Visit Goa - Check.

It was Goa all over again for me in a span of 5 months, only this time it was driven by sheer desperation for a break. The earlier trip had a more touristy approach whereas the second trip was more aimed at chilling out and relaxing.

This relaxing bit was done in its true spirit when my cousin booked us in five star resort (I spent several restless nights wondering how a douche like me would fit in there) and driving all the way to Goa in a Jazz (very classy, I know).

So there I was, with two of my cousins cruising along the streets of Pune with a not-so-reliable navigator to guide us(The navigator actually proposed a route THROUGH a mountain, maybe there was a secret tunnel there. Hmmm. ). After a eight hour journey, which included a stopover for breakfast and soaking in the waterfalls at Amboli, we reached our hotel. I am sure the staff will talk about the girl who was gawking at anything and everything inside the hotel. I could actually see the beach through the lobby windows and smell the salt. And I think my heart skipped a beat when I stepped into the room. Can you blame me?

I have been craving for days when I could just sit back and watch life pass by me. There are a hundred things gnawing for my attention and I know that I cannot possibly sort them even if I put in all my energy. But to let things just be is not in my nature. As I lay back near the pool, curled up with a book watching an orange ball of fury sink across the horizon, I realized this is the closest I could get to relaxing. And what a feeling it is.

Good-natured bonding. Breakfast that makes you loosen a few buttons. Staring into nothingness while chilling at a shack. Sinking your feet into sand and hearing it scrunch Letting the salty breeze mess up your hair. That is Goa for me.

Evident From My Blog Title

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

~Anatole France

Life has a strange timing of granting your wishes- it makes them come true when you are spewing cynicism and the light at the end of the tunnel seems like another mirage. The break that I have been cribbing about landed on my lap when I had come to accept the monotony of my life.

Although the planning had been on for a week, given my reputation of flopped plans [:D], I tried not to get overtly excited about the whole thing. As the week progressed, I saw the location change three times and the number of people dwindle from ten to five. Had it not been for a very determined group of five people desperate to make it a success, this trip would never had happened. And I am glad, it did not fall apart.

We did the usual touristy things- roamed around the market, shopped for sovereigns, saw the same mountain from five different points/locations and went boating. There were moments when we simply sat on the edge, looked across the horizon, five people lost in thoughts and musings of their own.

I realised I travel differently- the excitement of seeking familiarity is more than that of discovering new places. Here, staring out of the window opening to a postcard-perfect view, I could not help thinking about settling there and writing a book, roaming around on cold mornings in the twisted alleys, cupping hot tea glasses for warmth and reading Robert Frost poems in the dead of night.

My memories are not of the perfect landscapes I witnessed but of laughing till my sides hurt, of endless brooding over life's unnecessary complications, of comfortable silences and of feeling something stir within. This is what I seek in a trip and from what I know, the journey has just begun.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by

And that has made all the difference.

~ Robert Frost

A Road Trip Of My Own

Note: The following events took place over a period of ten hours and covered five malls spread across central Mumbai.

I was suffering from a dry spell of movies and in general entertainment. The last movie I watched was Dum Maro Dum (duh!) in a nondescript theater in Gandhinagar. After months of wasting away my weekends simply sleeping(who feels to step out in the rains and get drenched and smell musty all day?) , we made a plan to watch Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Although it did appear to belong to the live-your-life-to-the-fullest genre of movies which I completely detest, but the idea of having Hrithik, Farhan and Abhay as serious eye candy seemed too appealing to resist.

At around eleven, I left for the railway station only to realise that the Mega Block had begun, leaving me with no option but to take the bus. It goes without saying that I hate travelling by bus- the smoke, dust, smelly seat and an irritated conductor is not something you would look forward to. The bus screeched to a halt after I waited for more than thirty minutes, but not before slathering me with mud. My very own Tomatino festival happened right there.

After managing to get a window seat, I was unceremoniously asked to vacate it after a not-so-senior uncle pointed that the seat is reserved for senior citizens, leaving me flustered. After what seemed like an hour, I got down and started racing towards the station, almost got run over by a nasty bus with an equally nasty driver only to realise the train has been cancelled. Grrrrr-1.

