The sparkle of sun rays on the sea...

Sitting on the beach, listening to trance in the background... singing what remotely resembles U2's 'With or Without you', looking at the stars twinkle, watching the waves rise and fall, the white crests form and then disintegrate.. sitting with friends and being just a little bit high (on life!)... hmmm.. a life I could really get used to... that's Goa..

My first trip to Goa ever (yeah yeah, I know, I was really deprived all this while, wasn't I?!!)... and it turned out to be one of the nicest vacations ever... I love water, and love beaches too... I grew up just 60 km from a large coast line, so that meant spending many a Sundays strolling on the beach, swimming (and I mean really swimming) in the sea, playing and splashing around... with both family and friends... so I was expecting to feel right at home when I thought of Goa..

But it turned out to be more than that... its the sense of freedom in Goa that makes you let your hair down and really enjoy... everyone is a little less rigid, little less in control (and not only under the influence of alcohol!), less inhibited.. this doesn't mean that we're going crazy, but we could.. thats what I liked about the place.. it makes you forget about your list of things-to-do, worries, deadlines, personal commitments etc etc... your time here is yours alone.. you don't have to wake up hurriedly to get to office or anywhere, you don't know where your next meal would be, you don't have to worry about getting up from the beach soon coz you have somewhere to go.. coz if ur'e enjoying what you are doing right now, then this is what u'll do for as long as you want... in other words, I didn't feel the need to be such a control freak as I generally am.. I could break out of my routine, get out of my set plan to do this or that (there is nothing really to SEE in Goa, so you don't have worry about "have i covered this, have i covered that?")...

In other words, total relaxation..

And partying!! We went to Mambo 2 nights out of 3, tried to find Paradiso but found a cliff dropping into nothing instead, we were aghast at how there were only stags in Tito's!! Sat at a 24 hrs cafe listening to live music, made a big ruccuss there having been the only group which seemed to be in a mood to have a good time.. we drowned the poor singer with requests, karaoked tunelessly, attempted salsa on rock music and ended up literally forcing the singer to play/sing salsa music to keep up with us! And somewhere in between we also danced to pretty hard trance, which none of us really liked before Nikhil Chinappa happened!! And then its like someone let us loose on the dance floor and we're prancing around like maniacs, the girls conferencing on how hot Nikhil Chinappa looked etc etc.. and not to forget the drunken night when doing salsa on the main road in the middle of the nite or scaring away people at CCD with our antics or almost losing 74k at the casino were just some of the many crazy things we did.. and the nicest one-hr journeys from South to North Goa in our hired Qualis, with many a discovery of hidden or unacknowledged singing and lyrics-remembering talent!

There was a certain incident which brought our spirits down, but all in all, this was one of the nicest holidays in recent times.. I am sure anyone who has been to Goa would agree!