GO GO GOAAA!!!

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 !

Happy Vijayadashmi

Happy Vijayadasmi  everyone.

Saraswati namah: sthubhyam
Varathe kamaroopini Vidhyarambam karishyami Sidhiru bhavathu mei sadaa"
Salutations Mother Saraswati, giver of boons, fulfiller of desires,
 Bless me, so that I begin my studies successfully, may there be accomplishments.

I woke up to the above message sent by Amma this morning :)

And with the message " Don't forget to write Harishri ." It always makes me smile every year when she says that, back to when I was a kid.

There are so many times in the recent past  when we argue with her why should we do it now. We are no longer in school, we are not studying anything etc.. Then and now  she always has the same answer - learning is a continuous process and everyday we should be open to learning something new. This should never stop. May the Lord bless you with a good mind to utter good words and grant you the wisdom to know the right and wrong  be good human beings in life.

Takes me back to those nostalgic school days when we used to wait for Pooja holidays. Being an NRI kid, Pooja holidays was never of much importance in the early years since we never used to have any celebrations or functions in Kuwait. But yes Amma used to dutifully make us write Hari Shri even there. However once back in India and that too in a joint family, this was a wonderful time we as kids looked forward to. My cousins and myself had a gala time- school would be closed for 5 days . My elder cousin told me the first time when we had the holidays:" this is the only time our Ammas wouldn't ask us to study across the year - wish we had Vijayadasmi at least 3 times a year 😀 But yes it was true, there was no question of studying for 3 days once we kept the books for Pooja. Looking at the entire experience I remember had so much festivity and happiness in it . Making sure we got all our books, packing them nicely, have the names pasted on them neatly, take them to the nearest temple diligently, handover the books and then its BLISS :)

Come home and sit and chat, play board games, watch TV unlimited :) , and no tuitions :) There was a ground rule that we don't read even story books at this time....  Ufff , these 3 days don't know why I have always so desperately wanted to read and write , its a feeling I would never feel across the entire year. But these 3 days the artist / poet / author in me would be brimming to read and write :) Forbidden fruits are always tempting maybe :) Even the newspaper looked so very interesting only once across the year ;)

The 3 days would quickly pass with fun and galore with cousins ,movies and non stop games and late night ghost  stories . No one would bother us at all.

But yes , all good things come to an end fast and its already Vijayadashmi day.  You need to get up early, have a shower , write hari Shri in the rice grains and go to the temple to collect the books you had kept for Pooja.

I used to love to wait at the temple while the Pujari would read out the names on the school book bundles and hand it back over to us. Every year while I wait, I have always had the secret thought, what if my books package had gone missing ? What if it was not to be found ...would I not to go to school because of that..maybe then  I could convince my Mom that maybe God had better plans for me and that's why she vanished away my books :) But alas it never happened in all the years. These poojaris at the temple should be given ISO certification- not a single kid's books were misplaced or missing. So once we get our bundle of books , we rush home to enjoy the remaining part of the last day of holiday. Once you reach back home you can see a stark behavioral change in our parents "take out any 2 school books from the lot , read them out loud..... tomorrow school opens, enough of all the games ... sit and study for sometime now... @Wow.. military back in action :)

That's the end of the Vijayadasmi day for us as kids. The fun, galore, temple visits , pooja days, excitement, the smell of those books wrappers, the Om chants at the temple , these are a few of the thinsg my mind runs to on Vijayadasmi day.Tagging my partners in crime on this post ...for our childhood days..

As years passed, everything has changed except for the  message that Amma sends.. don't forget to write Hari Shri.:) and yes I did write my Hari Shri :)

On this day , I wish each of you and your family a lovely and blessed Vijayadashmi day.

Let our words be good and kind;
Let our words be not to hurt anyone .Oh God of words !...bless me to be so.

May all of us have kind words for each other, may our thoughts and deeds be to make someone's life happier or better in at least a small way possible, may we have the wisdom to understand right from wrong  and thus may each of us evolve to be a good human being to make this a better place for everyone .

