Monday 31 December
I got back to Ivan's place in Fort aguada around 09:30 AM and straightaway crashed. I woke up around 4 in the afternoon, freshened up, thought I'd take mum out but laziness crept in and I went back to sleep! I woke up around 6ish and spent some time chatting with mum and then calling dad & speaking with him. Around 9 Jude called saying that the plan was to party in Sam's Shack at Baga Beach and that I needed to be ready by 10 as they would come and pick me up. I got ready and by 10 there was no sign of Jude and the gang (Sushil, Louise,Alison and Mukesh...since I am going to refer to them quite a few times later on, lets just call them "J - SLAM" and if that doesnt make a word... well now it does!) Prashant and I then hailed a taxi and headed for Baga Beach. The roads were jampacked with cars, partypeople all on thier way to some club or beach and cops.We had been warned that the traffic situation on the 31st would be terrible. So when we reached calangute, 2 kms away from Baga, we got rid of the taxi and walked all the way. The sights and sounds were amazing, as if all of Goa had come out on the streets. Every cafe, restaurant and shop was lit up, loud music playing and people all dressed up ready to party the nite away. We reached Baga a while later and the road that leads to the beach was jampacked with people. Just before you enter the beach, you will find Tito's (considered one of the hottest clubs in India!) and the the lane leading upto it is called "Tito's Lane". Normally vehicles would be allowed inside Tito's lane, however tonite the cops had put up barrickades at the street entrance. Inspite of that it was overflowing, spilling over the brim with people trying to get into Tito's and Mambo's (a club next to Tito's )and onto the beach. We reached Sam's shack at 11:20 PM and there we met two couple friends of Prashant's. We walked around looking for a place to sit, but all tables were occupied. After a while we spotted a table with no chairs and slowly one by one, whenever someone vacated we pulled chairs and settled down. The beach was so crowded that after a point it got quite suffocating. I hate crowds and try to avoid it as much as possible. We had just ordered our drinks and it had barely set in when the clock struck 00:00. The crowd was in a frenzy with everyone, friends and strangers wishing each other a "Happy New Year" and then the most amazing, out of the world display of fireworks in the sky I have ever witnessed commenced. One after the other, rockets shot up in the sky from every direction lighting up the sky. The whole beach had become so bright all of a sudden as though God just turned on his tubelight! I dint know where to look, I kept turning my head left then right then around, I just dint want to miss a thing. It must have gone on for an hour and after a while my neck was hurting and I decided to focus my attention on one side of the sky! After all the excitement and highly charged up energy of the transition from 07 to 08 plus the fireworks simmered down, the beach starting clearing up a bit. All the families present left leaving just the all-nite- partypeople. A little after 12, Ivan, Jenny and Jeanne arrived. J-SLAM were stuck in a major Traffic jam..what a way to bring in the new year!!
We sat around drinking and chatting and trying to figure out the music. You see, every shack on the beach was competeing in thier version of the War of the DJ's!! If one shack had his music loud, the other one not to be left behind was louder. And the result was a wierd concoction of really loud punjabi+bollywood remix+pop+trance+ hip hop which = a really bad cocktail!! All I could hear and what was prominent from the music mix was...dhin chak dhin chak dhin chak!!! I decided to give up trying to figure out the music and focussed my attention to the people around. There was a foriegn couple sitting behind us. Every minute or so some random guy or group of guys, all locals and obviously drunk, would stop by and wish them a Happy new year and ask about where they were from etc... surprising none of the locals stopped by our table...why? Dont we deserve to be wished a Happy new year..? Jeeez and we call the British, Australians ,Americans racist and Indians the victims ...tch tch poor Indians !! So anyway, there was another, rather large group of foriegners sitting on the other side of our table. They too recieved the same treatment from the locals. After a while I started feeling sleepy. I had ordered for a beer which I had been nursing for two hours by now and I had managed to finish only half a glass!!! So you can imagine how much fun I was having!! Ah! I almost forgot, We also witnessed two gruesome fights. It started all of a sudden amongest a couple of the waiters of two seperate shacks. You see they are quite particular about sticking to thier territory and one must have violated that rule and decided to cash in on the new year rush and the other was obviously not going to let him get away with it. So one chased the other and hit him with a beer bottle...on the head...so hard that it broke. Infact I think he broke two beer bottles on his head!! geez..when will SOME men (thats mentioned in caps so that you understand that I dont hate ALL men! ) understand..all this violence and machogiri just reinforces the fact that they are whimps! Anyway, as soon as that fight started, Ivan and the other boys, quickly got up and got us girls ( we were three girls and the fight started behind us) to the other side and exchanged seats with us. (See I meant it when I said not all men are bad, Ivan and the boys were real gentlemen :) ) After about what seemed like half an hour, another fight broke out and this time on the other side where we girls were sitting!! I swear we did nothing to spark the fight !!
After that little interesting break from the rather exciting time we were having, we moved closer to a table at the shack. The DJ at this shack was playing punjabi numbers and I seriously was in no mood to listen to punjabi.. and the dance floor was empty, I guess everyone else agreed with me. In contrast, the dance floor in the shack next to ours was jam packed with no place for people to dance, yet they somehow squeezed in. I was still nursing my glass of beer!! Thats coz of the consistant level of my excitement. Around 3 AM, J-SLAM finally arrived. Lets hope they dont spend the rest of the year stuck in every jam that blocks the roads! Once they settled down they took out their stash of alcohol ... Flavored vodka - Apple Twist I think and Tequilla. Well I have never tried Tequilla before. Actually Ive been a little hesitant because Ive heard stuff like, it burns your throat, if its your first time you puke and blah blah and Im a very conscious drinker. I always, with the exception of tonight, know my limits and once Im done with my quota I shift to plain ol' H2O. At times I do mix drinks too which I know is bad but thankfully I have never caused a scene or embarrased myself silly. So, getting back, this time I thot..what the heck and decided to give Tequilla a shot and 4 of them at it (small ofcourse) :) It did burn my throat, I dint puke and I felt on top of the world!! hehe.. Well one things for sure, Tequilla makes it straight to the number one position in my Top drinks countdown!! For most part of the rest of the nite, I was quite tipsy and at one point even wandered off without telling anyone.. In my defence I just went looking for the loo!! The music and dancing carried on untill 7 in the morning when the DJ called it a nite.
Tuesday 1 January 2008
Everyone was in high spirits yet exhausted. We headed back for Louise's house and Prashant who had hired a taxi came along with Ivan and Jenny. We hung around for a bit and since everyone was really tired we decided to get back to Ivan's place. On the way we stopped at Mapusa and booked Volvo seaters (never ever am I gonna travel in a sleeper) for the 2nd evening to Mumbai. I slept for a while and woke up around 1ish feeling mighty guilty for having left mum alone on new years eve and decided to take her out. We got ready and decided to head for Calangute. But before that our hosts insisted we have lunch at home. So after a delicious lunch consisting of Fried fish and Goan fish curry we left. We stopped at the market, roamed around a bit and then settled down for some tea at one of the cafe's. We chatted for a while and talked to dad too. That evening there was another function hosted by the Bride's family.. basically a homecoming for the Bride a day after she gets married, at Jenny's place in Al Dona. So after about 2 hours or so we left as I had to get ready for the function. Mum wasnt feeling too well. She had a terrible cold, no fever but was feeling a little weak and so decided to stay back and rest. Ivan's family in Fort Aguada had hired a bus (again the DTC kind) to take us to Al Dona. We left around 8 PM and it took us ..I think.. an hour to get there. Jenny's family and relatives were eagerly waiting for us and we had to wait at the gate untill everyone was ready with the party poppers and camera. After a grand entrance we settled down. The rest of the evening was pretty much about music, dancing , a game of musical chairs & passing the parcel, food and drink.
