Goa- The Basics

It isnt a newly discovered place or anything and most travellers think that they have got their Goan basics right.But thats true for a traveller and not a Goan resident. Normally when you think of Goa you think of the beaches, the flea markets, the booze and the nightlife. I thought of that as well before coming to this place. I have been to Goa before but back then I was at an age where I wasnt too excited about the above mentioned things. Now when I am of that age and do look forward to these things I ended up making the trip with my family (by family I mean just my mom).It was a I-wanna-go-there-and-now-no-matter-what thing. I was stressed out of my mind from my work life and it was the Diwali holidays. Being the not so festive family this combination worked well we headed out to Bodiem. Bodiem is a typical Goan village in North Goa (about 20 kms far from Mapusa) where my Mom's close friend stays and where we stayed as well for a short while.
It is really something else drawing knowledge from the locals and basically assimilating into their culture. During our very short stay there I got myself acquainted with many of the village people. My Mom's best friend Mini (that is what she is known as in Goa. Her actual name is Meenakshi) likes to use terms such as 'The Village' and 'The Village People' which is quite funny knowing that many of the house owners are based in big cities and a considerable number of foreigners form part of this 'quaint'(as everyone calls it) village. Well techinally she is right with her usage of such terms and that is how I shall be referring to them as well.
I got my first lesson on Goan basics on our drive from the airport to Bodiem. It was a 1 1/2 hr long drive and that did get me through to level 2 atleast. Mini and her sister-in-law were our teachers. For starters Goans do not pronounce the 'm' in most words. That is why Bodiem is pronounced as 'Bodee-ay' and Panjim is pronounced as 'Pannjee'.If you dont pronounce them as such people will know that you are an outsider. Secondly Goans love bombill. They eat it in all their meals. Thirdly Goans are not extremely proud of their bakeries contrary to popular belief. But they definitely love their patties. And finally foreigners are referred to as 'white people' here. Okay so what if they are referred to as that in many other places in the world? We are talking about Goa here.
So thats all you will get in my Goan basics session otherwise I will have to charge. Once you get these right you are all ready to set off to Goa. Of course you need to know many other things before you actually do that. So go crazy in this crazier place but at the same time do get a taste of the rural side of Goa. Like they say, Its someplace else.

Creak-it -The Indian craze

No matter what you just cant get enough of this game. My affection with the cricket spirit first started when I saw the movie Lagaan. Well obviously it was because of Aamir Khan that I went for the movie in the first place and not the game. I never really knew much about the game before that movie although I do have some distant memories of me sitting in my Granny's house as she watched a bunch of men dressed in white with some white goop smeared across their faces running around on a green ground and thousands of freaks surrounding them and screaming their guts out. Yeah you could guess that I was pretty confused back then. Well coming back to the period when I actually began to understand the madness I would say that this is a game of extremities. One second you are jamming the streets of Mumbai all the way from the airport to Wankhede stadium just to get a glimpse of the T20 champions and the next second you are burning effigies on the streets of these beloved cricket stars.

I remember the day of the Australia v/s India semi finals in the Twenty-twenty world cup. Everyone I spoke to that day was like "Oh its Australia man. Like that's impossible dude. Maybe if it were another team you know then we could have gone to the finals and played against Pakistan. Yeah that would have been cool. Like totally." After hearing so much of demotivating crap I sat to watch the match and my Mum was in the background saying "Arre you are really wasting your time. Go study for Bcom. That will make your life more meaningful." I told her off for bugging me which did upset her a little but nevertheless I saw her occasionally catching a few glimpses of the action.

Well destiny was in our favor and before anybody could digest what was happening we had won the world cup. Woohoo. And the Indian crickters became the glorified Gods once again. Companies were dying to woo these charming youngsters to promote their products. Page 3 was buzzing with news of alleged link-ups. I read this column inviting comments from celebs on Dhoni's bare actions post the victory in Johannesburg. Many women and even some men were like "Oo Mahi should really work on his abs". Give the guy a break. I thought that it was a very spur-of-the-moment thing and it really creates a sweet memory. He's a cricketer and not a plastic idol.
Well, enough of me drooling over shirtless Dhoni. Coming back to the sport.... The world cup momentum was just subsiding when the India-Australia series began. We even got our older and experienced players on to the field and India felt more confident then ever. Mahi made a comment after winning the World Cup which I just remembered, (for those of you who are confused as to the lack of connectivity in this blog, I wrote it so boohoo) "This victory was repair work for the dismal exit of India from the World cup in West Indies." Repair work yes but not for long. The Aussies showed their aggressive side once again and beat us at most of the matches that were played. During this drama my boss who rarely talks about anything else but work couldn't help himself. He said "Only India is capable of winning back-to-back and then losing back-to-back."

The Indian fans were disappointed and the blame game started once again. Fearing contempt the Indian team had no option but to charge up all their energy and beat the Aussies at two matches. This made the already enthusiastic fans more enthusiastic and instances of racism and brash talk against the Aussies started. If any of you think that I'm siding the Australians that's not true. I'm just writing whatever I can remember from all the commotion that happened. The icing on the cake for the Indians was the T20 win which proved that the Indian cricket team was simply unbeatable in the 20 over format.

All's well that ends well. Dhoni's love life blossomed in the finale, Gambhir got a car, Sreesanth is going down South and as for me (not that anyone's asking) I'm just waiting for the India-Pakistan series to begin(God bless the Future Group) so that I can write more crap for you.

I will end this with what our Vice-Captain Yuvraj Singh (unfortunately not the captain according to his father) said in a recent interview "We cannot get overconfident after this series. Because if you look back at it, when India won it was always a close call between the two but whenever Australia won, it was a distant goal to be achieved"

So what if I modified some of his words. The thoughts are the same. Remember what Yuvi (the six sixes hitter and one crore getter) said!!