We're in the Goa!

Its been a while since I posted. In this brief interlude I have managed to travel to places I had never been to before and experience things I otherwise wouldn't have. My earliest daydreams during my college life (I've had a long one, 4 and half years, still going strong) were about me finding a shelter from night-time inside a moving a bus/train; my home, a dilapidated rucksack and my destination....ANYWHERE.

On the 22nd of January, a friend and I set sail (caught the APSRTC Super luxury bus) to Hubli. From there we found another to take us to Karwar, from where we caught a third to reach Canacone, Goa. The only bit of excitement on the road was a random telegu film playing on the bus fraught with rape scenes and a stop at New Welcome Dhaba somewhere a little beyound Mahbubnagar. The Dhaba was on an empty highway and when you look up you find a wilderness of stars gazing back at you in mute wonder. I had never thought you could catch more stars in an eyeful of sky outside my campus. I was wrong. There are places more forlorn, desolate and peaceful than my misbegotten university.

So anyway morning found us in Canacone, Goa; from where we could we could either head South to Palolem or travel North to Baga/Calangute etc. We had already decided to make our trip South to North, hence we headed towards Palolem. The joutnry (Hyd-Hubli-Karwar-Canacone) cost us a grand total of about Rs.1500 and roughly 22 hours of our lives.

Palolem is beautiful. Its the kind of place you'd like to take a beautiful girl to. Not because you want to marry her, but rather because you wish to impress her. Palolem is too good to be wasted on the already impressed and satisfied. This beach is a tool, a beautiful one, that must be used to sweep someone right off their feet. And the surroundings are perfect. The beach is lined with eating joints which all serve basically the same exotic seafood at similar prices. But what really amazes you is the atmosphere around. When you're in Palolem, you're on just one mission. That is to loosen up and relax. And the beach provides the perfect setting. The crowd there mostly comprises of foreigners, and not the older, uglier and uptight ones you find in North Goa; but rather a young crowd, easy going, with no issues or interest in the locals, who unlike other tourist spots, serve both Indians and foreigners equally. Plus the sea at Palolem is like your own swimming pool. The water is crystal clear (you can see your feet even in neck deep water) and the water currents are negligible. A nice place in Palolem is the Sunset Point towards the western rocky bit of the beach. Beautiful.
* Budget Travellers : you can get coco huts on the beach for Rs.100 per head per night (Bargaining is accepted) if you're Indian and look cheap. It is unadvisable for women, esp urban women to go and bargain for prices of rooms since Indian women aren't considered cheap. They're especially more expensive looking than foreign females cause well most of them are overtly concerned with "safety issues" and "toilet facilities". But there are enough and more cheap places to be found around, if you haven't travelled all the way to Palolem to simply play it safe or find a nice shitpot.
While accomodation is cheaper on the beach, food is slightly expensive there. However, you find cheaper eating joints outside the beach, towards the townside.
Scooties (Activas) are excellent as a local conveyance to the other beaches of the south. They cost anything between Rs. 150 to 250 a day, depending upon your bargaining skills. Buses also run daily between beaches till about 8pm.

About 7 kms. further south from Palolem is Agonda Beach. If Palolem is the beach to go with a hot damsel, then Agonda is the beach to go alone to. Loaded with intoxicants. Its an expansive beach with a sea as calm as the one in Palolem. However, the number of shacks lining the beach are fewer, and even fewer are the number of people present. When we were there, we were the only Indian tourists we could spot. The prices for everything is in the same range as in Palolem. People searching for kicks might do well to look for their cures here. Agonda is an esoteric, peaceful, almost Zen beach where the only sound one hears at any point of time during the day is that of the sea licking the toes of the beach.

