Early this year, it all started with the customary discussion on
our Buddies Whatsapp group of a get together that’s long overdue. Every 3
months, we come up with the discussion and it soon fizzles out J .
This time however the response rate was higher and the enthusiasm was full
on. After a lot of brainstorming, we decided the venue as Goa and
accordingly all the bookings were done well in advance.
We started with a number of 15 people and after constant
confirmations, ended up with 11 people. Vinaya and Bibu couldn’t join in last
moment due to unexpected contingencies.
The rest of the gang were coming in from different parts of
India – Lady Salem ( Vaishali), Ms.Pune ( Saritha) , Roop ki Rani ( Roopa from
Chennai ), Gaanakokilam Nisha Ammal (Chennai), Calicut Model Sheethal ,
Ravishing Rajeesha ( Calicut) , Humour girl Hema, Bubbly Bournvita gal
Binija ,Rainy Girl Rhena , Scintillating Shri & yours Faithfully Me.
The trip started with the Calicut gals boarding the train from
Calicut station, where our admin Sajna reached the station even before the
station master arrived to see off our gals. The big bag that Admin carried raised
loads of expectations (goodies J) in the mind of Rajeesha
but much to her dismay, Admin bid her adieu with empty hands. If Rajeesha insisted,
I’m sure that Sajna would have handed over her laundry bag to her to carry all
the way to Goa.
Vaishali landed in Bangalore the night before from Salem so that
she could accompany us – Shri and myself from Bangalore early morning at 6am.
Roopa & Nisha were the first ones to reach Goa and waited patiently at the
airport for us. The 5 of us were met by Mr.Saulo, our charioteer for the next 2
days. A friendly person, he gave us basics on what to see, where to go etc and
dropped us to our Villa in South Goa.
Our fears of the rains and monsoon were put to rest looking at
the lovely weather. The sky was clear and had a beautiful breeze blowing. The
roads of Goa were so green and tidy. The smell of fresh wet mud was so
nostalgic that it took me back to the fields where I used to laze about during
holidays back in Kerala. The nearly 1 hour drive to South Goa was totally
chitter chatter and refreshing.
On the way, we stopped for a quick breakfast at a local Dhaba.
The tea / coffee / dosas and parathas tasted just the same to us since we were
so busy chatting with each other .
Once we reached the Villa , we could see Rajeesha awaiting us in
the balcony and smiling away to glory , as we neared the villa realized that
she hadn’t seen us and mistook us for LOCALS as per her.
As soon as we reached, the non-stop chattering started. Some of
us were seeing each other after 20 years but it felt just like yesterday that
we left from college. The Villa was actually booming with our noises and I was
scared the neighbours may actually come and complain on the noise. Thankfully,
we realized later that we didn’t have neigbours nearby which was a solace to
them and us J
Thanks to Airbnb , we had booked a 5BR villa in Betalbatim, a
silent and laid back village in South Goa . The Villa was in painted in the
bright Portuguese colors of yellow . The furniture was quite a mix of
the Victorian style with the poster beds and cupboards and the painted
tiles were the ancient Portuguese style. Beautiful balconies , spiraling
wooden paneled staircase added to our galore.
After sometime of chit chats , we walked up to the Lover’s Beach
( the name raised hopes though much to our despair we didn’t see a single
person there other than us ) . Non-stop chit chats , unending photos and
selfies , we managed to send the first lot of exciting pictures of Goa and the
beach to all our dear and near.
After spending sometime at the beach , we walked back to the
other end of the village to buy some knick knacks and supplies.
A small and simple café Anjuna Bakery had real fresh puff
pastries ( lovingly called as patties) and cold coffee which we gorged on
. We walked back to our villa , now waiting for the remaining 3 of our friends
to join us.
By 3pm , Rhena , Binija and Sarita landed and once
again the otherwise non stop talks became more noisy and reminded me of the
noises during our lunch breaks in college.
All the buddies had brought a lot of eatables from their side
starting from the Cochin bakery ghee cake, banana chips ,homemade chattipathiri
( courtesy Bibu), Mysore pak, Puranpoli, Butter murukku , Athirasam( does full
justice to the name), Dry fruits halwa, yummy Methi Theplas and the amazing
tamarind chutney ( homemade by Vaishali), Mumbai wala Aflatoon, walnut
chocolates and loads and loads of stuff. The king of the jungle however was the
Hyderbadi Biriyani which Rhena carried all the way for us. There are rumours
she was stopped by the Airport police on doubts whether this was for personal
use or for unauthorised sale on the airplane . We had a sumptuous
lunch with all of this and these food items continued to last us ( except for
the Biriyani ) for the next 2 days .
