First off, a very Happy New Year to all my distinguished readers. 2005 was fun ..lets hope `06 churns out more cheers for us all!
Long time since I posted ..and I have been heavily pounded for shying away from blogosphere for so long. Anyway, I`m back now ..full throttle.
I signed off 2005 on a rather upbeat note. The much hyped Goa trip turned out to be mind-boggling. It was pure adrenaline rush all the time before we boarded Goa Express, replete with loads of fantasising about what Goa possibly had in store for us depraved homosapiens! The train journey kind of dragged on for the first 25 hours, but no sooner did we reach Pune and discovered hoards of young, good-looking females right on the platform waiting to catch trains back home, did we hop into the right mood! After that, the fun actually began for us. You can probably imagine what kind of stuff guys in college would talk about. The lady classmates who preferred staying back at their homes to our company, would have never had the wildest imaginations that this group of handsome, intelligent, smart guys would discuss them in good light with amazing passion!
The best part of travelling in a company of about a dozen like-minded guys, bursting with youthful exuberance, is the quality of discussions you can touch up to. I mean it was just amazing – there we were, babbling at the top of our voices at midnight, while the whole train slept, just our lights on, in complete oblivion of the slumbering passengers [for good reason were we reprimanded by policemen travelling with us in the train!], and talking things like the girl we like most in our class and for what reasons. We even made hypothetical pairs right there! You might be wondering if this is typical girl-talk, but that`s the way it was!
What better way to experience sunrise than in a slow-moving train, shaking hands with the enchanting beaches of Goa, in a dew laden morning. Goa has all imaginable landscapes – in the sense that most of the city is situated on hills. The cities are planned to perfection. Its clean, lots of breathing space, and fast moving traffic irrespective of the winding roads typical to hills. The people are obviously tanned than normalcy, but so amazingly tourist-friendly. The bus service is great. A rather small state, Goa boasts of some of the best known brands showrooms known to us. In short, its just tailor-made for a perfect tourist destination.
The youth hostel turned out to be a surprise packet. It was dirt-cheap accomodation @ 60 bucks a day! And the first day turned out to be a grand opener. I cannot imagine squeezing so much activity in one particular day of my life. As if sighting lots of topless beach babes wasn`t in itself an amazingly exhilarating job, that in toddy-high spirits we even climbed a hill as a short-cut to reach another beach! And there we were, possibly on the highest point of Goa and could see the vast sea stretching beyond us. It was so beautiful. And all this after a 40 hour, somewhat restless journey by the Indian Railways!
The pick of the first day was a hukkah lounge and bar we visited at night. DJ playing some foot-tapping numbers, crazy Europens dancing in UV light [that actually made our undergarments flash out from beneath our wet clothes!], a typical bar like ambience and lots of booze and smoke flowing around us. We just sat down and watched. Oh by the way, 12 guys moving around as a close knit group often came out as an embarrasment – people tend to look down upon you as spolit, sex-starved bunch of hooligans, came to ogle and satisfy their voyeuristic instincts!
Goa is heaven for people who have appetites for exotic foodstuff. Slightly more in favour of non-vegetarians considering the most famous sea-food cuisines on offer. And ofcourse, no mention of food would be complete without the thing most savoured by Goans and tourists alike – wine! Its cheaper than bottled mineral water, amazing varieties to choose from and since we were away from any form of parental control, it was only natural that we indulged ourselves indiscriminately! Fortunately I`d a good take at liquor before Goa happened and hence could fuddle myself risk-free! I additionally discovered prawns as the tastiest form of meat I ever had!
I also got myself tattooed for the first time in life, did water-scooting as probably the most basic form of adventure sports and realised I can muster courage at even at things my life is at huge risk [considering I`m not a good swimmer]. We took a cruise that advertised itself to be a showcase of Goan culture as a mandatory tourist activity and later realised what big bullshit it was. Actually it was tailor-made for Indian middle-class : cuz it were only the Indian families with kids and luggage who accompanied us to the cruise. That they allowed us to drink and dance at their DJ`s music saved these people lots of possible swearing from twelve supercharged souls!