After the party was over and all the guests had left, we ( J-SLM & me . I missed out "A" coz Alison was not at the party and Prashant had left for chennai the previous afternoon) decided to hang around. There was a lake close to Jenny's house... a secluded and extremely eerie place. We drove down there and hung around for about 15- 20 minutes and then headed for louise's house. I guess we had exhausted all energy to party and so we just sat around talking for a while. Around 5 AM, I decided to get back to Ivan's place and crash.
Wednesday 2 January
The next morning I woke up around 10 and got ready. This was our last day in Goa and our bus was scheduled to leave at 8 PM from Mapusa. Mum and I decided to go to Calangute beach. We were told that the beach was full of foriegners and that it wouldnt be crowded...But when we reached the beach it WAS crowded , not just with foriegners but also with locals and thier families. There were rows of beach beds outside every shack and we found an unoccupied one (a pair of beds are placed together) and made ourselves comfortable. Incase youre wondering if you could just go to the beach , find a beach bed, plop your butt on it and go to sleep all free of charge... well sorry to dissappoint you but that not true... they charge you 100 bucks per hour and Im guessing its cheaper off season. We lazed around for an hour, soaking up the sun, after all in a day we would be back to Delhi and the cold. I heard that it was 1.9 degrees on the 2nd..or was it the 1st.. watever..it dint matter coz we were soaking up the sun when people back home were prolly in layers of sweaters and under quilts with the heaters on... tch tch..:) There was a lot of activity on the beach..if you dont want to laze around (which is something I love to do.. you see, I am the one who makes the word "Lazy" proud! ) then you could try out the water rides on the jet ski scooter or if you are the I-believe-I-can-fly types then there's paragliding for you. After a relaxing hour we decided to head back. On the way we bought some Port wine No 7 and some World famous in Goa - Cashewnuts. I bought a souvinier which was basically a shell placed atop another shell (which helps to make it stand) and has "GOA" carved on it. Its comfortably placed ontop of my music system along with some sand and pebbles and a miniature coconut tree...my very own miniature Goa...why on the music system you ask? Well how could I depict a miniature Goa without shacks playing music? I plan to make a tiny shack made of straw and that would complete my little Goa away from Goa ..:))
After that we went to the same cafe we'd been to the previous evening and had some tea. Then we hailed a taxi and headed back to Ivan's house around 0630. We anticipated traffic and keeping that in mind decided to leave around 7 as it would take us atleast half an hour to reach Mapusa from where the bus would leave. All bags packed, and with the help of our hosts we called for a taxi. Around 7, Jude called and said that the gang was at Mapusa at louise's place and that when I reached there , to call him and they would come and meet us. When the taxi arrived, we bid our farewells and thank you's to the most warm and caring hosts we have ever come across in our lives and left. We anticipated right, there was heavy traffic at Mapusa as all the volvo buses were coming in... we reached at 07:40. Jude, Alison, Sushil, Mukesh and Louise were waiting outside a landmark I provided. Our bus came in a little after 8...I got the luggage loaded, seats identified, mum settled in them and bid my farewell to the gang...promising to keep in touch.
Thursday 3 January
I was finally on my way back to Mumbai...and missing Goa already. This Volvo was much much more comfortable than the one we took into Goa. We reached Andheri around 0700 in the morning. Achcha while we were in goa, so was Rishub and his group of friends, however we couldnt meet up in goa as they had rented a villa on the other end of town in Al dona where Jenny's house is. Funny thing is, when I was in Al dona he would be roaming around in Calangute and Candolim..which is close to Ivan's place in Fort Aguada!!! On new year's eve, when I was at Baga and called him, he had passed by and they dint want to come to Baga as it was so crowded. So anyway, they left Goa at 3 PM on 2nd afternoon (they had hired a car).. when Mum and I were chilling on Calangute beach...and were scheduled to reach around the same time we did. Anyway, we got down at Andheri and took an auto. We dint know the exact location of Ratin's house and tried calling Rishub but he wouldnt pick up the fone (so whats new!!! Hey bubli dont get pissed... its true..okay!! ) We just knew it was near the Lokhandwala market and thats what we told the autowallah. But we got lucky, we made a guess on a turn and landed up in front of Ratin's colony gate!! We spent the next couple of hours relaxing a bit, having lunch then tea, finishing the packing and clicking some pics of Rishub. We hadn't even left for the station yet and we were already missing him! All that done, we left for Mumbai Central around 0400.. our train to delhi was at 05:40 PM..Inspite of leaving early, we got stuck in traffic and made it with about 5 minutes to spare before the train left. This was the time for all the last minute orders from Mum to Rishub and bye bye's .. the train left Mumbai at sharp 05:40. The rest of the journey was uneventful.
Oh! I almost forgot. Let me tell you about this one incident that happened with my Bro, Rishub in Goa. On Saturday,the 29th there was a "Ingo" Market at Baga, which is basically where all the foriegners set up stalls and sell stuff...could be food stalls or souviniers from thier country..anyway Rishub discovered this German couple selling hot dogs made with the most delicious German Bratwurst sausages. He got into line and after a long 30 minute wait, he bought his Hot Dog. He must have just taken a bite or two when there was some commotion and pushing around...well what else can ya expect in a crowded place.. anyway when he looked back all he had in his hand was the bread...the sausages were missing!!! He was furious...Well! Imagine after waiting for 30minutes in the queue and taking one heavenly bite of those sausages, who wouldnt be? Anyway he went to a different stall and ordered a roll (I think..well even he doesnt remember) and walked through the crowd making his way back to the car. He finished his roll in the car. About 20 minutes later, he went looking for the loo. Just before taking care of business, he felt something on his shirt on the side. When he looked down.....The sausage was stuck to his shirt!!!! hahahhahah .. What did he do next? Aint it obvious? It was a sign..the sausage had his name on it.. so he plopped it into his mouth!! hehehe
We arrived in Delhi at 11:10 AM and Dad came to pick us up. We stopped at a South Indian restaurant for some Idli-Dosa and headed home. With that my two week long vacation was over. I went back to work that very evening. But all said and done it was a vacation I would never forget, I may not have done anything out of the ordinary, but in my little world it was so and thats all that matters. This trip and meeting and hanging out with new people has made me realise a lot of things about myself that I knew needed looking into but I kept running away from it. Am not going to get into that, but I will mention the most important lesson I learnt.... I need to chill out more in life!! :-)
~~~ O FIM ~~~.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Travel Memoirs of the Confused Soul - Mumbai & Goa - Part 2
Friday 28 December :
We entered Goa around 7 AM. I had no idea where to get off and where my friend lived. I had called Ivan (the groom) before boarding the bus to let him know that I would be reaching in the morning and he assured me a million times that he would come a pick me up. All he said was to get down somewhere near Fort Aguada. Anyway , I checked with the bus driver and the closest place was Mapusa. When we were close to Mapusa, I tried calling Ivan, and was bombarded with this rather loud Konkani Song!! Anyway he dint pick up. Alternately I tried Prashant's phone, who was also staying in Ivan's house. (Ivan, Prashant and I were batchmates from IHM Chennai). Right from the time we were close to Mapusa to getting off the bus at Mapusa to hiring a taxi to Fort Aguada... I kept trying Ivan's and Prashant's number hoping that either one would pick up. To my horror, Ivan's phone wouldnt get through after a while and the message I got was that it was out of out of coverage area.. Great!! Just what I needed!! After that really frustrating and backbreaking bus journey, I really dint expect this. I was furious. We reached Fort Aguada and stopped at a nearby restaurant to get some tea while I kept trying Prashant's number.I realised that It was silly of me not to have taken an address or alternate numbers. I had almost given up and had reached boiling point, ready to explode..I told mum that if he dint pick up the phone I was not going to attend his wedding... to hell with it and Im not gonna be the bridesmaid either!!! 50 missed calls later (25 each to Ivan and Prashant!) , Ivan picked up the phone. Instead of an excited greeting one would give a friend youre talking to and gonna meet after 8 years, I screamed at him. Poor fellow apologised to the core, but stupid me, I was so consumed in my anger, I kept venting it out on him. Anyway, we got his place and settled down. I gave a piece of my mind to Prashant too when I got there. Apparantly they spent all nite drinking and slept around 5 in the morning so they dint hear the fone. On top of that, Ivan's fone had no battery charge left so it switched off. And If Ivan picked up when I was calling prashant it was by luck. Apparantly Prashant fell off the bed while sleeping and bumped his head... he deserved it if you ask me!! (yeah yeah Ive told you that so dont get mad at me again Prashant!!) Anyway as a reflex he checked his fone and discovered the 25 missed calls from me. And just then I called for the 26th time and he knew I was gonna be majorly pissed so he just handed the fone to Ivan to take the brunt of it !
