Baga Banter

It is never enough. Goa as a place grows on you...  You never get tired of the place...

I just took a snap of the sunset in the background while my daughter was busy with her sand play and sent it to my friend. The banter continued as though it had never stopped

We were part of a common group of friends who always used to hang out together. We heard a common friend go gaga on his trip to Goa and couldn’t help but contemplate a trip to Goa.  

Initially we thought most of our friends would jump on an option to travel once we had a nice plan in place. More we started spending time for planning, more things to do in Goa got added onto the list.

            We started talking amongst friends on a possible trip to Goa and we both were tasked to plan for the trip. Planning a trip is never easy. I used to work in Whitefield those days and my friend near MG road. I started coming down every evening to M G road to discuss and plan for the trip. We were like poles apart in our thinking but we both were workaholics.

I used to inform her when I start and expect her to be free by the time I reach her office. But more often than not I would end up waiting for her. This continued for a while and in a few days the local bhel puri wala near her office had become a close friend. He would prepare a tikki puri and give me saying madam aajayegi sir aap tab tak yeh lijiye.     

A week into it the boy managing the parking in the hospital nearby where we generally parked our vehicles would tell me didi abhi wapas nahin aayi hein, gaadi leke dopehar mein baahar gayi thi.

Looking back I feel how much people observe us, without our knowing there are quite a few people who manage to keep track of things that matter to us for no special reason.

Moment we met I would get into a tussle as to how she kept me waiting and that it was not fair. Every time she used to win using her innocent smile and grinning sheepishly.

But love for Goa was much more than these incidents and having been to Goa quite a few times already I kept my composure to plan a nice trip.

Though initially we met for planning the Goa trip, over time we kinda became bosom pals or bsuen friende. So we started meeting regularly checking out the latest places as both of us were avid foodies.

We tried out different places like Olive Beach, Sunny’s, Café masala, coffee day, Barista, Brio, Konark, Casa Picola, 13^th floor, Tandoor, Pinxx, Paparazzi, Spinn, Taika.

Some of them are long closed now.

We used to love walking in Brigade and MG road those days. Metro was nowhere in the scene and those were the places to hang out during those days. I was an avid book lover and we would regularly stop by the guy selling books on the footpath in front of shrungar complex. Over the years of buying books from him we had come to an special agreement on the price irrespective of new or old book.

Generally we would start our evening by walking to coffee board and then have dinner somewhere and end with a dessert in lake view, corner house or Richie rich in st marks road.

We would fight like children over the ice cream each wanting the ice cream which the other has opted for. Then we would start deciding on where we would see off each other and as we stayed in opposite sides of Bangalore. Saying good bye generally used to be the most difficult part.

Phones would take over once we parted our ways and we would think why Airtel has disconnect the calls exactly at one hour and can’t they find a way out for it.  

Our calls used to typically run pretty late into the night, we would converse on every topic under the sun. We both were very opinionated and we would get into crazy arguments. Both would hold forte to prove their point.

Around 3 or 4 am we would ponder on who will disconnect the call. We would plan to meet early the next day and again give each other a good morning call early in the morning.

We both were crazy souls, suddenly there was a subconscious attempt to always please the other. What we felt as differences in ideology or thought was no longer that important. We started looking over the shortcomings and became accommodative of the other. Over time we could simply predict what the other argument tends to be, what would someone like, dislike or opt for. We had become like besties for life

In the middle of all this the Goa plan kept moving every month as one or the other friend would say not this week/month.

Finally we decided we cannot ensure everyone would be onboard for a given trip. I wrote to my friends saying I am going to fix the dates and whoever can make it will go, for the rest its tough luck.

We met in our usual jaunt Brio Cafe on the top floor in home stop with other friends to decide on the dates. Used to love his cheesy garlic bread with coffee those days. While we jostled to prepare a list of things we do, inadvertently it included a lot of things we had garnered from friends which we didn't want to miss out on. We had a couple of friends from Goa, who helped plan it that much better. We didn't want to miss out on any kind of fun, we just wanted to enjoy Goa to the fullest and leave nothing for a next time.

Our list looked small when we started out

• Para sailing
• Banana boat ride
• Water ski
• Water scooter
• Trek
• Visiting Fort Aguada
• Visiting all the beaches
• Viewing Dolphins
• Island visits
• Water falls
• Casino visit

It was such a wonderful time we friends had back then in Goa. In our rush to cover the items on the list we ended up making the trip very hectic. Three days passed in a whiff and being the party animals we hardly had slept those three days.

            When we were set to return to Bangalore I checked with her if we can extend the stay and let others leave, we were both in between jobs. We had some time to join the new firm and we both still wanted to spend some time in Goa away from the pressured times at office.

            Initially I didn’t want to do anything, idea was to just relax on a beach preferably over a hammock and read a novel and simply laze and do nothing.

My friend was a very active person, lot into fitness and exercising. She woke me up very early in the morning and said lets go for a jog on the beach.  It was a totally different experience. Early morning the sea was serene, air was fresh and after the jog just relaxing on the sand was like ethereal.

            Over breakfast she asked me what is the plan what do you suggest we do and I was like there is no plan just go with the flow. She simply couldn’t fathom and pestered me to maybe think of something interesting and nice to do.

