Sifting the real from Goa’s cliches

The three letter word ‘Goa’ never meant a city-state for me whenever I came across this word while in geography lessons or history classes. For me it was a country inside a country.

It’s not my teachers but my friends who led me to believe that ‘Goa’ meant beautiful girls from Europe. And just as I was ready to leave for Goa, it meant topless beautiful girls from Europe on gleaming white beaches and blue seas.

While my eyes were ready to feast on such visuals, my mind was keen on experiencing the ‘real Goa’ known for endless parties, lobsters, prawns, shacks and water sports.
I, along with my friend Sanket, reached Goa at 7.30pm. We came out of the Madgaon station and enquired for, our dream bike; a 350cc Bullet Enfield but eventually settled for a gearless Honda Activa.

The owner of the bike hiring agency, Hasan, explained the unavailability, “The mammoth bikes are out of fashion now. People from India don’t go for it.”

“What about foreigners, aren’t they here?” I asked in desperation as I could already see the dreams of beautiful European girls that my friends weaved in my head crumbling.

“Of course they are here, but not in the numbers seen earlier. Inflation is a universal truth now. We have seen almost 50 percent drop in enquiries in the first week of December,” Hasan said.

I was partly shattered and partly relieved but the expression on Sanket’s face clearly read, “Welcome to recession.”

We thanked Hasan and with a mixed feeling of apprehension and excitement, hopped on the bike and headed straight towards the nearest beach, Colva, to look for accommodation. It was dark and most of the shops en-route were closed.
“8.30pm and shops are already closed. Is it the recession effect?” muttered Sanket. I nodded in agreement.

Five minutes later we reached our destination and the next half an hour saw us back at what we’re best at — planning.

Sanket and I prepared a list of ‘things to do’ in Goa. Besides having some run-of-the-mill dreams such as water sports, sea food, riding a 350cc bike and cycling on the beach, there were some stuff which was crazy and cool at the same time.

One was to visit the southern-most beach in Goa — the Polem beach and watch the sun slowing drowning in the sea from there. Sounds easy, doesn’t it. But eventually it turned out to be an uphill task, literally.

Geographically, the beach shares its boundaries with Karnataka. All we knew about the Polem beach was that it’s the smallest beach, scarcely inhabited and without any tourist activity. With these rough details, we set forth, cutting across three mountains, a couple of districts and an unending 85-km stretch.

It took us two hours, two crazy heads and one Honda Activa to reach the destination at 4.50pm, just an hour before the sunset. Tired and dehydrated (‘water’ is spelled as ‘beer’ in Goa).

The next hour was the time which defined the best moment of my life. It was a combination of feelings, soothing breeze, the waning sunlight, switched-off cell phones and two bottles of beer. As I was gazing at the ships on the horizon, the serene tranquility of the place was slowly overpowering me. And then, at an instant, the moment arrived. Everything just stood still. I felt as if that was the moment I had been waiting all my life. The moment when my heart called out to me to take a decision — a decision which is pure, noble and great. And finally I decided!!

Our remaining days were fun-filled with some intermittent observations on global slowdown and Goa’s tourism industry.

True Goa was being hit, but we were happy. “Recession or no recession, if you want to enjoy in Goa, you do it,” said Sanket. I winked in agreement.