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.

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