Xaqo's Blog

Found some old thoughts that i had penned down earlier. Re-posting them here:

Sitting in a heavily packed local Bus, Master Jojo was comfortably taking his afternoon nap. The bald uncle sitting next to him was giving Master Jojo cold stares. The Bald uncle could not for the life of him understand, that how could a person sleep so peacefully in this hell of a transportation, with all this heat & stench of human sweat! Little did he know the reason for Master Jojo's carefree & content attitude. Master Jojo was on his way to a motorbike showroom in Bandra, to pick up his brand new motorcycle. He knew that this Bus ride could very well be one of his last uncomfortable & cramped ride for a long long time. He was dreaming away of soaring on his new bike on empty roads, with a cool breeze hitting on his face. Suddenly a gust of wind hit his face so hard, that it actually hurt. Master Jojo cringed & opened his eyes, just to realize that the powerful gust of wind was some anonymous elbow from the crowded Bus, that had by mistake poked into his face. Master Jojo looked suspiciously around him, only to find Mr. Bald Uncle staring at him angrily, as if he himself had nudged the uncle with his elbow. Master Jojo just rolled his eyes & got comfortable in his seat again, but now that his peaceful slumber was broken, he couldn't sleep anymore. So he decided to listen to some music to pass the time. He removed his Mp3 player from his bag & put-on the headphones. The CD in the Mp3 player happened to be a 'Best of The Beatles' compilation given to him as a gift by his good friend 'Xaqo'. A beautiful song started playing in Master Jojo's ears & again he was taken back to that dream, where he was soaring on his bike. The song was called 'Lucy in the sky with diamonds'....
It went something like this:


Soon Master Jojo reached his destination bus stop. He nimbly got down & started walking towards the shop. He had a smile on his face, & the Beatles chartbuster number was still playing in his head. As he entered the bike shop, his eyes fell upon a shining brand new '350 cc Bullet Machismo' standing in the centre of the shop. His joy knew no bounds when the owner of the shop informed him that the shining bike was indeed his own new bike. Master Jojo at that very instant decided to name his new bike, & the only name that he could think off at that moment was......"LUCY".
to be continued....

Exams were over, needed a nice retreat, & what better place than Goa.

Day:25th may

Myself (i.e. "Xaqo"), Aditya & Clifford assembled at the Dhobi talao bus stand at 1:30PM, soon to be joined by Andre with his two huge bags & a packet of eatables for all of us(loulee). We board the bus by 2:00, but get down again coz we have two surprise visitors to see us off. Parvez & Malik(how sweet of them).

The bus starts moving & the Adventure begins.
The Bus journey was pretty smooth, with extravagant konkani songs playing in the background. A movie was shown in the evening, viz. "Jo bole so nihaal", at the end of which i kept wondering for hours as to who was the bigger idiot - the maker of the movie, the audience who encourages such movies, or "me" for having seen the whole movie when i could easily have just slept through it. There was a nice long break for dinner at a USELASS restaurant where they gave us stale dosa's for 30 bucks each & spoilt chhaas for which i dint pay them. The night ride was peaceful with andre & me sleeping all over each other. And finally early morning 6:30 we reached "Cairo Nagar" i.e. Andre's house safe n sound, also more importantly without any puking occurances.

Day:26th may

Andre's parents welcomed us with a nice (& much needed) breakfast. Clifford's house, where we were going to camp was just 2 minutes from Andre's place i.e. "Cruz Nagar" & cliffy never knew about it. After breakfast we went to cliffy's place, which was called "Pereira Apartments", next to which there was a big advertisement of "Sharon Plywood" with a sub-heading "Strong to the core". Cant say why, but all this badly reminded me of someone(strange!!??!!), Cant figure who it could be...

