement the toppling plot amidst the journey. And they did it !! Everyone got toppled right under the big tube and were groping for the rope on tube. Kiru was the biggest victim who was caught unaware and got his mouth hit so hard that it bled badly. Others were shocked. The banana ride hit real hard. Bhanu was content with his decision to opt out. Shankar rejoined with us and we set out to get the kick – we knew now that we all are gonna be thrown in water and all we need to do was to stick to ropes and not to fret. Worth an effort.

Para Sailing

The final event and the most awaited one. I was all in to fly in sky. We got in a boat and started taking turns. Bhan jaan was a little skeptical on this too but I insisted him to try. He got motivated enough to let go of his fears and gave a try. He enjoyed being carried by a parachute which reminded me of a balloon being carried by another balloon. The only good part I felt about Para sailing was to watch the world by floating in mid air. It was a serene momentary bliss and it ended too soon. All of us agreed that true water sports were more fun than the mid-air-feat. Our sports ended within couple of hours and we returned to shore.

The Sun Burns

We were excited to play volleyball on shore, amidst scorching sun. Few of us started playing and a russian gal joined us. She had a monstrous strength in all her volleyball serves but she left soon as the sun got way hot to her. We continued our play in piercing UV rays for some more time. Ravi and I were the victims of the next degree of tan : sun-burn. Our shoulders turned red and pained sharply even in our sleep. We thought it was due to a fracture or some pain occurred during our volleyball play. Nevertheless, we didn't care about anything in the world in those 4 days. Not even piercing Sunrays !!

Way to Anjuna

We were sure not to miss the sunset and so had to hurry from Baga. Hungry souls were craving for lunch and we stopped by midway to taste the local home made food. It was purely seafood with eatable roasted fish, stinking prawns and shells oozing some liquid which made even the non vegetarians sick of the sea food. Kiru, the only vegetarian, nearly fainted and immediately, left the table. While Bhanu was also not comfortable with food, I was throwing my usual rhyming words at him to ease the environment. Observing Bhan jaan get up, I asked him, “ Coke aa? Puke aa? Oh..Just for Joke aa??”.

Painfully,we managed to complete our lunch and moved ahead to find Anjuna. The beach was in a remote place as if it was the precious hidden treasure in Goa. We had a nice time exploring the place, asking different people and we saw a total different landscape of Goa. Finally, we took a right turn in a narrow lane with patched or no roads and cruised through coconut trees and a sandy road to reach Anjuna. We spent some time playing our beach volleyball and rushed to Vagator. No way we were going to miss the Sunset!!!

Sunset in Vagator

Sunset View from Vagator Hill Top

Fun on the edge of hill

We further explored routes to reach Vagator. Signboards were a boon to us. Also, we ensured to ask local people about the route. They were a human GPS who guided us in our routes. We passed through rustic areas, twisted roads and reached the hill top of Vagator. We rushed to an empty stone bench. There we were sitting on a bench, close to a hill edge, watching the river sparkle by the reflection of golden sun rays. Shankar brought pints from nearby and we were savoring every drop of it. This again reminded me of the happiness of prisoners from “Shawshank Redemption”, who enjoyed a bottle of beer at sunset after toiling hard for full day. Indeed, we were prisoners of our own world back at our homes. Ajay, the most work-dedicated guy in our group, frequently expressed his joy by contrasting the boundless beaches with bounded monitors and cubicles in a workplace. We saw a different carefree personality of his in Goa. Slowly, visitors kept coming by and the place was crowded in no time. We clicked some fun-filled and crazy pics. The water sparkled beautifully and we watched the sun go down. It was the best evening we had in Goa. 
                                                                                  

After the sunset

A Surreal View

                                                 







Silly Srikanth and Anand Sagar

It was already dark and time for us to go back to our rooms. Just when we thought, we reached the main road near our resort, a 25 something guy overheard our conversation in telugu and followed us to our resort. His name was Srikanth and told us that he was working in Goa for over 6 years. Slowly, he started to annoy us with his intruding questions. It was 2 days in Goa and we could already connect to the place but this guy, assumed us we were aliens and started bragging about different places in Goa. While we were very much happy about our resort, He even questioned our choice of resort. He unnecessarily took efforts to explain us about local silver jewelry and cajoled us to buy it. In no time, we understood what a painful guy he was and wanted to get rid of him. The only helpful information he told us about a vegetarian restaurant nearby called “Anand Sagar”, which became our only source of food for next 2 days. Our group bounced back and got rid of this bothersome guy.

