I had to finish one document, change the status of a few bugs and finally have to catch 22:40 train to GOA. Thankfully Thursday evening didn’t screw me. I finished my works by 6:30 and ran to my room, it was all set to go, I finished my packing the day before itself. Now all I have to do is bath and change my outlook from a business formal to a very casual one. At last the time has come, I waited more than 60 days for this train. Arun.D, Rohit and Kashyap joined me in next few hours and we started off to South railway station. Damn!! it’s raining and cochin traffic is in slow pace, it took more than an hour to travel 10kms. Met Cijo and harish at the station, finished dinner before boarding the train.Train came at 22:50, and we were searching for B5 compartment and we heard some familiar noises from behind, purushu, arun.M came out of B5, poops was playing cards with another unexpected guy, Arun Jose, our College union chairman he was on the way to uduppi with some of his friends. Train started in 3-4 minutes and rajadhani gave a swift and comfortable journey. There was one poor guy going to baroda sitting near to our seats. Poor chap I don’t think he slept well. Till 12:30 or so we were talking, sharing the lighter moments, it was almost like college days.
Meanwhile there was one guy who has to board the very same train, he has to reach mangalore before 6 in the morning to catch rajadhani. At 1am he was waiting at Kannur railway station to catch a local train which in no case will reach mangalore before 6. A few phone calls, dhoda hindi and a couple of hundred rupee notes worked well. We set an alarm and woke up at 4 to welcome darsan. From kannur till mangalore dars travelled without a ticket. I was not sure when I thought about the very idea of GoGoa that it will work out. But Friday morning I realized it’s not a dream, we reached MAO, that’s what IRCTC calls MADGAON. Two prepaid taxis took us to calangute. Five out of Seven people who were supposed to find accommodation by the time we reach calangute where stuck in a bus somewhere between Bangalore and goa. And the other two were tired searching for a decent as well as cheap accommodation.
OOPPHH!!!...as soon as we reached calangute and got out of taxi, 6 people went straight to a wine shop. I couldn’t join them without finding a place to keep my bag. So A.M, C, D & myself started walking in search of accommodation and we reached calangute beach. OMG its beautiful with plenty of ladies with and without bikinis. Just like Mr.Mike(a guy from Washington whom we met on our second day at goa) said “At times I feel like home at goa ”, we also felt we are in U.S , where nobody will staring at a girl except people like us. We continued our walk and reached the other end of the beach where we met the other 7- hari, shefy, PC, kullan, george, Kunukks, and siva . It was around 2 pm and I had a feeling we are not going to find a place so that all of us can stay together, but thankfully we found a place.
All of us where terribly hungry by the time we offloaded our luggage. I ran to a wine shop grabbed a pint beer for rs35/- and sat at beach side restaurant, ordered a prawn’s biriyani. When it came I realized two things; 1- food is very tasty at goa 2-costly as well. We spend the whole evening drinking and playing kabaddi at beach. Sadly kullan lost his mobile in the sand. Cheers to kullan he was not at all sad or moody. Hari was terribly disappointed when he lost to our team-lg,ga,kullan,d,c,siv. With our special skill we won the beach kabaddi series 3-0. That evening captain shm,gh,jp,vp & sd challenged us for a kabaddi match at baga beach, thankfully it didn’t happen. I forgot to mention about the referee, rsv - poor chap; I kicked his butt a hundred times atleast.
While all these masti was happening two people(pc,kpm) were sitting in a couch in the beach guarding our watches, chappals, underwears etc. They were not even slightly bothered about what we were playing, only thing they were concerned was the increase in the count of beer bottles beneath their couches. A mishap occurred, hg got his finger twisted and swollen, so we stopped playing and few of us left the beach and went room. We ordered for some food and waited. Somebody told me pc,shm & hg went to meet a doctor, so we finished our dinner and started roaming here and there, somebody told us there is good disco nearby. We set off searching for that and walked almost 3-4 kms, when 2 of us were about to enter the disc , I heard some fucks and sucks in my mother tongue and turned around to see a bunch of guys angry about the condition of the disco and warned us not to enter. They helped us save at least a 5000 Indian bugs!!!! I whole heartedly thank those strangers in this occasion on behalf of the entire group, as its bit painful to give away our own hard earned money opposite to parent’s money, which we used to spent without second thoughts during college days.
Tired of that long walk we entered a wine shop, tested a new combination Bacardi lemon plus Bacardi breezer. Some other tests were goan feni and sprite, tequila shot etc…As soon as we were planning to venture out from that wine shop, I got a call , it echoed some panic-“HG missing”. Oh shit he is the one man who is still young and crazy and we are jealous of him ofcourse, but trust me that’s all part of his acting. He is missing means it’s a serious issue, 16 people started searching here and there, when we found hg with jp and sd, it was a scene, his eyes where swollen crying. He was murmuring something like its all done, I miss college, miss you guys etc…I can’t recollect all of those but I bet some others can. From there a procession of around 12-15, (I don’t know the exact count) went to beach again. By the time we reached the beach few of us turned to perfect snakes. By 1am we left the beach in pairs so that we can complement each other while crawling.
Saturday morning I saw a swollen face, when I looked in the mirror. It was because most of us woke up at 10. My face and few other faces were swollen not because of over booze but due jealousy. Some of us woke late than others and we are waiting for them. It reminded me of college; wherever we go we will go together only. It seems last few years had made some changes, most of us are impatient now (impatient: - can’t wait anymore to join for a master’s degree or a new job with better pay or to find our better half ;-) ), at least I am.
To be frank we learned the exact meaning of the word “planning” during our GoGOA. Every morning we will ask each other where we are going today. Hopefully next GoX(where X will be mostly DELHI) won’t witness any such flaws, tour coordinators please note. I am done here, writing is a tedious job.
