Goa Diaries - I

There's nothing quite like a holiday in the sun while your fellow cityfolk ice up in the deep freezer that Delhi has become this winter. It is mind-numbingly cold here, and I'm practically chilled to the bone while typing this out. Thanks to my lovely set of parents, however, I was lucky enough to get to enjoy some sunshine, twice too, in the last few weeks. December took us on a getaway to the magnificent mahals and colorful bazaars of Jaipur. And this month brought for us a beautiful sojourn down south, to Bombay and then Goa, far far away from even the mention of a cold day.

Bombay did not make as big an impression in my maiden visit as I had been hearing from all quarters that it would. Nevertheless, I leave out scope for it to grow on me with a couple more visits in future. It is different from Delhi in many respects, however, and the debate on which one is better shall forever go on and on. I have a lot to say on the subject too, but for that I've reserved an entirely different post (to follow soon).

Goa, on the contrary, was mesmerizing from the word go. It turned out to be more amazing than I had ever thought it would be. Abundantly laden coconut trees, luxurious in their bounty. Ceaseless beautiful beaches bathed in warm sunlight. Cool salty water that tingles every hair on your skin. It was a real treat to the senses.

We spent less than 4 days in Goa, so we could only cover some of the major attractions the place boasts of. A more thorough exploration of the state I have reserved for my next trip, with friends and not family this time. Goa is a visual delight, with much less to talk about and much more to see. In keeping with that, I'll be coming up with more pictures than words, letting the sights speak for themselves.

Our first day was spent recovering from the endless train travel and exploring the area around our guest house in Dabolim, very near to Goa International Airport. Interestingly, the airport has recently been refurbished and a majestic new terminal inaugurated only last month. The next day we set out, with summer hats and high spirits, to explore the Northern part of Goa, car and driver in tow.

I fell in love with the coconut palm the moment I saw one. Their presence just makes the skyline gorgeous!

We first visited Aguada Fort built by the Portuguese in the 17th century as a docking and watering place for ships. It is situated atop a hill, with a panoramic view of the vast Arabian Sea right below.

Iconic scenes from movies like Rang De Basanti and Dil Chahta Hai have been shot within this very fort. The view is to literally die for.

A walk around the fort grounds and some 50 photos later, we moved onto the Dolphin Cruise that moves from the beach down the hill. They take small groups of 10-12 on a motorboat, starting from the mouth of river Mandovi out into the Arabian Sea, where we look out for dolphins, seagulls and kingfishers, whichever and how-many-ever you can spot.

As we set out on the one-hour cruise, to the right we saw the hill that we had just been atop, with the Aguada Fort lighthouse visible in the distance. The guide pointed out the lower part of the Fort, which is still being used as a prison by the Goa State authorities. To be out on a boat with a bunch of strangers in an unknown place, with a prison housing drug peddlers and hardened criminals right in front of my eyes...eerie thought. Glad I escaped safely with only good memories of that boat ride.

Lower Aguada Fort, housing part of the Goa State Prison

Sunkissed and rather ecstatic, Yours Truly.

45 minutes of the cruise had gone past and none of us had yet spotted anything to make the dolphin cruise live up to its name. We were crestfallen, and stopped looking around even as the boatman started steering the vessel back towards the shore. On the way back, he had a word with another boat's guide (not a word of which we could understand) and steered the boat in the direction the guide pointed towards. Almost at the same time, all eyes and ears perked up as we heard the unmistakable sound of a dolphin's call, almost like a shrill whistle. And then they showed up - a pack of 4 dolphins playfully swimming in and out of the water in such perfectly alternating synchronisation, that only 2 of them were visible above the surface at a time. They moved like a wave of grey matter, with snouts and a slippery, rubbery exterior. They frolicked and whistled, disappearing from sight and then reappearing. It was a sight to behold! I captured it all on video, though it was too large in size to be uploaded here (might upload it on YouTube sometime and reproduce the link here).

A rare picture of a stealthy little dolphin I somehow managed to capture.

White seagulls taking off of the water. Bad picture I know, but the actual sight was amazing.

The beautiful blue waters with land only at a great distance set many a pulse racing.

A medieval era fort, a boat cruise out on the sea and a tête-à-tête with a pod of dolphins - and the day had only just started. There was more to follow. Till the next time I write, go plan a Goa holiday, you! It's peak season, and I'm sure you're somewhat titillated already. ;)

Rail Gaadi

I sit on the top berth of an express train, lightly rocking back and forth to its rhythm, oddly reminded of the classic Ashok Kumar track that gives this post its title. The train winds its way to, um...who cares where it's going? It has different destinations for different people. But for me it moves in synch with my heart beat.

I've always been a hopeless lover of train travel. It is an almost childlike obsession. Everything about a train journey makes my innards launch into a series of overjoyed flips. The chug chug of the engine. The deafening blast of the siren announcing departures and arrivals, sending people into a flurry of panicked activity every time. Coolies in red, spilling in and out of the platforms, lugging impossible amounts of baggage on every possible body part they can. Hapless squatters scattered around the platform, destitute but purposeful. The feeling one gets as the train starts moving slowly out of the station, flanked by happy and sad goodbyes on both sides, inside and out. The feeling of leaving your home behind in pursuit of a new place, for every city, no matter how often visited, holds the charm of an entirely new place for me.

All you ever got to do on a train journey is eat, sleep, look out the window and maybe read a book or magazine, or play games. I'm not one for striking up lengthy conversations with copassengers, unless someone REALLY interesting happens to sit beside me (which rarely ever happens to me, alas). I once made friends with a Russian student on board a train to Pune. It was quite coincidental that I was a national level chess player back then, so we had something to talk about. That was as far as I went, though, in being adventurous or forthcoming on a train. Otherwise, it is just the window, a good book and I, happy and content in each other's company.

I've taken along Jeet Thayil's famed Narcopolis to read.

An appreciative note about the Rajdhani express also deserves mention here. It may not be the Japanese superfast Maglev, but it is cool nevertheless, and fast. Real fast. We'd already crossed the borders of 3 States within 2 hours of setting foot on the train

Anyhow, it's getting livelier in here as people are getting up and coffee is being served. Yum. It's about time I got down and about with my routine of eat-read-look out the window all over again. Ah, the joys of a carefree train ride. I wish it could go on and on, and on.


[This post was written on a train 2 days ago, but owing to poor network connectivity, I couldn't upload it right then. So here's reproducing it, as is. Pardon the poor formatting please, mobile blogging isn't as much a piece of cake as it's hyped to be. Will be back with another post very soon. Stay hooked!]