November 25, 2007

Goa, my heaven on earth


This blog comes a bit late; nevertheless, the feeling is same. I can easily say, the three days that I spent in Goa were my happiest this year. I had been wanting (yearning) to visit the place for the past two years; but that was not the reason of my happiness, as I had expected. I am not sure which one factor made it the most memorable for me; I think it was a combination of amazing (!!!) weather, good company (happy friends) and some thrill in the form of (motor) biking thrown in.

We hardly slept, but it did not matter. We were determined to make the best of the time that we had, enjoy to the hilt and just let go! It was almost like we were sentenced to death and those were the only three days we had before we would be hanged:)…may be that is an extreme view, but its difficult (impossible) to express the feeling of freedom in those ‘three complete’ days with friends, in an incredibly beautiful piece of land on this earth! It is not just the visual beauty though; Goa is breathtaking in its totality, an experience inexpressible in words…

We hadn’t planned riding bikes in the rain, but we got lucky. There were some 10 of us, two on each bike. It is easy to hire bikes in Goa; it is the key mode of private transport in the state. It was exhilarating to ride a bike without being bothered by the traffic! We were following each other, and whenever one lost sight of the other, we all stopped to make sure everyone was safe – this team spirit was another touching aspect of the trip (you don’t see it everyday at work:)).

The day we reached, we didn’t waste a minute at the hotel. We arranged for the bikes and headed straight towards Kolva beach in South Goa (North Goa would have taken us longer to reach as we were staying in the South). Midway, we stopped at a roadside shop (hut) to click some pictures, and ask for directions. The sight of Kolva beach appearing in front of us was heavenly…divine! It was dusk when we reached there, perfect time for a silent walk across the beach. After a few moments of solitude, we decided to hang out at a nearby shack. Hungry and tired, but happy and calm, we all settled down at the biggest table there, ordered some food and drinks and started clicking pictures again. The lighting there was dim, and one could hear the sound of waves at the beach – rising and falling, hitting the shore and retreating, only to come back. There was a band playing in the shack, and a guy who sang so well that when he started with “I just called to say I Love you”, we actually turned to see if it was Stevie Wonder singing:)! Hmm, what more do you want in life…

There was more of the beach and bikes over the next two days, we just couldn’t get enough of it. The sound of the waves, it makes you feel so insignificant; it makes you think “What am I running after…it is right here…”

November 18, 2007

Why is simplicity so complicated?