The GOA diary..Part 3

On Day 3, we woke up at 7am while we slept at 4am. Just 3 hrs of sleep per day over the last 3 days still everybody was so excited to explore this fun place. None of us had a bath and got set to visit the far off beach called Anjuna near Panjim. I and Santosh were lost while 6 of them reached the beach having fun enjoying the fishes and crabs on the beach.

Had a lot of fun, saw few Russians enjoying the beach. People had lot of fun in the big waves throwing them towards he shore. Came home..got ready for the beach again for some food and fun.

This time I and Santosh did the para sailing sport. Feels like a bird flying up in the air where you can see nothing but just the calm ocean. An amazing view..wish I could capture it.

Others at the beach were enjoying drinks and weather. I had to rush to the doctor to take care of my bruised knee.

And with this, the clock ticked 5 and all of us had to rush for Panjim where this beautiful journey to Goa had to end. All of us were really happy to spend this fun time together including some strangers, some annoying ones and some funny ones.

I felt like mom of 7 kids sparing the change each time we had to spend on something as I was the accountant for the trip.

Goa is a beautiful and fun place to visit but what made it more memorable was my group of friends without whom this journey would not have been so much fun and exciting.

On the way back..everybody had this one question. Which is 1 thing which you will always memorize about Goa..and to our surprise..the answer was same for all the 8 people..THE BANANA BOAT RIDE :)

So here I am signing off with lots of memories of Goa..some funny, some silly moments, gossip sessions, amazing night outs, fun at the disc, truth and dare at the beach, bike rides, leg pulling, weight lifting and last but not the least which everybody brought with them..The sun tan :)

The GOA diary..Part 2

Day 2 begun with the maggi breakfast and our plans to visit the Dil Chahta Hai fort and water sports in the evening. Thankfully we had some plans in the mind unlike day 1 which was wasted in running bikes and the guys who were excited to ride them before coming to Goa pleading before girls to ride :D

Himanshu got sick for some unknown reasons and decided to stay at home and rest 7 of us started off for the Chapora fort. It was very hot at 1pm and the most difficult part was to climb up in the sun. We reached on the top and our tiredness was taken away by the breathtaking views of the beaches and the landscape. Gave innumerable poses and started to descend. The route was full of mud and rocks. I was teaching the girls how to get down as I was quite an expert with my previous experiences of climbing the forts. After 2-3 min, I fell down and hurt my knees. Had no time to visit a doc so dettol and all set for water sports

We had a lovely lunch on the beach and headed for some water sports like banana boat and bumpy boat ride.

A lot has been heard about the banana boat ride in the past and none of us were fully aware what will happen to us. After the bumpy ride in pairs, all of us started playing in water. Then comes the time for the banana boat ride. 7 of us have to balance ourselves on the boat that we don't fell into the water. It was around 1 km into the sea when boat got hit with a wave and all of us went down into the water. I tried opening my eyes and saw all green color inside the water. Was floating and couldn't find even a single thing other than the deep blue sea spread over I don't know whom to catch hold off to survive as none of us had known swimming. We have to swim for the boat, turn it around, get everybody up on the boat to start off for shore. During this process, the guys had to do heavy weight lifting to get one of the girls up on the boat..lolz. All of us thanked God that we were up on the boat and within few seconds, the boat again turned around. This time everybody lost the patience to repeat the process as they have to do weight lifting the second time. Thus, all of us got up again on the boat and reached the shore by chanting 100s of verses "jai shri krishna".."wahe guru". The most awesome experience of my life till date :D

We had the night out again this time in disc with some of the awesome people in Goa and then passed a few hours post that at the beach. The day 2 ended at 4am with a plan to get up at 7am the next day to visit few of the unexplored beaches in Goa.

The GOA diary..Part 1

The idea of this journey was conceived at Marine drive when 4 of us..Akash, Prashant Santosh and I were out to have fun. We thought lets go somewhere together and decided for Goa!!

We had an extended weekend and all were set to plan this trip. So many days we kept on planning, planning and planning still nothing happened. This planning included the session of staying awake the whole night on Prashant's b'day and going to the tatkal ticket counter to get a reserved ticket to Goa. Even after reaching the window at 4am..couldn't get the confirmed ticket..reasons..Mr Prashant will depict :D

So now all eyes on the expensive bus tickets and luckily we got them. The journey started off at 6pm on 4th Nov 2011 when 6 of us-Prashant, Santosh, Vinita, Himanshu, Jyoti and I have to board the bus from Sion. Full time we played dumb charades with some really funny and unknown movie names guessing game. The bus driver gave us the irritating and tiring though funny roller coaster ride to Goa.

Reached Mapusa at 8.30 am and decided to proceed for Baga beach area where we can find a place to stay and wait for Rashmi and Akash to come. We looked for 2-3 flats here and there and closed on one which was supposed to get free at 10.30 am. Now we had almost 1.5 hrs but nothing to do. Guys were dying to hire the bike and girls were worried about spending their time and place to keep the luggage. It was just 15 min to 10.30 left when Prashant said..lets keep our stuff somewhere here and hit the beach. All were on the bikes and within 20 min were back to the place where we started as all were unprepared to have fun.

Went to the flat, got ready and started off at around 1pm for old Goa this time to see some churches, markets etc. With the unprepared itinerary and lots of confusion, we rode approx 50 kms both sides to visit a church which nobody was interested in except Akash and Rashmi.

This state is very different from other states of India. It has a flavor of Portuguese culture with a mixture of Indian taste.

