Goan Diary - I

Life’s been a roller coaster these past few weeks…..wood polish not withstanding!! I think my entire set of friends, acquaintances and anyone else that’s been in contact with me in the past few weeks have gotten a dose of this!!

Amma’s 70^th was on the 23^rd of sept…..instead of doing the thanksgiving prayer meeting followed by a meal with the multitude of people that we’re related to, we decided to go on a family holiday….. when I sounded the idea off my brother, he was maha excited……he would be anyways, because this means, he gets to drive the hundreds of kilometers to and from our chosen destination!! That gets him higher than any kind of intoxicant…..plans were made and off we went…..

Oh but pending the trip, we tried to hasten the work going on at home for the library……we needn’t have bothered anyways….since it didn’t get done…… we tried our damnest best though…staying up the morning of our 8 a.m flight to Bangalore…..all we ended up with, was a messy house, furniture covered with sheets and the strongest smell of wood polish…..making eyes water and the nose burn!!

After just a day in bangalore, the entire gumbal, with enough luggage to keep us well taken care of for the rest of the year, we set off to goa……

The drive….was beautiful….. we took the route that goes to goa via karwar…… the rains really wash the earth and the weeks that follow cover her with the most beautiful shades of green…..the foliage as you drive through, is all green….. different shades…..all of it so beautiful that you catch your breath and forget to breath at times…..whats more? It even makes you forget the bad patches of road……we drove past paddy fields, corn fields, sunflowers and jowar and bajra…..the lakes, ponds and puddles of water full of lilies….some in bloom, the others waiting to get to the party…..butterflies everywhere…any shade you can think of and of so many sizes……living in the city, I can’t remember the last time I saw so many butterflies….and from so close….but the way they flit from flower to flower, I couldn’t get any pictures…..ferns and tall grasses make an appearance as you drive climbing the western ghats……rivulets and tiny water falls from secret water sources……the fifteen hour journey didn’t seem long…..more so because all of us were excitedly looking forward to the holiday…. When we finally got to the arch that welcomed us to goa, we were so ecstatic…..