ON A BUS TO GOA.

OUR ABODE

Goa was never on my list of places to visit as I had been there many times. On her recent  annual visit to India, my daughter suggested we visit Goa, my brother recommended a journey by road as the Konkan area is amazing during the monsoon. Travel happy as we are, we quickly agreed and that started the mad, crazy idea of going by bus from Bombay to Goa.The movie by the same name had not really inspired us much!

The journey was beautiful, tedious, tiring, back troubling and yet exquisite. If one wants to  experience the beauty, culture, and cuisine of our country, then the best option available is to  travel on its road. I have to thank my brother for this wonderful experience.

KONKAN

Every turn on the road, every curve on the ghat, every little village popping up suddenly out of the green told me a different story. One cannot know India in the true sense unless one travels by road. The slow and winding road, the immense greenery wherever you look, the countryside with its waterbodies,  the sudden appearance of a gushing waterfall are nature's bounties for you, which only a road trip will show you. When one travels by air from one place to another, one only sees what we are shown, one experiences one city and then another. We see different kind of people at the two ends of the journey but  do not learn about them, we do not learn about who the people are and what their actual cuisine is, how do they eat and how do they host you in their humble hotels.

In cities we clamour for the famous Malwan cuisine and  go to a posh restaurant to savour the flavour. When one is on the road then you gradually drive into the land that is Malwan. You eat what they eat with their freshly caught fish, their local green coriander leaf which is called kothmir,  and savour the freshly ground spices in the cool fresh air of Malwan. There are no air conditioned rooms with conditioned food here. Aah! One can enjoy the flavour of Malwani cuisine in the land that is called Malwan.

As our luxury air conditioned bus moved on the undulating ghats, I noticed that there were very few trucks and buses and luxury cars on the roads. Most probably goods were transported by the Konkan railway and the car passengers would perhaps prefer to take an aircraft that zooms you into your destination without showing you the natural beauty that nature has laid out for you in a transient fashion, gradually taking you from the sky scrapers of Mumbai to the eating joints of Panvel and onwards onto fields of paddy, and the famous orchards full of the Hapoos mango, popularly known as Alphonso to you and me.

Malvan is different from Malwa of Madhya Pradesh and Malwa of Punjab. Isn't it strange that there are similar sounding names of areas  in different parts of India? Malvan is pronounced as Maal-vun.

We soon arrived  at Chiplun which is the place  known as the abode of the Kokanasth or Chitpavan Brahmins. We stopped for lunch in a small eatery where the walls were full of photographs of all the famous people, mostly film stars who had eaten at the restaurant. The food was excellent, service was quick and the place was clean.

We soon left Chiplun and  took to the highway again. As the road went winding up and down, we touched a few small towns and soon enough arrived at a place named Sangameshwar which is at the confluence of two rivers Sonavi and Shastri.   Samgameshwar  is the place  where Sambhaji Raje the eldest son of Shivaji was captured by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Sambhaji Raje met with a barbaric, torturous and tragic death at the hands of the Mughals who killed him at Tulapur near Pune. Sambhaji Raje  had tried to conquer Goa in 1683 and had  almost ousted the Portuguese, but to his surprise, a Mughal army prevented the city's capture by the Marathas. In 1739 the whole territory of Bardez was attacked by the Marathas again in order to take possession of the northern Portuguese  property at Vasai, but the conquest could not be completed because of the unexpected arrival of a new viceroy from Portugal with a fleet.  

As night set in we soon entered the large and well lit city of Panjim. The bridge over the mighty Mandovi river is beautiful, and the city looks enchanting in the night. We moved further southwards and arrived at the small little town of Varca. The roads here are narrow and the houses are  like colonial Bungalows. The Portuguese who ruled over Goa from 1510 till 1961, have left a great impact upon the culture and cuisine of Goa. The houses look tranquil, in fact they look like sleepy houses which are made for rest with large verandahs, beautiful pillars, sloping tiled roofs, a garden in front and on the sides and a small gate which looks quite inviting. All those wonderful Spanish words like Siesta, hacienda, came tumbling down my memory lane.

Vasco da Gama of Lisbon, Portugal had entered the city of Calicut in 1498 and had ended the spice trade monopoly of the Ottomans. 

 Afonso Da Albuqurque a Portugese Admiral had attacked Goa in 1510, at the behest of a local chieftain  Thimayya and won the war over Adil Shah, the Muslim Ruler of Bijapur. The rule of the Portuguese  therefore began over Goa after this attack. 