We then sat around talking for a bit and then Ivan wanted me to try on the bridesmaid's dress that was made for me. It was a lavender colored dress, that was the theme of the wedding... well so were Butterflies,but thankfully the dress dint have any on it. I tried on the dress and I guess Ivan must have had a little too much to drink the previous night coz the dress he gave me was three times bigger than me. Turns out he brought the wrong one!! We freshened up and took a nap. In the evening Mum, me, Ivan and Prashant headed for Baga Beach. On the way we passed through Calangute & Candolim markets. Roadside markets selling clothes and souviniers and every alternate establishment was either a cafe or a restaurant. The city was bustling with life.. everything was lit up, music playing from every roadside cafe and restaurant. Some of them had live bands playing. Foriegners strolling about or riding in hired Kinetic Hondas.. it was a quite a sight. Felt like I was in a totally different country.
For the ones reading who have never been to Goa, let me tell you that there are no wide roads. Its just one long & narrow road like you have on the way up to a hill station. The roads widen in the main city ...since Ive just been to Mapusa, Ive just noticed one there. Away from the city, on either sides of the roads connecting the major areas within the city, you will find vast fields.OK time for a pop quiz - What do you get when you have a long and narrow road + lots of cars, buses & Two wheelers+ peak season+ pedestrians ? The answer is simple - A chaotic traffic situation!! And seriously I thot Delhi topped the list when it came to traffic issues.
We spent a couple of hours on Baga beach. Had a couple of beers and ate something and then headed out. These guys wanted to party later that nite but I told them I was gonna crash as I was still exhausted from the back breaking bus ride the previous nite.
Saturday 29 December :
Since I was one of the bridesmaid I had to stay over at Jenny's place (the bride). She lived on what seemed like the other end of town and which was the complete opposite of the Calangute/Baga side of Goa. A total contrast I must say. It was a very quiet locality, lined with vintage villas and bungalows. Contruction of houses were a stark indication of its portugese past. Again it took us over an hour and a half ..well infact two hours to get there. Im guessing distances arent too great in Goa, but because the roads are narrow and there is just one route, it seems such. We stopped for 30 mins en route at the venue for the reception - Alva Mara, as Ivan had to take care of some friction between the decorator and the owner of the venue. When we reached Jenny's house , her mum, dad and sister were waiting out in the garden. They greeted us with a lot of warmth and welcomed us into their home. There I met Jenny for the first time along with Louise (one of the bridesmaids), Sushil and Mukesh (Ivan's friends from Mumbai) except for these two, Ivan, Jenny, Louise and a couple more Ill mention later are Goans living in Kuwait. We relaxed around a while and around lunch time we had to go to Jenny's Uncle's house for the Bangle ceremony.Quite similar to the chooda ceremony in punjabi weddings were the mamma buys the chooda for the bride before the wedding. The only difference here was that it was not Jenny's uncle who was putting the bangles in her wrists.They had called over the bangle guy (cant think of the appropriate term) to do the honors. Another difference was that , not only does the bride get to make her choice of bangles, the bridesmaids also get an oppurtunity to select a pair they like and wear them. Which to me was great coz I love bangles. Im not too much into jewellery or accessories , and so you would never see me wearing chains or rings but when it comes to bangles and earrings i cant resist. I have a huge collection of bangles at home. So, there's some insight into my likes and dislikes. Well getting back, we spent most of the afternoon at Jenny's uncle's place. While Jenny was wearing her bangles, there was a lot of singing, konkani folk songs. I couldnt understand a word, but I'm guessing the songs were about the new life the bride was to begin and the significance of the bangle ceremony to the wedding. Whats the significance you ask? I have absolutely no idea!! After the ceremony we had lunch,the menu consisted of Roasted Beef, Fish curry and Pork stew.After lunch we headed back to Jenny's place.
In the evening, there was another function,the Rose ceremony. Again it is similar to the haldi rasm in our punjabi weddings. Here the difference being, there was no haldi, and it wasnt just for the bride! Before I explain what happened, I must admit I had absolutely NO IDEA watsoever ,not the slightest inkling as to what was about to happen to me. All the 6 bridesmaids ( Jeanne, Saavia, Louise, Glenda, Alison and Me) and Jenny were made to sit in a row on the floor.Huge bowls of coconut milk were placed in front of us.Now everyone present, right from the bride's immediate family to other relatives to all the friends present there had to rub the coconut milk on all of us starting with the bride. You'd think it must have gone pretty civilised and that they prolly would have just put a lil tikka on us..? Naaaah!! If you're a guy and if you had the oppurtunity to pour some coconut milk on 7 girls? Would you hold your self back? I think not! What followed was crazy. Everyone took generous handfulls of the cocunut milk and poured it on us and rubbed our faces and arms to make sure it seeped in! And I mean EVERYONE... the Aunties, Uncles and so did all the boys present there..geez!! What an experience, Im surely not gonna forget it anytime soon! By the end of it, and it must have taken about 30 minutes or maybe longer I really dont know, I was not in a position to keep track of time, we were drenched , soaking to our undies in coconut milk...yeah yeah.. I know at this point you wanna see some pics..dont ya..? cheapsters!!! Once everyone had done thier bit, the 6 of us gathered around Jenny to take our revenge..hehe..and poured the rest of the contents from each bowl onto her.On the brighter side, I heard we were let off quite easy, you see Ivan had the same rose ceremony performed on him a day before I arrived in Goa. He and his best men were treated to eggs, haldi, coconut milk and what not.. HAHHAHAHA!! So anyway, nothing much happened the rest of the evening. I was exhausted and crashed around 11ish.
Sunday 30 December: Wedding Day
The wedding was scheduled to commence at 5 PM and since all we girls had to do was get pampered and dress up , we got up liesurely around 10ish. We spent most part of the day getting our hair and makeup done. By 4 we were ready and so was Jenny the bride who was looking simply gorgeous in her white gown and veil. What followed was a round of photos with Jenny, the bridesmaids. All the while Jenny was getting ready, she kept going over the wedding and everyone's duties. We left for the church (dont ask me where...Im still not too familar with Goa) around 03:30 PM. They hired a bus ( the DTC kind) to take the us to the church. Enroute we got stuck in a jam. Well not surprising..when the roads are so narrow and there's two way traffic. I was really impressed by Jenny's mum. The moment we got stuck in the jam, she got off the bus, without batting an eyelid and guided the bus out of the jam!
