Broke and on the Road in Goa

Come to think of it we just saved our asses from being booked for a misdemeanour: breaking into the Central Jail. But in our defence we weren't aware that it was a Central Jail, there was no one at the checkpost and the gates were open. This makes a pretty bad reading for our jail security measures, but isn't this how things work in India. To their credit they did catch us within a minute of entering the jail premises.

After cajoling them for 2 hours not to press charges, we continued our journey to Baga, Goa. I was apprehensive from the moment Sunny proposed that we hire bikes and go off to North Goa, but had to give in when Prajnesh, Viraj and Gautam concurred with Sunny and hence the stakes were against me. It was loathsome to leave the calmness and serenity of South Goa and head off to the more happening and lively parts. But as the day went by things got even more interesting. We had an amazing time riding in the rain and it was 6 pm by the time we reached Calangute Beach, June being an off-season we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. All of us hadn't drove for 2 hours to have the beach for ourselves, the action was missing, so we sent Sunny to find some action for us.

As per Sunny's prognosis we would have to kill some time as it was too early for any kind of action to begin; so we loitered around on the road connecting Calangute to Baga taking in the rare views. Between the five of us we had around 1500 bucks after paying for the bikes and petrol, as we weren't going to spend the night at Baga we were on a shoe-string budget. Party where-ever we can, if we could get in and then drive back to our base - Cavellosim Beach. Plans have a tendency to unwind into something completely different from what was conceived.

The clock struck nine and after having some crumps for dinner, we were on the hunt for rave parties or should I say a party. I haven't put in so much of effort ever before in searching for something and in the end not even coming close to finding it. Should have taken my Mom along with us, because she is very adept at pointing out the exact location of things at home which I am searching for. After scavenging every nook and corner of Baga-Calangute for 2 hours we deicded to assemble at the town-centre to contemplate our next move. Prajnesh, Viraj and I were the first to reach there, while we were waiting for Gautam and Sunny to turn up, Prajnesh decided to get some info from a passerby. He started by asking him about the hotel rates, the directions for Cavellossim and then out of nowhere he asked the fellow whether Goa police patrol the roads at night.

The mention of Goa police caught the fancy of the passerby and he asked us why we were so concerned about them, the big mouth Prajnesh had to tell him that we didn't have driving licenses, just when Prajnesh said that, the passerby unbuttoned his raincoat to reveal to our astonishment his police uniform. WOW! We were going get jacked 'again', the night just got better. So we started with the normal routine of blandishments and finally we had to bribe him because his asking price ticked upwards whenever we said something. Now left with only 300 bucks and lassitude, we decided to begin our journey back to the sanctity of our hotel beds in Cavellossim. Not paying heed to the police officer's advice of booking a room at Baga, due to paucity of funds we decided to leave.

By the time we reached the highway he came across another police checkpost and we had to go through the whole ignominy once again. So we offered them the only money we had, which was too less for him as we had paid a similar amount to only one office and here they were three. So after a lot of cajoling we were let go. But this time we did listen to them as they told us that several checkposts will be found at this time of the hour on the highway. The one of the two options was to continue on our journey and end up in trouble/jail as we had no money left to bribe anyone and the other one was to go back and crash in Baga.

We decided to go back and pass the night in some bar, on the way back we were being followed by a police van and we thought that they are chasing us. Now we didn't need this at this point of time. We made some turns and ended up in the middle of somewhere, there was a bar nearby which was open, we parked the bikes at a frantic pace and made a dash for the bar. The bar owner told us that he was taking his last order and if we wanted to stay back then we needed to buy something. Gautam found out that the cheapest thing we could do there was to play pool, we could stretch a game for a few hours, couldn't we ? So I don't know how but we could gather 75 bucks in small change, for one frame of pool, from that point onwards we were completely broke.

The bar was nearly empty, so the owner came over to the pool table for a chat, we were so happy to spill the beans and pour our hearts out. He was very sympathetic to what we had gone through but he told us that he shutting down in 30mins so we had to make a move. We tagged along with him on the way to his house, he then he gave us a brilliant idea to spend the night on the beach. This was our only way to spend another 4 hours till dawn, after 6 am there weren't going to be any police checkposts. So he showed us the way and told us to follow the sound of the waves to reach the beach. But our night wasn't going to end in such a lame manner, so while on our way to the beach, we encountered our final(hopefully) nemesis, 'stray dogs'.

We had had enough, so we decided not to go any further and camp on the road. We passed the remaining hours camped on a road in a resedential area, reminiscing about the day gone by and how it would be something that all of us would never forget. Those 4 hours we had a really great time talking to each other, it was time well spent in the end. At the crack of dawn we got to our bikes and rode non-stop for another 2 hours to Cavelossim. All of us crashed in our beds till.....

Dada rules my heart !

Good to see Dada in the thick of things once again in IPL 3, from the forgetful South African safari to this year's poor show in the great Indian tamasha. Things haven't changed much on the points table, other than the return of Dada's killer captaincy moves. He was more successful in his previous avatar as the captain of the Indian cricket team. Everything comes to a naught even after his deft bowling changes and field placements, the team's complete lack of performance and fighting spirit has led KKR to lose even from decent positions.

IPL 3 has caught everyone's imagination this year too and the most spoken/discussed topic is which team are you following ? Being in Mumbai one can't miss the euphoria around this year's table toppers, Mumbai Indians and Sachin's batting prowess accompanied with his recently developed captaincy skills. There is no doubt about the fact that he possesses one of the best cricketing minds in the world. So being a KKR fan in Mumbai is looked upon with indignation and ridicule.

Constantly being reminded about the team's mediocre performance and being a butt of all the jokes in IPL 2, I was relieved to see that this year's honour goes to Kings XI Punjab. The hostilities have not ceased as yet, the deteriorating performance of KKR in IPL 3 makes me question my unequivocal support for them. However, everytime the question arises from within or outside, my faith in the team is reiterated just because of one man, Sourav Ganguly. From Day 1 there is only one team oops one man who is worthy of my support. So this is for all my friends, relatives and to top it off for my Dad, that my partisan support will continue for any team that has Dada in it.

Realistically speaking I might have to choose a new team to support most probably in a year or two. But being a person who always favours the underdog I think I might end up supporting KKR all my life.