I would ask you to just think of how many treacherous people we have in the History of India who have invited foreign rule into the country. There was Jaichand who betrayed Prithviraj Chauhan when Mohd Ghori invaded, Mir Jafar who betrayed Sirajudaulah when Clive invaded,  Thimmayya who invited Albuquerque in 1510, King of Taxshila who betrayed Porus in 326 BC when Alexander invaded. There are many more, but I will stop here.

 The Portuguese rulers  encouraged the local people to change their faith and also encouraged their soldiers to marry local women. The culture of the place therefore changed with the passage of time.

PRIVATE BEACH

Coming back to my journey, let me tell you that the Varca beach is clean and there is almost no crowd there. Going to Goa in the monsoon has its own advantage. This is not tourist season so one has more peace and quiet and cleanliness. Swimming is not allowed on the beach, but then one can go for a long walk listening to the soothing swish of the waves as they keep coming with force and receding without a whimper. The sand is white and the shells are plenty. Crabs keep running in and out of their holes. 

SAND CASTLES

A little girl sits with her mother building sand castles. It is delightful to watch her concentration in building a castle which will soon wash away with the waves which are threatening to come higher and higher on the beach.

The evening at the local shack restaurant on the beach was a great evening with fun, live music, dance and great food.

An evening at the Colva beach was quite disastrous, as the beach was full of people. There was no sand to be seen, the noise of the people was much more than the roar of the waves, there was coffee and ice cream and all the looks of city civilisation all around. 

It was really fantastic that we were stationed on the Varca beach with more solitude.

Goa in the newer beaches towards the south of Panjim is fantastic.

BOAT ASHORE.

On the next morning as I reached the beach from a private exit, I was excited to see large fishing boats on the beach. There were atleast twenty men in and around each boat. This was a fishing boat where small fish were caught right at the start of the beach. 

DIFFERENT FISH IN DIFFERENT BASKETS

There were men who segregated the fish according to their different types. They were all put in neat baskets which were then hung on two bamboo sticks. Four men carried the bamboos with the baskets of fish to the waiting transport.

FISH AHOY!

The days job done, fish off to their final destination, ten men folded the nets neatly and pulled the boat back onto the sea shore.

A little away in the sea I saw even larger boats with their fishing nets behind them. They were in the deeper sea and perhaps would haul bigger fish. Their nets were blue and the boat moved on, it was not stationery. 

BEACH OF SHELLS

As I walked on the beach leaving footsteps on sand, I thought of the beauty of nature and the bounty of nature. Lovely fish caught daily, food for some and a means of earning for the others, there is a never ending supply of fish. I wish we, who visit these beautiful places would take care of nature as nature takes care of us. We humans with our plastic bottles and cans litter away happily without a thought of learning from nature.

In this visit I did not visit the relics of St. Francis Xavier, nor did I see Bom Jesu. I did not do the expected touristy stuff. I just lapped up the sea, the cuisine, the lovely happy atmosphere and freedom of Goa, I just imbibed the spirit of Goa.

I did attend a great rejuvenating short course on managing and controlling my thoughts and in turn my life. This course organised by USP at Goa has surely cleared a few cobwebs in my mind and taught me a lot of life skills.  As someone from my group said to me,"I like you...you are so Phunny". I assume she meant I was full of life and fun, and not funny as we know it.

Yes a bus ride from Bombay to Goa is a "must" to know your Western Ghats, Konkan, Malwan and the beautiful area that once belonged to the great warrior king Shivaji. 

The Konkani language is very different from Marathi or Goanese. I had always been fascinated by Konkani as many of  the nuns that I grew up with in my childhood had mostly belonged to Mangalore and spoke Konkanese.

NINE YARDS MINI SPLENDOUR

The traditional dress of the Goan fisherman has long since disappeared, they all now wear shorts and a vest. The women have remained traditional and wear their nine yard sarees going only upto their knees. That for you is the amalgamation of the West's short dresses and the traditional nine yards saree. Very practical indeed.

AMAZING POOL

Goa celebrates "Liberation Day" on 19 December every year, which is also a state holiday.This was the day India liberated Goa from the Portuguese rule.  

Goa was magical, the food was exquisite, the ambience of the place was amazing. Long walks by the coconut trees and flowering shrubs, cool sea breeze and the music of the Arabian Sea is something which I will not forget in a hurry. 

Go, go, Goa. Go for Goa.