Goa in the rains …
… is one of the most calming, instant-nature-connect experiences that I've had. It makes me wish that I could go back each year same time to feel that Goa.
A Goa that is green, all shades of green, so green that I wish I could capture that green in my mind and heart and refer to it when the city’s brick and mortar begins to get to me. All of that green freshly washed and smelling of rainforests with insects of all sounds hard at work orchestrating their pieces in complete harmony, obviously delighted at the rain.
A Goa with clean, swept, smooth-sand, phaka (the Bengali word for deserted which seems to say what it means in the way it is pronounced) beaches. Beaches on which we didn't see a soul as we walked along the edge of the water, feet sinking into the soft sand, sending crabs scrambling for cover, chappals in hand, eyes on the sky.
A Goa with grey, overladen, dark skies, that make for spectacular, breath-takingly beautiful sunsets that are best enjoyed in complete silence – only the sounds of the waves washing ashore sometimes quietly, other times roughly crashing into the sand. Sunsets that I wish would never end. Sunsets that seem to epitomize calm and all things peace. Sunsets that make me think of a hundred songs that I wish would play from the skies to add to the joy that I feel within.
A Goa with washed Portuguese architecture, small but cozy cottage type houses with a mini driveway flanked on both sides by trimmed gardens and old trees. Cottages located on small but smooth roads a little distance from the beach and far from the crowd-filled parts that seem to the Goa everyone knows.
A Goa of near-empty roads, smiling locals happy perhaps to be by themselves in this off-season period, hot bondas off a pleasant roadside hawker lady, delicious banana cake from a local bakery run by a girl with lovely eyes.
My Goa is not the beach, babes and booze Goa. Heck, it’s not even the sun and sand Goa. It’s the clouds and calm Goa. The inhale and imbibe Goa. The sky and sunset Goa. The rain and rainforest Goa.
It was my third time to Goa, but the first time that I had really experienced it. The way that makes me want to keep going back. Every year. Same Time. There are few places where I feel like going back and doing the exactly same thing that I did the last time that I was there. Surprisingly this trip to Goa felt so perfect and still feels so perfect in everything that we did that I wouldn't mind repeating it all over again, exactly as we did it. Perhaps I should mention that we did it in August 2011, a couple of months before Aahaan was delivered to us :).
Here’s the rest of it as a photo essay.
A Goa that is green, all shades of green, so green that I wish I could capture that green in my mind and heart and refer to it when the city’s brick and mortar begins to get to me. All of that green freshly washed and smelling of rainforests with insects of all sounds hard at work orchestrating their pieces in complete harmony, obviously delighted at the rain.
A Goa with clean, swept, smooth-sand, phaka (the Bengali word for deserted which seems to say what it means in the way it is pronounced) beaches. Beaches on which we didn't see a soul as we walked along the edge of the water, feet sinking into the soft sand, sending crabs scrambling for cover, chappals in hand, eyes on the sky.
A Goa with grey, overladen, dark skies, that make for spectacular, breath-takingly beautiful sunsets that are best enjoyed in complete silence – only the sounds of the waves washing ashore sometimes quietly, other times roughly crashing into the sand. Sunsets that I wish would never end. Sunsets that seem to epitomize calm and all things peace. Sunsets that make me think of a hundred songs that I wish would play from the skies to add to the joy that I feel within.
A Goa with washed Portuguese architecture, small but cozy cottage type houses with a mini driveway flanked on both sides by trimmed gardens and old trees. Cottages located on small but smooth roads a little distance from the beach and far from the crowd-filled parts that seem to the Goa everyone knows.
A Goa of near-empty roads, smiling locals happy perhaps to be by themselves in this off-season period, hot bondas off a pleasant roadside hawker lady, delicious banana cake from a local bakery run by a girl with lovely eyes.
My Goa is not the beach, babes and booze Goa. Heck, it’s not even the sun and sand Goa. It’s the clouds and calm Goa. The inhale and imbibe Goa. The sky and sunset Goa. The rain and rainforest Goa.
It was my third time to Goa, but the first time that I had really experienced it. The way that makes me want to keep going back. Every year. Same Time. There are few places where I feel like going back and doing the exactly same thing that I did the last time that I was there. Surprisingly this trip to Goa felt so perfect and still feels so perfect in everything that we did that I wouldn't mind repeating it all over again, exactly as we did it. Perhaps I should mention that we did it in August 2011, a couple of months before Aahaan was delivered to us :).
Here’s the rest of it as a photo essay.
One of the many beautiful sunsets.
Letting the sea wash away the sand beneath my feet.
A – lost in the sea, the sky and the setting sun.
Ditto.
Submitting to the vast beauty of the sky.
As the sun set deeper …
The sky exploding in a riot of colours.
Surreal.
More of the surreal.
The beach we had to ourselves.
Vagator on a rainy, windy day.
The man. The look. The pose.
Mesmerizing green.
An abandoned road in the middle of the forest.
Where the Mandovi meets the ocean. It was A’s idea to explore this part of the coastline so we set out from the hotel, drove all along the coast to reach this end where the river merges with the sea. A settlement of fishermen with their fishing vessels, a boat-building unit working on a vessel, a long deserted stretch of beach and an interesting conversation with a set of fishermen getting ready to sail into the sea for a few days was what came our way. We saw the differences in the colours of the river and the ocean and learnt a couple of things about how and where the fishermen go to get the best catch.
More of the river and the sea.
One of the many picture perfect Goan houses. How I’d love to be able to go stay in one every now and then.
The green in a car window frame.
Beautifully crafted wrought iron gate in shy lane in Panaji.
Comments
Post a Comment