This has originated coz of late, I’ve been debating with a lot of cricket fanatics bout the greatest test batsman India has ever had- Rahul Dravid, who was recently acknowledged so by Wisden. The criterion was the number of times he has won a test match or saved one. The stat for Dravid far exceeds that of any of the greats India has produced. (For ardent Sachin fans, he was a distant 4th behind Sunny and Vishy; c’mon he has rarely won a test for India. As for saving one, he only came tantalizingly close at Chennai against Pakistan.) The recent lean patch that Dravid has gone through and his subsequent fightback, flared this debate. Also, due to his featuring in Gilette ad alongside sporting greats, Tiger Woods, Thiery Henry and His Highness Roger Federer! I totally dig that ad campaign. For me he’s up there with these guys, in the way that he has reformed India’s spineless middle order into a rock solid backbone. His enormous amount of concentration is comparable to that of Woods; his dedications to that of Henry’s and finesse like that of Federer’s! It all bloody fits! My most cherished memory- His winning shot at Adelaide, a beautiful cover drive off Stuart McGill, which sealed India’s resurgence in Test cricket! His kissing the emblem, the blazing sun, on his cap thereafter marked Indian sun coming out of the clouds and shining brightly on the world cricket. Dravid choked while talking to Sunny Gavaskar after the match. That is the testimony of a true team man and a legend. As his biography is aptly titled, ‘Nice guy who finished first’, by Devendra Prabhudesai, it is an awesome read! He has also penned a beautiful foreword to Steve Waugh’s autobiography, ‘Out of my comfort zone’. He might not have Sachin’s charisma or Lara’s flamboyance, but when it comes to playing cricket, he’s bloody best! As Pele once said about football, “It’s not a matter of life and death, it’s more than that!” I think Rahul Sharad Dravid also believe these words and keeping class, elegance and charisma aside, he jolly plays with sheer grit for the country which matters the most!
O.k. Modi promised to do this, but the usual happened. So did someone else; was it Shivesh or Pampam? Can’t remember! So the onus once again fell upon this unfortunate miserable bloke. So here goes nothing. Quintessential memoirs of the 5 most striking characters to have ever landed on the shores of India’s one of the most picturesque landscape-Goa!
Before I delve further, here’s something which proves this isn’t just another travel blog!.http://xkcd.com/77/
It was never supposed to happen. But I guess it must’ve irked Murphy up there who had been out of form for a few months with our lives!
Hence on the 23rd day of the first month on the Gregorian calendar, Modi, Mathur and my poor self caught a surprisingly comfortable bus on a last day booking precisely at 1830 hours from Andheri. We were to meet our comrades, Shivesh and Pampam at some place in Goa, which was to be decided during the course of our journey! So, as expected and planned, we were at complete mercy of Murphy, Murphy mercy, if you wish. And he didn’t disappoint either!
After munching on some chips, which Mathur had got after some jugaad, gulping down a veg sandwich and a roadside dabheli, we were sitting with satisfied silent bellies.
Just when we started enjoying songs on my pod, Murphy hypnotized it lifeless for the rest of the journey. Can ya believe it?? Neither could I, but ‘His’ spell got over as soon I plugged my pod in my computer. Phew! Anyways, that wasn’t the worst thing to have happened; playing with ipod shouldn’t be a big deal for His Highness. But it must be something when he played with my metabolism. Now any bloke can control his bowel movements on a journey. So could I before this journey, but this one soon got turned into a ride to hell. As soon as we started after a 20 minutes break at a motel the following morning, nature started calling. And believe me, it wasn’t a mere call but a siren blown into the wide open sea, heard into different lands and shores! It was made worse by the frequent stops the bus had to make at the innumerous good for nothing check posts which didn’t even have a toilet. Twice I almost made Mathur and Modi grab our luggage and get down the bus at the first sign of civilization so that I could alight! Man, for those 2 hours in the sweet konkan air, I could think of nothing else but how another intelligent bloke from yesteryears, Birbal, was right on about such situations. Man, I too could have given half of Hindustan for mere 5 minutes in a toilet, just like the amicable shehenshah Akbar swore to do! All for want of getting relieved peacefully; attend to mother nature; get the pressure off your tummy! I was just about to turn theist and start praying just when the bus again made a stop, which later we discovered was our last. I almost jumped out the sleek window and ran towards the toilet only to find it locked! By jove, who on earth locks a toilet!!! What would anyone steal or rob! To put it in context, whoever gives a shit :P Well at that moment, I did! I would have blown up like a pressure cooker but the pressure of a different kind inside me kept me from doing so! So I ran and searched the grounds for a clean ‘dumping’ ground but in vain.
I bet Murphy was also called on by Mother Nature just then else I wouldn’t have got the respite. Mathur sighted a queue outside a shaggy looking cabin which really turned out to be a restroom. Well what followed is history! But I got relieved as soon as I got my chance. In the meantime, while we were snacking, Pampam dear was scaling north Goa up and down to find a decent place for us to put up. Just as we got to know that our majestic bus isn’t gonna move a wheel, so as to say, me and Modi got an old man in a still older jeep to get us to Mapusa. We had not even settled in that old dusty jeep that he started rattling about crazy bus services and the tourists they bring to Goa. Before we could even grasp what it was all about, we were crowned bandits and outlaws who should be kept outside his lovely and heavenly Goa. Anyways, we got alive out of his rackety jeep and got on to a bus to Mapusa.