Jenny had wanted all the bridesmaids to stand in line according to thier hieghts and give ourselves numbers so that when we got to the church we could stand with our respective partners. She had, and as far as I know, told Ivan explicitly that he was to do the same routine. But boys will be boys, when we got to the church the best men had no idea they had to get in order!! We quickly improvised and got in line height wise with our partners. My partner was Jude, tall dark and extremely cute.( Alison, dont punch me..am just complimenting your boyfriend! ;) We stood with our partners in line behind Jenny & Ivan. And while waiting to enter the church, Jenny got to know about the miss and she started scolding Ivan.. right there, at the church entrance!! Ah! what a perfect couple..heheh What followed was a sermon by the pastor, live band singing carols and wedding vows exchanged. And finally the pastor said" I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!! . With that, Ivan my dear old friend was finally hooked, booked and cooked. :)
There was another round of photographs to be taken after the ceremony and mass was over, but as luck would have it, the lights went out. Lagtra hai is bhagwan ke ghar mien der tak andher hain!! Hey! said with all due respect :) We then got back on the bus and headed for the reception venue- Alva Mara. Jenny and Ivan left in their Mercedes. When we reached there, we couldnt just walk in.. after all the new Mr & Mrs had to make a grand entrance and not without the bridesmaids and best men. It was an open area, beautifully decorated with a huge dance floor on one end and a live band playing. We stood at the entrance waiting for the MC to give us the cue so that we could enter. As is customary, the guests stand around in a circle on the dance floor and the bride and groom need to take a round with the bridesmaids and best men in two. Once the MC gave us the cue, we made our way around the floor , all the while bieng showered with confetti. Once that was over we gathered around the center of the floor, where a 5 tier cake was placed. It was time to pop the champagne, raise a toast and cut the cake. The first toast was made by Jeanne, Jenny's sister followed by Jenny and then Ivan. They thanked everyone for attending the wedding and thanked thier families. What Ivan said next, really made my day. He specially mentioned my name stating that I was the sole reason he met Jenny and thanked me. You see, when I got back in touch with Ivan over two years ago, we were chatting on yahoo and I told him to join orkut so that we could keep in touch more frequently. Also at the time,when we were discussing our single status, he expressed how he wanted to meet someone and settle down. So i told him that with Orkut, not only could he keep in touch with old friends, but make new ones and who knows find love! And thats exactly what happened. He met Jenny on Orkut! So anyway, I was really moved by this gesture of Ivans ..thanks pal!! After the toasts and cake cutting was done. It was time for the first dance! And people who know me, know very well that I cant dance to save my own life! And here I had to do ballroom dancing...of which I dont even know the B!! I decided to just grin and bear it..after all its for just one number, how bad could it be? Once Jenny & Ivan started, the bridesmaids and Best men had to join in. I let Jude know that I couldnt dance and I was leaving it all on him to help me get through it without a fumble. Thanks to him I survived, but not without stepping on his feet atleast twice!!! Sorry bout that Jude!! Once the first dance was over, I scooted from there and settled down to rub my ankles as shoebite had set in. All of us... Glenda, Louise, Alison, Jude, Sushil & Mukesh settled down at one table. We spent tthe rest of the evening chatting, laughing, drinking and eating. Mum wasnt well, the constant change in temprature from delhi to mumbai to goa was taking a toll. So I got her on the bus that was going back to Ivan's place in Fort Aguada so that she could rest. We lingered around the place until we were literally the last ones left. It had reached the point when the owner was about to kick us out!!!
Ivan, Jenny and the others with the exception of Prashant and me were making plans to go to Palolem. Thats a good two hour drive from where we were. Prashant and I declined. For one, I was exhausted, secondly, we would have under no circumstances been able to get back by 31st evening and I dint want to leave mum alone for the day. So these guys got into Mukesh's indica and left. The Mercedes that they had hired for the day was due to be sent back. But not without dropping prashant and me back to Fort Aguada. A luxourious and comfy 25 minutes Mercedes ride later we were back home. I changed and went to sleep. I must have dozed off just an hour when Louise called to say that thier trip to Palolem got cancelled and that they were gonna hang around at her place in Mapusa and wanted me to come there. I quickly changed, told Prashant and we sat outside in the garden waiting for them to come and pick us up. After about an hour and a half..or was it more..? anyway, they finally came and we went over to Louise's house. We sat around chatting and having a couple of drinks and we played a couple of rounds of Truth and dare. Now this part of my trip is censored.so you aint getting any details ;) All i'll say , it was a pretty interesting time. Ah well I could prolly tell you about one dare..pretty harmless and rated "U", was that I was dared to get some milk in a cup from the nieghbors house at 7 in the morning. The first house I went to, the lady refused stating she dint have any as she just ran out of it. In the second house, not only did they give me a packet of milk they even invited me in!! WOW..such nice people..and I bet a million bucks, if Id done the same thing here in Delhi , people would have just banged the door in my face!!hehe The same dare was given to Sushil, who had to take two table spoons and get sugar in them..not only did he get sugar wrapped in newspaper, he even got some tea leaves..hehe... Way to go Sushil!!! So now we had all the ingredients to make tea.. but lemme tell you they dint use it even until I left which was on the 2nd... I bet the milk is still lying in louise's fridge..hehe
To be continued...
We entered Goa around 7 AM. I had no idea where to get off and where my friend lived. I had called Ivan (the groom) before boarding the bus to let him know that I would be reaching in the morning and he assured me a million times that he would come a pick me up. All he said was to get down somewhere near Fort Aguada. Anyway , I checked with the bus driver and the closest place was Mapusa. When we were close to Mapusa, I tried calling Ivan, and was bombarded with this rather loud Konkani Song!! Anyway he dint pick up. Alternately I tried Prashant's phone, who was also staying in Ivan's house. (Ivan, Prashant and I were batchmates from IHM Chennai). Right from the time we were close to Mapusa to getting off the bus at Mapusa to hiring a taxi to Fort Aguada... I kept trying Ivan's and Prashant's number hoping that either one would pick up. To my horror, Ivan's phone wouldnt get through after a while and the message I got was that it was out of out of coverage area.. Great!! Just what I needed!! After that really frustrating and backbreaking bus journey, I really dint expect this. I was furious. We reached Fort Aguada and stopped at a nearby restaurant to get some tea while I kept trying Prashant's number.I realised that It was silly of me not to have taken an address or alternate numbers. I had almost given up and had reached boiling point, ready to explode..I told mum that if he dint pick up the phone I was not going to attend his wedding... to hell with it and Im not gonna be the bridesmaid either!!! 50 missed calls later (25 each to Ivan and Prashant!) , Ivan picked up the phone. Instead of an excited greeting one would give a friend youre talking to and gonna meet after 8 years, I screamed at him. Poor fellow apologised to the core, but stupid me, I was so consumed in my anger, I kept venting it out on him. Anyway, we got his place and settled down. I gave a piece of my mind to Prashant too when I got there. Apparantly they spent all nite drinking and slept around 5 in the morning so they dint hear the fone. On top of that, Ivan's fone had no battery charge left so it switched off. And If Ivan picked up when I was calling prashant it was by luck. Apparantly Prashant fell off the bed while sleeping and bumped his head... he deserved it if you ask me!! (yeah yeah Ive told you that so dont get mad at me again Prashant!!) Anyway as a reflex he checked his fone and discovered the 25 missed calls from me. And just then I called for the 26th time and he knew I was gonna be majorly pissed so he just handed the fone to Ivan to take the brunt of it !
We then sat around talking for a bit and then Ivan wanted me to try on the bridesmaid's dress that was made for me. It was a lavender colored dress, that was the theme of the wedding... well so were Butterflies,but thankfully the dress dint have any on it. I tried on the dress and I guess Ivan must have had a little too much to drink the previous night coz the dress he gave me was three times bigger than me. Turns out he brought the wrong one!! We freshened up and took a nap. In the evening Mum, me, Ivan and Prashant headed for Baga Beach. On the way we passed through Calangute & Candolim markets. Roadside markets selling clothes and souviniers and every alternate establishment was either a cafe or a restaurant. The city was bustling with life.. everything was lit up, music playing from every roadside cafe and restaurant. Some of them had live bands playing. Foriegners strolling about or riding in hired Kinetic Hondas.. it was a quite a sight. Felt like I was in a totally different country.