Once our accomodation was dealt with, the next thing was to arrange for a means of transport. We set out for Margao market in search of bikes. After much bargaining we managed to secure two "Hero honda Passion plus" bikes for Rs. 200 each per day(along with a helmet free). With shelter,transport & money in our pockets, we were now totally set to take-on Goa(& all that it had to give)!!

Andre's mom had invited us for lunch. There was gonna be chicken for lunch so me & andre went off to buy some chicken while cliffy & adi were cleaning our abode. Saw some merciless beheadings there with bloody feathers all over the place, quite a gruesome but interesting sight i must say.
All of us agreed for a round of chilled beers before lunch, so we set out for a small bar slightly away from andre's house. After downing the beers , I took it upon myself to teach adi to ride the bike. Thus began adi's struggle(which lasted throughout the trip). Numerous attempts later which included a full-on, breath-taking wheely, he managed to ride it in the first gear.

Andre's mom's lunch was really super, with chicken curry, fried fish, cauliflower, rice & a drink called "sha" to wash it all down. After lunch we went to our abode for some rest. Cliffy produced some old stereo of his on which Goa FM was playing konkani numbers again. The boys went to sleep immedietly. As for me , i couldnt get sleep for some reason. The weather outside was nice & cool, so i took the bike keys & went off for a long long ride alone into the small, endless lanes of Goa. Tall trees on both sides, lovely breeze, the smell of the sea, ah bliss. Alas ultimately i lost my way & had to ask many a people for directions before i could find the Pereira apartments again.

Andre had gone to his cousin's place in the noon & got back a football along with him. So that was it, the plan for the evening was set - Football at the beach followed by a swim in the arabian sea! Out with the bikes, 15 mins. full speed ride to Colva beach. Played football two on two (me & cliffy VS andre & adi). The outcome of the match still remains undecided. We were joined by two more boys later who played quite well, but not as well as our good old friend andre.
Back home after the tiring game we were fresh again with the help of a quick shower. On consulting with Andre's dad we decided to go to another beach viz. "Benaulim" for dinner.
Another 20 mins. bike ride took us to this amazing place at Benaulim called Johncy's.
Johncy's was a strung- out at the beach with super comfy wicker cane chairs put up in the sand. Beautiful ambeince, lights, music, et al. We ordered for a round of beers along with some crispy "calamarie"(squid) to munch with, follwed by a main course meal & some wierd named but amazing cocktail's like Lady in red, black russian, hard rock, arabian fantasy, goenkar's delight, gimlet, zombie, etc & a mocktail called "Pussy foot" for adi,since he does not indulge in any kind of alcohol(hats off to adi), who after much consideration did not opt for it. The moods were high at johncy's & the conversation landed at our 3 "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" years in st.andrews college. We talked about the old times & all the loulee people of our class. A long walk at the beach followed the dinner. The time was around 2:00A.M. - time to go home. The ride back home was also pleasant, all of us cruising at a slow speed in the dark , singing songs aloud, the most repeated song being "more than words".
Home Safely.
Sleep. Zzzzz

