Goa wale beach pe!!😎

Frankly, this was my first ever long trip after the lockdown. I had no option but to go here and I thought, I’ll have my granny with me so why not!! Though I had my PGCET procedures pending, I took up the risk and went. We were going to attend a big fat Marathi Wedding of my Amma’s far relative. In confusion, I gave my consent and Amma packed all her bags with the fullest enthusiasm that night.

On the travel day, we left home by 9 in the morning. We were travelling with family from Amma’s side; My Ammmamma, 2 uncles, aunt, cousin, my parents and myself. My older uncle was driving on that day and my younger uncle handling other stuffs along with my Amma. So my journey started, in the backseat of an Innova with my cousin enjoying her little plays. Goa is around 350 kms away. It was a very long journey and as usual my extra protective and ever ready Amma had all the food ready, which made us miss most of the travel food, but now looking back at it I feel she took all those difficult just to keep us safe in the new normal.

We had morning snacks at Hotel Parimala in Kundapura as we have had our breakfast at home. Later we rushed our journey with songs, talks, and laughs. Half way through when our energy started draining again, we stopped on the highway side. We spread the newspaper, arranged all the foods and other things as we sat for lunch. Lunch had rice, sambar, chapathi, curry, curd, buttermilk and fruits. Once finishing all these food neat and Clean, we hit the road and drove to Goa.

After hours of driving we finally reached South Goa and as we had time, we went to Palolem Beach where my cousin got excited seeing it. Paloelm beach is slightly crowded. It has beach houses and food, just how Goa beaches are supposed to be. We clicked a lot of photos there and enjoyed. Ammamma was silently sitting on the beach chair, vibing. After playing in water and, posing for photos, we headed towards a Vegan Coffee place nearby. Appa, My uncle and aunt went to have the coffee, as we went back to the car after freshening up. Once they came back, we travelled to the wedding home.

We reached the wedding place in Ponda, ate the evening snack, met our relatives and started participating in the rituals which were very new to us. Everyone of us were treated with a beautiful hand stitched bag, sweets, snacks and the Shagun. The rituals seemed different in Goa, though the meaning was depicted similarly. As we were tired that day, we went to Vijayadurga Temple, where our night stay was arranged.

One thing about this trip was that, where we lived had no signal. I being the most tensed one off all, would find the slightest signal to call my sister for any kinds of announcements from the KEA website. My dates would be released any moment, I had thought but nothing such happened until I came back. My other tension was, where to travel once the wedding is done. So I booked train tickets to Bangalore on the wedding night to be on the safer side.

Wedding was in the Vijayadurga temple, which is one among the beautiful temples in South Goa. We attended the wedding, enjoyed the scenery and food. After the wedding, we all planned to go to Colva Beach. We were almost 20 people on the whole. By seeing the crowd, I didn’t want to get into the water but all my other cousins did. Amma and I roamed around the beach searching something for Shaamu ( You know it’s mandatory now!! )

We came back home, all drenched and tired. After the bath and food, all went to sleep as we’re driving back the next day early in the morning. We woke up by 4 the next morning and by 5, we were on the wheels back again. Yes, I had told I would be travelling to Bangalore, but by seeing no notification in the website, I decided to get back home still not 100% sure.

By afternoon we were able to reach our home after our morning breakfast in car and lunch at Padiwals Restaurant and seeing ammamma so tired, my uncles thought to travel back after a power nap which ended up to be a stretched out nap, till night. Once everyone left home at night, I checked on the KEA website where my allotment dates were released with a proper gap. Later whatever happened was a magic.

This road trip filled me with joy as I had travelled with my family.

This road trip filled me with energy.

The road trip filled me with confidence.

On this trip, my uncle told me, ‘ Don’t be anxious until the news is out. Once it is out, you’re supposed to work on achieving it rather being anxious ’. And that hit me hard. I have been trying to follow those words since then and for the rest of my life.

That is it for this week!!

Cheerios!

Until next time!!