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......