In Shame of being Alive ......

Woke up yesterday to the news that one of the leading actresses in Malayalam was kidnapped, molested and was let go after her abductors took her pictures on  their mobile.  Since then the incident has been very disturbing as well as depressing for me.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no personal bias in this – the actress is neither related to  me in any way , or is a personal favourite, nor am I a part of any film fraternity - so absolutely no personal vested interests at all.  

Why am I then so affected by the news ? Is it because she too is a woman like me , is it because for a moment I put myself in her shoes and could feel what she must have gone through ?

I guess what hit me harder was the fact that if a celebrity like her could be subject to this, what is the security for a common woman ?  How safe are  we in our own state firstly ;  forget the country at large ? I am a middle aged single lady , living in the UAE for the past 12 years, and today one of the main reasons that keep me back from wanting to settle back in Kerala or India for that matter is the safety and security that my state cannot guarantee me . You may disregard my views to be the laments of an NRI far away from my hometown or brand me as a cyber-patriotic deshbhakt but that doesn’t stop me from writing what I feel today. Forget who I am , because it’s not about me !  

The logical next question then is “ Why am I then bothered” ? , which is quite natural because haven’t we de-generated to a community that reacts only if the victim happens to be someone in our family or if we see a personal gain in the subject ? What do I get from reacting ?  The common answer I often get from people is ,” what difference can people like you or me or even 100 others make in this vast world? “ My answer is always the same, if small drops can make an ocean , why can’t we ?  My only advise to all of you out there is to please start reacting against atrocities that happen in front of you. Hats off to Bhavana , who actually  had the courage to stand up and fight against her situation. Let’s stand with her and also any other person ( be it Man / woman ) who may be subject to any such violence.  

One of the reason the culprits cited was that they did not expect the actress to go public on the same . They were sure that she would fear the shame associated with it. Aren’t we as a society responsible for such a dangerous presumption?  Everyone remembers the rape victim’s name more than the culprit, I still haven’t figured out why . I have often felt that we as a society rape the victim many more times than what she is subject from the culprit with our love for sensationalism. The questions, the coverage are never done with empathy but rather we don’t forget to add on juicy bits / rumours to the same. Even today there were small nuances towards the involvement of a reputed actor because of personal grudge etc. All these divert us from the actual issue that is at question, which is the safety of a woman which has been violated.

I am amazed at the cheek of people and that too responsible ministers who say this is a one –off case . More than the issue they are bothered to reinforce the  message that these kind of crime instances have considerably gone down during Our Govt tenure ( do they forget whose Govt. it is ! ) The ruling party or the Opposing party are of course ready to react in the latter manner and fling dirt at each other. Rather how ideal would it be if they joined hands together and put their whole efforts to make a fool proof Taskforce who is empowered to bring the culprits to light at the earliest. How secure would we feel then ?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not inclined to any political parties – I still don’t understand them or their ideologies which change every 5 years, I am not against the Human Rights or the Police or the Media.

I am just a lay man ,a commoner , who still believes that we can make a difference if we wish . Where are our moral values which we used to hold high?  Let go of the voyeuristic approach on moral policing which has become common these days ;  where is this moral policing in instilling moral values within our family? How many of us actually try to instill these values in our kids / in our fraternity/ society we live in  ?

Our memories are limited, so are our reactions, so also the length of our patience. We have a tendency to sensationalize everything rather than rationalize . The first 3 days , newspapers, media will be flooded with the news . On the 4^th day , they get something new and then everyone runs behind that leaving the first issue because it has lost its glamour now. Jyoti Singh / Sowmya / Jisha are all names familiar to us . We lighted candles, we expressed our solidarity, we debated , we cried along with their parents , what happened then ? We moved on…. to a newer cause… something more sensational and new….  Do we have a closure ever ??  ?

