goa diary — june 2022
good thing about driving down to Goa is that it allows you to carry back a ton of stuff. Mancuraad mangoes and sukka bangdaa from goa, kaju and assorted items at a shop in Amboli, a jackfruit from sawantwadi, rice from azraa and few good Kolhapuris:- quite a haul
we started with regular bench seat Kadamba bus, then semi luxury where the seat would recline just a tad — then the luxury where the seats would go way back. very few trips by train as we had to run across to the other line at Miraj — train trips meant DudhSagar and Kesarlok. folks would throw a few coins and make a wish. Bags of every size and shape to goa and return trip with huge amounts of fruits and goodies — board the bus at Dhobi Talao — Panvel the point where night fell and day broke on way back. Never really knew any other stop except Khed, courtesy hotel Poonam Deluxe. The men would pull out nips, have a quick one and settle down. Songs would play — I remember listening to “Sanaam Teri Kasam” — the song Nisha still means a bus ride under the stars as we navigated the winding ghats. morning tea break somewhere at Patradevi. And then Shiroda. And a fun 60 days or so. Fishing, football, late night movies, early morning mango raids, afternoon swim; two days into the vacation and one forgot what day of the week it was…
azraa- amboli-sawantwadi bypass — goa is a lovely drive. max about a km of road in the entire journey slightly “khadbadit”. view from the top — Amboli Ghat
small poem:
drop in
at my maama’s home
to hear stories
she will whisper
of a beautiful time
a dozen or two children
growing up
the games we played
the plays we enacted
the fights we fought
the bonds we forged
she waits lonesome now
proud of us all
she is the sum total
of all our memories
miss driving on the old Mumbai-Goa highway. all this mania for concrete expressways with lots of tolls — then sold as development-not my cup of tea. I wonder if hotel Poonam deluxe has survived the onslaught — used to be the stop for dinner enroute to goa by Kadamba bus.
seashore
tide rolls in
crashing waves
in harmony
with the shore
etching new memories
on the sand
while erasing
older ones
morning reveals
a broken bottle
evidence of
a jagged night
the sea and shore
continue
their conversation eternal
