The Goa trip that changed my life ™ - Part 3

24th Jan 2009, Sky - 4PM

The boat was all set to lift me up in the sky. There was this other fellow (I thought he will be my "saviour" in crisis) who was going to fly with me, I think he was there to give direction to the parachute.

The boat moved towards the water in decent speed, lifting us up into the sky, it was a great start to my short parasailing jounrney. Its an amazing feeling to see yourself move away from the land. We went higher and higher, the maximum it was meant to go in just a matter of few seconds. The boat below started to move further into the sea so that it could give me that dip into the water. I turned back towards the shore, it was drifting away. The fear was gone by now and I was enjoying the moment to the fullest. I felt being on top of the world.

The beach just looked strikingly beautiful in those colourful umbrellas and the rusty look of the shacks just made it better. The thing that made the scenery outstanding was the fact that it was crowded perfectly. I was glad that I was doing it at Baga. I just wished I had carried a handicam to the top.

In the midst of all this we started descending towards water, the boat below came to a stand still. It should have been a scary moment for me as the shore was about a mile away and the water was supposed to be quite deep out here. But I was surprised to know that I had adjusted to the whole setup so well and was enjoying everything so much that I didnt even feel a bit of, what fear is. By this time I had totally conqured my fear, I felt proud of myself. Slowly and steadily my body got submerged into the cold ocean water, I was dipped till my neck. Just a second more and I would have been totally inside water, but the boat pulled back again in time and I was lifted above the water in pretty much the same way as we started. This was the farthest sea water dip of my life.

I was glad that I am doing this. Now it was time to go home (literally speaking :)). We turned towards the shore, the boat started to cruise towards my waving friends. The guy who had accompanied me said that be ready for a rough landing. What the heck is that?, I thought in my mind, Is he trying to land a plane? Indeed he was trying that, he asked me to run while landing. Ok, I can do that. We started descending down, I could now see my friends.

@40 Mtrs above the ground - Felt like a kite, helplessly descending down but still enjoying the moment.
@30 Mtrs above the ground - Saw the people getting ready to cruise, like me.
@20 Mtrs above the ground - Waved towards Sid who was taking my pic.
@15 Mtrs above the ground - Saw an old foreigner running away to save his life, from the spot where I was to land.
@10 Mtrs above the ground - Was "ready" for a rough landing.
@5 Mtrs above the ground - Fully concentrated as to how I have to run while landing.
@Ground Zero - Thud......AAAAAAAAAAAAA....My "saviour" landed on top of me making it worse. I saw at my left leg, my feet had twisted anticlock wise by more than 90 degrees. It was not until this moment that I thought I was in trouble. I was surprised as to how I was so descent at this hard time (as in guys generally speak their true mother tongue in situations like this ;-))

I didnt panic looking at my feet, consoling myself its nothing, its just a minor twist. My friends came screaming and shouting at those guys. They panicked after looking at the feet especially girls. I saw Shweta and Ashish beside me. I held my ailing feet with my hands, gently trying to get it back to its original shape. But it was stiff, then made up my mind and twisted it forcibly. Tukkkkk...was the sound as it came to its original place. I was relieved and so were my friends, that its not as bad as it could have been.

Now the owner of that small adventour sports company came there, they started to portray that it was not their fault, it was caused due to the wind. I was lifted and taken to the nearest shack.
"Nothing has happened, get him a lime juice" - the owner was saying this repeatedly to save his a**. Sid got frustrated at him. The emergency rescue jeep was called. I was put in a stretcher and put on the back of the jeep. Sid accompanied me. The life guards coordinated with others on walky talky. The jeep cruised towards the main road. The Australian doctor who accompanied us in the jeep then cleaned up my feet and tried some movements on it. It was not paining at all. So he conculded on the walky that I had a "badly sprankled feet". His advice was to go to the hotel and apply ice on it. But we insisted on going to the hospital as we wanted to be sure that everything is fine and its not more than a sprankle. An ambulance was called.

In the mean time we came to know that these kinds of incidents are quite common here. Exactly then we were told that there is one more similar case and we will have to wait for them to come so that they can join us to the hospital. By this time we were in the ambulance, waiting for them. We came to know that its a girl. Being a guy the first thing that came to my mind was - "I hope she is good, and wonder if her female friends will accompany us" ;-) (Here I was under this self assumption that I am all fine).


24th Jan 2009, St. Anthony's hospital, Anjuna - 430PM

Anjuna is one of my favourite places in Goa. I never miss that place when I am in Goa. So god was kind enough to send me to Anjuna, but what a pathetic way to go there :-). We passed the Anjuna Petrol Pump, Police Station and then the bunglow where we had partied last year. It was all going through my mind that how we enjoyed our 2008 trip at Anjuna.