It gives a little solace to note that the Police have taken their maximum efforts(as they declare) to find the culprits though the main ones are still on spree.  And once they do find them, what next ?? We will soon find them out on the street within a short-span of years ( let out of jail because of good conduct) or they would be defended in the Court of Law by highly reputed advocates flying in from several parts of the country or the last but least, we may have missed out that the poor culprit may have a handicap which was unnoticed by everyone except by some of our extremely loving  Human rights people ( whose rights ?!? ) My take on such culprits , nothing less than Capital punishment or an death by encounter. Yes, you may term me an extremist , but I don’t see any other punishment which fits these kind of criminals, who wouldn’t doubt to repeat it a second time. When one of the Khans said that his wife raised concern about intolerance in India, how fast we were to react on it and sham them all over the media. How different is our current situation today?  Are we too tolerant on  atrocities / crimes against women ? How I wish our laws would change to this effect sometime soon !! 

Wishful thinking – isn’t it ?

How many more years are we going to remain as the same old spineless reaction-less zombies?  I remember a movie of TV Chandran, “ Kathavasheshan” .The protagonist in the movie played by Dilip, commits suicide out of the shame of being alive in a merciless society . The movie touched me then as well, and today that is exactly how I feel- Shame of being alive in a society that is purely superficial and selfish and doing nothing about it.  In shame of being alive…..

Happiness is time spent with Good Friends - Girls Night out in Ras al Khaimah

 

I am just back from our ladies night out trip and still reminiscing in its glory. Felt I should pen down our trip so that when we look back after a long time, we can still go through those same emotions and relive the moments. 

This is our batch of friends from Providence Women’s College, Calicut. Every year, we get together for some alumni meet or other in Dubai. However the get-together we really enjoy is the one that has only our batch mates and most of the time it happens whenever some of our friends from outside UAE visit us. 

Rajeesha/ Bibu/ Vinaya trip was one to start off with, followed by last year with Sajna flying down and we jammed up at Umm al Quwain chalet. And this time, we had postponed it due to various availability factors, kids’ exams, convenient dates etc. At last we finalized the dates to early November and the venue this time was Ras al Khaimah.

There are around 12-14 of us from the same batch in UAE. The more the merrier is our motto, so we make sure to invite all across UAE and also from other parts of the world who wish to join in at that time. This time, the group ultimately formed was 

Sajna – our admin (who makes it a point to fly down from Kuwait anytime we call 😊),

Jiji – who had lost her words in college but discovered them lately amongst us 😊

Shriranjini – who amazingly can be silly, mature and stupid at the same time

Hema  - our new entrepreneur  - can come up with the weirdest jokes ever.

Reshma – our selfie queen – the perfect lady 😊 and

Me – who discovered friendship very late in life, but trust me I’ am making up for it now 😊

The last minute drop out was Leena , who unfortunately had an aunt turn up unexpectedly with a truckload of family problems, which made her decide that , that load was better than this load of friends . 

Friday morning started early for me, getting ready to pick up the gang. Picked up Jiji and then Sajna from her hotel. Jiji’s customary annual hugging ceremony was carried out at the car parking, while I also got down for the same however forgot about it, fortunately or unfortunately didn’t end up hugging either Sajna or the valet person  😊.

Next stop was Mirdiff City centre for lunch, where the entire team landed up at the Food court. Leena joined us for lunch since she didn’t want to miss her darling Sajna, (the rest of us don’t fit in that category ;) Had a good lunch, tried to coerce Leena maximum to join us but then we failed and we let her leave lest we create more family problems for her 😊

The drive to RAK was uneventful and we reached around 4.30 to One to One Clover Suites. We checked in and made ourselves comfortable by having tea etc. This was a beautiful 3 BR Suites with a lovely pool view. We got ready to go to the beach since the private beach would close by 6.30pm. Except for Jiji & Sajna (the new found friends ;)) the rest of us had a great time splashing around in water. Hema with her full swimming gear was just short of the Olympic swimming race. By 6.30pm, we were given a warning signal by a lifeguard who was walking around as if he was one of those Baywatch lifeguards ready to pull us out of the sea if required.  We sat around for another half an hour chatting there and then moved back to the Hotel swimming pool. The Jacuzzi pool was really refreshing. This time Sajna too in her inspiring Fifty Hays T shirt (dedicated to Jiji of course) joined us in the pool. Photo sessions were always a must – whether in the pool, in the beach, near the well or in the room as long as we made sure Reshma’s best angles were always captured.