Other beaches in South Goa, where we left our footprints were Colva, Betalbatim, Majorda, Thonwaddoo (and its siblings/beach extensions....Benwaddoo & Runwaddoo), Benaulim, Varca and Canvallosim. The first 4 beaches are towards Central Goa falling in Salcette district. They are ordinary beaches as far as I could tell. Colva is especially crowded, full off local holiday goers, and extremely irritating. There's plenty of water sports available too. eg. parasailing, motor-boat sailing, banana rides etc.
Majorda is a relatively calmer beach where one can spend some time sipping cheap port wine.
The latter beaches fall closer south to Palolem. To cover all of the abovementioned in one day, you must hire an Activa head towards Margaon City right after breakfast. All beaches (except Canvallosim) are accesible from Margaon.
Canvallosim is another beautiful beach. It hosts The Leela, Goa near its shores. Personally I found none of these beaches worth spending a night at. Palolem and Agonda are the stars of South Goa.
* Note : While travelling from beach to beach on the same day, we took random dips in the sea whenever we felt like. As a result we were wet and sandy most of the time. Hence we decided to commute simply in our wet boxers with our clothes packed inside out scooter. BAD IDEA! While nudity is encouraged in the beaches, it is ill advised near town areas or the highway. We were hauled up for lack of clothes by a cop, and then fined because neither of us were carrying a driving license. kels!

Our third day at Goa found us heading North towards Donna Paula and Miramar beaches in the Tiswadi District. For this we had to head to Panaji (locally called Panjim). Firstly this was a mistake. Because;

a) Donna Paula BEACH is a misnomer. THERE IS NO FUCKING BEACH AT DONNA PAULA. Its a goddamn pier where the urban filthy rich of Goa (like rich enough to spend atleast Rs.2000 per night for accomodation) come in the evenings to take a walk.
b) There are no shacks and as we found out to our misfortune, no eating joints around. However there are these huge fancy hotels where one can spend the night. Having reached Donna Paula on the last bus, we were stranded with no money to spend the night and no public transport to take us somewhere cheaper. So we walked and hitchhiked (if stranded look for lifts. rides are easily available esp on NH 17....I regularly hitchhiked between destinations for the first time in Goa. Usually its always been a last resort) about 10 kms back to Panjim where we managed to find ourselves a shabby dormitary for the night.

Morning found us on the free ferry that heads to Batim in Bardez District, Goa. The ferry runs from 6am carrying people across the waterlet separating Bardez and Tiswadi districts. Bardez is the district housing the most famous & commercial beaches of Goa, beginning from Candolim, Calangute continuing into Baga, right uptil Anjuna, Vagatore and the Chopara Village. While Baga is extremely crowded, it still houses the cheapest accomodations alongside Calangute. We spent 2 nights in Calangute for a sum of Rs.300 for both of us. Again the cheapest accomodations are available on the beach while food is cheaper indoors. The sea in North Goa is rough to say the least. Especially in Calangute, where the currents at shore are strong enough to hold a person rooted to where he's standing, not allowing him to move a muscle. Caution is suggested while finding the sea at Calangute. Also in the eaches in North Goa you will find areas earmarked for swimming and places out of bounds (except Anjuna). The beaches are also covered with lifeguards in red and bustling with people experiencing the thrill of watersports. The walk along the beach from Calangute, across Baga is beautiful, especially towards midnight with the crowds thinning out, the beaches hosting rows of candlelit tables, and with the fireworks happening at Baga. You can walk right through underneath the fireworks with rockets going off all around you. Its exhilarating to say the least.

However, the spots in North Goa that tops my list are;
a) Anjuna Beach : This is a hippy hangout in North Goa. The beach is peaceful like Agonda, full with exotic shacks blasting trance/reggae and a coral reef right a the start of the beach where sometimes with the help of certain substances one can find underwater territories, lifeforms and full continents submerged under a foot of sea water. I spent nearly 6 hours loitering about in awe in the reeves, and playing with the fish trapped there. You can submerge your feet in the water and get it cleaned by the fish who come in all shapes, size and colours you weren't taught to name in highschool. The sad part is when you realise that these fish will be dead by the morning post low tide, and that the high tide again will trap fresh, equally colourful fish in the reef tommorrow.
Anjuna is a place extremely friendly to Indian hipsters with various substances available for your experience at good prices. And sold by decent people. As decent as a pusher can be.