That is when we started visiting the beaches in Goa, we started with vagator up north and covered all of them till mobor down south.

We covered all the flea markets and roamed like vagabonds, picked up all sorts of stuff, trinklets, tried crazy hair styles. False tattoos etc

I was surprised with her fondness for shopping, she was very clear and absolute on what she planned to buy. She chose colors which would suit her and had a clear picture or thought/idea of what combination would work fine. As we walked through the different flea markets she picked up wrap arounds, long skirts, short skirts, kaftans, sarongs, hats, tube tops, jump suits, shorts, mini skirts, necklaces to go with the dresses, other accessories like hangings, drops, studs, bracelets, huge wooden bangles, hair clips, hair bands,  rubber bands, shades, umbrella, stole, well it was an endless list of stuff.  As I shopped with her I was mentally making notes, putting a name against every type of dress because rest assured I would be pulled into decision making on what would go with what, if the color was a match, would she need to buy a pair of sandals to match a particular dress? I was like patiently looking in awe of her shopping spree, my thought was around how would she carry all these back to Bangalore?

We would bump into a lot of kannadigas who used to sell wares and we would try to bargain more taking the advantage of language.

Inspite of all this what stays in memories are the time spent on Baga, for no single reason. Maybe we liked to hang out there. Maybe Tito's was one of the reasons we ended up there daily. Maybe it was one of the beaches where we felt one with ourselves. We both loved Titos so every day evening we would hang out in Baga

We would hang around in Brittos and laze on the sun kissed sand, have a drink, lose the thought of time and talk endlessly. We had a gay abandon for the world around us, it was just us and there was never a dearth of subjects, we moved from one subject to another. It is difficult to find a person to match ones wavelength lest alone have the opportunity to have him/her for a friend. We both were folks who craved for conversation. So the banter in Baga stays afresh in memories till this day.

            My friend was like an encyclopedia on movies and music. So we would start talking on movies, latest gossip etc. We would discuss on novels, the fiction writers we like, the autobiographies which have had an influence on our life. We would find something to talk about even by observing people who used to flock Britto’s.

We would discuss the dressing sense, the hairstyles, glint of love in someone’s eyes. We would go for a stroll on the beach during sunset. Ponder over the rashes on the legs caused by the fine grains of sand. Just look at the horizon and gape at the expanse of water. Chat up with strangers, spend time on beach beds while sipping on coconut water and play footsie whilst watching people frolic on the beach.

            My friend was a big prankster too, one day she said she would be back in a while as she had to pick up something for a quick bite. While I waited for her in Brittos a gorgeous European girl came by and asked for a light. I said sorry I don’t smoke and she said ok, no worries can I join you. I said fine and asked her if she would want to have something and ordered her a drink. We started talking on Goa, things to do. She told me about backpacking in Europe and how I should do it and in no time we were talking on quite a few interesting things. Once my friend came Natalie excused herself and left. Only looking at the mischievous smile on my friend’s face did I realize she was the reason Natalie had spoken to me. When I said she was asking for a light my friend said that’s how folks ask people out in Russia/ Eastern Europe, so guess you lost your chance to have some fun. Later I got to know that my friend had sent her a chit saying “you fascinate me”.

It was during one of our beach walk sojourns that we noticed a couple holding hands and walking towards the shack from the beach, both seemed to be lost in love. My friend said holding hands is a big step in a relationship. It is like the relationship has moved on to the logical next level. I gave a perplexed surprised look. My friend had a hale and hearty laugh and said looks like quite a few faces passed by in your mind where you held hands but didn’t take it to the next level.

I gave a look as though I didn’t understand what she meant. She started off in her natural way explaining how even hindu wedding used to be called “pani grahana”, which means holding of hands. How usually when you trust a person with your life you find comfort n holding hands with that person etc and so on. Like always I prefixed Sant to her name and said I am blessed, leave me alone J

            Spending time at Baga had its advantages, once we started hanging out there we got to meet a lot of interesting folks with varied interests. We started getting invites to exclusive parties. We ended up attending a party on a yacht. We tried out a beach hut just to experience staying overnight on a beach after a lot of people went gaga over it. We hopped almost a dozen shacks overnight with a group of Europeans. We were invited to a brunch in a villa on the beach which was really awesome.

We got to know of a greek restaurant in vagator on the cliff, I guess it was called Thalassa, It had an amazing view of the sea and I guess one of the best spots for a view of the sunset.

One night while at Britto’s or St Anthony’s I remembered what one of my friends used to say “If you are awake till 3 am, it means either you are in love, lonely, drunk or all the three”.  That kicked of an interesting conversation where my friend was pent upon proving the statement wrong.  The argument went on and other friends chipped in with their thoughts and finally we decided not to agree or disagree.

We used to roam all round Goa on bikes, still remember the promenade road and the old Portuguese houses in panchayats of south goa and visited innumerable shacks for food.

How time flies and now the snap of Baga rekindled all those old memories, we were back doing what we do best banter over any nonsensical thing. They say people change with time but I guess with us time stands still when we talk.

She started with a stupid question if the view of sunset has changed from those days, so the argument continues and banter has no sign of ending….