Somehow I managed to reach Thane and joined my friends in an auto and headed to Korum Mall. Midway, I was told there were no tickets available so we steered the auto to Eternity Mall. No luck there too. I felt like the biggest idiot expecting to get my hands on six tickets on a Sunday in a multiplex. Bah.

Still not losing hope, we reached RMall, Mulund only to realise the female ahead of us had snagged the last five precious tickets. Next stop Nirmal Lifestyles and I am at risk of sounding repetitive. Tired, the guys finally decided to give Dreams, Bhandup a try before giving up and we were asked to stay back to avoid the whole headache of travelling.

Fufmil was apparently our bodyguard *laughs violently* and he warned us to not get all girly and irritate him. A minute later he was scampering off to catch up with the guys only because I said I craved for an ice cream. Guys, really. *rolls her eyes*

Finally, finally we managed to get tickets and it was worth all the trouble. We had the front seats which meant tilting our head in awkward angles to see clearly and involved noisy seat adjustments. We managed to embarrass fellow movie-goers with non-veg jokes and raucous laugh. It was a good day, that is all I can say. A good day after so many forgettable days.

Finally.

Remember my previous lame attempt at being mysterious? I call it lame because most of my friends guessed it, although they were kind enough not to disclose it on the blog. Keeping a secret is like controlling the urge to pee-you can barely manage to hold it inside and ultimately it has to come out.

The big news is that I am moving to Ahmedabad for my job training which according to me is, inBarney Stinson's words, legendary. It is such a big leap for me that I sometimes get intimidated by the enormity of the situation. I spent seven excruciating months trying to figure out when the mail containing my joining details will greet me in the inbox and when it finally does, it feels like the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one.

The last time I was away from home was during my industrial(?) visit to Delhi and Nainital and that lasted for ten days. And now suddenly, I am moving away to work at an alien city with no certainty over the time period.

I spent the first few days in my own bubble, conjuring up plans so that my path to independence is not a bumpy one. The thought of unlimited shopping with a very valid excuse was enough to keep me stoned for a few more days.

But now as the D-day draws closer, all the excitement is overcast with clouds of uncertainty and self-doubt. 'Will I be able to pull it off?' is a question that keeps popping in my head with increasing frequency. Being the optimist that I am, I am holding strong to the belief that I am going to rock my training.

I am not going to include the part about how much I am going to miss home, friends, and my sleepy town because it makes me all weepy *blows her nose*. But I am going to surely mention missing my blog because it was the only thing which kept me sane during those seven hard months. It might happen that there will be a drought of posts for a few days here but I promise to return to my love as soon as I am settled into the routine. Dear readers, thanks for keeping up with me through thick and thin, complimenting me even when the posts were mediocre and a huge thanks for helping me discover my love for writing. Together, you and I have seen this blog grow older and hopefully wiser over the years.

That's Me will be on a break for a few weeks but I promise to flood it with posts chronicling about my giant leap of faith in a new city and surrounded by new people. Stay tuned to this space for more. Till then, goodbye folks :)

P.S. If this post appears incoherent, jumbled, wayward and jumpy, then may be you are right because that is my current state of mind.

P.S. again- Will be leaving for Ahmedabad on the night of 5th March. I forgot to mention it anywhere in the post. Bon Voyage!

Someone Up There Has Got a Bad Sense of Humour

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
-Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist

When you don't get something, all the universe conspires in mocking you.
-Shwetha

It is easy to dismiss this as mere coincidence but with the number of times I have run into information eyeing you with a mix of mock disdain and pity, you can't turn a blind eye. Everything I hear and see seems to be about travelling.


I love travelling and the love stems from my curiosity for new cultures rather than new places. So while for some, travelling implies checking out a new area or a new mall, for me, the definition is to set off exploring a place culturally different from the ones I have visited before.


First, the television kept broadcasting shows in which the skinny host waxed eloquent about the destination. I diligently avoided the travel channels but to my misfortune,even the news channels were party to my ragging with the prime airtime dedicated to plump and pimply television stars visiting shrines with picturesque scenery adoring the background.


Being an avid reader(bookworm sounds geeky so won't be using the term for myself), three newspapers drop heavily inside my home to be received eagerly by a restless me. But nowadays, I dread to open the pages because they are flooded with snaps of postcard-perfect locations. As if that was not enough, some newspapers run weekly pull-outs dedicated exclusively to travel. Not amusing. Not amusing at all.