Living in Anjuna is expensive if alone. Anjuna usually has these places, sort of houses with rooms to be rented out irrespective of the number of people present. Each cottage usually charges Rs.500 to Rs 700 a night. There's no cap on how many people can crash inside. Food prices again are the same as every other beach.

b) The other place definitely worth heading to is Chopara Fort ahead of Vagatore Beach. The fort is built as a watchtower on a hilltop at the edge of Vagatore Beach overlooking the sea on one side and a river on the other. Before you lies another hill across the sea, hosting another beach (presumably Morjim). Its beautiful, serene and one of then most scenic places I've been to.
Below Chopara Fort lies Chopara Village which is a very famous hippy settlement. There are no places to stay here, cause well its a settlement and people live here. Permanently. And only foreigners. There is nothing, not so much as even juice from the Ganesh Juice Centre which is available to Indians. The few Indians found there are extremely well versed in European languages. This place is a nice visit as long as you keep to yourself.

On our way back we took a slightly more efficient and economic route. We travelled from Calangute-Panjim-Raichur-Hyd in around 16 hours spending around Rs. 700 cumulatively.

This was Goa. Goa is Paradise. A place that has excited me just as much as the first time I spied a snow covered peak from some mountain road in Uttaranchal. It was the first time I'd seen snow.

Goa was the place where I tasted absolute freedom.

kels

The word kels had evolved amidst a group of boys who randomly stumbled upon the idea that buying a banana (kela) for someone who has just fucked-up and saying kels while holding it upton his face is really really funny. Soon it caught everyone's imagination and the same word was used repeatedly on the slightest pretext of someone making a fool of himself. The word amplified the erring act and highlighted its idiocy, no matter how insignifcant the act in itself was.

Recent examples of appropriate usage :
Yesterday I had packed my bags and was about to leave campus for Goa. I'd never been to Goa so needless to say I was looking forward to the same with a great deal of impatience. So it was sunny beaches, skimpily clad women, and various intoxications that filled my daydreams while I made my way to our mess for my last lunch of the week when a batchmate informed me that I had a repeat exam scheduled, repeat for a paper I wasn't allowed to write last semester due to shortage of attendance, this week and that it was to be my last chance to clear the paper.
If you were sitting next to me, now would be the ideal time to say "kels" with an annoying nasal intonation.

Also yesterday The Hindu reported L.K. Advani saying that if the BJP comes to power this time, "India will follow the Gujarat model".
Appropriate time to say kels : If BJP wins this year.

ps: The aforementioned does not stem out of any political inclinations of the author, but rather out of common sense.

The Days of My Life

With the commencement of the present year I found myself curled up in the cornermost room of the senior boys hostel, where the sunlight entering the room can be filtered upto a great extent. I lay there going throught the motions of life neccessary to do for me what is neccesary. ie. I clean myself before each day begins, maybe play some background music while at it. Then as the morning wears on (btw morning starts post 12 noon) people keep coming into the room and out searching sustenance for various addictions. And then the days go by, I just sit around and get real high.

Our recruitment season has begun. Having performed "poorly" throughout law school, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that I have not been shortlisted for any interviews this weekend. While this is not really a bad thing, the terribly good thing is that we have been given over a week and a half off from the mundane classes. Hence everyday since college began, for me, has been a Sunday with late mornings and even later nights, cause well I know that tommorrow too is going to be the same.

Life in college lacks the flux, the energy or rather the mobility that I've have enjoyed for the past couple of months in the cities. Thats cause,
a) Our campus is 28 kms from the nearest city bus stop (Jubillee Bus Stn, Secunderabad).
b) Also we have stringent fuck-demented (there I created a word for them) rules governing our lives.
Stuck in the aforementioned scenario for 5 years with breaks coming only after every 5 months takes its toll on most people. Most definitely on me. And strange as it may sound I look around and I find most of the individuals around me hooked to something or the other for their kicks. Now don't get me wrong I don't mean everyone here is literally always getting high. But rather metaphorically, they are always in a proccess of doing something that would lend some meaning to their time spent in here. Perhaps because really really deep deep down inside they don't really want to be here. However, its an inevitability that one learns to accept after 5 years. So you find characters drowning happily in alcohol, while some others smoke their time up and away (myself included), while others are either mooting (random shit that happens only in law school) or ego tripping or pms-ing or politicking, and they do so continuously as if pursuing this ardent need to do the same. None of the aforementioned occur because the people practising the same really want to do it. It seems to me that people just do things naturally most suited to them and keep at it, for the lack of anything better to do. Or the lack of ANYTHING to do for that matter. We're all addicted to what we do here, and we're soon to become lawyers. Shit.

I still miss the stars, though. I hadn't a glimpse of a clear star scatterred night for last 2 months. Now I do. Almost every single night.