We quickly got refreshed and rushed to Anand Sagar. Indeed the food was quality enough to satiate our hunger. Kiru, the only vegetarian in our group, came back to life after trying out this restraw. We loathed srikanth for his cheap guide-nonsense given to tourists but thanked him to let us know about this restraw. We went back home and wanted to spend most of our night on Goan streets. We tried a local pub for few hours , which to many of us was a forgettable experience. I too didn't like it. We thought we ended up at a wrong place and reached home past midnight. Bhanu and Kiru crashed while others wanted to stretch their night at Candolim.

The License Nonsense

1 am. Ravi got a call from his cousin, who was also in Goa, asking him to come to Baga. Kiru and Bhanu were exhausted and crashed in their rooms. Pravin & Purush, Shankar & Ajay, Ravi and I paired up on our activas and headed to Baga. We were asked to come till the dead-end of the famous Tito's street. As soon as we reached the lane which took to Tito's street, a street fight started between few foreigners. Police intervened and we stood by spectating until the fuss ended. Now, we had to enter that lane where Mama's (Cops) stood guard. Ravi and I headed our activa first and were duly checked for driving license (DL). We had it and were let go. Pravin, slowly walked by near me and I told him to simply show their DL's. Ravi and I went ahead and were waiting for others to follow. The wait continued but two other activas of our frens didn't come by. Some shit for sure has happened we thought.

Ravi went back to check out. Pravin had his DL and he was fine. It was Shankar !! He was riding the activa. When asked for a DL, he showed his photo-copied version of DL on a folded paper!!. For god's sake, it was photo-copied and neither original nor laminated. Ajay, who was on the same activa, got the shock of his life. His eyes couldn't believe for a while what Shankar has confidently showed it to cop. A photo-copied version of DL on a folded paper!!! Mama got angry and simply fined 950Rs !! Now the twists and confusions continued. Shankar, having no other DL, told that he left his DL at resort. Ravi came back to me and took both his and my DL, which left me with no other option but to wait for guys to join up. While Ravi unsuccessfully wanted to bluff the cop by showing either his or my DL for Shankar's, Ajay still stood perplexed about the whole incident. He came back to his senses after a while and told to cop that they would get the DL from room. Ravi and Ajay went back 6 kms back to reach room only to discover that Ajay also could not find his DL !! There was no option left but to duly pay the fine was what Ajay thought.

Ajay, after lot of struggle, finally recollected that he left his DL in Shankar's wallet, who was with cop now!! Ravi and Ajay returned to Shankar and by that time, the cop has already forgot who was actually driving the activa !! This confusion was simply mind blowing. Shankar showed Ajay's DL and told that Ajay was driving the activa. The cop had enough of the golmaal happening around him and asked everyone to leave. While all these fuss continued for an hour, Purush joined me and we seated nearby a pub calmly. I was engrossed watching the people walking around that street. That lane was full-of-life even at 2am and people, mostly drunk, were having utmost fun in their own way. I fell in love with that colorful street. Pretty girls and good looking boys, few drunk and few delirious, absolutely enjoyed their freedom. Also, cops ignored their drunken driving.. It indeed reflected the tourist importance in Goa.

Finally we met Ravi's cousin and went to Baga beach at around 2.30 am. We were already exhausted and were not in right mood to stay for long. So we stayed there until 3 am and went back to our activas. Ajay surprised us again saying he lost activa keys at the beach. Being a methodical person he is, he quickly went back to beach and found the keys at exact spot. Bingo!! We sighed and returned to our rooms. Ravi felt bad about all these fuss as it was his idea to come to Baga. I told Ravi not to take fault on him and these twists are bound to be part of our trip. I'm sure none in our group would mind anything about the whole incident. No matter how deep shit we were in, we enjoyed the unfolding of our twists in the trip.

GOA - Day 1

...continued from  my previous post 

Day 1 : March 2^nd, 2011

I woke up at around 7 am. The sight of coconut trees, red mud and ghat roads was a visual treat to start the day with. Boys started waking up and forcibly made others wake up too. Shankar, in his usual excuse, with sleep filled eyes said, “I didn't sleep for the entire night.” Ajay, pravin, kiru and bhanu were seated at back seats. Ajay said he slept on the floor, pravin on two seats and others said they didn't sleep much. Now, we had no idea where to get down from bus : Vasco, Panjim or Mapusa. While we lazily gave a thought about this, the bus stopped at Goa toll. We got down from bus, stretched our bodies and found a not-so-attractive puppy dog getting out from luggage store into the bus. For some reason, I loathed it from the start. It entered the bus and created a mess. I hated it more. Dogs will be dogs.