We did visit the fort where Dil Chahta Hai was shot and learnt the place has somewhat been modified, got ourself clicked with Vijay Mallaya`s [the Kingfisher baron] chopper, watched Bluffmaster in what was perhaps the best multiplex I`ve ever set foot into [INOX theatre] and drained ourself a wee bit too much by then. We decided to rest and back in the hostel we got some female company! Our next door neighbours arrived in a rather large group and were immediately received with salivating smiles! The same night, as a regular custom, some of us went to the terrace for a stroll in the moonlight ..when a guy discovered the girls` changing room was very clearly in sight from top! And only normal that a cry was raised and two overtly frustrated friends raced and took positions on the parapet! The girls didn`t make themselves visible but the huge, dark, very intimidating guard apprehended them both off-guard! And what could the poor souls say in defence – they were lying down with chest facing the ground and both hands supporting the chin, in just the right posture that the girls could never figure any moving object on the terrace. Thankfully they didn`t panic and simply defended by saying ,”hum roj yahan terrace par aakar lie down karte hain ..aaj yahan baith gaye bas!” As if the guard couldn`t see the gleaming hope in the eyes of the failed voyeurs! Not much harm done – we were anyway being stripped of modesty by the hostel warden every morning! Just the last day few had drownded themselves in liquor for the first time, and puked like anything. Next came this ultimate humiliating incident and we had to cajole her down by some emotional blackmail – ma`m we are all from good families ..we are from a reputed institute ma`m [IIT rescued us perhaps!] ..we won`t do anything that brings shame to our families or the institute!
Move on to the part that made us feel fiercely independent and rebellious – we hired a car and a bike and clocked over 200 Kms of Goan land, driving day and night through deserted stretches to neon-lined highways. We hit the fellow bikers twice, a guy decided to try his hand at driving and while the speedometer showed 50 Kmph, he lost the brakes, and almost knocked down a native woman. We had three close shaves and prayed everytime we found ourselves safe. We missed sunset at a famous suicide point and hence it was mutually agreed that we experience the night life of Goa and then return to the hostel after seeing the sunrise next day! Had a sumptuous meal of prawns and pizzas, inquired about night clubs in Goa and finally landed in obscenely shabby attires at the most famous 5-star Hotel of Goa – JW Marriot. We were able to gather our wits together and headed unabashedly for the Hotel discotheque named Ozone. Nobody could dare stop us and this gave us the license to loose control. We decided, if we can roam around at will in a super-luxury hotel dressed in T-shirts and shorts and sandals, we can do anything! Next stop took us amidst the real night-life of Goa ..a city far away from the city, bustling with gorgeous members of the youth brigade, lots of music and dance everywhere, provided you have 500 bucks to shell out for stag entry. Naturally enough, we wandered around aimlessly, trying to atleast do some fruitful bird-watching, and found our way to a cool pub, that opened itself a day back, and hence needed some people to occupy their space. We chose to relax a bit, I had a Castle Lager to keep myself alive as I needed to drive and much later into the night, the bikers were accosted by a police patrol and were sent back to the hostel after parting with 100 bucks!
I wish I could write about everything we experienced in detail ..but I choose not to ..somethings better be concealed in your memories ..after that we shopped for cashew and wine, and the return journey was even more amazing – we never felt those eerie 40 hours this time ..we had lots to talk ..on the return trip we were a closer knit group, incredibly more confident courtesy the adventures taken without plan and most importantly we recharged our worn out batteries in the sylvan land of Goa. It was terrific fun obviously but on a more serious note we realised we are grown ups – we could do intelligent decision-making, got ourselves out of soup many times with perfection and were able to stay together as a team and work favourably.
Goa was amazing. Go Goa 🙂
PS: The pics would be up very soon.
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