On Theatre Rd.

Yesterday there were 5 of us sitting under the tree infront of Vien (our hallowed tea stall) when a middle aged lady passed us by screaming into her cellular phone, "I am not your boyfriend okay."

There have been no typos in the aforementioned. It was a lady, and yes she said boyfriend. Nor was it a figment of my imagination. I have 4 witnessess. FLUMMOX.

Cheers.

Mellow Yellow Evenings

Ever noticed the brightness of a city after sunset? I'm not sure, but while taking a long city walk (from Rabindra Sarovar to Theatre Rd.) it suddenly struck me that the evening lighting in Calcutta, ie. the streetlights, are far mellower than that of other cities that I've been to recently. Atleast this winter. Its not that there isn't sufficient lighting, although one does pass through certain areas that are left in the darkness (eg. next to Poddopukur, today there were no streelights) which is not so bad thanks to the numerous car headlights that invade the street. But in general, compared to the Bangalore and Hyderabad, this time's Calcutta winter evening seems beautifully mellow in just the perfect amount of yellow streetlight. Also it could be because of pollution leading to smog. But its beautiful nevertheless. Beautiful the way the streets reflect the yellow shine of its tar, and pavement roll/chow shops illuminate the way for pedestrians with their 100 watt bulbs hanging off their store ceilings; and its a continuum of mellow yellowness surrounding the walking man.

Walking down the streets of Calcutta I can't help but notice how the city is full of pictures. One is surrounded by images. Images of what kind I cannot say (I am not a photographer), but I haven't noticed such perfection of black and white stills ready and waiting to be captured in any other city. And they simply pass you by, like walking through a rolling still documentary. From the rickshaw-wallahs waiting outside Bhobani cinema with its Bhojpuri movie advertisement outside, to the jumping jack flames from underneath a slightly titled tawa, to the annoyed little boy/girl (I couldn't figure out) trying to grab a bite out of his/her candy floss as his mother tries to adjust his/her maanki cap (monkey cap).

There is a certain beauty in the pictures and stories and the life of this city that appeals to me in a way no other place ever has. And I know I am home.

Criminal coming into my palace

Yesterday a friend posted on his blog about 'bumping' into a Hummer on Rafi Ahmed Kidwai St. in Calcutta. I was with him when the same occured. He was completely flummoxed by the entire episode. He couldn't believe his eyes. I had never seen a Hummer before so it was quite exciting to finally see one, but the inanity of its presence (apparently an All Terrain Vehicle used primarily by the United States Army which runs at 2kms/lt. ie. a completely useless vehicle to possess in Calcutta) in the aforementioned crowded bylane was not lost upon me. My friend was speechless. He studies in the United States so finding a Hummer in Calcutta was absolutely pointless and surreal to him. It was even more surreal to me since our teeny weeny local auto easily overtook it (of course it did, that goddamn car ate up half the street to move). We simply dismissed it as another of the random surprises that life in Calcutta chucks at you.

Surpises continued right till today when the same friend and I, while on our regular walk back down Theatre Rd. to Park Circus from our favourite tea stall, overheard a Puchkawallah (Panipuriwallah) tell his companion that "a criminal coming into my palace and..." (we pass him by and his voice trails off and yes he spoke precisely those words in English). My friend and I flummoxed yet again out of our wits burst out laughing at the randomness of it all.

I don't know what to say. I'm still grinning as I type. Its real good to be back home.

Home & Hiatus

I came home late 13th night and life has been blissfully hectic since then. There were surprises and counter surprises, friends arriving from across the atlantic and friends leaving to live their dreams. Amidst all this chaos I've found this time's Calcutta winter to be particularly exhilarating. It's not cold (it never really is in my nick o' the woods). But its beautiful and nippy every morning, and continues to remains so for the rest of the day, allowing my mom to force me to put on a sweater before leaving home.

Also my monitor has gone caput hence no more blogging or checking mail for a while. Randomly most Calcutta Net Cafes have begun asking for Photo IDs from their clients. I don't what brought this on, but being ID less effectively rules out my presence on the net. I guess its a sign. I'm yet to figure out for what.

So thats it for this week and the next. I'll probably be back post 3rd Jan. In the 'new' year. Cheers.