The boys regrouped at the last seats at 8 am and started wondering about our destination. I called Kevin, our resort manager who asked us to get down at Panjim. Infact, Panjim was the only place the bus was destined to!!. We kept cracking jokes and when Ajay started to wonder, Shankar cracked him down saying ,“this is how it happens in trips. Since this is your first time, you will get used to it.” Poor Ajay already envisioned his nightmare of not having attended any of  the batch trips in past. Meanwhile, the bus attendant asked 'tip' from each one of us. We fooled around with him to kill some time. The clock ticked 9:15 am and we arrived Panjim.

 

As expected, taxi drivers rounded us as soon as we got down at Panjim. I called Kevin again, who was in Mumbai and he directed me to Dilip, the resort incharge and also asked us to catch a local bus to reach Candolim. We walked around Panjim and didn't really find any apartments/sky scrapers on our way. We also wanted to taste the local life and thought bus would be best option anyway. After a little direction hunt, asking people for routes, we reached the bus-stop and got into a age-old jam packed bus going to Mapusa via Candolim. The transport is not organized and appeared to be private owned buses. The unofficial conductor charged 12rs per person for 'Candolim Panchayat' and neither gave us tickets or 4 rs change for 100 rs. 3 people were managing the bus: Driver, unofficial conductor and a shouter, whose job is to guard at the bus door and shout to attract people to bus. It was only a 15km drive in narrow lanes and a country side scenery which reminded me of the Goa scenes in 'Bourne Supremacy'. We asked the 'shouter' to let us know when we reach our place. At the same time, we were cautious to watch any sign boards to keep track of our place. The shouter forgot our place but we reminded him of our place when we reached a stop. Luckily, that is exactly where we supposed to get down. As per kevin's instructions, we took the opposite lane of Candolim panchayat and walked around in a lane filled with pubs, restraws, shops, motels. As we checked those lanes foreign to us, we strolled by and finally reached a serene place filled with trees : “Tropicana Beach Resorts”.

The Resort!!

Tropicana Beach Resort

On the first look, we liked the resort. I met Dilip, the incharge who gave us 1 room and asked to wait for 30 mins to get 3 other rooms. We got one in the Ground floor. Every room had a separate balcony, a oil lamp, fridge, a double cot and attached bathroom. The cost of two persons per room was 600rs per day. The 8 of us crashed on one bed and still didn't believe that we were in Goa. Boys started getting ready and we drank one of the worst tasting but large quantity of coffees. After a hour of wait, Dilip showed us 3 more rooms on first floor. We split in group of two and moved to our rooms. Pravin, Purush in room to left, Ajay, Shankar and Kiru, Bhanu in rooms to right. We agreed that we will fresh up and meet in an hour. So we did. We met at 12.30 pm and all boys were getting started for a Goan mood. The day's plan was to cover the nearest walkable beach Candolim and Calangutte, 5 km away from Candolim. Before that, we all were extremely hungry and I was still not comfortable with my cold. Our only local source was Dilip, the resort incharge, who gave us all the details and info we asked for. He suggested “Viva-Goa” at main road as one of the nearest places for lunch. We set on foot, amidst coconut trees, narrow lanes with many turns and kept asking local people for the route. I somehow, like such uncertainties and the process of exploring new routes. After quite a walk, we reached Viva Goa. Bhan jaan was slightly irritated for having made him walk for that long in the hot sun. As usual, we cooled him and ordered our lunch in the restraw. The lunch was decent enough to satisfy our hunger. Mid-day 3pm, hot sun and we were set to walk directly to Candolim beach. Enter the Goan mood.

Candolim Beach

@ Candolim Beach

As we walked amidst wild plants and bushes, we entered a sand filled path and from a narrow view to a broadened beach look seemed spectacular. This beach was full of foreigners. Infact Goa is majorly filled with Russians, Germans and French. We forgot our volleyball in room but had with us, two flying discs: a green and pink one. We cared less about the heat and jumped  in beach playing discs and guys enthusiastically dived in water as if they were trained by Jhonty Rhodes. Shankar was curious about a German but his efforts were in vain. We played for 2 hours and strangely guys lost the green disc. Carelessly, we left it for waves which carried away the disc.