For the ones reading who have never been to Goa, let me tell you that there are no wide roads. Its just one long & narrow road like you have on the way up to a hill station. The roads widen in the main city ...since Ive just been to Mapusa, Ive just noticed one there. Away from the city, on either sides of the roads connecting the major areas within the city, you will find vast fields.OK time for a pop quiz - What do you get when you have a long and narrow road + lots of cars, buses & Two wheelers+ peak season+ pedestrians ? The answer is simple - A chaotic traffic situation!! And seriously I thot Delhi topped the list when it came to traffic issues.
We spent a couple of hours on Baga beach. Had a couple of beers and ate something and then headed out. These guys wanted to party later that nite but I told them I was gonna crash as I was still exhausted from the back breaking bus ride the previous nite.
Saturday 29 December :
Since I was one of the bridesmaid I had to stay over at Jenny's place (the bride). She lived on what seemed like the other end of town and which was the complete opposite of the Calangute/Baga side of Goa. A total contrast I must say. It was a very quiet locality, lined with vintage villas and bungalows. Contruction of houses were a stark indication of its portugese past. Again it took us over an hour and a half ..well infact two hours to get there. Im guessing distances arent too great in Goa, but because the roads are narrow and there is just one route, it seems such. We stopped for 30 mins en route at the venue for the reception - Alva Mara, as Ivan had to take care of some friction between the decorator and the owner of the venue. When we reached Jenny's house , her mum, dad and sister were waiting out in the garden. They greeted us with a lot of warmth and welcomed us into their home. There I met Jenny for the first time along with Louise (one of the bridesmaids), Sushil and Mukesh (Ivan's friends from Mumbai) except for these two, Ivan, Jenny, Louise and a couple more Ill mention later are Goans living in Kuwait. We relaxed around a while and around lunch time we had to go to Jenny's Uncle's house for the Bangle ceremony.Quite similar to the chooda ceremony in punjabi weddings were the mamma buys the chooda for the bride before the wedding. The only difference here was that it was not Jenny's uncle who was putting the bangles in her wrists.They had called over the bangle guy (cant think of the appropriate term) to do the honors. Another difference was that , not only does the bride get to make her choice of bangles, the bridesmaids also get an oppurtunity to select a pair they like and wear them. Which to me was great coz I love bangles. Im not too much into jewellery or accessories , and so you would never see me wearing chains or rings but when it comes to bangles and earrings i cant resist. I have a huge collection of bangles at home. So, there's some insight into my likes and dislikes. Well getting back, we spent most of the afternoon at Jenny's uncle's place. While Jenny was wearing her bangles, there was a lot of singing, konkani folk songs. I couldnt understand a word, but I'm guessing the songs were about the new life the bride was to begin and the significance of the bangle ceremony to the wedding. Whats the significance you ask? I have absolutely no idea!! After the ceremony we had lunch,the menu consisted of Roasted Beef, Fish curry and Pork stew.After lunch we headed back to Jenny's place.
In the evening, there was another function,the Rose ceremony. Again it is similar to the haldi rasm in our punjabi weddings. Here the difference being, there was no haldi, and it wasnt just for the bride! Before I explain what happened, I must admit I had absolutely NO IDEA watsoever ,not the slightest inkling as to what was about to happen to me. All the 6 bridesmaids ( Jeanne, Saavia, Louise, Glenda, Alison and Me) and Jenny were made to sit in a row on the floor.Huge bowls of coconut milk were placed in front of us.Now everyone present, right from the bride's immediate family to other relatives to all the friends present there had to rub the coconut milk on all of us starting with the bride. You'd think it must have gone pretty civilised and that they prolly would have just put a lil tikka on us..? Naaaah!! If you're a guy and if you had the oppurtunity to pour some coconut milk on 7 girls? Would you hold your self back? I think not! What followed was crazy. Everyone took generous handfulls of the cocunut milk and poured it on us and rubbed our faces and arms to make sure it seeped in! And I mean EVERYONE... the Aunties, Uncles and so did all the boys present there..geez!! What an experience, Im surely not gonna forget it anytime soon! By the end of it, and it must have taken about 30 minutes or maybe longer I really dont know, I was not in a position to keep track of time, we were drenched , soaking to our undies in coconut milk...yeah yeah.. I know at this point you wanna see some pics..dont ya..? cheapsters!!! Once everyone had done thier bit, the 6 of us gathered around Jenny to take our revenge..hehe..and poured the rest of the contents from each bowl onto her.On the brighter side, I heard we were let off quite easy, you see Ivan had the same rose ceremony performed on him a day before I arrived in Goa. He and his best men were treated to eggs, haldi, coconut milk and what not.. HAHHAHAHA!! So anyway, nothing much happened the rest of the evening. I was exhausted and crashed around 11ish.
Sunday 30 December: Wedding Day
The wedding was scheduled to commence at 5 PM and since all we girls had to do was get pampered and dress up , we got up liesurely around 10ish. We spent most part of the day getting our hair and makeup done. By 4 we were ready and so was Jenny the bride who was looking simply gorgeous in her white gown and veil. What followed was a round of photos with Jenny, the bridesmaids. All the while Jenny was getting ready, she kept going over the wedding and everyone's duties. We left for the church (dont ask me where...Im still not too familar with Goa) around 03:30 PM. They hired a bus ( the DTC kind) to take the us to the church. Enroute we got stuck in a jam. Well not surprising..when the roads are so narrow and there's two way traffic. I was really impressed by Jenny's mum. The moment we got stuck in the jam, she got off the bus, without batting an eyelid and guided the bus out of the jam!
Jenny had wanted all the bridesmaids to stand in line according to thier hieghts and give ourselves numbers so that when we got to the church we could stand with our respective partners. She had, and as far as I know, told Ivan explicitly that he was to do the same routine. But boys will be boys, when we got to the church the best men had no idea they had to get in order!! We quickly improvised and got in line height wise with our partners. My partner was Jude, tall dark and extremely cute.( Alison, dont punch me..am just complimenting your boyfriend! ;) We stood with our partners in line behind Jenny & Ivan. And while waiting to enter the church, Jenny got to know about the miss and she started scolding Ivan.. right there, at the church entrance!! Ah! what a perfect couple..heheh What followed was a sermon by the pastor, live band singing carols and wedding vows exchanged. And finally the pastor said" I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!! . With that, Ivan my dear old friend was finally hooked, booked and cooked. :)
There was another round of photographs to be taken after the ceremony and mass was over, but as luck would have it, the lights went out. Lagtra hai is bhagwan ke ghar mien der tak andher hain!! Hey! said with all due respect :) We then got back on the bus and headed for the reception venue- Alva Mara. Jenny and Ivan left in their Mercedes. When we reached there, we couldnt just walk in.. after all the new Mr & Mrs had to make a grand entrance and not without the bridesmaids and best men. It was an open area, beautifully decorated with a huge dance floor on one end and a live band playing. We stood at the entrance waiting for the MC to give us the cue so that we could enter. As is customary, the guests stand around in a circle on the dance floor and the bride and groom need to take a round with the bridesmaids and best men in two. Once the MC gave us the cue, we made our way around the floor , all the while bieng showered with confetti. Once that was over we gathered around the center of the floor, where a 5 tier cake was placed. It was time to pop the champagne, raise a toast and cut the cake. The first toast was made by Jeanne, Jenny's sister followed by Jenny and then Ivan. They thanked everyone for attending the wedding and thanked thier families. What Ivan said next, really made my day. He specially mentioned my name stating that I was the sole reason he met Jenny and thanked me. You see, when I got back in touch with Ivan over two years ago, we were chatting on yahoo and I told him to join orkut so that we could keep in touch more frequently. Also at the time,when we were discussing our single status, he expressed how he wanted to meet someone and settle down. So i told him that with Orkut, not only could he keep in touch with old friends, but make new ones and who knows find love! And thats exactly what happened. He met Jenny on Orkut! So anyway, I was really moved by this gesture of Ivans ..thanks pal!! After the toasts and cake cutting was done. It was time for the first dance! And people who know me, know very well that I cant dance to save my own life! And here I had to do ballroom dancing...of which I dont even know the B!! I decided to just grin and bear it..after all its for just one number, how bad could it be? Once Jenny & Ivan started, the bridesmaids and Best men had to join in. I let Jude know that I couldnt dance and I was leaving it all on him to help me get through it without a fumble. Thanks to him I survived, but not without stepping on his feet atleast twice!!! Sorry bout that Jude!! Once the first dance was over, I scooted from there and settled down to rub my ankles as shoebite had set in. All of us... Glenda, Louise, Alison, Jude, Sushil & Mukesh settled down at one table. We spent tthe rest of the evening chatting, laughing, drinking and eating. Mum wasnt well, the constant change in temprature from delhi to mumbai to goa was taking a toll. So I got her on the bus that was going back to Ivan's place in Fort Aguada so that she could rest. We lingered around the place until we were literally the last ones left. It had reached the point when the owner was about to kick us out!!!