How we got rooms at Goa soon turned turned out to be a cakewalk compared to our endeavours to hire bikes. In short, after much coaxing and cajoling about 10 dealers, we took a cab to Calangute to nab 3 bikes. In doing so, me and poor Mathur were made to miss out on all the beach fun on the pretext of visiting Goa for the 2nd time.
But, all’s well that ends well. I rarely acknowledge Mr.Shakespeare, but it underlined the fact that Goa rocked after we started burning rubber on those beautiful Goan roads.
After stuffing ourselves at a rare find, i.e., a Punjabi restaurant in Portuguese reminiscence, we had helluva fun at Miramar beach in the Goan capital, Panaji. After witnessing mesmerizing beach cricket by GIM guys, and settling for the fact that volleyball wasn’t our can of beer (well, while at Goa, cup of tea doesn’t sound cool!), we discovered Frisbee! We dug Frisbee big time, although Pampam and Mathur were finding it pretty enigmatic! This pretty much wrapped our first day at gorgeous Goa!
After much useless deliberation and forceful consultation with Kareena, the following day’s schedule was decided. The idea was to maximize the time spent at beaches and optimize the time of biking. So, off we went to Vagator beach, which we later discovered was a 3 star beach! Straight we went to trek to the Chapora fort where the epic DCH was shot.
After posing for a zillion DCH pictures, we got down, and we got down to business! This time we tried our hands or wrists rather at water volleyball, which again needless to say wasn’t our can of beer! Playing Frisbee inside water also proved an uphill task which none of us felt upto! So we left and stopped for the only time in Goa, at a proper Goan restaurant! And I dug into the delicious delicacy of Goa, for which I had dreamed about so often- Chicken steak with fries and meshed potatoes! Man, how I wished I could munch on it all my life!
After the sumptuous meal, we headed to south Goa. Upon studying a Goa map, we had picked up a 5 star beach near Vasco called Majorda. We had planned to visit Colva earlier, another 5 * beach which I had have the privilege of staying at last year. But it would have taken a lot longer, so we decided to stop by at Majorda and boy, did we make the right call. It was by far the most beautiful beach I had set my eyes upon. As the sun dipped below the Goan horizon and the life guards forced us out of the beautiful blue waters, we pondered over our next step. And what followed would make us the only tourists to dine at the same place 2 days in a row. We obliged Shiv sagar or Shiv sunder or whateva, again! How remarkable is that! But as we reached Miramar post dinner again, we witnessed something really remarkable- kids playing leg cricket with a football! Yikes! This was truly a Goan speciality. Nowhere else in India could anybody be that audacious with our national pastime! After soaking in this mysterious hybrid of a sport, we started our own favourite pastime, Frisbee! Following that we called it a day and crashed in for the night. But it proved to be a longer night for Modi and Mathur as they sorted out the money matters while I snored out aloud partly because I was broke the whole time!
Next morning was our tryst with the jewel of Goa- Fort Aguada! In the scorching heat, we struggled to keep track of the right way primarily because of the concentration of firangi chics riding ahead of us! But we made it to the fort somehow. Another day, another fort, another zillion poses and camera clicks! But it made a lifetime of memories (sniff)! The fort in principle was a watering station and a lighthouse for ships. ‘Aguada’ in Portuguese translates to ‘watering house’. It definitely quenched our thirst for adventure, comradeship and of course facebook pics!
What followed the descent from the fort made our trip! Just in a moment of awakening, a lightening flashed in my peanut sized brain and I recalled that I had done water sports at a beach just below the Aguada fort! And there it was, Sequerim beach, right below the fort as we completed our descent! The famous stranded ship is its trademark!
There was no stopping us then. After a well crafted bargain, we experienced the most dreaded ‘banana ride’! Boy oh boy! It was adrenalin rush at its best for most of us, and nightmarish in broad daylight for a few (read Modi :P). But the feeling of floating in the middle of the sea is something which has been etched in my memory forever! And also of Modi throwing his limbs all over the place and shouting at the top of his voice for his dear life! Funnier still was witnessing Mathur’s facial expressions as he went for a water scooter ride! It made for one hell of a video shoot!
As the time for our departure drew closer, we headed to Calangute for the last time, returned our bikes and had had that last sea dip! But this time, we defied fear and went farthest coz we had fatso pampam to clutch on to! That was the most fun I’ve ever had in sea. We stood our ground against waves twice our heights! That was also the most exasperated I’ve ever felt in my whole life! That’s what sea does to ye!The time to bid farewell to Goa came quite soon. 48 hours had whizzed past so surprisingly fast. The wonderful Goa trip had drawn to a close with lifetime of wonderful memories. Next up-Ladakh! Chalo Ladakh with more junta! Godspeed!
My most cherished memory- His winning shot at Adelaide, a beautiful cover drive off Stuart McGill, which sealed India’s resurgence in Test cricket! His kissing the emblem, the blazing sun, on his cap thereafter marked Indian sun coming out of the clouds and shining brightly on the world cricket. Dravid choked while talking to Sunny Gavaskar after the match. That is the testimony of a true team man and a legend.