Calangutte beach

 @ Calangutte Beach

We returned to our rooms and planned to visit Calangutte beach, which was nearly 5kms away. We got ready and having no handy means of transport, we decided to try the local bus. Many old foreigners were also waiting at bus-stop, which made us wonder if they were native to Goa. Dilip told me that they come on vacation in January for a period of 2 months. After a long wait, we got in a bus and reached Calangutte. We were exhausted and I was still struggling with cold. We tried tasteless tea and oily samosas from a street-smart kid. Darkness prevailed, we entered the beach and sat closeby, listening to the sound made by waves. The moonlight, frens talk and the waves sound, happily made us forget our otherwise routine office life. It was close to 9pm and we decided to have a candle-light beach dinner. We waited for lifetime to taste the food which was bad enough to forget. Pravin ordered a special rava fried fish, which was much hyped due to our waiting time but finally,even the entire group could not eat that small fish. A bad tasting dinner in one of best environment.

Around 10pm we figured out that there would be no buses to go back to our rooms. So cab was the way out but were charging high and were not open to bargains. We cared less about the cab and started watching the Ireland-England WC match with the drivers in a small TV. Boy, Ireland was winning it and many England supporters at nearby restaurants were upset. Finally we found a cab with a energetic driver. He cracked so many jokes in Hindi and was giving tips to woo gals in Goa. He was fun and rushed the cab to our place in no time. We were all tired fully, returned to our rooms but the night did not end for us.

 B-Complex Twist

I was just about to rest and pravin, slightly suffering from mouth ulcers, wanted to find B complex   pills in a medical shop. It was 11 pm and Shankar, Ajay, Ravi, Pravin and I set out by foot to find a med-shop. We enquired until we reached main road but found no shops. We found Newtons, a big supermarket and strolled around. It was quite a big store with all kinds of groceries available. Soon, even pravin forgot about the pills and started shopping!!!. We explored all varieties of bottles available which were very tempting to hold by sheer aesthetic presence. The caption in the stall read something similar to “..It is good to hold. Break it and we consider it, sold.” We randomly picked up some bottles but finally settled for cute pint KingFisher beers. We billed more than 1000rs and walked our way to beach past midnight.

12.30am, Candolim beach, bright moon, plain sky, waves rushing aggressively with a fierce sound. For some unknown reasons, I felt a little unsecured at that place. There was a gang nearby who dived in water which made a noise loud enough to scare us. We continued with our pints, feeling as free as the jail workers in “Shawshank Redemption”. On our way back, the only restaurant which was open when we stepped in was also closed. May be it was too late a time on that beach. Another 2-3 hours spent from the time we set out for a B-Complex. We joked around saying, “Didn't expect things would get so complex for a simple B-complex.” We went to room and crashed to death, craving for sleep.

...Next post on Day 2 events...

GOA - The Inception

Trip to : G.O.A

Gang  : Pap-Boys

Individuals : Shankar, Bhan jaan, Kiru, Pravin maam, Ajay Macha, Purush, Ravi and Neo(I)

The Trip Inception..

After a not-so-exciting vizag-araku trip, way back in Jan 2009, we Pap-Boys longed for yet another kick-ass trip. It took 2 years for our wish to come true in March 2011. We planned to visit the Mother of all places : G.O.A. All efforts of ours to finalize the dates were thrown to trash in Feb as atleast one of our frens was already occupied with one or another functions to attend. The consensus slowly emerged and locked for dates March 2^nd to 6^th. Everyone planned for leaves. Ones who found no way out planned for sick leaves!! Meanwhile, I enquired my fren Vikram who mailed me a neat write up of his Goan experience. It wonderfully helped and served as the roadmap of our trip. I used my idle time in office and did some digging about Goa, accommodation and made some calls to bring a basic plan on paper.

 There's always one definite problem in starting late : Travel Tickets !! Train tickets for both to-and-fro were unavailable. We managed to get WL tickets for return journey for train – Amaravati Express from Vasco (VSG) to Kachiguda(KCG). Despite a perfect planning, we tried in vain to book tatkal tickets from KCG to VSG by Howrah Express. No thanks to our lazy asses, this twist always happens. Delay on decisions and wait for tatkals. Getting 8 out of 40 tatkal seats for an indian train is like a tollywood movie bagging an Oscar. Waking up early, we split in 3 groups and camped at 3 booking stations in Secbad, KCG, DSNR and with one more back up trying for online ticks. We get the expected news. Tickets over !! Without any further delay, I booked ticks in redbus. Finally, we know, we are still with the plan until I got a call at evening.

