My account of the trip that finally paid…
Locations: Panaji, Goa & Mumbai
Main Characters: ME, Tanvi & Sakshi (friend of Tanvi)
DAY 1:
Breathing the fresh air from the ever so awaited land of goa, early morning at 6… felt nothing less than Columbus who thought he finally reached the DESTINATION… but more was to come…
Took the bus to panaji… Walked to our temporary but comforting “home” : Youth Hostel”.. Surely was not a bad choice with a beach right next to it…
The whole day went in visiting various govt. and non-government. offices with no fruitful results in the end… the only saving grace was an evening trip to Miramar
Key Attractions:
- I walked 15.5 km across Panaji. (Now thats a big deal for me :0)
- Finally getting hold of By-Laws (walking so much at last paid…)
the jetty @ kala academy
DAY 2:
It was a pleasant morning… spending time at the beach… wetting the feet in crystal clear water, spotting the crabs… it would surely add to my list of Random moments of life…
The mission was to hire a bike… Walking so much was surely not my cup of tea..
Can say a no gain day… Didn’t manage an appointment with Ar. Milind Ramani (my only life line left)… also didn’t manage an appointment with Mr. Phaldesai, Member Secretary of Kala Kendra… Things never seemed so impossible as today… If that was not enough, Couldn’t even access the library of Goa College of Architecture (I really admire my college after seeing the building. Even if without toilets, Dept of Architecture, M.S.U, is surely a piece of architecture).
But Mr. Hazra (Hod of G.C.A) and Mr. Nandkarni were co-operative…
Didn’t have anything else to do… so took a drive to Dauna-Paula ( the third option for my site)… Fortunately, lost my way and reached a jetty… that was a sight of admiration too… with all my favorite water sports being played there… But had to remind myself: I was there for work… Finally found the site as a plateau- much above the sea level and an amazing view of the beach.
Evening again spent with Tanvi at Miramar
Key Attractions:
- Had a very expensive lunch at a Goan Restaurant “Mum’s Kitchen”
- I freaked out Tanvi badly, knowing that we were the only people at the youth hostel as Sakshi was away with a friend
DAY 3:
It was supposed to be our last day in goa, but that didn’t happen…
The good thing was - A meeting with Mr. Phaldesai.
- My final site visit to my “almost” final site..
- A meeting with Ar. Milind Ramani (now this is what I call the cherry on the cake.)
Things seemed to be falling in place after a long time… I think that was my misconception… coz more was yet to come… lolz…
Key Attractions:
- A drive to Beach, A whole lot of shopping, Mambos….
- And finally a Drive Back To Panaji…
DAY 4:
This is one day I’ll never forget in my life…!!!! Every single episode is the Key Attraction not only of the day but my life…
Headlines:
- Early morning drive to
- Finally a visit to Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church.
- 2 hours spent at the travel agent trying to confirm tickets for Mumbai… (
- Driving alone to old goa… to see those glorified churches… (That was my childhood fantasy… couldn’t leave goa without visiting these )
- My argument with Sakshi after returning to panaji.
- And we miss the train to Mumbai… coz of a lot of reasons… I will put the blame on traffic right now… (This is the event of my life now…)
- Taking another train to Mumbai traveling in a General Ladies Dabba with all the stinking people, with hardly any place to sit…
End of the first chapter: Goa
Next chapter: Mumbai begins here…
DAY 4:
We “land” in Mumbai early morning… and enjoy the roller-coaster rickshaw ride from kurla to bandra station… all thanks to a weird- funky looking rickshaw- wala… Series of disappointments has not ended yet… we reach NCPA (Colaba), only to find out that its closed until Monday… managed to have a look at the campus until a security personal shooed us off… Needed some high dose of chocolate to deal with my anxiety… Thank u Tanvi… Theobroma was just what I needed… Blue colored sea in Mumbai was indeed a pleasant sight… Prithvi was again disappointing… we were not allowed in… but we were smart enough to get the tickets for the other day… another disappointment was that I couldn’t reach Mr. Makrand Deshpande, the main reason of me being in bbay.
Life saviors:
- An hour spent at Mocha with Kartik… Chocolate gooey fudge. (Smita, I missed you while having it.)
- Then Christmas at
- Band-stand… our all time favorite place during training. Parag, I surely know roads of Mumbai better than you.
Just couldn’t get over the fun we had together during training… missed you a lot guys…
DAY 5
“Alls well that ends well”… day starts with a very good play in the Morning… Visit to Goregaon Film City
Had to buy a new bag to accommodate my excess shopping to it… my present bag was in real crisis…
I really need to thank Parag for being such a nice and sweet host to me… Thank you so much… We met for the first time… but I am pretty sure, he knows very well who Ankit, Astha, Smita & Rahul are. I am not even surprised if he calls me a Chatter Box… Thank you so much again
The show stopper of the whole trip was not one but two episodes:
- A drive through
- Finally, an interaction with Mr. Makrand Deshpande… truly had lost hopes for it… but as they say “efforts finally paid…”
Thus, there came a happy ending to a trip I’ll never forget…