Evening , we got out for a small stroll in the nearby areas. We
had a new rockstar Mr.Mario as our driver with our own TEMPO TRAVELLER which
carried us around for 2 days. Mario , again a local was sweet and softspoken,
the maximum response would be a small smile . He took us first to the Colva
Beach – the beach was beautiful , however due to the taxi strike and also the
red alert due to rains, there were very little people on the
beach. Due to monsoon time, shacks were closed and water sport
activities were also not available. We soon moved to Sunset beach, which was
again a smaller beach and hardly any people.
We all put our beauty and gadgets to maximum utility by taking
maximum pictures and selfies etc.
We ended the laid back tour by a visit to Martins Corner, the
most reputed restaurant in the area. The ambience and hospitality was outstanding.
They had live music playing and they played so many songs which would take us
back to our yesteryears. The food was amazingly yummy- we tried out
the local cuisine namely the buttered prawns garlic , Pork sausages chilly fry,
Chicken Xacuti, King Fish masala fry etc, Vegetable Xacuti , Paneer etc. along
with assorted Mocktails. As someone said, what is Goa without having
Feni ? Though none of our gals drink , a couple of us were curious as to what
this was and why the hype on this which encouraged us to buy 2 small
shots , which some of us smelled, some licked, some tasted and some
gulped J I'm sure the waiter at the restaurant was amused to see our
crowd. The ambience, the music , the food and of course the wonderful company
of friends made our dinner a memorable experience.
We all got back home by 10pm and got ready… Nope , not to sleep,
but to chat. Chat chat chat !! That’s what we did all the 3 days- day in and
out.. it was like there was so much to say. .. All of us holed up into 1 room
and started with the stories in college / home etc. Everyone would take turns
to add into the stories. As always Rajeesha would start with “ Do you girls
remember ? “ ( Ningakku ormayundo?”) Trust me , she should be made the brand
ambassador for Brahmi /Chyavanprash– such a sharp memory of the school /
college days . She comes up with all the stories we would roll up laughing.
Shri who was renowned in the group for her constant amnesia , this time got a
partner- our own rank holder girl Rhena. She equally had the blank look that
Shri carries with loads of self respect J .
Vaishali too had the blank look but since she is silent , it didn’t become that
evident. Sarita & Roopa have a decent memory , so they added ghee to
Rajeesha’s stories…
In between all this, Rhena proclaimed that she hadn’t had
pazhampori in years. What a shame for a Malayali… we self-respecting Malayalees
didn’t want that happening – so Binija and me, tried out our culinary skills
immediately (we had bought some Maida & oil etc earlier) and Shri &Hema
had carried all the nenthrapazham available in their town to Goa. At around 12
am midnight , we had a second round of stories over piping hot pazhamporis –
the happiness in Rhena’s eyes was enough for our satisfaction, I feared she may
be the first person to cry in joy seeing pazhampori. J The day
ended slowly with a few falling asleep and the rest continued to chat till
5.30am .
Day2 started again around 8am with coffee and snacks . We soon
got ready and started our day to North Goa . The whole journey again was
refreshing with loads of stories .
Our first stop was Fort Aguada . Fort
Aguada is a well-preserved seventeenth-century Portuguese fort, along with a
lighthouse, overlooking the Arabian Sea in
North Goa. When we reached atop the fort, we did our customary photo shoots and
all of a sudden it started raining. All of us got totally drenched in the rain
. Rhena’s enthusaisam can be seen the maximum in the rains with the number of
videos she shoots while it was pouring cats and dogs. The only person who
managed to stay dry was Rajeesha since she had not climbed up to the
top.
We left from there by 12.30 and then started towards Panaji. On
the way stopped for lunch at Fisherman’s Wharf at Panaji, the rains had got us
hungry again J. Once again we had some lovely Goan cuisine with Fish curry rice
/ Prawns curry rice etc.
Our next stop was St.Alex Church in Calangute itself.
It was a really peaceful and serene place, the church was closed while we
reached there. The surroundings and the architecture of the church was lovely.
We didn’t stay long here since we had to do a cruise in the
evening and had to reach Panaji by 5pm. We purchased the River Cruise tickets
for 5.30 and then went to the famous church of Our Lady of the Immaculate
Conception Church in Panjim. The beautiful structure is in the colonial
Portugese Baroque style. Unfortunately, we couldn’t enter the Church
since there was a funeral going on. Was it destiny or was it coincidence that
the 11 of us from different parts of the world happened to be there and pray
for a soul who none of us knew ? I still don’t understand … but then it left a
mark on many of us then.
We moved onto a lighter spirit with some time for slight shopping
on the streets and then we rushed to the River cruise.
The River cruise was the highlight for the evening. The cruise
wasn’t anything extraordinary or exemplary, but what made it outstanding and
enjoyable was the dance performance by our ace dancers J Roopa
, Vaishali, Sheethal, Sarita – the enthusiasm was so infectious that everyone
was on their toes. Man, they can dance…hats off to the full team.I have never
seen them dance so beautifully and that too to their hearts content J It
was like they were lost to the world.
