the tournament

Last Saturday we had our interhouse tournament at holy family ground. The ground was well maintained, had a green outfield and a decent looking pitch. This was the first time that I was actually playing a cricket match in such good conditions, otherwise used to gully cricket.

I had not played since ages but I wanted to participate in this one. We went to practise at Mulund a day early when I got my ass out of bed at 6 in the morning wondering what a sin it is for a person like me to get up so early :). The practise had gotten us really tired. Come saturday and I was out of bed again at about 630 and reached the ground at 9 sharp.

We had two qualifying games and inorder to reach the finals we had to win both of them. I went out as an opener in the first one. I realised that I was a much better batsman years ago than what i was at that moment and also the running between wickets had been affected seriously. Adding to it the hot sun was'nt making matters any easy. After a couple of overs I took whatever opportunity I could of cooling my heels. Head wanted to rest but heart wanted to stay there and play and get our side to victory. We needed about 69 runs from 8 overs and we did it quite comfortably in the end with one over to spare. We had a break of about 2.5 hours before the next match and I made sure i made full use of it. I hogged on to as much glucon D as possible and water and eggs. We won the second match comfortably. I was fielding at the boundary and after every 4-5 deliveries I keep sipping on water.

In the finals we were pitted against the best team of the tournament so far. Here again we won the toss and fielded first. We had to chase a target of 65 to win in 8 overs. Now the going got really tough. I was taking the singles and twos wherever possible but my stamina level was at an all time low. I got out after a while and our team was in the doldrums. We needed 34 from 18 balls to win the match and only 3 wickets were pending. 10 runs were taken in that over but we still needed 24 off the last 2, which looked improbable if not impossible. Their best bowler of the tournament came in to bowl the penultimate over and surprise surprise...he was tonked for 20 runs in the first 4 deliveries. 2 sixes and 2 fours. we went beserk. within 5 minutes our mood swung from an all time low to an all time high. Those 5 minutes will be etched in my memory forever. We needed 4 from 8 balls and we won that match with an over to spare. We were euphoric. All the tireness was gone and every one was in their best spirits. We won the cup. We were the stars and it was a total team effort. At night the body started taking its toll on me and i could barely walk thanks to an earlier knee injury i had incurred while saving a boundary. Luckily next day I did manage to walk but the other parts of the body were paining equally badly now. But in the end it was all worth it. I still limp a bit while walking though ;-)

While I was batting out there in the hot sun and running those singles and twos, Even though I wasnt a regular player, I couldnt help thinking how does a player stay out there and bat entire 50 overs and score 200 runs and runs every run as though he is totally fresh and least tired. How is it humanely possible?? But the next thought answered my question. It is impossible for man but not superman.... :)
We love u SRT....

Cheers
KS
(wondering about the curious case of SRT)

The long con...

The below mentioned story is not a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely true :)

the story begins this way....
there is this company...a big multimillion dollar company..lets call it M...and there is this employee...lets call him mr. bechara. Mr. bechara is promised 6 months back that he is going to be sent onsite(Europe). He is very happy and is building his future dreams based on this promise. Soon the global financial meltdown starts. M starts losing projects and soon the dreadful happens...the employees start getting sacked with some compensation...many dreams are shattered...
everyone dreads the start of a new month...coz every 1st of alternate months...this list arrives with the names of the unlucky people....there were 2 such lists which had arrived so far within 4 months..mr bechara asks his PM about the onsite promise...the promise is still ON...after a week he gets the shock of his life...his Project Manager asks him to come to the meeting room and tells him that he is gonna be released from the project...that means bench..and bench means the axe....all dreams shattered...and a sleepless night...
next day his PM comes n tells him that they might hold him back...but that's just coz he needs mr bechara to do some more work for him before throwing him off the cliff...Mr bechara acts like he is happy but he knows its inevitable..his ego is hurt..he takes an off on the next day...thinks...takes his time..comes back after the weekend and tells his superiors that he is fine and ready to be on bench...they are shocked...but soon oblige with his request since they have sensed that his ego is hurt...his team mates claim that this is the stupidest decision he has made and he should have rather thought with his head than heart...but he has no qualms about it..he knows what he is up against...he is asked by the HR to go for another project interview within the company..but he fucks up big time in the interview...He looks LOST....now the HR thinks he is good for nothing..all said and done...the month end arrives...the day everyone dreads...the list is out...and Mr bechara's name is on the list...he isn't worried...after all this was inevitable...a part of the plan that destiny laid out for him....he will be paid a compensation of 1.8 L...which he is more than happy to receive from that company M...the one who almost ruined his career...

Flashback:
the day the PM asked him to be released he had sent his resume to another company C...he went for the interview the very next day..that was the reason he took an off from office..he got selected..got a good package..that's where he decided he has had enough of M..n its time to play his game rather than they play him....he went in as if his ego was hurt...asked for the release..he was granted...he never mentioned about his new job to anyone..he just waited for the day..trusting his fate that he would come on that list...the dreaded list..which he so desperately wanted to be on..M owed him...when he came on that list...all he had to do was resign and take the package..the incentive..he got it...it was the best moment in his past 2 years...He joined company C..
so at the end of the day...he gets a better package..better work...better travel...better respect...and a wholesome chunk of $$ which he deserved since long...he always thought with his head...

so how was the story of the con man my dear friends ;-)

Cheers,

Mr Bechara

they played me...i played them...I was better....
the biggest trick the devil ever pulled was in convincing the world that he didn't exist

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Sometimes fate makes you do what you yourself are afraid to...

one day at a sports club.....

Of the past couple of years, I have been newly addicted to a couple of games. Table tennis is one of them, the other one being snookers. One good thing about software companies is that they have some playing facilities for their employees to get rid of rigorous stress and strain. My office has a few talented TT players. Playing with them has grooved my talent to some extent. The good thing about my company is that the work pressure is not very high and we do get time to swing our arms at the tt table.

There was a time when cricket was my favorite game but you have to arrange at least 10 people to play that game and in todays world getting 10 people free at the same time is quite an achievement and even if you do, then you need to have a huge ground where you can play the game, provided that ground is not already occupied by bigger fanatics. All tt requires are 2 people having love for the game, a decently big enough room with a ceiling at a good height, 2 TT bats, a ping pong ball and a TT table. Incidentally I have a cousin who is equally fond of the game. He has been playing it since a few years. We often had these verbal duals about who is the better player amongst us. We had never played each other but loved to boast about our TT skills. Our family members were as eager as us to find out who the better player was. Once we decided to have a match at one of Mumbai’s most famous sports club- andheri sports complex. Something or the other didn’t work out and 3 Saturdays were wasted in the process. Finally both of us had time on the right day and we made it to the place. We reached there early morning at 12:00. The reception guy told us that the place was booked by some company for a sports event and will not be free before 4P.M. Shit!!!

Now we decided to explore other options. We made a few phone calls and realized that all other clubs nearby had membership protocol and that too life time membership which didn't come for less that a lac or 2. We found another sport club nearby, called YMCA. We headed out there. The membership for TT was cheap enough. 350 rs for 12 months. There was a problem though. They needed passport photos of each. I had mine but Mallik didn’t have his. So now we headed out to the nearest photo studio and got his pics clicked within a minute. We were back to YMCA. Now the lady at the reception gave us the pamphlet. We learnt that the club stays closed for sports activities from 1-4 for coaching purpose. This surely wasn’t going to help us. Worse you would get only one hour to play each day you went there. The total time in travelling would be 2 hours and getting only an hour to play was not worth it. We decided to head out.