We strutted back to our rooms, and freshened up for dinner. The main past time and point of interest during that time was the new folks who had come to the pool. The gimmicks were not short of Gymnastics and were a shame it was wasted in the swimming pool rather than the Olympics. We got out to dinner at Nalukettu restaurant and had a stomach full of ravishing stuff. By the time we got out from there it was 11pm and most of the shops were closed. All of a sudden our guest of honour wanted to eat Falooda and we being the benevolent hosts couldn’t say No to her. RAK being a city full of life after 10pm (ironically), it was pretty easy for us to find a cafeteria which served faloodas at 11.30pm. Sajna & Reshma were happy with their Glory and Falooda Spl, though it looked the same to me. We reached back to the hotel by 12 and settled in, not to sleep mind you, but to chat peacefully. 

Jiji who would never see after 10 pm on normal days was straining to keep her eyes open , more on lines with the Tom & Jerry images where Tom puts a matchstick in the eyes to keep it wide open. Hema tired after Olympic swimming stunts, Reshma tired from the selfies and the remaining 3 of us wide awake. People often ask me after the trip, what did you girls do, did you go to some pub, did you have drinking party, adventure sports etc. etc. . . . And when I reply that all that we did do was talk, talk and talk …. They would never believe it. But that’s exactly what we do…we are never short of topics. This time, we started with Reshma running us through her totally ideal routine of managing home, work, kids, social life which left us in awe. We being the idle friends, we are tried our best to deviate her from her picture perfect life lest we be inspired to inculcate her pattern and turn over a new leaf which would leave our partners and kids in shock  😊

Jiji shocked us with her revelations on her friendships and interests during college life (college, tuitions, movies, friendships etc.). Sajna is yet to revive from the shock of these revelations. The normal topics of conversation range from school life, college, teachers, Mrs. Annie’s antics, bunking classes by jumping the backside wall, Commissioner’s bungalow, the various groups in class, rivalries and friendships, gossips of long forgotten boyfriends of self and others, tuition time stories, Senior gals gossips, movies seen after bunking, B-Zone and D-Zone competitions, the hidden talents among us, debate over whose Mother Teresa Collage won the prize, clay modelling stars etc. By 2.30pm, we decided to call it a day and moved to respective bedrooms. But after 10 mins ended up again altogether on 1 bed again. The stories continued with Hema and Reshma half asleep. Once again the stories continued. We didn’t leave a single person in our class or neighboring classes untouched when it came to old stories- warm gratitude for Justina who used to make sure that bags queue to the bus was perfect, Bhuvana / Rhena who used to shout out answers before Ms. Rosa completed the questions, blinking toms like Justina and me who were half way through the question, the remaining 15-20 people who were the least bothered since they had tuition, the new comers in class and the veterans of Provi., funny anecdotes related to marriages of our friends, Apollo 13 stories , WhatsApp group stories and the list was endless.

Once we made sure Hema & Reshma slept soundly, we moved out to the next room wherein Sajna and Jiji (the new found friends 😊) had settled in .Once again the yapping continued and the icing on the cake was to call Leena by 5am to remind here that we missed her 😊 and she should feel jealous that we were still up and talking. The most striking part was that when you look back , so many things, which we carried in our hearts back in school or college days , things we gave undue importance to – be it friendships / rivalries , issues or difficult situations were looking so silly now. And today looking back, all those put together is what makes our memories of the good old times worth remembering.