It was Pravin. He called me to check my health, as I was down with cold and cough. Pravin was also food poisoned and was wondering if I would drop from trip. Yes, I was out of my Chakra (energy) but was determined to go ahead with trip. I realize the stakes. I knew, we would never get this chance again. My motivation pushed my fren to continue with trip. Exactly the day before journey, Shankar, frustrated with some personal problems, wanted me to call up to tell that he is out of trip. But thankfully, he didn't. Also got to hear the news that Kiru's mother was admitted in hospital and so he was skeptical of trip. Again, his mother coped well and he did manage to join us. So, the pieces are still together. Seemed like, no twist was going to stop us from starting our journey.

Day 0 : March 1^st, 2011

Target - Shanta Durga Travels, S.R.Nagar ,6:45 pm. Except Ravi, other 8 mates had to assemble straight from their offices. Amidst few twists, I visited consulate on office work which consumed the first half of my day. Within remaining 4 hours, I had to do my shopping, go back home and rush to catch my bus. Ravi and I did some shopping and dispersed to our homes. I was still feeling weak but had no time to rest. I grabbed some food, few medicines and packed bags  to rush. Time was ticking : 5.30 pm. No way to reach S.R.Nagar from DSNR in 1 hour. Asked my dad to drop me. I was already out of time but damn, I remembered that I had to collect the volleyball from Shankar's home. With a little hesitation I did collect the volleyball which proved to be the best thing in the trip. I rushed out of home and was relating the time crunch with '24' series. I had 3 more episodes to finish the Season 6!!!

As expected, Ajay was the first to reach the destination and I being the second. Purush, Pravin, Bhanu and Ravi popped in followed by Shankar straight from office. Kiru calls us and asks us to stop the bus for 30 more mins!!! Nothing unusual in our gang. It was 7pm and the bus fellow painfully asking us to board the bus and we trying to delay as much as we can giving all sort of reasons. Finally, we managed to stop the bus for 20 more mins and Kiru arrived. To our horror, we 8 frens were asked to sit in a setwin with only 6 empty seats. But we did manage to jam in. Jokes kept coming. Pap Boys were back in form. Yes, the trip has started indeed.

Nearly after a hour of bumper ride to reach outskirts near Miyapur, we waited for our original bus to Goa. Boys killed time sipping tea and with usual gossips. I was still trying to gain my chakra. So didn't over use my energy at first and tried to complete the remaining episodes of 24 in the video player I had. But few minutes of watching 24 bored me at that moment !! Thankfully, I had no use of video player for the next 4 days. '24' can wait. The fun in trip should not. The bus arrived !!

Woah. It was really a huge bus, named Mercedez Benz with Merc logo in its front. After little discussion with a uncle and aunty for rearranging our seats, we managed to grab all 8 seats in 2 rows (2+2 seater). We kept cracking jokes and the bus fellow asked us if we would allow others to sleep for the entire night. The age old 'Dhadkan' movie started and our Dhadkan stopped watching that movie !!! Gosh, such a bollywood melodrama. Ravi quickly crashed in sleep as he was totally deprived of sleep the previous day. Others kept chatting and at around 10.30pm we reached a Dhaba for dinner. We occupied two corner tables and the waiter kept us waiting to place the order. The rotis were so elastic and we were searching for paneer in a 'palak paneer'. Shankar, the formal accountant for this trip accounted for all the expenses and kept a notes of it. We left the grub and returned to our bus. Slowly people fell asleep and others made use of the vacant seats in the long bus for sleeping as per their convenience in any posture they wanted. The bus cruised on its way and the darkness stood still. Surely, everyone was relieved with the thought that there was no more office nonsense for next 5 days.

.....watch out for next post on Day 1 events......

PG Meet @ Hyd

Mar 29, 2008, saturday- 5pm, Eat Street. It was my 2nd PG meet but it was the first with a big gathering. (The earlier meet had only 2 more puys Krsh.vik and Tintin&Snowy) . As usual I was late to a meeting and reached the venue at 5.45 pm. To my surprise the meet initiator Krsh didn't turn up due to some personal emergency. But there were some familiar faces - Tati and Sid. Welcome to the insanity!!

It was a meeting of 11.5 puy and puywomen. Will explain about the 0.5 later !!

1. Sidd_arth - Sid
2. Tati - Sarang
3. CrazyAbtCAT - Vivek
4. SecondTimeVirgin- Avinash
5. JigarTheGreat - Jigar
6. Naresh007- Naresh Kumar
7. Ramesh4CAT- Ramesh
8. Veritas- Satya
9. Getneonow - me :)

10. Fera - Mythri
11. Ishacool -Isha

11.5 - Gantis - Srikanth who couldn't make it to the meet and talked to everyone on phone!!

It's difficult to remember the ids and original names at the very first meet and yes by the end of the meet, everyone remembered each others details. Infact I was comfortable with their PG Ids than their original names.

Later i came to know in PG that another puy Chaitanya did attend the meet but since he gave his contact only to krsh, he couldn't locate other Puys too. Well its understandable that it becomes very frustrating at that moment but i hope from next time such things won't happen. We can already have a list of phone no.s in our mail ids for back up.

Krsh(Vikram) really missed the fun and we really missed him..

Also in this regard i want to say that fellow puy Vineet.Dixit (GMAT 740) whom i invited to the meet, he did attended that day with his bro in law shishir and was in ES at 5.30pm but kick me for giving him my 9 digit cell number!! I was so involved in fun that day that i didnt get to call him back and he kept trying for my phone in vain. Here i thought he didnt attend the meet :|

I saw his offlines and called him back next day and gave CrazyAbtCat(vivek's) phone no. I am so sorry dude. I think we can fill this gaps in our next PG meet :)

The discussions in ES were mixed. First I talked with tati, my fren,senior,colleague,fellow Puy whom i met after a year. As usual he dragged me to accompany him with his sutta. He then explained all his pains he had taken in IIFT in 1 yr. Really that was one helluva schedule. 13 courses in one tri semester!! Sorry IIFT- I am not coming to you :p. Then joined the PG league and talks maneuvered from personal GD/PI experiences to the usual despo gal talks.

Fera and Tati were in their own pace and league discussing all bizarre stuff (atleast for others). Avinash also got curious in their talks but i suspect if he could digest anything :P. IshaCool personified her name and maintained her calmness. She was the first to leave the meet but the show continued.. Sid as usual was calm and composed and spoke only when required. He talked about Brand Equity quiz but yes again it was a bouncer to me. I was not alone. Vivek too had no clue about it. I was happy that i had company :) And yes Vivek, one helluva Hyderabadi speaker, speaking all the Hydbadi Urdu-Hindi lingos. Full of energy. A 4 time CAT veteran and IIM I probable. Hope he gets to convert it for sure this time. Jigar was cheerful and had much to say about his IIM L GD/PI sessions. Ramesh and Naresh i felt, had a silent start but later filled in the groups talks.

It was time for Fera to leave. She too being a animie buff, took my phone no. Somehow again i gave her my 9 digit phone no. I guess i am obsessed with 9 for no particular reason.

Tati again tried to drag me to sutta but this time i could escape. Avinash had more enthu to join tati. Guess he still doesn't know what Tati ke Side Effects means;)

It was only boys thing now. We then moved for our dinner at City Center BJN grp's restraw. Thanks to Sid he pleased both veggies and non veggies with his choice of menu items. Jigar and Tati took their mugs of beer. Vivek and Avinash acted as though they fought with each other coz Vivek was vying for Jigar's beer. He did manage to take it and boy!! He got drunk with the very first jug. Ofcourse he wouldn't agree with that. But we knew it, particularly me who sat beside him. Again there was confusion while giving my phone no. This time very carefully i gave him a wrong 10 digit no. :p Amidst this confusion, pat came the flash news- IMT convert for Vivek. Cheers again.. And yes here comes the most awaited call from Gantis who was busy in his office team meet and poor guy, leaved no stone unturned to make other puys happy with his call.

After dinner, though it seemed to be the end of our PG meet, everyone realized and wished that we would have more in April, particularly after the CAT confirmation results on April 11th. Hopefully there would be much more junta and lot more treats from the CAT bellers.

Good Luck and advance congos to

Veritas - XLRI BM
Vivek - IIM I
Jigar - IIM L


A group of strangers, unseen, unspoke - meeting for the first time, not even realizing it- longing to meet, celebrate again- a bit of vanity, a bit of insanity...Well this is PG meet for you.

Thanks to Pagal Guy..PG rocks..