You guys must be wondering why didnt I mention about the girl, well!!!, not worth mentioning :) , apart from the fact that she seemed to be badly hurt (and was accompanied by a guy and sweet looking girl). She was continuously screaming in the ambulance, I kind of felt scared for her.

After reaching the hospital 2 wheelchairs were called off and we were taken in to the X-Ray room. Looking at her pain (and being a gentleman that I am:)) I offered her to go first so that she can be treated ASAP. Then my left feet went through the x-ray. In the meanwhile we came to know that this other group was a bunch of MBBS students from Pune. So being the doctors that they were one guy entered the BLACK room, due to which her x-ray got spoilt. :)

We were waiting for the x-ray result. By this time Adit, Ashish and Shilp had also come to the hospital. Since the main orthopaedic doctor was not there, theses MBBS students concluded that I had 2 fractures and that girl had a minor sprain.

I said it cant be, I asked my friends to check if the x-rays have been exchanged in this whole confusion. But certainly not, my last resort was the orthopaedic doc, I wanted an opinion from him (just hoping that its not bad). After waiting for almost 2.5 hours the doctor came. He told pretty much the same thing that those guys had said. On top of it he said that it has to be operated within 24 hrs. I was shattered, he made it look so big even when I was hardly feeling any pain.

Now came the hardest part for me, informing my parents. I had come to Goa without informing my parents. I am a bad bad lier and I didnt have the power to face this. I called up my uncle, and while talking to him I broke down because of my guilt. This was kind of eating it up, much much more than my physical pain. He asked me to fly back to Raipur so that they could handle this in their own way. The doctor did a temprory plaster and we left the hospital for the hotel.

24th Jan 2009, Hotel Pinto Palace, Baga - 830PM

Shweta and Ranu were waiting at the hotel eagerly. The hotel staff was kind enough to give us a pre booked room (booked for some other guest) on the ground floor. I was going through many mixed emotions, still very much because of that guilt of not informing them in advance.

Everyone wanted to get back to Pune, they were not in a mood to continue it. But I didnt want this to happen so I convinced them against it. Now the logistics were being worked out, after initial hesitation I was convinced that I can make it to Raipur myself using the wheelchair service. My flight was at 630AM the next day to Bombay and then at 10AM to Raipur. Therefore we will had to leave this place by 430AM as the airport was 45kms away. Then all of us had dinner together. In the meanwhile Shabeena, Anushree and Aurelie had planned to go out for a party at a nearby club. Sid and Adit also accompanied them so that they could keep themselves awake till 4AM. Ashish, Shweta,Ranu and Shilp remained with me. At this time I missed my other friends Divya, Rahul, Gippy and Ozzy.
The eventful journey didnt end here, both the car drivers had parked their cars at an unknown place and switched off their mobile phones. Adit and Sid were looking out for a tourist vehicle at 4AM in the morning. Finally they found a Maruti Van, which took us to the airport in time.


25th Jan 2009, Goa-Mumbai-Raipur - 630AM - 230PM

I was supposed to reach Raipur by 11AM but my flight got delayed by 2 hours at Bombay. Now I was facing the reality, when I was being pulled away by some attendant in a wheel chair all over the airport, when I had to use the toilet with a wheel chair sign outside and when had to depend on anyone else for even a small thing like buying a bottle of water.

I had to wait there all alone for more than 2 hours. God was kind enough here. I met Jatin at the airport, he had to catch a flight to Delhi. It was because of this very flight that he couldnt come to Goa with us (In the initial plan he was supposed to be with us...small world..isnt it?).That f**k** laughed at me for more than 15 minutes continuously (still does when I meet him).

Then I boarded the flight to Raipur, and was quite surprised to know that I was upgraded to Business class (Indian Airlines not bad).

When I landed at Raipur, my family was there to receive me. I couldnt look into their eyes, but was relieved to be back home.


My Happy Realizations

• Never take your freedom for granted. Its the most valuable thing that we have.
• Make the best of your life and time, enjoy your life...I realized this when I couldnt go out with my friends and family for more than 2 months.
• Appreciate what you have, take care of yourself. There are many people who care for you.
• Your Friends and family are your biggest assets. Cherish and respect them!!!
  

I know these may sound very general, philosophical and boring :) but these were my happy realizations in the last 3 months of my life.


P.S - Last pic is my "2009 Goa Look" :)

The Goa trip that changed my life ™ - Part 2

24th Jan 2009, Goa Border Toll booth- 830AM
After leaving that dhaba we reached the Goa state border at around 830AM (For a change Sid was now in our car).


Should we take the vehicle entry pass at the state border?, was the next question. But then since we were in 2 cars with so many girls ;-) and were scheduled to stay there for around 3 days so we decided to take the pass.