All were shattered as 1 out of 3 days was wasted and we couldn't get a bit of fun except riding bikes for no reason. Then to our wonder the fun time started off. We got to eat at river side restaurant with so much of leg pulling of Santosh for some secret reasons, complains and threats to me by Himanshu, gossips, photography sessions and good food.

Started off for home to change and hit the beach for night out. Vinita and Jyoti were too tired for the night out so decided to stay at home. Rest of us headed for the Baga beach with vodkas, juices, breezers etc in our hands. Had lots of fun there..truth and dare, photos, poses, gossips, heart breaking of Himanshu and Prashant was memorable.

On our way back, we all discovered the number of people found on the Tito's lane at 3am were more than we found in entire Goa during the day. Seems like this city never sleeps. Wanted to roam more but too tired for all this and more in a day. Here comes the end of Day 1 at Goa.

Night at the airport

It was during the Diwali vacations in the year 2011, when I was hoping to get my train tickets confirmed. When I saw no hopes for the same, I decided to book the flight the prices of which were sky rocketing to Rs 12K one way.Luckily I got the ticket for mere Rs 3000..yipeee!!!
Well there was a catch to this blessing..I discovered that it was the last flight from Mumbai to Delhi arriving at 1 am. Was thinking if it would be better for a girl to go back home alone at the middle of the night as my dad couldn't come on account of heavy work load he has been going through the season.

So I decided to stay back overnight..I was hoping that the flight get delayed but in vain.It was 12:40am when the plane landed in Delhi..it landed before time!!
I was amazed to see the terminal 3 at the IGI airport, was memorizing the Heathrow airport at London. I was walking slowly to waste time there. Luckily I had some stuff with me to pass time like magazine, a Chetan Bhagat's novel and some eatables to munch the whole night and keep myself awake.

My eyes were searching for a place to sit and I found near the conveyor belt. Few benches were there and quite a few people sitting there. I was trying to read their faces if they are the ones trying to spend those 4-5 hrs with me and let the dawn break or waiting for someone to receive them. Many of them started sleeping while seated, some using their laptops and few of them kept bag on their heads and lied down on their benches..a typical railway station scene...lol

I started talking to few people around and tried to read that Chetan Bhagat's book..but just 1 hour has passed. Walked few steps here and there and munched snacks to keep myself awake. Thanks to dad and a friend of mine who kept on calling to know how am I holding myself up the whole night :)
There I met a girl who was from Raipur and also was waiting like me to take up a morning train to Rajasthan. We talked for the last 1-1.5 hr of my stay..she took away the boredom to make that night enjoyable for me :)
Clocked ticked 5 am and I decided to start off after saying good bye to the fellow passengers. I was amazed again with the Volvo bus service from Delhi airport to the city like the one at Bangalore. I had slept many a times during my journey but kept myself awake so that I don't miss my stop. Took the bus and reached home after almost 1.5 hrs. At home I slept at home the whole day multiple times to catch up with that night's sleep :)
It was tiring yet enjoyable night at the Delhi airport..will always remember the Diwali of 2011 :)

A tryst with Sourav Ganguly

My favourite cricketer..Sourav Ganguly. I had liked him the time I was 8 yrs old, seen him through the generations of being the captain of Indian cricket team to not being sold at IPL. I like the aggression he has to achieve something.

With the virtue of I being appointed in a marketing company and by God's grace they had planned to launch a hair dye in the market after a long held time gap of 1 yr..and in the whole world,they took my favourite cricketer as the brand ambassador

Happy!!!...super happy..10 times a day I used to ask my boss.."Sir am I invited in the launch" to which he always said "Yes"..the big "Yes".. :)

Here comes the happiness part 1..

On 27th Sep 2011, the D-day had come and I was dressed up neatly in formal to meet my hero at Sea princess, Juhu. It was all hussle bustle around as people were gathering up for the launch event after their morning tea and biscuits. I was also having a look at the hotel that the elevator opened and here comes the superstar and my heart skipped a beat.

He was very tall, handsome having a pleasant personality. I realized that he is not at all photogenic..he looks 100 times better on reality than on camera

Our ambassy has to go for the commercial shoot after the event..I asked my boss "Sir can I come to watch the shoot" and my boss said "han chalo"..I can't explain how happy I was to hear those golden words...this was happiness part 2.. I am going to see a shoot for the first time and that too with a celebrity..yay!!!

I cant imagine how these media guys make a very boring garden out of grass set so beautifully green and a hot sunny afternoon to a nice breezy dawn. All I could see was Ganguly there and could hear was mic on,camera rolling , set lock, take 6/1 and action.Ganguly took almost 15-16 takes for a simple sentence like "Kyun..bhula di na jawani"..lol

Then it started feeling bored with the monotony of the shoot and I decided to move out of the place. Then I thought that I wont go before taking a photograph with him.I was running around my boss to get a picture clicked with him. Dada was free after his shoot when people started surrounding him to get clicked and autographed. My boss called me and told him "iske saath photo khinchwa lo..subah se peeche padi hai mere"..to which dada said.."han han zarur..aapke sath bhi khichwayenge"..and I was on the 7th sky :)

Then comes the happiness part 3..

My boss asked me to drop Sourav in his Mercedes to JW Mariott hotel back from the location. I couldn't believe I am sitting with him. Though I realized that he is very reserved by nature, we shared a few talks and while parting..he said "will meet you tomorrow at 10am for the still shoot..".I couldn't believe my ears that I am personally talking to my favourite celebrity and then I came back home.

I was full on under the hangover of him for atleast 3 days where everything I could see, hear or talk about was him..

No matter how much I hate this city but the experiences I gather everyday here are awesome be it work, life or entertainment. Now I am feeling somehow while leaving this place I might say "Will miss you Mumbai" :)