We were back at andheri sports club. Now here is the point I wanted to make. Recently there was a lot of speculation over why if took India 112 years to win her first gold in an individual event. I never gave a damn about why we don’t win in Olympics, but here was the answer. There are not enough sports facilities. We were sweating it out in the sun to find a place where we could play table tennis for an hour and we didn’t have access to any such place. Abhinav Bindra had rightly pointed it out that we complain about not winning gold medals but when it comes to implementing sports facilities no one wants to put their hands up. Then why complain? Whatever sports facilities are available are out of reach of middle class families. Memberships coming at 1.5 to 2 lakhs are no joke. My friends in US play TT, snookers, basketball, tennis etc regularly at free of cost. Their government has set up free sports facilities almost everywhere. Indian politicians are only busy filling their pockets and taking bribes to grant lands to rich builders. Its not only our government but also most parents. It is a common phenomenon in India that only studies can make you successful and sports will distract you from your career. True not everyone will be a successful sportsperson but there is no thumb rule that a successful businessmen or software engineers cannot be good at sports. Another problem is the stipends that these sportsmen receive. Its so minimal that you cannot run a family for more than 10 days, forget a month. Cricket is a major factor which is responsible for the degradation of other sports. We, including our media has given way too much importance to this game. If we win a match there are 2 hours of news on TV about it and if we lose there are 3 hours of news. Why? Because we love watching crap on TV and we love buying any shit that is sold to us. I realize that I myself am not innocent as once upon a time I was a die hard fan of this game and watched it 24x7 but after playing other games my fondness for this one diminished exponentially. 7 hours of time waste is how I describe it now. All these thoughts pondered in my head within minutes and I was just getting angry, impatient and frustrated. Come what may, we had decided that we will be playing table tennis that evening.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant. We had Chinese. We were back to the club by 3. I was sleepy and mallik was too. We spoke about movies, about LOST, about Olympics and about pizza. Oh yeah, the loser was going to treat the winner to a pizza party. Earlier in the morning when i was leaving home, mom had wished me all the best and she asked me to wish mallik on her behalf too, but i politely declined saying the best wishes can be given only to one of the 2 and you have already made yours. Soon it was 3:45 and the TT tables were free. We signed in for the hour and went in to play the match we were dying to. It was going to be a best of 7 and every match would be of 21 points. We had some practice initially and played a trial match. Mallik won that. He was a good player no doubt. I was seriously beginning to feel the pressure now.

Game 1
We didn’t have a toss. He let me serve for the first match. His nose was up in the first half though somehow I made it to 10 each. Then I served and got only 1 point on my 5 serves. It was 11-14. Then he served and got 3 points out of 5. It was 13-17. Now i hit back with my best serves and brought the game to 17-18 giving away only one point. He served and this time I got 3 points back to back bringing it to 20-18. And then I won on his 5th serve. I led the series of 7 - 1-0. It was a close call and honestly I was not confident about how long I could hold my end.
Game 2
He started with the serves this time and i was leading 4-1, good confidence getting into me. It always feels good when you get points on the opponents serve. Soon he fought back and now I was struggling to get points even on my serve. His smashes were more frequent then mine and i had no answers to them. I missed most of them and in the frustration screwed up with my service as well. I made a lot of unforced errors nonetheless. Soon he was leading 17-8. Then I decided to put on a fight but it was too late. All he needed were 4 points and in the process I gave them to him. He won the game 21-12. Even though we were leveled at 1 each the victory differences clearly showed in whose favor was the series headed.
Game 3
I served seeking the advantage but the ghosts from the previous game still played on my mind and I gave him a lot of opportunities to smash this time as well. He had a good variety of serves one especially being where he served such that the ball stayed very low and very close to the net and at a very slow speed. I was always missing those but soon I realized the format of his services. His first serve came fast and high to my left hand side. His second went low, slow and straight. His third went low, slow and diagonally opposite to him, his fourth serve was generally a backhand one and the last one was a either a top spin or another low serve independent of the direction. This game was a bit closer than the previous but still the advantage was with him. A lot of his shots were hitting the net and the ball falling on my side of the court. That always adds to my frustration. The opponent tells you a polite sorry when it happens but does that help? Soon there were a couple of shots from his side which hit the edge of the table and just flew anywhere out of my reach. He again said sorry and I retaliated, “You are saying way too many sorries man.” He laughed realizing it was out of frustration but it’s not his fault since no one can control these shots. Not even the best of players. Meanwhile my shots were hitting the net and ball fell back in my court. We were at 14-16 with him leading. Soon it was 16-19 and then I lost 21-18. Difference reduced but still he looked the better of the two.
Game 4
He served. I had to win this one to stay alive else it would come to a do or die situation which would only add to the pressure. This time I used my intelligence and skills equally. I predicted his serves and most of the times got it right. When he sent the low and slow serve I hit it nicely out of his reach. He slipped on a couple of occasions trying to get to them. He realized I had found to tackle one of his various serves. The game came to 17-13 with me leading. I had to score at least two points off his serve to stay in the vicinity of victory. I did and soon did well on my serves. And I won this match 21-16. The series was leveled at 2 each.
Game 5
I got a bit carried away in this one and did some experimentation this losing out the advantage which I had gained. He gained the lead and a considerable one this time. At a point he was 16 and I hadn’t reached double figures yet. The end result was 21-14 this shattering my confidence and sending me back to square zero. He led 3-2. Now I had a do or die situation. Right then I just wanted the series to go till the 7th match.
Game 6
This to me was the biggest game of all the 6 played till now, not just because it was do or die but also for the commitment and dedication with which I played it. We were having rallies of smashes and spins and chops. There was an instance when he smashed the ball hard and I returned somehow, giving him another opportunity to smash and he did. I returned this one too and he smashed again and I returned it back running to my extreme right. I knew another smash was coming and I was ready for it. This time his smash hit the net and landed on his side of the court. Moral victory. This repeated on another couple of occasions where I returned all his smashes successfully and he made the errors. Soon the table had turned. Now my shots were hitting the net and landing on his side of the table while his stayed on his side only. He could feel the frustration I was feeling earlier. I carried home the advantage winning the match 21-15 and leveling the series at 3 each. Oh yes we were going to go right down to the wire. Frankly before the matches had begun I had not expected us to go that far. I felt we might have a max of 5 or 6 matches but it won’t come to a situation where we have to go till the seventh. We both had underestimated each other at the game.
Final match
I was serving in this one. I was too happy after winning the 6th game for the sheer brilliance I had displayed. I was afraid now of getting carried away and making the simple mistakes which I otherwise wouldn’t. My fears were coming true and I was losing concentration. I took some breaks between the serves making excuses of my hand sweating. I calmed myself and improved my concentration. Till the first half we were head to head at 10 each. Now I started playing better and it came to 14-11. Then it came to 19-16. He was going to serve. All I needed was too good returns and 2 points would be in my kitty. First point went to him for my sheer stupidity. I was thinking of victory already. Next 2 serves were unplayable and it came to 19-19. He was giving out his best serves now and I was seriously worried. The tables had turned or had they? The next point he made an unforced error and I was relieved. I needed a point anyhow on this serve to avoid going to deuce. I have a bad history when it comes to deuces. Unfortunately fate had something else in mind and it did go to deuce. I let out a curse as I saw the point go away. I had hit a bad shot which didn’t land on the table. Now we looked at each other and smiled. Of all the 7 games, this was the one which went till the last point. He said,”Isn’t this like a bollywood script.” I laughed. I had to serve. I waited. I had to get this one right else the next point would be way too tough to get. It was a rally and I made a mistake giving away the point. He had the advantage now. I felt awful at my stupidity. I started cursing myself for missing on the earlier points with small mistakes and letting it come till such a stage to be decided. Only if I could go back and fix those mistakes, I would. Now I decided to concentrate on the point ahead and somehow bring it back to deuce. He served and my prediction of his serve was bang on. I returned it with a chop spin and he missed it by a long way. It was deuce again. I was back in the game. Now I served properly giving my best serve and he hit it long. I had the advantage. I said to myself this was the moment. I had to get it right. It was not only a question of victory but also one of reputation. The only news that would go from here back home was about who won the match and not who played how. He served and I returned it back. He returned and I chopped and he his it outside. I gained the point. I won the match. I raised my arms in joy. I felt this way after a long long time. When was the last time I was so delighted after winning, I do not remember. We shook hands.

We played some more after that but we were awfully tired and also had lost on the motivation. I did win the next games which we played but I could see that was more due to his lack of enthusiasm after losing. The news that would go home is that I won the series. It was unfair to him since the margin that decided our fate was only of 1 point. Maybe that point belonged to the best wishes given by mom to me earlier that morning.