Around 5.30am we literally called it a day and slept for 2 hours. Once again we dragged everyone out of bed before 8am and went off to the bright and sunny beach for more selfies. The morning sun shining brightly down upon us, Reshma gave us classes on the various poses for photography, the jumping pics etc. which soon made us tired which was compensated by a relishing continental breakfast. We got back to the room and sat around planning when and where the next meet would be 😊and soon got ready to checkout. We checked out by 12.30pm and the drive back, this is one part of the whole trip that I despise. From all the talking, all the fun and noise, going back to reality is the most difficult part for me. Bidding goodbyes was never my forte. Dropped all the girls in their respective places and Sajna to the Airport and then headed back straight home. These trips always leave a special feeling of closeness and warmth in our friendships. WhatsApp group flooded with selfies and videos of the trip, calls to make sure all reached safely etc. leave a feel good factor about the whole trip. These friendships are special in every sense and often I regret that I never made the effort to know it way back but yes, going ahead, I am not going to lose them 😊 for whatever it may be... The hubby and kids of all of them definitely need a word of appreciation for ensuring that we have a good time always. I hope we can keep doing this again at least once a year and that we can have more like minded friends joining in as well. Dedicated to all my friends once again and thank you all for always being there and being special in your own sweet ways!!

 

😄😄

Adieu my Friend .....

This is my story , story of a 10 year old who rose the ladders of fame bringing about a revolution in connecting people… I was named after my Turkish Dad creator, who was so loyal to his company Google , that he gave me up to them to be brought up and they lovingly called me Orkut ..

Like any child , I started on my knees, crawling, trying to find my way and I kinda found it quite fast. I was termed a child prodigy then.. My website was a novel idea basically to revive friendships, bring people closer, connect people and allow them to freely interact and express….. I was witness to so many outbursts of joy and happiness when people found their childhood friends on my platform, when classmates had a great time scrapping messages for all to read, when lovers found a way to express their self privately… Scraps, testimonials, videos and photos… it was a lovely world of glitter for everyone to see….People across the globe loved me…

But just like every coin has 2 sides, some people misused me …they created fake profiles, chatted with many at the same time under different names, made groups on me that insulted the public sentiments of certain groups . Photos and pics were misused and subjected to vulgarity. Users were dragged to several groups even without their knowledge or mine…

USA, India and Brazil loved me , while Iran, UAE , Saudi & Bahrain hated me and banned my presence in the names of national security , ethical issues about dating and matchmaking etc.

I was just a silent spectator to all this abuse. I let myself be carried away in the glory of my fame. Nobody was there to guide me and put me back on track.

During the same time, I noticed a severe competition budding up… new kids on the block were Facebook, Twitter, My Space etc .. And Facebook was the strongest competitor. I should admit, the kid had great looks. He learnt from my mistakes and people love him for the same. He was charming yet private, he was friendly but cautious, he had groups, but had moderators, he had pictures / videos but they were protected. The kid started pumping blood ( hard cash) into the website… marketing campaigns, like groups , internet marketing etc etc.  In 2011, he became a hero by surpassing me ….

My own Dad started praising Facebook, I even hear from private sources that he invested in him. And in 2011 , my Dad himself paved way for my fast death today…he brought in my younger brother Google +. Instead of trying to revive me , bring me back from my rehabilitation , he disowned me ….maybe he was ashamed or maybe he wanted a better son ; a son who would put him back on the charts with his peers.

Today my rehabilitation centre too, has given up on me. I used to get a few loyal visitors every now and then , now they have been strictly prohibited as well. I am confined to this room as in quarantine. In fact the rare visitors and my old friends have been told to take back any of their memories or remnants they have mistakenly left behind with me.

Today I’m just like a brain dead vegetable, people have taken out all the removable parts from my body – my life, my heart, my lungs, my brain and I have been left to die… a silent death… the D Day has been fixed , September 30th is when I shall breathe my last, will the hangman come with his noose or will I be beheaded… don’t know…all that I know is that I have been left to die, unwanted , uncared for …Couldn’t they have been a little more kinder to me than leave me suffering till the D-Day ? Will someone come and release me from this pangs of waiting for death?

With these thoughts, I bid Adieu to you today….

Lovingly ,

Yours Orkut ….

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda