i was thinking about my trip to goa. while the memories are still fresh, they would soon have been erased from mind had i not the pictures for association. these may not cover every minute, every hour, but they do help to reconstruct times in the past.
the picture of s's ashtray, for instance, and of a standing at the villa entrance with a cup of tea, reminding me of the hours that followed our (t's and my) arrival in goa. since s and i had not been introduced yet, we were getting together for the very first time. in a&s's villa, we talked about cameras, tripods and such, and the benefits of having an slr. (gosh, how predictable!)
i ventured out to take some pictures of the palms, and the sea, until tea was ready. i also brought in the wet dirt from outside, that s politely got rid of. after talking for a while, we made a trip to the gym where i did yoga, and the others worked out (yeah, this is what we traveled all the way to goa for :). in those days, skipping yoga had seemed quite unacceptable!). later, while s&t played tt, a&i sat on the swing nearby and had a long, pleasant conversation. when s&t were done, i took pictures of our tired selves. these pictures trigger off memories of the entire evening, and of s's smiley-face t-shirt.
that night we celebrated t's birthday in the banquet hall. the cake was beautiful, the pictures will attest. a put her camera on a table far away so she could get a self-timed shot of us all. i remember her rushing back to our table to get there in time for the shot because i took a picture of it :).
that night we also played grab and teen patti. i find it hard on the conscience to play grab with new players. perhaps i should just stay out of the game... perhaps i should encourage team play... looking for ideas. t&i then retreated to our villa and chatted into the night.
the next morning, i woke up early to do yoga, while t ventured out to take some beautiful pictures. we also had an extended photo session at the water-front. a and i brought out our tripods as well (my camera, in fact, survived a major fall... the tripod was unstable and in the process of toppling over when i caught it. what a hero!). in fact, among the three of us, we had five cameras. this morning is captured in pictures. so are the waves, the sand, the thoughts.
after eating at the banquet hall, we lounged in the villa for a bit, before heading out into the lawns. after a photo session on the hammock (following d's phone-call from france, which i was most excited to receive), we sat around and played antakshari until it was dark. again, there are pictures of the evening, the sunset, and the lights coming on. this is when i experimented with my tripod to take longer exposures.
s, in his infinite wisdom, did a marvelous job of predicting the rain seconds before it started (thus saving my camera equipment from any damage, god bless him). we rushed into the villas, and played a game of dumb-charades before heading to dinner. t&i were on a team, and we lost miserably. that night, we ate at the chinese restaurant. i remember the potato-in-mustard-sauce preparation they had served. no, this is not in the pictures, but who could forget a dish so exotic :).
again, t&i chatted into the night. morning yoga followed, and the usual large breakfast. i spent some time lying on the grass, talking to n, while a&t did a photo-shoot for each other. i remember a huge pile of freshly mowed grass sat where i lay, thanks to the pictures a&t took of me. s joined us then, and we all played chess on the life-size chess board (the pieces were so heavy, i couldn't carry them. you have to see the pictures to believe it!). s&t (almost) won, with little intervention from t :). not to blame her, for she and i were both busy taking pictures at the time.
i said almost above, because it started raining before the game could end, so we rushed into the lobby. s&t played pool, a&i chatted about various things. i don't have pictures of this session because a was sick of camera presence. i decided i could do without it too, for a bit.
when the rain stopped, we went swimming. t, s and i were in the pool, playing water polo (or our variation anyway) while a took pictures and sipped on her martini :). after we had showered, we were all too tired to go to dinner and just ordered in. also downloaded and looked at the hundreds of pictures we had taken. t&i talked until 3am that night. it was our last night in the resort, we were to leave the next morning at 11.
the morning was beautiful, and we ate breakfast outdoors for a change. for reasons i cannot remember, the resort folks had been hosting all meals in the banquet hall until that morning. the weather was something else that morning... it was cool and breezy, with clouds on the horizon. an unforgettable morning, though not on camera.
as we waited for the car to come, i got to take some pictures of the lobby and outside. there was a pottery hut and a kids' corner we had not seen. i'm sure there was much of the resort left unseen. next time, perhaps. the drive back to the airport was rich and colorful. there were fields with farmers and livestock, lots of forestry, and multi-colored houses along the way.
my vacation in goa was spent in much introspection. setting the mood for the rest of my stay in india, perhaps. it also initiated a desire to see more, learn more of india in all its diversity, to see how the varied people of the country, my country, live. the problems of these people are so different from mine, from those of my parents. they eat differently, wear different clothes, speak a different language, and yet something binds me to them deep within. while the americans i live with, work/study with, share a present and some part of a future with, still feel like strangers to me. is it not strange, and in some way almost magical?
p.s. if you know me, you know where to find these pictures.