Been there...Done that

Prologue
One fine day I received an email from one of my office colleagues about this night trek and Mountain rappelling event. It sounded quite exciting and adventurous. I forwarded the mail to my friends – The league. 5 of us were immediately game for it. Pinkesh couldn’t make it since he is in the states. Gautam couldn’t make it due to personal reasons and Amit Rane couldn’t make it as he was in Dubai for work purpose. I wanted this to happen and even if 4 of us would be ready we would go ahead with it. We were 5 so there was nothing gonna stop us. We made the advance payment to block our seats and now we were waiting for the D day – Friday 18th July.



Illusions



We had received the list of our pick up points. All of us were suppose to be at national park by 945. I had specifically requested each of them to be there by 930. Vinith was coming from Pune so he wasn’t going to travel with us. More ever he was alone since Harshal had ditched him at the last minute and decided to come from Mumbai instead of Pune. He had taken a leave.

I had an office party on that evening which I sacrificed for the trek. I could either make it to the trek or to the party. This party happens like once a year and it had Go-carting event as well plus dinner, booze, DJ. But all this was too little to make me think twice about my trekking plans with my buddies. I had decided to remain absent at office on that Friday.

Suddenly I look at the clock and its way past 10 P.M. I didn’t realize where and when the time passed by. I began to panic. Why didn’t anyone call me up? I was leading our group and no one bothered to see if I have reached or not. I called up my friends. They all were seated in the bus and on the way to Naneghat. The time was around 11:30. Too late. They asked me where I was and that they had been trying to reach me but the network was not available. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Not now. After all I am sure I was the most excited for this trip and I just couldn’t screw it up at the last minute. What did I do and where was I? Hell!!! I have to be dreaming. This all sounds too bad to be true. Come on something wake me up. Get me off this Illusion. Bring me out of my sleep. Nothing happened. I started to believe this was really happening and then my cell came to my rescue. It beeped. I woke up. I was relieved. It was 8:45 AM. I checked the cell. Some SMS regarding some offer at shopper stop. I always hated such messages but not this time. It was my rescuer from the dark alley of this nightmarish illusion. There is something about bad dreams. They make you feel better after you get up. Just like the feeling a prisoner gets after getting out of jail. Good dreams hold the opposite. So I was feeling better already. I underestimated my excitement for the trip perhaps. It had been ages since I was excited about something so much that I dreamt about it on the previous night. Earlier it only used to occur before India - Australia ODI’s with me dreaming about a Sachin special against the mighty McGrath. I went back to sleep. I needed to rest properly since we were not going to sleep for the next 40 hours.


The sixth element


Day went along well. I got a torch for the trip. It was mandatory. Time passed soon. At 7 I gave a call to everyone to enquire if all were prepared and ready to make it. I didn’t want my dream to be a reality for any of us. I couldn’t reach Saurabh Chhatre as usual. I got worried. Called up Amit Sawant and asked him to get his hands on Chhatre ASAP, since they live close by. He assured me that he would take care of it. Harshal is not one who needs to be reminded about something like this. I wonder if his excitement level was more than me, since he had even shopped for trekking shoes the week before. I called up Amit Rane.

Now Rane was the sixth one who was just added to the camp 3 days ago. I had initially asked Arun (our camp in charge) to block a seat for 6 of us but I had made the payment for only 5 since Gautam’s trip was dicey. He was kind enough to oblige. Later on when Gautam backed out, I told Rane about the adventure we were going to have. His work onsite was done before time and he was due to fly back by 16th July i.e. 2 days before the trek. He was game for it. I didn’t tell anyone from our group about Rane’s last minute inclusion except Harshal. I wanted to surprise them. Rane is a very vital part of our outings since he is one of the 4 who have never ditched for any event come what may. The other 3 are Harshal, Vinith and yours truly.

I was running late. I under estimated my preparation time and soon was running around everywhere. I bid bye to mom and she’s always worried about me when I go on outings. I had not told her about the night trek or the rappelling event since she would freak out. I just told her ‘We are going on a picnic.’

My baggage was a bit heavy. I carried 2 pair of extra clothing, a towel, bed sheet, 3 liters water, digi-cam, extra batteries and my I pod. I reached Harshal’s place by 930. We picked up Rane on the way and reached the spot well on time. Saurabh and Sawant reached at the same time. They were pleasantly surprised to see our sixth element. We found the bus and soon we were in with our luggage. I called up Vinith. He was waiting at his stop for the bus. He was alone. I told him to call me in case of any problem. After some time he sent an SMS that he was comfortably seated and that there were quite a few people with him. The journey began on the right note. All of us were upbeat. It was around 1015.

The bus started from the express highway near national park. It halted regularly to pick up passengers. Few of them were late so we guys generally got down since it gets really hot in a stationary bus. At one such stop we met Sanjay. He was going to be our batch in-charge. All of us were introduced. Then he asked us if it was our first time, which it was. He told us Naneghat is a good trek to start with for beginners. I felt slightly a tinge of disappointment, but we all were smiling. I wanted adventure not comfort. He told us about the rappelling event at Malshesh ghat. He said its level is difficult and not idle for first timers. There you go down a valley which has waterfall till 400 feet. And then u halt in the night at a plateau in between and continue the remaining rappel the next morning. Total journey is of 1200 feet. We were impressed. Then he came back to Naneghat topic. He told us the real thrill comes when you reach the edge of the cliff and incline yourself at an angle of 45 degrees and look down and see the valley which is 2700 feet deep. Yes, he was talking about Naneghat and no, none of us were smiling now. I looked at my friends. Their faces had changed like they received a snake in the mailbox. We just listened after that.

The journey while going was fun. We had a lot of catching up to do amongst all 5 of us. As always the focus was mainly on Harshal when it came to leg pulling, then it kept shifting from one to another but all in light spirit. Soon the bus was fully loaded. We took a small break somewhere after kalyan, had tea there, clicked some snaps and then the final part of the journey began. The next break would be after 2 hours at Naneghat. None of us slept just for the sheer excitement. We were anticipating when would we reach the destination and so we did. Alas!



The next 3 hours....


The pune bus reached almost at the same time as ours. Vinith came out. He was delighted to see Rane. He told us that the people in the bus were playing antakshari and he had a tough time out there. He went to the extreme of putting on himesh reshamiya songs on his cell but their voice was far superior to his. We just couldn’t control laughing. He then got hold of Harshal who had ditched him and came to Mumbai instead but Harshal had a very good reason for it and he had come down for an interview and had got selected. He just escaped the wrath of Vinith narrowly.

We got instructions from the camp organizers. There were 70 participants in all. All of them were chanting ‘ganpati bappa moriya’ and ‘har har mahadev’ loudly. I decided to rather start saving some energy than shout. The trek had begun.

I started off in the end since Vinith’s shoe laces had come off and in process he misplaced his torch. Once we found it we moved. We were the last two. We moved at a brisk pace. The ground was flat till now. Sanjay had shown us the peak where we had to reach. It was quite far and in the dark we could hardly see anything. Soon we caught up with the other 4 and within no time we were leading the trek. We had a lot of enthusiasm. We went joking along the way, clicking snaps etc.

The ground wasn’t flat anymore. The climbing process had begun. It was however not difficult. Not till now. We were still leading. Sanjay came time and again and asked everyone to stop and wait for the remaining trekkers. That consumed some of our time. Since most of them were walking at a snails pace. The first hour was more of fun and frolic. The climb was not that uphill. We just had to watch out for the slippery places. Luckily it did not rain else it could get a lot worse.


The second hour started making it a bit tough. The climb started getting tougher and the baggage didn’t make things easier for me either. We did click a few pics on the way and most of us couldn’t get ourselves to smile while doing that. Our group got separated in two from here. Vinith and Sawant stayed back and the rest of us moved forward. Chhatre was the most agile and I didn’t realize when he raced ahead of us. But we were no longer leading the trek. Hell I don’t care who was. We came to halt at a plateau and a break was taken. This was the last plateau before the Naneghat cave. In short there weren’t going to be any more breaks from here on. The third hour had begun.

