They enter into and beyond. From the beautiful shores of
nevermore. Waves enter and they may never leave. For Love is the answer and
cure of our creed.
I went to goa with the beautiful love of life. We stopped
and sat and talked, laughed and made love in the warm cool sea breeze. Went to
North Goa, hit mango tree and had a meal after checking in at Anjuna. Then
drove as the gentle pitter patter of the monsoon rain flew at us from the
skies. Reached the steed downslope present in Vagator, just to see that no one
was there. Was very happy to see such serenity – knowing how I had seen the
place previous year was how it still was preserved now. (Cannot be sure about
many of the natural sites present across the world – man likes to keep revamping
or gardening his natural landscape for an obsessive whim which remains forever
unsatisfied)
It was ganesh chaturthi / the rebirth of the elephant headed
maestro; went to a small temple in Chapora – which was dedicated to a local
saint. There was no one and we prayed and bowed in the name of lord, before
setting out to view the ever clear clean coasts of western coast. Neelam
driving the scooty and I behind hugging away with the wind on our face. Felt
like home…
The waves washed our feet clean, and we went to the end of
vagator; till the point the waves were right next to the shore and we could not
walk on further more. Saw two dogs shying away and I tried to make friends out
of them without fail. Suddenly I see an entire group of alpha male dogs surrounding
us, they are the locals and they wanted to bite the two dogs close to us.
Seeing this these dogs started warming up to neelam and myself (coming close
and hiding behind us) and this is when I realized if we were in between these
dogs – we would invariably get bit. I moved away quickly and instructed the dog
to also leave me through wild gestures and loud calls. As soon as we stepped
away, the dogs bit each other violently with screams and howls coming together.
I was on the edges of my attention. Sunset was taking place
and I prayed and focused my attention on the glorious sun dipping under the
western seas. The rain had stopped but only intermittently. We embraced and
then set off to our hotel room. It kept raining all day long and further more furious
in the night – sat with a breezer and king’s beer on my balcony till sleep took
over.
Yet the waves kept entering; through the seas in the air
onto the pathways of our broken heart ways and everything was perfect/ Mellow
and surreal.
The next day got up early in the morning and went with my
beloved to the beach (Anjuna) to see the sunrise; everything was misty and
cloudy with intermittent rains. There was no one on the beach for over 4 hours
and it kept pouring. Curlies and Shiva valley were deserted and not a single
soul was to be seen. We were in an alter mood and saw a beautiful eagle, alone
doing its early morning exercise ritual, standing flying still in the air some
30 feet above us, and we were its silent awed audience. It followed us like the
magic totem that it is, there is beauty and grace in its perfect flawless
flight. Looking through its camera mirror eyes, looking down us. We were
blessed/ we walked till the end of vagator and back, without seeing a single
soul. It felt that I was seeing this beautiful beach first time in my life;
never seen the place without any humans – always parties and people frolicking
everywhere. My lover and I held hands and played in the water for hours without
getting bored. We finally got hungry and went back to our hotel room to freshen
up and eat something.
We met our friends back in the hotel room when we reached, all getting up after
a night out and probably on a hangover. We went for lunch to Brittos,
calangute. We had already gone to Calangute the day before amidst the billion Indian
wannabes who are sitting there day in and out trying to get a vibe out of
drinking and trying to score some infidelity. We were both uncomfortable and
almost lost each other in the crowd also, yet we went to one end of calangute
amidst the rain – near Aguada fort and sat there making a Shiva lingam (thanks
to my creative lover) and praying and chanting to it. This was a beautiful
meditation for both of us and we still did not mind that. But now we were going
with my commercial friends to a very commercial eating joint in calangute and I
was not comfortable with it, to the fact that I felt like not going there
again. Yet friends had already started and neelam too was riding and before we
knew it – a big pothole covered with muddy water from the incessant rain acted
like our instant speed breaker- we both fell and were up in less than a second.
This is when I knew how much like myself neelam was, both were fine except for
some cuts in our leg. Mine was a bit bigger so I went with my friend Sumit
hunting for someone who could get me a tetanus injection and clean up. It was a
Sunday and all of calangute was closed on account of Ganesh Chaturthi and
extended holiday. Could not find anyone for a long time and then we did – a new
Christian hospital in a dingy area but with surprisingly clean interiors (on
account of it being new) with 2 nurses who understood my problem and fixed it
in a jiffy.
Neelam did not want to come to get her wound treated and she
got it cleaned near brittos itself. We went in and started drinking and before
we knew it we were high and chilling. Sometime later we moved on from there and
to Curlies. Nakul and his wife also named neelam had joined us and we were in a
mood to party. Sat in curlies watching the sunset and catching up on old and
present times, rain had not stopped but the sun was partially out. Rohit and I
then had couple of “Starfish” papers and started mellowing out. It was night
time and Nakul had to drop his wife back to airport, myself neelam, Sumit and
Amar started for an aimless drive, we saw a small party on hilltop with the
rain falling still and decided we will come back later. Started to lookout for
German Bakery but it had been closed for over 3 years, which I had forgot. Went
around driving for a long time and it was beautiful. Saw two insanely beautiful
owls sitting on some form of electrical connection and it mesmerized us. There
was darkness abound and after a long time we ended up driving blind and back to
curlies. IT was as if the insane starfish had called us back to the origin. We
got the way back to hilltop and danced for sometime in spite of my injuries.
Till the time we were both tired and went back to sleep
Went to the Chapora Fort early in the morning and saw
beautiful view for couple of hours, with no one to disturb us – it was amazing.
There was no reason this was not heaven I felt, we both talking to each other,
tuned in and sat in awe and rapture meditating at the view. We trekked to the
end of Chapora fort – one of the arms which extends out to the west coast.
There was the same Eagle -> this time with its extended family -> All
scrounging for food and going up and down near their nest. It was beautiful beyond
belief. We sat there for almost an hour in peace and love with neelam taking
photographs with her new camera.
This time I entered the waves, not to ever return for I was
not alone. This time I was holding hands with a goddess. Intense and Naïve. I wish
I drown in this love. Thank you Devi.
Peace and Joy