Wednesday 28 September 2011

GG for Life

i thought she had gone...she had thrown her away her crochet top and long ghagra skirt. She had grown up, travelled and had decided that those days were childish and now part of a distant memory.

But alas, the GG lives and has perhaps changed a lot from those early years, she is more GG than ever before!

I can't describe it. It's beyond words for me since I can never fathom what it is that makes Goa so special. It's a connection so deep and strong, and no, it's not that I'm high on the good stuff, it's more 'spiritual' than that.
I have been visiting Goa since I was literally born and I yet haven't actually discovered it. I think that's the best thing about Goa - I can never get enough of it! Every time I visit, I discover something new, and always something wonderful. So it leaves me with a valid reason to return. Yet again!
What's interesting is also that I have had various 'goa phases' . For each period of my life I have lived and loved a different Goa. Each trip is memorable and distinct for some specific reason. Each one is engrained into my mind with a vivid association of colours, foods, songs and of course people....
I remember faces and places very well. Actually it's often quite bizarre because it could be a person I might have bumped into amidst a colourful array of scarves at a stall in the flea market, only to bump into him or her at some other unrelated place at another point of time. For the most part, these completely random "meetings" have always been positive. These people have been good to me or shared with me or helped me or better still, have taught me something I have treasured ever since. So what might appear at first as "random", have been significant and valuable little postcards that make it such a sweet memory.

I won't pretend, but I also do associate goa with an air of mystery and the unexpected. I become another person the moment I land at Dabolim Airport (which has remained the exact same since time immemorial). This Aru is definitely lighter, looser and lives on the edge! Ok, it isn't as if I indulge in particularly dangerous activities all of a sudden, but I most certainly am less cautious than the original me. I live by the sun, the moon and the elements. It is as close as I can go to living au naturel...I love that I have windy, salty, matted hair and that I'm in my favourite (totally fatela) mulmul pyjamas. I don't need to tan, but I still sit in the Sun to get "colour". I love to leave Goa with the shape of my watch as the official souvenir from that visit.

My last visit was the previous weekend and was it fun! I went there on a girl's DND ( do not disclose) trip so this blog post can't reveal what went down there but I'll share all the safe parts.
For starters, we made a call to stick to the basics and stay at the Taj Village.

Now that is a place that I have intensely strong memories of (for all that transpired there!). God, from days spent eating Tom n Jerry chicken at the Kiddies Corner in between blissful hours spent at the pool, of nights spent dancing to the macarena, to the Tambola games I would happily lose at every evening at the Caravela, to Chef Rego's heavenly local fare, to volleyball games to MTV The Grind like mojito-filled sunsets to villa 7, 8 and 9 to the Bidappas, to post board exam mayhem and destruction (the general going on's of my batch that year led to a blanket rule laid by the village on having a parent accompany the group on future exam celebration groups!) to bike rides, to the storm of 1997 that brought ashore the big oil tanker that now is a permanent part of the shoreline......and I could go on and on!
Well after dedicating all my family summer holidays within the happy confines of the village, we all experimented and have since found other places that seem more fitting to the change of plans. The girls thought returning to the comfort zone made sense since it was technically off season and it would be nice to be in a known space.
I must admit, although the village will always hold these wonderful memories, it as now lost its magic. Not that it is run-down, rather, it has run-out. By which I mean, it hAs gotten dated and left behind amongst the many newer resorts in goa that have come up since. The location of the hotel is no longer ideal since it is away from the Baga strip and cab rides are ridiculously expensive. The rooms are okkkk, the khaana is as expected, the pool bar plays soft music and saddest of all, there is NO beach!
In any case, we weren't going to let off-season or an off-location deter our lot from the good times. We were determined to make it work, especially since the groom to be was living it up and how in Thailand!

After gathering necessary information from the all-learned Goa cab drivers, we were directed towards the only "on" scene - the infamous Tito's lane.

That's another thing that one will hear a lot whilst in Goa, "Dude what's on tonight?" and "Where's the party?"
As in most seasonal party towns around the world, in Goa depending on the time of the year / the night in the week and the occasion; certain locations are "on" or not. The "on" place is the spots that shall remain on till late at night or even the next day.
Another useful word to throw into your party lingo is "canned" which would mean that due to some reason, the "on" scene has been unceremoniously stopped early.

In Goa, usually the best way to find the party is to stay in touch with the savvy cabbies and to keep your ears alert to catch the thump of the bass.
What deliciously exciting times I have had following the traffic towards what is hopefully an "on" scene. Sighhh - good times indeed


I think the bride ended up trading her angel wings for devils horns by the end of it all.......

That brings me to the end of this nostalgic post.

teşekkür Ambush and the crew...we did well!

Cannot wait for my next adventure - I hear the waves calling.

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