Rane, Harshal and I went together. Chhatre was way ahead of us. Vinith was left behind so Sawant stayed back to accompany him. Also Vinith’s torch had run out of battery. Soon the 3 of us were stranded and isolated. We didn’t know in which direction to head. I remember Sanjay telling us many people get LOST on the way. I hope that we were not one of those many people. Everywhere there were arrow marks on the path to help us locate the direction. Here I could see none. I was leading the 3 of us and I didn’t know where to head. My torch ran out of battery. Now I realized why we were asked to carry extra batteries as well. I got the ones out which I was later going to use for my camera. They were powerful ones and would last till the end. I pointed the torch in every direction but no way. There were only bushes and rocks. We couldn’t see anyone ahead of us or anyone behind. I called out Chhatre’s name a few times with all the energy that was left. Bad idea. We were there for around 5 more minutes and some people had reached by then. Don’t know if it was the darkness or the lack of sleep or the mind playing tricks but there was a way from the bushes. We didn’t notice it. I didn’t want to lead the trek anymore. I am not Jack like. I am more Sawyer like. (Only the losties would get that one). Harshal and Rane went ahead and I followed.

The difficulty level of the trek had gone up exponentially compared to the previous 2 hours. Then every mile seemed like a step and now every step seemed like a mile. I was sweating like a pig. If I squeezed my t-shirt I could have easily had a liter of sweat. My jeans weren’t spared either. That just added to the weight and gravity was getting the better of us with every step. The cave was appearing too distant. I was wondering that this should have been a dream and I could wake up right now and be safe and sound in my bed. Yeah there was a moment when I did feel like giving up. Wish there was a reset button after pressing which I could be back in my room. I was missing my room all of a sudden. I didn’t know that I would ever think on those lines. This was a beginner level. Hell I do not even want to know what the next level is going to be like. I was saturated with this one itself. Soon Rane got frustrated and spat out, “I don’t think there is any cave here. They are just bluffing us.” I wanted to laugh but couldn’t. Literally every ounce of energy had been spent in those 150 minutes. These 2 went ahead. I trudged behind slowly. I was alone. Something slipped behind me. I looked back. It was a girl. I inquired if things were alright. She said thanks and moved briskly. Another 5 minutes and then she slipped again. She was having a tough time too but she wasn’t showing it at all. I asked again and the reply was the same. Then we introduced ourselves and it was her first time too. Somehow I had managed to smile. Her name was Meera. Soon I found my pals ahead. They were resting on a stone. I stopped by and she went ahead. We waited for 2-3 minutes and then moved again. There was little water in some place. I held some tree or something as I stood there. Harshal called me out for something and I turned. I lost balance and slipped. I wasn’t hurt but my clothes got a bit dirty. I slipped again as I tried to move. Another time and these people would have laughed their asses off but not here. Not because of compassion but due to lack of energy. I know my friends. They wouldn’t miss out on a single opportunity ever. We moved. We halted. We moved. The breaks were getting regular now. The night was at its darkest. Rane said we have reached pretty close to the peak. There was a nice rock around. I told these guys lets rest here for a while. We did. Now we clicked a few pics. It was 6’o clock bang on. These 2 started to move. I rested for another 5 minutes. I told them to carry on. I felt like going to sleep out there and go up in the morning. I sat there for like another 10 minutes. People were passing by. I could hear murmurs. I couldn’t understand them nor could I see any faces. Soon the light was clearer. The night is at its darkest just before the dawn and here came the sun and with it some new source of energy. I sprang to my feet. I put on my luggage and I moved. I moved like I had just started the trek. I climbed the rocks. Soon the cave was in visibility. I raced past the others. I reached there by 6:21 AM. Chhatre, Harshal and Rane were sitting on the rocks. They were eating some biscuits. I went inside the cave. The rule here was to keep your shoes outside the cave. It was really a pain to untie my lace and what was even worse was that I had to bend. There was little energy left in me. I kept my luggage washed my face and came back to eat. The biscuits were over by then.

I was so pissed. I was starving but I didn’t have the energy to go inside and get another pack. Within 5 minutes Sawant came. Rescue!! I asked him to get some biscuits while coming back from the cave. And there it was finally. Never have I been so desperate to eat a biscuit. I took one complete pack with me out of the two which he brought. Drank, ate, and drank.

Vinith was the last to arrive. He had been through hell. He somehow managed to wave at the camera and then went inside the cave and didn’t come back. He went off to sleep right then. We 5 sat outside and never have I observed the morning so closely and keenly. It was freshening. I was shivering by now as cold breeze was blowing and I was totally drenched with sweat. We shot a video where everyone was asked their best part of the trek so far.

We then went inside the caves and rested for a while. No one slept as soon tea was being served along with breakfast. I dreaded the fact that they might serve poha in breakfast and they did. I don’t drink tea and I don’t eat poha. So I decided to pass. The place was lit up but yet dark. Well that’s how caves are supposed to be. I couldn’t hold much in my head out there. I was semi conscious. Vinith soon moved out for tea. I stayed in. I was planning for the things to come. The rappelling event was gonna take a lot of energy. I was recharging myself. I don’t know how long I laid down there but I am sure I didn’t sleep. So far our energy and stamina had been challenged. Soon our courage was gonna face the music.



Walkabout

After resting for a while we went out to explore the place. Since monsoons were on, the place was lush green. The landscapes were lovely to watch. The mountains coupled with the early morning fog were a beauty. We clicked some group snaps here and there.

We found a volleyball court so played there for some time. None of us were expert at it and ended up hurting our hands more often than scoring points. Although playing a new game was a bit of fun. The game brought back memories of Goa because the only time I had played volley ball before was in Goa at bagha beach. I was better at this game then than now.

Soon everyone wanted to take a leak. So we found good bushes and relieved ourselves. One of the guys was peeing in such a way that nothing was covered. I pointed that out to Harshal. He came up with a cracker of a line. He said, “Usne sirf apna face dhaka hai jhaadiyon se…baaki sab dikh raha hai” and we both burst out into splits. Harshal has this knack of coming up with a killer time and again.

We explored the place a bit more. We were ‘trying’ to look down from the edge of the cliff. I was standing at least a meter away from the edge while peeping down. It was scary especially more for me since I have fear of heights. Every now and then a weird thought crept into my mind. ‘What if someone just jumped from here?’ and ‘What if that someone was me?’ And then my mind was suddenly filled with videos of me jumping from the top and facing gravity. Even though I knew none of this is happening but I couldn’t stop those images. It was involuntary. I quickly turned around and started clicking some snaps.

We came to back towards the entrance and found ourselves comfortable rocks to rest on. Soon we saw an exodus of people heading towards the hill. They had something wrapped around them. The rappelling was about to begin.

A flock of around 40-50 people were wearing that ‘particular thing’ around their waist and helmets on the head. They reached a certain height where a man was instructing them. He was loud enough hence we could hear him but none of us were paying attention. We were deciding on when should be go to rappel since there were supposedly two batches. Here however we felt that other than the 6 of us, the entire camp was out there to rappel. We realized that there is not going to be another batch. The spot where all the participants were standing right now was a small peak which was around 20 feet high. Here the first timers were going to be trained to rappel. Soon the training began and I think Rane was the one who pointed out that we had missed the instructions.



Fear factor






We went and stood there with the other participants. We were yet to tie that ‘thing’ around us which everyone else was wearing. We didn’t have helmets neither did we have gloves. Soon we got hold of that ‘thing‘. It was called harness. I had selected a black color harness since I was totally dressed in black- A black sleeveless t shirt and black three fourths. We needed some expert to tie it around us. There was this guy Karthik who did it for all 6 of us. Still a lot of people were left to complete their training. The rest had moved to the top. We needed helmets. So 3 of us went to the top to get them. The climb was very treacherous. There were rocks, grass, moss, water etc. My leg slipped on more than one occasion but this time I was a bit more careful. I kept grabbing onto something or the other while going up. We reached the peak in about 10 minutes. Once I reached I decided, I won’t be going down this way. Climbing is always easier compared to moving down. I will do the rappelling directly without any training. Then I moved to the spot where all were sitting. After moving a bit further I just halted. Further movement wasn’t possible. We were at the edge of the cliff. Just looking down from there gave me the shivers. We were at a height of 2700 feet and the ground level could be seen from there clearly. That is the second time I wondered what the hell was I doing on this trip. Earlier the trek had taken every ounce of energy out of me and now I had to face one of my biggest fears- heights. Yes I have acrophobia.