Day:27th may

Morning Got up late by 9:30. Cliffy got up early & made tea for us & also got breakfast for us, bun pav, butter, etc.
Breakfast, toilet, bath, fresh, ready to go!
Our next point was the "Palolem" beach, one of the cleanest Goan beaches. It was a 30 min long ride from cruz nagar. This was in the opposite direction from the margao market circle. The beach as promised was clean & quite empty with only bikini clad foreign chicks lazing around. A game of football for us & into the cool sea. We rented a small proxy surf board for one hour. Some real good fun trying to battle it out with the huge waves. Famished, hungry, but satisfied we return to Margao for lunch. Lunch was at Salcette bar, the usual rounds of beer & typical goan food including beef chilly fry, pork vindaloo,croquette's, etc.
After lunch Andre suggested a nice place i.e. an old church on a high hill. The bikes just barely made it up there on account of the steep slope. But the place made up for it. Serene & calm location, many kites soaring & circling quite low,with a beautiful view of south Goa & all it's churches, steeples, villa's & a stadium too. Here is where Adi finally got a hang of riding the bike at different gears after much practice & my priceless coaching of course.
Return home, the usual round of showers plus extra shampoo & conditioner for me. We discuss the plan for night & a unanimous decision is reached. Ice creams at Baskin Robins. Hurrayy!
Ice creams are gulped down at baskin robins & then we reach Colva beach again. Here we had running races at the beach in the night. While returning we saw some school function was going on & some kids were performing a play. We parked our bikes & jumped inside. The function concluded with a group song sung by the kids in konkani which i tried to learn very hard but forgot now. Again on our way back we halted at the Rosary School Church grounds where a lot of people had assembled. It was an all Goa volleyBall Tournament. So we parked our bikes again & saw one match. It was the local Goa team Vs the Army boys. The Army team made mince meat out of the opponents by showing some quality volleyBall like i had never seen before. The finals were the next day between the Army & the Goa Police which we made a decision to surely watch. Finally back home late at night cliffy & adi dozed off immedietly, while myself & andre had a nice long chat & songs session over an entire bottle of Goan Urak & some Christian Rum. Eventually Zzzzz.

Day:28th may

We get up early morning & leave for a long ride to mapusa. The plan was to meet kevin at his place & also Dany if he called up. But on reaching Mapusa after a long long long ride we found that kevin had not reached yet. Also there was no contact of Dany so far too. So we set out again for another point viz. Fort Aguada. This was another nice place where we explored every corner, also climbed upon dangerous looking places(the monkeys that we are).
The next halt after Fort Aguada was the famous Calangute Beach. Here we met our old andrews college friend Wilson. We found some cool shack at the beach, got comfortable with another round of beers.
There were exciting water sports like Para-Sailing & Jet-Skiing at the calangute beach. The para-sailing was way too expensive(800 bucks), so we went for Jet-Skiing(200 bucks). I really loved the ride also cliffy & adi liked it. Andre somehow dint enjoy it that much.
We got wet again at the beach so myself & andre were riding the bikes shirt-less. It was an amazingly long & nice ride back but on the way we forgot to wear the helmets on the highway. Riding at top speeds without shirts & without helmets, we were surely gonna be stopped by cops, & guess what, we were. They took our license & were asking for 2000 bucks penalty. But hey, we were bombay boys, so were used to all this right! we gave the officer a 100 rupee note & walked off(as usual.................... & then we give talks about other stupid people indulging in & encouraging corruption).
On the way we halt at another church. This is the only modern church that i saw in Goa & the interiors were different than the other old Goan churches.
It's early evening time. We pick up lots of groceries from the local supermarket like cheese, butter, ghee, pork salami, bread, etc. Go home & cook eggs & cheese n Ham sandwiches. Delicious. Again night ride to Colva where we meet cliffords two friends Hansel & his small, cute brother Abraham(Ebu). From Colva to Benaulim, more cocktails,& some more cocktails & then homeward bound. On the way back we see this shop named "Same Same But Different".We are surprised, amazed & tickled all at once. I take a snap of this spectacle & turn around to see the reason for the name. There's another shop opposite which has a name "It's different". Well these are crazy competetive times i must say!
Superb VolleyBall match between Army & Goa Police. Tough fight, but the Army emerge as champions.
Meanwhile Dany calls & says that he'll be coming to our abode the next morning & also Kevin calls saying that he has taken a halt at some place because of his dad's back problem so he wont be able to come the next day.
Home. Zzzzzzzzzz.