But who knew that it will take around 1.5 hours for that damn thing. There were many reasons for the delay, firstly whole lukkhhaas from Pune and many from Mumbai were in Goa for the long weekend, secondly one of the drivers had screwed up his car papers and thirdly the same driver didnt have a license. Since we had with us our saviour friend Adit, everything was managed in a magical way.


There is this unique quality with this guy which makes him different from all of us....I remember...Once upon a time in Pyramid lounge Pune around 20 of us had entered the party with exchanging stamps, but only 2-3 of us had actually paid for the entry. It was classic example of stamp exchange leading to an uncontrolled chain reaction. It was all under his able supervision....Hats off to the man.



24th Jan 2009, Calangute - Baga Road- 11AM


Now since this was an impromptu trip, we had not done any hotel bookings. And we were under this big impression that this season the tourism is so badly affected in Goa that we will get a good deal after reaching there in terms of location and standard of the hotel.


But we were in for a big surprise, there was not even a single hotel that could offer us 5 rooms. Reason being, as I previously said that every single lukkha (like us) had followed us from Pune, everything was booked, also we were late in reaching Baga cos of the entry pass. Worst part, there was no parking, so we had to park our vehicles before Brittos, and it was quite hot at that time of the day. We searched for hotels around Brittos, but no luck, then we again got back into our cars and headed back towards the Calangute-Baga road.


We stopped just after the Tito's lane, and everyone got down. It was time for the guys to do something. Everyone headed in different directions, in search of food and shelter. There was this extra pressure on we guys as we had a Firang girl with us and after all the whole country's image was at stake.


So fighting against all odds we finally found a hotel that had 5 rooms (details of rooms coming later), the hotel was at a decent location and the name of the hotel was Pinto Palace (as far as I remember). After bargaining for some time we got the rooms, by this time everyone was damn tired.


Till this point we were 5 guys and 4 girls and we were expecting Anushree's friend Shabeena from bombay. Therefore 2 of the couples took one room each, 2 girls took one room and 3 of us took 1 room leaving 1 room totally empty.


At this time we (Adit, me, Ashish and shweta) were discussing how will we distribute among 5 rooms at night considering the "Curious case of Siddhartha Baruah". To know more about this discussion you will have to again pass through that highly confidential authorization process. For details mail me at agarwal.sandeep.s@gmail.com with subject line as "How I met your Mother".

24th Jan 2009, Baga Beach- 1230PM

After getting freshened up everybody came into their best possible colourful goa attire. Loaded with digital cameras and cool shades everyone was in for a kill. The beach was at just 5 mins walk from the hotel. We covered this distance in about 30 minutes as we clicked many pics in between (And its only because of this reason you guys can actually see my pics in Goa :)).

We settled at the nearest shack as we hit the beach. It was Bobby's I guess. If you guys remember the last meal that we had was at the "Some Random Restaurant" after leaving Pune.
Everyone was just ready to devour anything edible and few of us, anything :)
We ordered variety of food which included stuffs in sea food such as squids, prawns, crabs etc, something in vegetarian (Anushree can elaborate on this) and ofcourse energy drinks. And here I actually mean energy drink unlike the previously mentioned cheap version of energy drink named "McDowells". The name of this energy drink was "Kings".



In the mean time Shabeena had arrived from bombay, so Anushree left the place to pick her up. There is a little story behind her reaching so late, actually she was suppossed to reach by 9AM but her bus broke down in the outskirts of goa. You see everything was not going that great with us.
After having our food and couple of energy drinks many of us went inside the water with tubes.



24th Jan 2009, Baga Beach - 330PM


It was kind of getting bored playing in the water so we decided to play in the water with some water sports. So we called the whole gang (except for Shabeena who wanted to make up for her lost time at the shack). Everyone started discussing things he/she wanted to do. It was decided that first we will do Banana ride. Generally I am afraid of water as I dont know swimming so I decided to keep away from Banana ride. I thought of pursuing other sports which I thought would be "safer".
These guys had a good time in the banana ride. They took quite some time, way more than a usual banana ride. When they came back Anushree was in the boat (this reminded me of my banana ride in the 2008 trip :)).
Then it was the time for the next sports, Parasailing. Adit said "I will go first". I interuppted in between and said that I will go first.
In the next few minutes I was all ready in the parasailing gadgets to fly high in the sky. After signing the "No responsibility" document (I dont know the exact term for it but they make you sign this, that just in case of a mishap they are not responsible).
"Do you want a dip in the water?", asked the guy, I said yes. Here I must admit that I was kind of scared so I told the guy who was to operate this, that if he brings me safe I will treat him a beer. He was all determined to do that.


To be continued.....