Chhatre, Harshal and I were the ones who had made it to the top. Chhatre’s face was priceless after he saw the depth. Harshal was sitting with his back to the cliff. So was I. I thought it would be better if I went and took some training, correcting my earlier decision. We looked around for some helmets but couldn’t find any. I took some gloves and decided to descend. That was another bloody challenge now. While coming on top no one could have convinced me to go down via the same route. It was risky. But now there was no other option. I told Harshal ‘Aasmaan se tapka khajoor mein atka.’

We did go down. The super hero went down comfortably. Harshal and I went down carefully. I crawled, I sat, I walked and finally I was down. By then only 6 were left i.e. only us. We listened to the instruction this time carefully. He said never bend your knees. Your legs should always be inclined at an angle of 45 degree to the surface. Don’t use your legs to go down, but use your weight. In the end he said nothing will happen to anyone and the rappel is 201% safe. Soon all of us completed our tasks without the helmets. Here the height was only 20 feet and yet we found it challenging. I didn’t even think I had what it took to rappel on the big stage. All of us were scared except Sawant. Harshal was scared too but he said he was going to rappel come what may. Those lines kind of motivated me too. I said yes I will too. I don’t know if my talking and thinking was in sync. We then first went to the cave to collect some helmets and then we moved to the top.



Time to face Gravity

We made it to the top. It was the treat seeing the faces of Vinith and Rane when they saw the height. Vinith immediately said he will not be rappelling. Chhatre joined him and soon Rane too. Sawant was always in and Harshal kept on saying he is going to rappel at any cost. So did I. The time was around 1130. A lot of people were yet to rappel.

Generally when we guys are together time passes in a jiffy coz of our insane humor. But today everything was on the backburner. Time was passing very slowly up there. We were hardly talking to each other. First there were only 2 ropes to go down but now there were 5. We all sat in the same queue. Rane wore the helmet to indicate that he would go down. That motivated Vinith also to join us. But no amount of actions or words was going to coax chhatre into this madness.

At around 1 PM when Priyanka was about to rappel, a huge cloud of fog came and collected around us. We could not see anything beyond 3 meters. It was beautiful. I had not taken my camera up there since there was no caretaker. The fog moved as if it was totally animated. No amount of special effects can give you that satisfaction and I am sure who ever was rappelling at the moment must be the luckiest amongst all the 70 of us.
The fog stayed for around 5 minutes or so and we all were just looking at it in total awe. Nature was at its best.

I expected to complete my rappel by 2. But things just started getting slower and slower. Sawant was in front of me. Soon it was going to be his turn. He was expressionless like this is something he did everyday. I was just sitting there and thinking why was I doing this. What if something goes wrong? We had paid 1400 each for the trek and rappel. It was a large amount considering that the trip was going to last only for a day. So not rappelling would really count as a loss- A loss of money and a loss of face. I should have thought about all this before signing up for this event and hell I was the one who coaxed everyone to come on the trip. How could I back out from all this then? All the various thoughts combined and kept popping in my head. Also the fact that out of the 6, 4 were willing to rappel made my decision easier. I decided to sit where I was sitting- behind Sawant. Next would be my turn. I don’t know and I didn’t think what all must be going in the mind of the others but at that moment I didn’t give a damn. I saw many people back out of this in front of me right there. There was a group of wannabes giving all big talks and this and that. But as the time came closer they took off their harnesses and went back the way which they came earlier. That was another reason to go ahead with this.

Sawant went. I was sure amongst all of us; he would be the safest and the fastest one to complete the rappel. Next was Rane. He had switched into the other line. He was asking me if I wanna go but I decided to stick to the line I was in. It was a mistake and it cost me 90 more minutes to reach the bottom. Soon they had halted two of the ropes; one being mine, as the receivers down had gone for their lunch. I was starving up there. All that I ate in the past 18 hours was some Parle-G biscuits. I was the first in my line and the other lines were moving ahead. Harshal and Vinith were sitting behind me. Chhatre had long departed. I didn’t know when. We sat there in the hot sun and waited for our turn. We were listening to the walkie talkie that was present with all the experts who were letting the participants along the edge. Soon there was a voice telling that the ropes have been started again. There were 3 empty ropes right then and all three of us decided to go down using each.



The next ‘x’ minutes



We started at almost the same time. The rope was tied to my harness. The expert who was helping me told me my technique was wrong. I was using my legs to go back whereas I should be using my weight. All I remembered was that my knee should not be bent at any stage since that would assist me going upside down.

I was standing at the edge. I was going behind. So far I hadn’t dared to look down. I didn’t wanna see the height at which I was standing. I had managed successfully to keep my back to it. I could see Harshal. He was moving at a rapid pace. I couldn’t see Vinith though. He was beyond my line of sight. And then I slipped. There was no piece of rock to keep my leg on and I had lost balance. For the briefest of moments I thought I’m dead. I hurt my knee in the process. Now I decided to concentrate on my rappel. I went down slowly and steadily. My legs were inclined at some angle to the vertical surface. I let the rope loose with my left hand from behind. I pulled myself down using my weight. In the process my red hand automatically came down along the rope. As my right glove moved along the rope, it pulled all the dirt on the rope on my bare hand. I moved down for like 5 minutes or so and then looked up. It seemed like I had covered very little distance. I didn’t dare to look down. Not yet. The surface along which I was rappelling was very uneven. I had to look down carefully as to where am I placing my leg next while descending. Something went wrong suddenly and I lost balance. I think I could not place my legs properly or what but I don’t remember now. Soon I was just hanging on the rope and was moving like a pendulum. I tried to get a grip with one of the rock so that I could get steady again. My woodland shoes were coming in handy there. Soon it started raining. It hadn’t rained the entire day but now, when it was my turn. My shoes were no more useful, since they slip on water. I faltered and this time my body had turned around. I was facing the 3000 feet deep valley. I stopped totally- All moments including my heartbeat, for a second. The rope was still moving my body. I was just looking down. If I ever have to overcome my fear, it had to be now. I looked up. There was no going back there. I looked down. All I could see was the rope going along. I could not see where it ended. It just went through. I had not even reached one thirds of my way. I looked at the valley again and assembled an image of it in my brain and then I smiled and looked up. Got hold of the rope again and moved swiftly this time round. Soon I could see someone coming down from the same rope which Harshal had used earlier. That meant that Harshal had finished his trek well ahead of time since the same rope can only be used by another participant if the earlier one has completed his rappel. This new guy was covering the distance soon. I was soon going to be overlapped. I started moving faster. Soon I could see the edge of the hill coming outwards and when I looked beyond it there was no place to keep your leg. How the hell was I suppose to rappel. Now I could see where the rope ended. It was almost 150 feet below me where a man was controlling it. He loosened the rope to a great extent and I fell. It was a free fall. I kept going down at rapid pace and I kept looking behind. It was a feeling which I seriously cannot describe out here. It’s like jumping off a 5 storey building but knowing that you will be safe when you land. Now I was pretty close to the guy. He was asking me if he should loosen it more. Even though I was enjoying the fall, I was too scared to talk. He stopped me about 20 feet above the edge. Soon I landed safely and my rappel was over. I had done it. I overcame my fear and experienced one of the best adventures of my life. Now all I had to do was move back to the camp. I realized the scary part wasn’t over yet.

From there we were supposed to reach the cave along the edges of that cliff. Our harnesses were attached to a horizontal rope as we moved along. The guy in front of me was way too scared. He was walking at a snails pace. I would have reached the cave much faster had it not been for him. On the entire journey back there was only one place which was risky. It was a ‘>’ shaped depression along the hill and u had to move through it sitting along the way. It was too small and too slippery and u had to place your every feet carefully. Once that was over the remaining walk was a cake. Soon I was at the caves.

I was hungry like hell. I could literally pull my entire stomach inside by breathing in hard. Vinith had not yet reached. The rest had finished off their lunch. I went and took a plate and got my lunch. The lunch wasn’t tasty but it was satisfying enough. This was the last meal of the trip. Soon I would reach home and eat something to my hearts content. Vinith reached in some time. He was expected long back. He said he couldn’t rappel. When he tried, his back took a lot of pressure and he already had a slip disk problem earlier. So it would not do any good to him. The experts pulled him back up on learning about his problem. Sawant, Rane and Harshal had completed their treks successfully.