Ivan, Jenny and the others with the exception of Prashant and me were making plans to go to Palolem. Thats a good two hour drive from where we were. Prashant and I declined. For one, I was exhausted, secondly, we would have under no circumstances been able to get back by 31st evening and I dint want to leave mum alone for the day. So these guys got into Mukesh's indica and left. The Mercedes that they had hired for the day was due to be sent back. But not without dropping prashant and me back to Fort Aguada. A luxourious and comfy 25 minutes Mercedes ride later we were back home. I changed and went to sleep. I must have dozed off just an hour when Louise called to say that thier trip to Palolem got cancelled and that they were gonna hang around at her place in Mapusa and wanted me to come there. I quickly changed, told Prashant and we sat outside in the garden waiting for them to come and pick us up. After about an hour and a half..or was it more..? anyway, they finally came and we went over to Louise's house. We sat around chatting and having a couple of drinks and we played a couple of rounds of Truth and dare. Now this part of my trip is censored.so you aint getting any details ;) All i'll say , it was a pretty interesting time. Ah well I could prolly tell you about one dare..pretty harmless and rated "U", was that I was dared to get some milk in a cup from the nieghbors house at 7 in the morning. The first house I went to, the lady refused stating she dint have any as she just ran out of it. In the second house, not only did they give me a packet of milk they even invited me in!! WOW..such nice people..and I bet a million bucks, if Id done the same thing here in Delhi , people would have just banged the door in my face!!hehe The same dare was given to Sushil, who had to take two table spoons and get sugar in them..not only did he get sugar wrapped in newspaper, he even got some tea leaves..hehe... Way to go Sushil!!! So now we had all the ingredients to make tea.. but lemme tell you they dint use it even until I left which was on the 2nd... I bet the milk is still lying in louise's fridge..hehe
To be continued...
Monday, January 14, 2008
Travel Memoirs of the Confused Soul - Mumbai & Goa - Part 1
A very Happy New Year to you all. Another year gone by...rather whooshed past. Looking back, professionally 2007 was a good year. I got promoted in December, and about time too :) Personally...well, all I'll say it wasn't much to talk about. I ended the year with a much needed break. A trip to Mumbai and Goa. The main reason of this holiday was to attend the wedding of my good ol’ college buddy- Ivan. It was my first Christian Wedding and I was asked to be one of the bridesmaids plus this was my first trip to Goa. So a lot of firsts and I guess it goes without saying, I was really excited and looking forward to lots of fun and long lasting memories.
Inspite of being down with a nagging body and headache, running nose and high fever, I pushed myself as much as I could to somehow get through the shift on the 20th of December, finding solace in the fact that after this nite was over, I'd finally be on this long awaited and God knows desperately needed two week vacation! I was due to leave on the 24th for Mumbai and had three days to get prepared .. last minute shopping, packing and now to top it off get well before I boarded the train. I wasn't going to let anything spoil this holiday for me.
I spent all of Friday and Saturday popping pills and sleeping off the fever. By Sunday I felt good as new and about time too!
Monday 24 December:
CHAOS is defined as “a state of extreme confusion and disorder” No matter how hard we try to avoid it, we can’t. Specially when you have do something important like in this case –Travel! We had been planning this holiday for months…it was also planned that we would have three days before we left and so would finish all the last minute shopping and packing then. But No! Plans don’t always work out the way you want them to. So there we were running about the house, shouting out to each other from different rooms trying to finish our packing. To add to it, all of a sudden Mum realises that my poor ol lil bro was prolly starving and all malnutritioned coz the poor baby hadn't eaten a home cooked meal in over a year.. so off she went into the kitchen to make some dry meat masala and some Chicken pickle for him. Noticing mum in the kitchen, Dad decided what the heck , why not? and he gave his not so little list of food items he wanted mum to prepare for him while we were away.. something he could clearly have done a day or two earlier!! A good 3 hours later mum emerged from the kitchen, swearing that she couldn’t wait to get started with the holiday!
At 02:30 we were finally all set .. luggage loaded in the car, we finally set off for the station. Thankfully we reached well in time inspite of the traffic in Connaught place, confident that we got off near the right platform (all thanks to my masi who insisted that the Mumbai Rajdhani always leaves from platform 12!) Unfortunately for us, we had to go to platform 4... which was way across on the other side. So we made our way over the bridge to platform 4 from 12. No biggie.. we still had lots of time and the train had not arrived at the station yet. Now the thing is our train tickets were not confirmed until the last minute and ours was an extra bogie. We had absolutely no idea where the bogie would stop. When the train finally pulled into the station at 04:20 PM (the train was scheduled to leave at 04:30 PM), we realised to our horror that we were standing near the engine and our bogie was the absolute last one on the other side. With only under 10 minutes to go, we grabbed our bags and dodging our way through the oncoming crowd... pushing people aside..and I mean literally....I gotta admit, it is times like these when the evil side of me comes out... people were actually strolling leisurely about on the platform as if they were at the Rail museum! Also a polite "excuse me" never works..so I dint even bother with that. Making the way for my mum, I literally pushed and shoved people outta my way and finally reached the last bogie and got in with 3 minutes to spare before the train left the station.Phew!! The rest of the journey was uneventful...nothing or nobody interesting enough on the train to talk about. I always get pesky little wailing kids ..ALWAYS!!
Tuesday 25 December:
The train arrived at Mumbai Central on time - 08:30 AM. AGAIN just our luck, since ours was an extra bogie, it dint even make it to the platform!! We had to unload our luggage on the tracks! Thankfully Rishub got into our bogie and helped mum and the luggage get off. Just as we left the station and had driven about 10 minutes or less, we stopped at a signal. There across the road I noticed a traffic cop who had stopped a car for speeding. The guy in the car, without being discreet and not even looking the least bit worked up about being stopped by a cop, took out his wallet and offered the cop a bribe. Just there ..blatantly out in the open! The cop, prolly bitten by the bollywood bug, did his best to act as though he was offended and that he was an honest cop and refused the money. The man in the car tried again and it dint take much insistance on his part for the cop to give in. The cop took the money and here's the best part....after that reached out to grab the guy's wallet cuz he wanted more!!! Sheesh!!!!What an ass!! Now Im kicking myself as to why I dint take a photograph of this exchange when I had the chance!!! Ah well!!