Day:29th may

Get up early, breakfast, laze around waiting for Dany & his friends. Dany shows up by 10:00. He's welcomed by us to our place with a couple of pegs of Urak. His friends are Ryan & Joel both of whom i knew previously. We go to the market to get 2 more bikes for ours friends. So now we have 4 bikes in all & 7 people staying at pereira apartments.
We take our friends exploring & riding. Only Ryan knew how to ride , so i & cliffy had to ride their bikes too. Slowly Dany started getting a hang of it but not before he missed banging some foreigners & crashing into a bus.
Now since we were many of us, we decided to have a proper football match again at the beach. Out with the 4 bikes & Vrroom Vroom to Colva beach. There we called Hansel & Ebu to join us. Also at the beach 2 more local boys asked us if they could join us. The match began & we thoroughly enjoyed it. Exhausted, hungry, hot, only way to escape was the cool water of the sea. I dont know from where we got so much energy again, but we played , ran , swam in the water for a full 3 hours before we decided to call it a day & returned back to margao for lunch.
Here we stopped at a famous restaurant called the "Longuinhoes" famous for it's sea food. Gobbled all the food & back home. Rested for a while, shower, & set out again wandering on the bikes in the noon. Went to the hill church again. Then Ryan took us to his old house & we were just generally biking with occasional stops to grab some bites of sausage pav's.
Now preparation for the night session. Tonight it was decided that we booze real hard, so arrangements were made & the stock was brought & kept safely in our fridge. The night session was long & we were playing games like cards & scrabble along with it. When all were pleasantly buzzing, Out came the bikes again & we all raced off to johncy's in the night. Another nice session. Talk Talk Talk.Return home. New Session.In the end Myself & Andre were the last players.Zzz.. Blah Blah Blah...Zzzz Blah Blah...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Day:30th may

Morning we get up early except andre, he's sleeping. We go to the Town look for tickets to go back to bombay. All buses were full.
"Interesting situation" - Clifford had told another guy to arrange tickets for us previously, but he was a drunkard & used to talk crap whenever we went to ask him for the tickets. Finally we got the tickets for evening 5:30 miranda travels bus from kadamba bus stop. We went to this drunkard guy of ours & told him that we dont want his tickets anymore since we may not be going back today. He was a little sober that day & he said that he had already got the tickets for us. We said we dont want it. He asked us if we had already booked the tickets from somewhere else. Clifford said No, so i & aditya also said No. He started crying about how his money will be wasted & tried to convince us to buy his tickets, he again asked us if we have bought the tickets for the next day from somewhere else. I said No, & cliffy said Yes at the same time. Embarrasing situation. Adi burst out laughing.We all started laughing like mad people & ran out from his shop. CRAZZY!!

Now we went shopping at the margao market. Later Dany, Joel & Ryan left for their own place near calangute. Me, adi & cliffy had breakfast at 2 different places & returned back home in the afternoon only to find this hero Andre still fast asleep. We cleaned up the entire place, cliffy washed all the utensils, clothes. It was almost 3:00 & Andre was still sleeping. It seemed that the previous nights session had taken a toll on him. Finally by 3:30 we woke him up & we were all packed & ready to leave for the bus stand. Cliffy, Me & Adi were standing in the balcony & wishing out aloud that it would be nice if it rained now. Finally 4:00 we walk out of the room, take all the bags filled with garbage & take them down to burn all the garbage. I & Adi make a big fire, & then it starts. Slowly at first, but then starts pouring. It's raining in Goa!!! (& this has happened once too often that when i wish for it to rain, it does rain. Weird!)
We rush to Andre's place to say bye to Andre's mom n dad & also to take temporary refuge. Andre's parents give us tea & biscuits, which we take it upto the veranda & drink. It's ultimate, the rain pouring down hard, lightning, thunder, sweet smell of wet earth, & us watching this all from the veranda with a hot cup of tea in our hands.
Finally the time comes for us to leave, we say a final Adieu & catch a bus to the Kadamba Bus Depot. Andre comes on his bike to see us off. 5:30 p.m. our bus leaves from Goa

Day:31st may

10:00 A.M. We reach Mumbai, Bandra. The Adventure takes a halt, not a full stop, but a halt till the next time we are back here & it's gonna be really soon. Going Going Goan!