Epilogue:

Soon we collected our bags. Went and occupied our seats in the bus. There was some time left for departure. Corn was being served. I grabbed two bowls of it. Then we hung out a bit and clicked some snaps. The scenery was beautiful. Soon we were in the bus and on the way back. It was around 5 PM. Most of them slept. I could hardly sleep. I had a small nap for around an hour or so. The journey back was long but I was satisfied. I reached home around 1230 in the night. The first thing I did was sleep. I had not slept in the past 40 hours. This was a much needed sleep. I dreamt about rappelling. It was a lovely sleep.

Bombay to Goa

The following topic has been divided into 5 parts on account of its length.

I have been to Goa twice before and you just can’t get enough of this place. First visit was memorable, the second was unforgettable. The following is an account of the third:
Last Friday 28th sep’07, I went to Goa for the third time…I was wondering what was gonna happen this time round. We were not pre-prepared for the trip. Everything was haywire. In fact till Thursday I was confident that the trip will be called off at the last minute. The 3 of us were totally unsure of what will happen but yes we kept telling each other that we will go to Goa. The day arrived and we did book the tickets. Oh yeah goa was gonna happen. The only thing we knew of now was that we will reach Goa. What is gonna happen after that? Nothing was planned. Not even the room bookings. The journey starts.

Part 1:The bus ride


Friday 28th Sep: It was 630 in the eve and we had reached the place from where we were to board the bus. We were the first in the bus. It looked quite cozy and comfortable, our only regret we couldn’t get the sleeper tickets. We had to go sitting. We started at 7. By 9 we had reached bandra and the bus was totally packed. Till then the seat next to me was empty and I was just hoping against hope that some girl would come and sit there. But the 1983 syndrome was at its best and at bandra my hopes were shattered. We were told that the bus will stop somewhere around panvel at midnight for dinner. Vijay and Rohit went off to sleep. I was too excited to sleep. Was looking at my camera again and again and planning all possible pictures which I could click with it. The clock went past 12 and the bus hadn’t halted yet. Pressure was building in my pants. Oh yeah it was quite a while since I had let it out. “God stop the bus. I don’t wanna have dinner but I wanna pee”. I was beginning to wonder if staying awake was a good decision. I realized the best way to get rid of this anxiety and pressure was to sleep. And just as I was beginning to get into that mould, the bus in charge shouted loudly that the bus was gonna take a break of half an hour and all can have their dinner in that place. I woke up these 2 and we headed out to the nearest jungle and emptied our tanks.


We then ordered paneer masala for dinner as the other things listed on the menu were not available. Little did we know that we had almost ordered something close to water, only the color was reddish. No questions asked. We noticed that the cream crowd was in most of the buses that had stopped along with us but nothing in ours. Like I said - 1983 syndrome. We headed into the bus and yeah now it was time to sleep. The atmosphere inside was quite chilling. I got into my seat comfortably and got my rain sheeter out. Put my mp3 player to my ears and soon I was dozing. I did wake up at regular intervals. As you know bus rides are never smooth unlike trains. I was on the front seat so could see the roads ahead and they were kinda scary. The curves were dangerous. Left right left right and so on. The driver was really doing a good job out there. Whenever he had a chance he overtook the buses in front of us. I was glued to that vision for sometime. Suddenly I heard vijay wake up and he was not feeling well. He was feeling like vomiting. The incharge gave him a vomiting bag. Even I took one for myself as I could feel my stomach churning. “No God not this time” well none of us vomited thankfully. I realized that I was feeling sick coz I was constantly looking at the zig zag turns. I closed the curtain and put on my monkey cap and dozed off again. I woke up once more. Guess it was someone who wanted to empty their tanks this time. Turn by turn the others also came out to piss. We were on some ghaat side road surrounded by jungles on both sides. Just imagine how a girl would react in such a situation. It’s ok for a guy. Just go and stand there and take a leak but for a girl its much more complex. Well our bus didn’t have much to worry since there were hardly 4-5 girls in it. The bus started again and I slept again. I just prayed that I wake up only when we reach since I was beginning to get bored of the horrendous traveling now. I just wanted to stop myself from puking. I had done very well to forget about my poor history in bus traveling but vijay did not help matters. I woke up and it was day light. I looked at the watch. It was somewhere around 730 am. I was glad. Quite a bulky amount of time had passed off in my previous sleep. I could see the villages on the way. The driver told us that by 9 we would hit goa which was quite a relief. My mouth was stinking. I could feel the sourness from within and the odour as well. I couldn’t stay awake without helping my case. I took out my water bottle and gargled 3-4 sips while at the same time drinking it. Then I took in a polo tablet. That helped matters by a great deal. We reached mapusa at 9 and a tour guide came to us and asked us to come with him. His name was Moosa. We were unsure of what to do so we went ahead with him. He took us in a taxi to calangute. The charges were 200 bucks which is huge. Well we couldn’t say much. He showed us a room which was right by the beach. We took it for 1600 bucks for 3 nights and 3 days. That was quite a useful deal since we were not aware of our accomadation. We paid the amount and took the receipt. Our goa tour had just begun on a successful note. Oh Yeahhhh !!!

Part 2: The mountain, the beach and the quicksand



Saturday 29th Sep: We brushed and freshened up, took bath and headed out to the beach to check out the place. It was quite empty and we were warned not to go in the water since there wasn’t anyone around and also it was high tide. Monsoons were not helping matters out there. We had lunch at a nice restaurant just next to the beach. There was this nice alien chick sitting next to us in yellow. She had these lovely tits and a nice short pant which was revealing quite a huge amount of her thigh. Another inch down and we would have fainted. Well a good start and that made our next days more promising. Since I had been to goa twice before, I knew the places to look out for. We headed for vagator beach. We took a bus to mapusa and from there another one to vagator. Within 1 hour we were at vagator. It looked disappointing. Most of the part of the beach was below water. My hopes and dreams took a kick. Was this going to be regular phenomena everywhere in goa? The crowd out there was Indian. We decided to seize the moment to ourselves. We started playing with the ball and Frisbee. Then we decided to climb to the top of the hill out there. The same one which was shown in dil chahta hai. We did it eventually. It was fun. I recollected the last time when I had accomplished this task. Had seemed much more difficult back then. We clicked snaps and did some video shoots on the way. We reached and felt like we have achieved a milestone but I was not satisfied. This trek seemed kinda short one. We rested for a while at the top and then I told these 2 lets head to anjuna beach now. We came down hill. Walked a lot of distance and had a pepsi at a stall nearby. We asked the directions for anjuna beach. The stall owner told us that we should take a bus but we were adamant to go walking. Well at least I was. We went walking and walking and walking. We came across some movie shoot as well. I am damn sure it was a south Indian movie shoot. The hero was dark and had moustache and beard. The heroine looked kinda fat. There was a statue there. We clicked some pics with it. Now we came to the difficult part of the trek. The long walk along the shore, which consisted of sand, rocks, gravels and water. We walked, fell, jumped and did all the things we could to reach on the other side. As we walked we felt that instead of coming closer we were just going farther and farther away from Anjuna. We decided to take a different route in between and that spelt doom for me. Instead of going by the rocks we decided to climb up the hill as we thought the rocks were quite slippery with water. On the hill we only realized that it had quite a large quantity of quicksand and I was the one to get stuck in it. I stepped on it thinking its just wet sand but my leg kept going deeper and deeper within it. Fortunately my other leg was outside on a stone so I pulled out my second leg with all the might. My floaters were in a mess and so was my leg. There was no water around so that I could clean it up. Now the journey only got worse. The worst part was that since now I was up the hill, I also had to come down and there was absolutely no friction between my feet and the floaters. In short I was screwed. Somehow I came down once again sliding and getting bruises. I was a total mess. Thanks to me none of these people got stuck in that quicksand and they were way ahead. The leader became the follower. Moral: In a trek never lead nor lag. Stay in between.
Somehow I made it till the next beach and the first thing I did was get my feet washed in the water and cleaned my floaters. That cold water felt really soothing to the wounds I had managed to win on my feet. The total trek from the start had lasted about 3.5 hours and around 6 kms. We clicked some snaps there and decided to reach the top of the hill. It was around 630 and we had to get the last bus in order to reach home without paying a hefty sum to the taxiwaala, who was asking us for 200 bucks. We managed to get the bus. We were all tired and down and out. We reached home. Got the drinks as well. It was raining a bit we decided it was perfect to sit and enjoy at home. We ordered pizzas from dominoes. Another guy joined us- Pawan. He was working there in goa and was a friend of Rohit. We were still feeling hungry after finishing off the pizzas. We had our drinks and then we had a change in plans. We decided to head out for titos disc at bagha. All we needed was an extra bike. We got one easily. All got into their best clothes and then we were heading for the beach. It rained a bit and there was a lot of traffic out there. We somehow managed to reach the place by 1145. We received bad news. Only couples were allowed entries and no stags and we were 4 stags. Well that broke our hearts and all the excitement was gone. We hung around in other discs just to realize that no stags were allowed. There was a disc where stags were allowed but it looked really sad. Then it started raining heavily. We got on the bikes put our sheeters and headed back to our rooms. While returning we came across this Russian chick who was dressed very skimpily and sexily. I was staring at her and she stared back. Our eyes held each other for like 5 seconds and the intensity with which she looked at me, I was totally flat on my forehead. Would have given anything for her, but I was scared. I will never forget those 5 seconds of my journey. On the way we got some stuff to eat since we were feeling hungry again. We had some beers in the fridge which the guys drank later at home along with the food we had. We had a nice time at home. Ate, drank, laughed had a ball of a time. I didn’t wanna waste a single second sleeping but the others had slept and I was watching something on tv. Soon my eyes drifted off into the wonderland. I was too tired to dream about anything or even remember my dreams that night. But I am sure somewhere down there I met that Russian from Baga beach.