An hour and a half long exhausting mumbai darshan later, we reached "The Privilige Inn" in Malad where we had room reservations for two nights. After a good breakfast and warm bath we decided to crash for a bit. Around 5 pm we decided to head out to Lokhandwala Market in Andheri West. No matter how hard you try to resist and stick to window shopping ,you can’t. So we ended up buying some stuff. We had been invited over for dinner by Priyanka's family (Rishub's friend) where he had been staying. Around 9 we went back to Malad to Priyanka's house. We spent the rest of the evening chatting with Uncle and Aunty, Priyanka, her brother Pratik, Rishub and Ratin (Another friend of Rishub and Priyanka's fiance). It was a very relaxed and interesting evening.. with some fun filled conversation followed by some very delicious home cooked food. The next day was Priyanka's mom's birthday...so at sharp 12 we got out the cake (and a real yummy chocolate-coffee & Ferrero Rocher cake it was!) By 1 AM we were sleepy and bid our farewells and headed back to the hotel room.
Wednesday 26 December:
Since we had just two more days in Mumbai before we headed for Goa, we decided to make the most of it. Our Volvo Bus tickets were booked for the 27th evening at 8 PM. We left the hotel room around 12ish and headed for the nearest Mall - the Inorbit Mall in Malad. It was decided earlier that we wanted to watch atleast two movies, so we bought tickets for "Welcome" for the 4PM show and "Taare Zameen par" for the 11:30 PM show in the same movie complex. Since we had time to kill before the movie started we decided to first roam around a bit in the mall and then get something to eat at Pizza Hut.
After a few hours of doing pretty much nothing, it was time for the movie, so we headed for the movie hall. If you are a frequent visitor or live in Mumbai you would have noticed that before any movie show begins they always play the national anthem..which Im told is by order of Shiv Sena. With all due respect to the National Anthem, I find this routine quite odd. Its quite obvious that the only real motive of playing the anthem before a movie is because that is one place where you have so many people already gathered..so why not force them to sing the anthem and instill some patriotic feeling in them, like we don’t already feel so! What is the Shiv Sena trying to prove? Well, lets not get into that. So Anyhow, that done, we settled down and waited for the credits to roll and the movie to start. I have only one thing to say to the makers of "Welcome" after watching it and that is "You are definitely NOT Welcome" The movie is such a waste of time, money and good talent. C’mon! Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal have done much much better in the past. Nana Patekar was just about OK and Anil Kapoor needs a trip to the parlor to shed off all that hair...where does he think he is.. in Antartica? All that fur aint gonna help him look and stay cool in Mumbai!!! Anyway, after what seemed like 4 hours of torture, the film was finally over. It was quite generous enough to leave us with a parting gift - A Headache!
We then headed off to Juhu Beach which was quite a disappointment after my last trip there. The beach was filthy , crowded and full of Hawkers around. We had some naariyal paani..mum's favourite and decided to head off for dinner as it was already 0845 PM and traffic was bad. We went to this place called "Fingers Crossed" for steaks. Had a delicious dinner and then set off to watch "Taare Zameen Par". I have just one word to describe this film - B-E-A-U-Tee-Full, Touching, Heart wrenching...okay thats three words... but mark my words, if you haven’t seen it you're missing out on some great cinema. Trust me on this coz I don’t normally waste my breath to promote a Non Shahrukh Khan film..so THiS is big!! We (and I mean everyone in the hall) were in tears at the end and People even applauded. I’m soooo glad we watched "Welcome" first.. coz then I’d have to prolly take a pill for the headache to get some sleep!!
Thursday 27 December:
We woke up a little late, finished packing as we had to check out by 12:00 PM.Settled the bill and headed for Ratin's House in Lokkhandwala. We were to drop off some of our luggage there as we dint want to take all of it to Goa. After dropping it off, we headed off to TGIF to get something to eat. After about a leisurely 2 hour lunch we went to Lokhandwala market and did some more shopping.. oh what the heck!! after all am on vacation and I just got promoted.. a lil spending never hurt.. yeah? By 6PM we were back at Ratin's place and left for the pick up point at 0630. The reporting time was 0730 PM.. and even though it wasnt very far we decided to leave an hour in advance as traffic is hell in Mumbai. On the way, at a signal we saw Jitendra in his swanky Mercedes sitting in the front seat. He looked as though all hell just broke loose in Balaji!!
We reached the pickup point by 0740 PM and the bus was stuck in traffic too and got there by 8 PM. It was a sleeper Volvo which was booked by Rishub on the net on Redbus.com. My advice, never travel on a sleeper volvo.. even if you decide to, never book it without checking out the seats. The bus had 18 seaters and the rest were beds. We had beds on top and there was just a side rod that was not easily accessible. I could have managed to climb, but my mum is 56 years old and she couldn’t climb up. For the initial part of the journey we settled down on the seaters , however after the last pickup point we had to vacate those seats as all passengers had boarded the bus. Now the problem was that you can have either a seater or a sleeper. We were literally standing for a while. Mum couldn’t climb up and I wouldn’t get up and leave her standing. The sleeper next to ours, also on the top (there were sleepers on the floor of the bus too) had a proper ladder. It was occupied by two men.. we asked one if he could exchange it with us and he agreed. However the other man blatantly refused. His reason: he couldn’t leave his wife and kid who were on the sleeper right opposite his!!! He was acting as though we were asking him to go to the other end of the bus. All the sleepers were right next to each other!! SHeesh!... Anyway.. I asked another guy who had the lower bed and he agreed to help out. But then after about an hour or so, he wanted the bed back, said that he couldn’t fit into the top sleeper they weren’t the same size!! Just Great!! So now were were back to square one. What really pissed me off was that after that no one wanted to help us. We had no choice and it looked like we would have to travel all the way to Goa standing!! I had decided that the trip was going to be a disaster. Even the conductor wasn’t interested in helping us out. What a nightmare!! Luckily for us, two women who had the seaters offered thier seats in exchange for the beds... we jumped on the chance.. better go sitting instead of standing. The rest of the journey was highly uncomfortable and I just couldn’t wait to get off that bus.
To be Continued...
Inspite of being down with a nagging body and headache, running nose and high fever, I pushed myself as much as I could to somehow get through the shift on the 20th of December, finding solace in the fact that after this nite was over, I'd finally be on this long awaited and God knows desperately needed two week vacation! I was due to leave on the 24th for Mumbai and had three days to get prepared .. last minute shopping, packing and now to top it off get well before I boarded the train. I wasn't going to let anything spoil this holiday for me.
I spent all of Friday and Saturday popping pills and sleeping off the fever. By Sunday I felt good as new and about time too!
Monday 24 December:
CHAOS is defined as “a state of extreme confusion and disorder” No matter how hard we try to avoid it, we can’t. Specially when you have do something important like in this case –Travel! We had been planning this holiday for months…it was also planned that we would have three days before we left and so would finish all the last minute shopping and packing then. But No! Plans don’t always work out the way you want them to. So there we were running about the house, shouting out to each other from different rooms trying to finish our packing. To add to it, all of a sudden Mum realises that my poor ol lil bro was prolly starving and all malnutritioned coz the poor baby hadn't eaten a home cooked meal in over a year.. so off she went into the kitchen to make some dry meat masala and some Chicken pickle for him. Noticing mum in the kitchen, Dad decided what the heck , why not? and he gave his not so little list of food items he wanted mum to prepare for him while we were away.. something he could clearly have done a day or two earlier!! A good 3 hours later mum emerged from the kitchen, swearing that she couldn’t wait to get started with the holiday!