I have now started receiving SMS ads like "Trip to Srinagar for just Rs. 29,999!!" and "Visit the hottest destination this season- Andaman and Nicobar islands. Contact blah". How the hell did they know about my dream destinations? And they got the cheek to message and lure me with dreamy holiday SMSes. Grrrrr.


If that was not enough,strangers swoop down on me and vomit details of some overseas trip they undertook recently while I squirm uncomfortably, wishing for a moment, that I was deaf. And blind too, when I see them post pretty snaps on Facebook.


So what is the problem, you ask? Company, I say. Correction- good company. While I wait for my joining date, the people whom I consider good company have started working with a gruelling nine-to-five schedule. I am pretty sympathetic to their condition and don't have enough heart to deprive them of weekends reserved for catching up on much needed slumber.


Solo trips are a fancy idea, but they are just that- fancy, not practical. I can't expect my parents to fish out a generous sum to sponsor some crazy solo trip of their graduated-but-not-yet-started-working daughter. As parents, I do not expect them to throw caution to the winds and bid me adieu at the railway station while their daughter goes out alone. Though I believe the situation might have been different if I was of opposite gender. Sigh.


I can still cope with the feeling of being static and passive and somehow, grudgingly, accept the fact that I may not get a chance to go on a full-blown touristy kind holiday. But I simply cannot bear the prospect of facing these ads,articles and other stuff related to travelling. Please, spare me the hurt :(

PUNE CHRONICLES

Going to Pune was an on-the-spur decision. I hardly got enough time to think how much time I am going to stay at my relatives’ place. So I stuffed some clothes and took my faithful college bag because it’s my dumping ground and has every necessary and not-so-necessary thing in it. Though it is yet to be ascertained as to why I need to carry medicines well past their expiry date.

My brother and I caught the early morning bus, which was the best thing we could have done. The weather was cool and breezy which seems to have lifted up the driver’s spirit because we were in grave danger of being thrown off the road. Thankfully nothing of that sort happened. But as the bus snaked through the ghats, motion sickness seemed to set in some folks. I just looked out of the window praying hard that no one pukes in front of me. That sight just makes me so queasy. We reached Lonavla soon and almost the entire bus emptied. I had a brief temptation to check out the chikkis, but better sense prevailed when I had a look at my slight paunch. Hehe.

I soon reached my relative’s place but I had no idea about what places to visit in Pune. The problem with Pune is that it has got an absolutely pathetic public transport system (compared to Mumbai) and I had to rely on my cousins to take me sight seeing. And since they are office going people, they could only take me out in the evening and on weekends.

First day I went to see my cousin’s under construction flat near the airport. I initially thought the area must be noisy. But since the commercial flights are allowed only for particular time duration and the airport is mainly used for military purposes, noise wasn’t much of an issue. We spotted an airplane on the runway and waited and waited and waited for it to take off. Finally it did, and I could bring myself to say nothing else but a ‘wow’ when it soared into infinity. Absolutely breath-taking.

The roads are really good. There is so much of construction work going on that I doubt if they will be able to complete it before its starts raining heavily(it hasn’t yet actually started raining out there). But unlike here in Mumbai where you see debris at every random spot, the one thing I noticed about Pune folks is that they always talk in terms of kilometers. It is quite unlike Mumbai where we talk in terms of minutes. Queer.

Pune has got such fabulous gardens; it can put Mumbai to shame. By saying gardens I don’t mean the places in which a few trees are grown haphazardly; I actually mean a garden- scenic and relaxing. I also visited the snake garden, though there were less snakes and more of other animals to be seen. For a change, the animals weren’t sluggish or inactive. I saw the white eyed buzzard(that's a bird in case you were wondering), star tortoise and really cute peacocks. But the best part was watching two leopards play amongst themselves, quite oblivious of the crowd.
Absolutely amazing sight. I had just started clicking pictures on my cell phone when a man yelled out “excuse me, photography is not allowed”. For the rest of my time, I looked around for some sign prohibiting photography. By the time I left, I couldn’t spot even one warning. Cursing the idiot, I left the snake garden.

Damn, I got bullied again.