Part 3: A day when plans backfired and back up plans fired

Sunday 30th Sep: We were tired like hell on the previous night. We only realized it when we went to sleep. We woke up at 12 in the noon. Almost half the day had passed away. We went to a restaurant nearby for breakfast where it was costly as hell. I had a cheese toast for 45 bucks. Vijay had an omlet for 30 and Rohit had a veg toast or something for 35. After the costliest breakfasts of our lives we went back to our rooms and took bath and set out to have another adventurous day. The 4 of us headed to fort Aguada.

This was my third visit to that fort and each time I go there it’s a different experience but yeah the déjà vu feeling doesn’t cease to exist. We did some video recording and photo shoots at the fort. There was this gang of 3 girls. They were really cute. We managed to sneak in some pics of theirs. They looked like 3 singles and I wished I spoke to them and somehow convinced them to come with us for titos in the night. But again I screwed up. We explored the jungle areas a bit more and ended up spending a lot of time in that place and now we were running late as it was already 4 and we had decided to go to arambol as well that day itself. We rushed out from that place. There was a helipad also nearby. We then headed for the nearest restaurant and had lunch. It was 5 now and we were heading towards darkness. There was a small problem with the petrol tank of Pawan’s bike. We decided to call off the arambol plan since it was way too dark and we decided to go to anjuna beach instead. We reached there by 6. the place had begun to get dark. This was the same place where we had come on the previous night. This time however we didn’t enjoy the visit as much as the previous day. We walked around and then decided to head back to calangute beach, which pawan said will look much more lively. We went back. Reached there around 7 and the place was alight. Looked quite happening. Only Indian crowd but quality Indian crowd. There were many people doing tattoos around. So Rohit and I decided to get a tattoo done for ourselves as it was my dream in Goa to get one done. We came at a settlement of 4 tatoos for 200 bucks. The guy said that the tattoos will last for a month. I selected an OM sign captured within the sun for me plus a Chinese tattoo which meant LOVE. Rohit selected a scorpion sign and another sign which was illegible to meJ. We had to sit there it self to let the tattoos dry up for another hour. We got some beers and drank and gossiped on the beach. After about an hour we moved from there to this Punjabi dhaba. I remember having dinner here 5 years back when I had come to Goa on my first trip. I had chicken tandoori back and then it was really yummy. I told vijay about it and we decided to have a full tandoori to ourselves and it was fantastic. The place was a dhaba so u couldn’t expect all that posh crowd and all. However the food was tasty and economic as well. We ate to our hearts content since we had little to eat in lunch that day as we were in a hurry. After having dinner we headed towards our rooms. On the way I and Rohit decided to lets get back to baga beach and look for some alien chicks. We were even willing to pay. Hell we had come to goa and we were gonna achieve something for ourselves. For that we needed to refill our bike with petrol. We told these guys to head towards home and we went to the store to fill petrol and also later went to a medical store for the obvious reasons. In the process we had treaded quite far away and were struggling to find our hotel. We came back and told these folks we were heading for baga beach. We were sure that they wouldn’t wanna accompany us as they were dead tired. Unfortunately for us, vijay said that he would wanna come too but pawan was too tired to come. So now 3 of us were ready and only one knew to ride the bike. We couldn’t go 3 in one as that was against the law and we couldn’t risk any accidents either. So we were in a soup. DAMN..why was vijay ready to come. Coz earlier he was talking about sleeping early and now he had a change of plans. Will we get to meet that firang chick again is what we were thinking. Anyways I came up with another plan as usual. I had seen a pool parlour around and told these people lets go and play pool. We can have beers as well as play. And I had missed that game since quite a while and was willing to get my hands back at it. Since it was close by Pawan also agreed to come along. We went and sat there. Already a few people were playing the game. So we ordered a couple of beers and awaited our turn. The waiters name was sameer. He was a nice guy. We had our turn to play the game alas. First I had to explain the rules to everyone.

The rest were playing the game for the first time. So I knew it was gonna be a bit difficult and boring to play them. Rohit and pawan picked up fast but vijay seemed least interested in learning to play. His technique was a total mess despite my repeated efforts of telling him how to hold the cue. His lack of interest pissed me off at time coz he was the one who wanted to come out else me and Rohit had other plans. Anyways the first game I and Rohit were partners. We won that one. The next one I and vijay were partners. We lost it thanks to me missing the black ball in the end. The third game again I and vijay were partners. This time we won it again thanks to meJ and the last game we lost coz it was time to close the place and the owner (Ram) himself had joined in the game and he was well versed with the table. I struggled a bit earlier but later had gained my touch. All said and done. The guys enjoyed the game. Later on even Vijay started enjoying it. We did some shoots and video recordings while playing it. It was something around 330 when we returned from there and headed straight to the beach. There the tide was lovely and the sounds of the waves hitting the shore were awesome. Always soothes me to hear the sound of the waves against the shore. We clicked some pics there as well. Standing on the shores and the waves hitting our legs. Then we did some photo shoots on the boats which were around. Some nice pics came up. Spoke a little bit and had a lot of fun. Then we moved from there to our rooms. The others went to sleep straight away barring me. I was in so much love with this place that I didn’t wanna waste any time by sleeping or anything that took me away from its beauty. I was watching the football match between tottenham and some other club on star sports. It was a good game. Totenham were trailing 3-4 and in the last minute of the extra time they managed to sneak in a goal. That match was the perfect icing to the night. I went back to my dream world however I set an alarm for the morning as I didn’t wanna waste time sleeping like the previous morning and we had work to do.

Part 4: Heaven

Monday 1st Oct’07: So we were all awake by 9. We went to a place which was like a 15 minutes walk. We ordered some breakfast. One thing I noticed here contrary to Mumbai was that alcohol and food was cheaper but breakfast was costlier. We all ordered masala omelets for 50 each. Costliest omelets of our lives. But it was served very well and the money we spend on it was very much worth it. Later after reaching home Rohit and I left for burning all images I had into a cd. That consumed a lot of our time and by the time we were back home it was almost 130-2. we took bath and headed out. The plan was to get to arambol that day. We had wasted a considerable amount of time at our place and the plan looked in a jeopardy once more. However we were not sure how long its gonna take us. We decided we will have lunch once we reach arambol. We reched mapusa around 3. From there we took the Arambol bus. We reached there around 430 and the last bus back from there was of 630. after getting down at the stop we realized that we had to walk another half km to reach the beach. This was just adding to our frustration. We reached the beach by 5. We knew we had to leave from there by 545 if we had any chance of getting back to our place that night. Else we would have to pay some hefty some to the taxi waala and that wouldn’t be less than 400-500 since we were at a far off place. We hung out at the beach. The sand there was lovely.