At 02:30 we were finally all set .. luggage loaded in the car, we finally set off for the station. Thankfully we reached well in time inspite of the traffic in Connaught place, confident that we got off near the right platform (all thanks to my masi who insisted that the Mumbai Rajdhani always leaves from platform 12!) Unfortunately for us, we had to go to platform 4... which was way across on the other side. So we made our way over the bridge to platform 4 from 12. No biggie.. we still had lots of time and the train had not arrived at the station yet. Now the thing is our train tickets were not confirmed until the last minute and ours was an extra bogie. We had absolutely no idea where the bogie would stop. When the train finally pulled into the station at 04:20 PM (the train was scheduled to leave at 04:30 PM), we realised to our horror that we were standing near the engine and our bogie was the absolute last one on the other side. With only under 10 minutes to go, we grabbed our bags and dodging our way through the oncoming crowd... pushing people aside..and I mean literally....I gotta admit, it is times like these when the evil side of me comes out... people were actually strolling leisurely about on the platform as if they were at the Rail museum! Also a polite "excuse me" never works..so I dint even bother with that. Making the way for my mum, I literally pushed and shoved people outta my way and finally reached the last bogie and got in with 3 minutes to spare before the train left the station.Phew!! The rest of the journey was uneventful...nothing or nobody interesting enough on the train to talk about. I always get pesky little wailing kids ..ALWAYS!!
Tuesday 25 December:
The train arrived at Mumbai Central on time - 08:30 AM. AGAIN just our luck, since ours was an extra bogie, it dint even make it to the platform!! We had to unload our luggage on the tracks! Thankfully Rishub got into our bogie and helped mum and the luggage get off. Just as we left the station and had driven about 10 minutes or less, we stopped at a signal. There across the road I noticed a traffic cop who had stopped a car for speeding. The guy in the car, without being discreet and not even looking the least bit worked up about being stopped by a cop, took out his wallet and offered the cop a bribe. Just there ..blatantly out in the open! The cop, prolly bitten by the bollywood bug, did his best to act as though he was offended and that he was an honest cop and refused the money. The man in the car tried again and it dint take much insistance on his part for the cop to give in. The cop took the money and here's the best part....after that reached out to grab the guy's wallet cuz he wanted more!!! Sheesh!!!!What an ass!! Now Im kicking myself as to why I dint take a photograph of this exchange when I had the chance!!! Ah well!!
An hour and a half long exhausting mumbai darshan later, we reached "The Privilige Inn" in Malad where we had room reservations for two nights. After a good breakfast and warm bath we decided to crash for a bit. Around 5 pm we decided to head out to Lokhandwala Market in Andheri West. No matter how hard you try to resist and stick to window shopping ,you can’t. So we ended up buying some stuff. We had been invited over for dinner by Priyanka's family (Rishub's friend) where he had been staying. Around 9 we went back to Malad to Priyanka's house. We spent the rest of the evening chatting with Uncle and Aunty, Priyanka, her brother Pratik, Rishub and Ratin (Another friend of Rishub and Priyanka's fiance). It was a very relaxed and interesting evening.. with some fun filled conversation followed by some very delicious home cooked food. The next day was Priyanka's mom's birthday...so at sharp 12 we got out the cake (and a real yummy chocolate-coffee & Ferrero Rocher cake it was!) By 1 AM we were sleepy and bid our farewells and headed back to the hotel room.
Wednesday 26 December:
Since we had just two more days in Mumbai before we headed for Goa, we decided to make the most of it. Our Volvo Bus tickets were booked for the 27th evening at 8 PM. We left the hotel room around 12ish and headed for the nearest Mall - the Inorbit Mall in Malad. It was decided earlier that we wanted to watch atleast two movies, so we bought tickets for "Welcome" for the 4PM show and "Taare Zameen par" for the 11:30 PM show in the same movie complex. Since we had time to kill before the movie started we decided to first roam around a bit in the mall and then get something to eat at Pizza Hut.
After a few hours of doing pretty much nothing, it was time for the movie, so we headed for the movie hall. If you are a frequent visitor or live in Mumbai you would have noticed that before any movie show begins they always play the national anthem..which Im told is by order of Shiv Sena. With all due respect to the National Anthem, I find this routine quite odd. Its quite obvious that the only real motive of playing the anthem before a movie is because that is one place where you have so many people already gathered..so why not force them to sing the anthem and instill some patriotic feeling in them, like we don’t already feel so! What is the Shiv Sena trying to prove? Well, lets not get into that. So Anyhow, that done, we settled down and waited for the credits to roll and the movie to start. I have only one thing to say to the makers of "Welcome" after watching it and that is "You are definitely NOT Welcome" The movie is such a waste of time, money and good talent. C’mon! Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal have done much much better in the past. Nana Patekar was just about OK and Anil Kapoor needs a trip to the parlor to shed off all that hair...where does he think he is.. in Antartica? All that fur aint gonna help him look and stay cool in Mumbai!!! Anyway, after what seemed like 4 hours of torture, the film was finally over. It was quite generous enough to leave us with a parting gift - A Headache!
We then headed off to Juhu Beach which was quite a disappointment after my last trip there. The beach was filthy , crowded and full of Hawkers around. We had some naariyal paani..mum's favourite and decided to head off for dinner as it was already 0845 PM and traffic was bad. We went to this place called "Fingers Crossed" for steaks. Had a delicious dinner and then set off to watch "Taare Zameen Par". I have just one word to describe this film - B-E-A-U-Tee-Full, Touching, Heart wrenching...okay thats three words... but mark my words, if you haven’t seen it you're missing out on some great cinema. Trust me on this coz I don’t normally waste my breath to promote a Non Shahrukh Khan film..so THiS is big!! We (and I mean everyone in the hall) were in tears at the end and People even applauded. I’m soooo glad we watched "Welcome" first.. coz then I’d have to prolly take a pill for the headache to get some sleep!!
Thursday 27 December:
We woke up a little late, finished packing as we had to check out by 12:00 PM.Settled the bill and headed for Ratin's House in Lokkhandwala. We were to drop off some of our luggage there as we dint want to take all of it to Goa. After dropping it off, we headed off to TGIF to get something to eat. After about a leisurely 2 hour lunch we went to Lokhandwala market and did some more shopping.. oh what the heck!! after all am on vacation and I just got promoted.. a lil spending never hurt.. yeah? By 6PM we were back at Ratin's place and left for the pick up point at 0630. The reporting time was 0730 PM.. and even though it wasnt very far we decided to leave an hour in advance as traffic is hell in Mumbai. On the way, at a signal we saw Jitendra in his swanky Mercedes sitting in the front seat. He looked as though all hell just broke loose in Balaji!!
We reached the pickup point by 0740 PM and the bus was stuck in traffic too and got there by 8 PM. It was a sleeper Volvo which was booked by Rishub on the net on Redbus.com. My advice, never travel on a sleeper volvo.. even if you decide to, never book it without checking out the seats. The bus had 18 seaters and the rest were beds. We had beds on top and there was just a side rod that was not easily accessible. I could have managed to climb, but my mum is 56 years old and she couldn’t climb up. For the initial part of the journey we settled down on the seaters , however after the last pickup point we had to vacate those seats as all passengers had boarded the bus. Now the problem was that you can have either a seater or a sleeper. We were literally standing for a while. Mum couldn’t climb up and I wouldn’t get up and leave her standing. The sleeper next to ours, also on the top (there were sleepers on the floor of the bus too) had a proper ladder. It was occupied by two men.. we asked one if he could exchange it with us and he agreed. However the other man blatantly refused. His reason: he couldn’t leave his wife and kid who were on the sleeper right opposite his!!! He was acting as though we were asking him to go to the other end of the bus. All the sleepers were right next to each other!! SHeesh!... Anyway.. I asked another guy who had the lower bed and he agreed to help out. But then after about an hour or so, he wanted the bed back, said that he couldn’t fit into the top sleeper they weren’t the same size!! Just Great!! So now were were back to square one. What really pissed me off was that after that no one wanted to help us. We had no choice and it looked like we would have to travel all the way to Goa standing!! I had decided that the trip was going to be a disaster. Even the conductor wasn’t interested in helping us out. What a nightmare!! Luckily for us, two women who had the seaters offered thier seats in exchange for the beds... we jumped on the chance.. better go sitting instead of standing. The rest of the journey was highly uncomfortable and I just couldn’t wait to get off that bus.
To be Continued...
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