VIVA Goa!!!

hey folks,

a 3 day weekend (gud friday, holi saturday & easter sunday) made it almost necessary to make a visit home. so here i was, on friday morning 10 am, chilling at home, in GOA. the 16 hour overnite bus journey did make the travel rather taxing on my back and my sleep, but i guess it's worth the cause.

friday evening was well spent with dutta (he's working at the P&G plant in goa). at dona paula, with the moon a huge yellow disc rising over the zuari river, it was quite a romantic scene. but i wasn't exactly in the right company for romance though!! dona paula is a place where a mr. paul and a ms. dona were supposed to have jumped onto the rocks where the sea hits with a lot of surf to keep their love alive, while they themselves died doing so!! one can see the mormugao port of vasco city, the big ships anchored out in the arabian sea, the national institute of oceanography (where my dad works) and the Cidade - de - Goa, a much known 5 star hotel from the top of a rock at this place. makes for a lovely sight for sure...

next morning was HOLI. and the goan way of celebrating this festival of colours is to get ur vehicle running and be all over the place, meet people on the roads or at their homes, exchange colours, the excitement and keep making the gang bigger with each visit. finally it culminates with an almost regular dip into the sea. saline waters seem to be the best remedy for washing off persistent colours. this time, i picked dutta, manish, met many goan pals and ended up with a gang of P&G plant manager, HR manager, operations manager, R&D guy, etc. was glad to be able to take them to bambolim beach, where we frequent each holi for the customary dip!!

afternoon dutta was invited to feast puran polis with us at my place. this is a traditional marathi sweet. chana daal is first steamed, crushed to powder, mixed with jaggery, and then inserted into lumps of atta. these balls are then rolled into chapatis and roasted like a normal chapati is. eaten with spoonfulls of ghee, this makes for a lovely meal.

evening was a big get together at the beach of all goans who had made it back home for the weekend and others who are still stuck there. met a lot of friends, and some people who were friends of friends. had a gud time generally sharing info bout each other's jobs, and lives.

dinner with dutta and the chitchatting with him at his guesthouse. slept there overnite, in AC!! sunday morning watched "million dollar baby" and wud've given it the oscar myself also....major awesome movie....

and then, the nemesis of travelling back to work, reached today morning 10 a.m. and here i am, blogging from office. gotta meet boss now, at 4 p.m. so till there's more news, ciao public!!