This beach had some fond memories and I remembered coming here twice before. Here was the first time when I had seen a nude foreign chick in front of me and it had repeated on both occasions I had visited. However this time it seemed unlikely esp coz there was not much sun around and also the crowd was more Indian than alien. We walked the whole length of the beach and had some nice photo shoots on the rocks. However due to shortage of time we couldn’t go to the sweet water lake on the other end of the beach. It was 545 and we had to move back. We reached to the stop around 615. we had eaten only some biscuits and had some cold drinks for lunch. So we were eager to get back to our place for dinner. On the return journey I recollected the previous 2 encounters of mine to arambol and was listening to the mp3. things hadn’t worked out very well that day. We spend 3 hours in traveling and only 1 hour on the beach. We missed the bikes since pawan wasn’t there that day. He had office, it being a Monday. we met him at calangute. We headed to baga and and had dinner at a restaurant on the beach. There was some fire lit around that area and we clicked some snaps around it. They came out well showcasing my tattoo very nicely J. Later I had chicken fried rice with vijay and the veggies had some hakka noodles. We were still hungry since we hadn’t had lunch that day. We wanted to eat the tandoori again. I and vijay went and ordered one for ourselves and these guys got some veggie stuff and beers. We sat there on the beach and ate to our hearts content. Soon there was an army of dogs around us and we feared they might attack our food. But they were quite obedient and waited till we threw the bones at them. We were done with our beer and food stuffs and moved our asses from there. It was very tough to get alcohol that time since 12’o clock was approaching and the next day was Gandhi jayanti which as we all know is a dry day. We headed to our rooms. Pawan was too tired and wanted to get back to his place to sleep. He wasn’t feeling very well either. So Rohit, vijay and me moved to the same place where we had lunch on our very first day. This was our last night in Goa and we had to sleep late and enjoy the night to the max. We ordered some beer from the restaurant. Since it was far from the main land there was no police threat over here and this place was still open. All the other bars had closed down. We still had some vodka remaining of the first day. We got that and some sprite and beer and we drank. We spoke about our time in goa, the fun we had, our past lives, how often we should visit this place etc. We were already starting to miss the place already. The alcohol was over long ago but we didn’t wanna go. This view, I don’t know when I will get to have again. Vijay insisted we move back to our rooms since we had to move early the next morning. He finally made some sense. We were cursing Mahatma Gandhi for screwing up that night. Coz of his birthday all shops and parlors were closed. But it was also true that we had planned this trip taking his birthday into account since that gave us a liberty of an extra holiday J. We moved to our rooms. Did some packing in the night itself. I closed the doors of our balcony saying aloud good night Goa. Our adventures in Goa had come to an end….well almost….
Part 5: The end of the Beginning

Tuesday 02 October’ 07: We woke up by 8 the next morning and showered. Pawan and Rohit took the bikes and made the payments. Rohit got some breakfast for us. Masala dosa. That was the only thing that I was yet to eat in Goa. We ate and packed our luggage. I bid bye to pawan. The guy was great and helped us immensely. Would surely meet him again. One final check and I left the room. It was slightly emotional though bizarre since I had spent only 4 days and 3 nights in this place. Yeah but it was great. Loads of luggage to carry back and some shopping to be taken care off. We had to move to Panjim. That’s where our bus was supposed to arrive. We got a call from the tourism guy claiming that the bus had broken down. I was damn sure he had given the tickets to someone else and this would really land us up in a mess. We took a panjim bus. There was some babe standing next to vijay while vijay was sitting. They had some body contact and vijay was enjoying his ride. Rohit was also seated and was comfortable. I was the lone warrior standing amidst the crowd and was having a tough time. Good thing the luggage was kept in the drivers bunker. We got down at panjim and had some juices. I was scared of running into dehydration. We found the tourism outlet. It was called goa tours and travels. The guy told us the bus had broken down and we would have to go by some evening bus. That really pissed us off since we had to attend office next morning and taking the evening bus only meant that we would reach Bombay not before 10 the next day. DAMN!!!! We finally came to a settlement of taking the 630 bus in the evening from the panjim bus stand. He did not charge extra money to us which was good for him. Coz else that place would have become a wreck. There was a cricket match going around in his place and we could clearly see that India was looking down the barrel against Australia. Well no surprises. The kangaroos were wounded and were out here to prove their point. We decided since we have another 4 hours at hand we could do some shopping and traveling. We got some cashew nuts and kokum syrups. We then had lunch at a veg restaurant. Did not have many options so we had Chinese once again. This was the first time where I saw water being served in a restaurant. Else wherever we went we had to ask for water specifically. Alcohol was cheaper than water in Goa. We ate and left for Miramar beach. This was the place I had been to 4 years before. I could recollect all the places. It was nostalgic. I had lived here for a week. Miramar as I knew is a hopeless beach. It is wide and long and has a lot of sand. We didn’t waste much time there. We came out and took a ric and then headed to donna paula point. It’s a tourist point and we assumed there will be some crowd here and we were right. There was good crowd. Only Indians but some real hot chicks were around. We hung around there and did some photo shoots. It was 430 and the guy had told us to be there by 630 for the bus. So we headed back. Took a bus to panjim and got down. We could see the ferry there. It looked lovely. We headed to the tourism shop and picked up our luggage and headed back to the bus stand. It was a tough job taking so much luggage at once. Now the luggage was even heavier than morning, there were 2kg cashews in it now. We reached the stand around 6PM. We went and put luggage in the bus and sat on our seats. Later we realized that the bus was gonna move at 730. Oh mannn…this was not my best of days in Goa. I didn’t wanna leave but this prolonging of departure was just making it tougher. While writing this I realize why I was so disappointed and mad on the last day. Just for that fact that I was heading back home…to the REAL world. Finally the bus moved at 730. by 8 it was at mapusa and some crowd got in from there. The bus guy started a movie - partner. I was glad that they are showing a movie I haven’t seen. Spoken to soon.. The movie was a disaster. Describing it as ‘pathetic’ would be a compliment to the movie. Luckily my mp3 player still had some charge in it. I started it and went to sleep. I woke up and realized the movie was just about to end. I needed to pee badly but was waiting for the bus to take a halt somewhere but it wasn’t. Finally I decided ill drink all the water in the mineral water bottle I was carrying and pee in it and throw it off. I drank the water and unzipped my jeans. When I placed my tip on it I realized if I let out the shower could go anywhere. Firstly as it was dark I didn’t know if my thing was pointing in the right direction. Secondly the lid of the bottle was so small that I was sure it would have created a huge mess and would awake Vijay, who was sleeping right there. I threw the bottle away so that no one tries to drink, what little water was left in it, accidentally. Soon the bus came to a stop and we were said that have your dinner in half an hour and be back. The first thing that I did was emptied my tank in the near by jungle. Oh yeah that’s the best feeling. It took me around 2 minutes to empty my tank. The place where we were gonna eat was a royal mess. You were supposed to buy coupons and give them at the counters and they would give you the dinner in plates. I somehow managed to get biryani for myself. Vijay, Rohit and me ate and laughed all the while looking at the service of that place. We moved back in the bus. It started and as usual went at its slow pace. The other buses were only over taking us. We were the slowest bus that night. Vijay and I were laughing on some jokes of our own. Finally both of us went off to sleep. I should say that was one of the most comfortable sleeps that I have had during my journey from one place to another. I woke up and it was morning. We had not entered Mumbai yet. We stopped somewhere for break fast. Again the place was pretty forgettable. We finally made it to Vashi and then Mumbai. We went via reclamation, took the highway and people started getting down at regular intervals. Rohit got down at kandivali. Vijay and I got down at pai nagar. Right from the place where it had all started. I took a rick and headed home. I was glad I was back but a part of me wanted to stay back in goa. I was totally in love with that place and my independent life out there. I reached home. Bro and bhabhi were there. Mom had gone out somewhere. I unpacked my stuff. I still had the ‘medical stuff’ in my bag. I kept them safely. I took bath and went off to sleep. I was sick partly coz of the cold I was carrying and partly coz of my return.
I have been to Goa thrice now and you just can’t get enough of this place. First visit was memorable, the second was unforgettable and the third was incomplete…ill be back