J Sarita’s die hard insistence was that we should wear
identical Goa Tshirts and pose for pics however ultimately this got
compromised to the colorful blue and yellow tiaras that stole the eyes
and hearts of many on the cruise J
The journey back was tiring and by then the Calicut gals had to
leave the same night from the Railway station. We had a good Italian dinner at
the Black Sheep Bistro , once again a beautiful joint with a lovely and
hospitable host. The journey to the Railway station was filled with songs and
vote of thanks since Rajeesha wanted to make sure that she could listen to all
of us. With solemn vows to meet again when time permits for all of us, we
filled the night with our favourite songs of the college days – Mustafa Mustafa
/ Yeh Dosthi / Tujhe Dekha tho ye. We bid Goodbye to Rajeesha and Hema at the
Railway station with Rajeesha wanting us to sing Chalthe Chalthe while they
departed .
Reaching back home around 12 in the midnight all of us were dead
tired because of lack of sleep and excitement for the past days. We still sat
up till around 2am and then fell asleep.
Vaishali had to leave by 4am and she left for the airport
early morning. Bidding It was wonderful touching base after so many years. I
guess with certain friends , years just don’t matter, you can start off
anywhere , anytime and trust them to be there for you whatever ! Goodbyes has
never been my forte, and especially if someone is so dear to you. but then I
guess it’s inevitable…
The last activity was the beach visit near our villa that Rhena
had been craving for . So some of the gals left to the beach early morning by
7am while the rest of us started packing up. It started heavily raining by then
and the wind was really scary. The girls came back totally drenched in the
rains . After that we cleared up all the remaining eatables for
breakfast and by 10am , the house was ready to be vacated.
All of us were parting ways from here – Sheethal to a friend’s
place , Binija / Rhena / Sarita to the airport and Nisha / Roopa/ Shri and me
still had time till evening for our flight.
Once again bidding goodbyes and with promises to meet again,
Sarita and team proceeded to the Airport. Once again it was us and our very own
Saulo. We planned to roam around in Madgoan market, unfortunately being a
Sunday , all shops were closed. Once again we got totally drenched in the
rains, since it was raining non-stop. We visited the Basilicia of Bom Jesus and
roamed around outside the Se Cathedral , Church of St Francis Assissi etc and
took some snaps. We had some Goan lunch from a family run restaurant which was
not too impressive and then got to the Airport by 3am. Roopa & Nisha had
their flight only by 7pm. The last goodbyes once again and we went to our respective
gates of departure.
Thus ended our Goa trip.
After coming back, we heard so many stories of people who got stuck in
Goa due to the taxi strike and the rains etc. The day we landed we came to know
about the private taxi strike against GoaMIles (the Govt cab ) However , not once
did we find it really difficult in all parts of our journey. Would recommend
Mr. Arif , the transport guy for ensuring that we were on the road and had no
delays anywhere. And special thanks to God above , who definitely helped
us breeze through our trip very smoothly. At our end,
hats off to Shri to take up the task of all the logistics and communication with the different parties. Her
Ultimatums during the planning phase definitely made many of us book our
tickets well in advance J
Each of the girls were integral to this trip- Shri with her
excellent planning , Rajeesha with her lil madness and her never
ending memoirs, Sarita with her bubbly jokes and Goa Tshirt frezy,
Hema and her oneliners that she gives without batting an eyelid, the ever emotional
Vaishali who never failed to assure us that she was a Marwadi in every instance
she got, Monokini Roopa with her funfilled enthusiasm and lively nature ( and
Wow she dances ! ) , Binija with her ever caring nature , Rhena – the carefree
bird who found happiness in everything – be it rains or the pazhampori or just
us…..Sheethal -self-reliant and supportive and not to forget her
constant model pics, Shri –the always Don’t care attitude but highly dependable
(though she doesn’t like to show it much- HOW RUDE eh
?) & Nisha - always sportive and thanks to her advanced yoga classes which she gave a free session on and not to forget that poor Saulo managed
to break her suitcase which she never forgave the poor chap for . We were a
bunch of extremely mad friends but put together the trip was lovely and leaves
so many fun filled and beautiful memories .
I am sure all the girls would agree that no amount of words can
fully convey our spirit and joy that we actually went through each of the days.
The long nights full of stories and funny gossip, how we never missed a chance
to pull each other’s leg at every instance, as usual how I got cornered by
Sarita & Shri for my group-ism comment ( long back- these days I dread to
say itJ), the mono-kini & bikini expectations; the same old excursion
stories, Rhena and her assistant Ms.Rosa avatar which scared poor Rajeesha, the
never ending selfie demands , Rajeesha and her exciting stories, morning coffee
times with all – all these experiences are beyond words… I wouldn’t be able to
do justice to the feelings and excitement we had. Goa was definitely a
beautiful place, but I think the friendship we had was even more beautiful
that wherever we are put together, the place & experience would turn
more beautiful in our hearts always.
Until next time, it’s Go Go GOA all the way !
