Goaaaaaaaah!

There's one thing i can say for this Goa trip: if all my previous days on the coast are enough to send me to hell - maybe even deeper, if one exists - then this weekend is enough to buy me some redemption.

It was my most sober, tame, un-wild Goa trip ever. And these days, because i'm not so fond of rambling on and using my writing ability as fillers for posts (which i seem to be doing pretty often - my writing skills are gradually getting insufferable), i'm going to do a High points and Low points number.

So, here goes:

High Points:

Bumming on the beach for endless hours under a parasol: the sea breeze ruffling my hair, some nice bods to check out, a foot massage, alternating between a dip in the water and lazing on a sun bed...

Dolphin spotting: For the first time ever, we woke up at an unearthly 8:30 a.m (unearthly for Goa, that is) to look for pink snub noses in the sea. The water was pretty choppy with no guarantee of us spotting dolphins, and the rains were lashing but we still managed to see a trio.

Cape Town Cafe: Good crowd, great music, strong OH mixes. Bye bye 'Oh-i'm-so-cool-look-at-all-the-men-ogling-at-me' firang chicks gyrating obscenely on the pole counter at Mambo's! Adios men with pleading eyes trying to find women to get them in to watch the firangs!

Parasailing: All i'd like to say is, sailing over the sea is the best adrenalin rush ever. (Apart from river rafting.)

Chicken Biryani at Souza Lobo and Prawn Vindaloo at a beach shack: Even Mom's Biryani pales in comparison. And the prawns, oh the prawns. Yummm.

Low points:

- Bickering with the water sports guy over his charges. It sort of just got out of control.

- People stuffing their tongues down other people's throats, age group 18 onwards.

- A brilliant friend hiring a bike and riding a different one all through our stay, only to realise when we returned it a half hour before heading to the bus stand to catch our bus back, that the bike she rode was not the one hired out. Result: a very pissed off K and N, even more irritated because of making it to the bus by the skin of our teeth.

- Love in the air. And us? Single women. Sigh.

Dandiya che!

School girl-ish excitement was the flavour of the night, along with some Pav Bhaji, eggless cake and cuisine. The women were dressed up in mirror-work ghagras complete with tons of Lambada-style bangles, temporary tattoos, face makeup and heavy headgear. The men were mostly in kurta pyjamas, but some wore the traditional Gujrati costumers. The sticks were many-coloured and blingy.

That's how the first Dandiya night of my life began.

We dressed up in our best and went to Palace Grounds last night, reaching at 9:00 p.m-ish. Surprisingly, we were early. Dandiya sticks were on sale - 20 bucks a pair - and since we didn't carry any of our own, we excitedly went and bought us some...bamboo sticks of various colours cut to size and lined with pink colour on the edges???

Dandiya nights are apparently places where the eyes meet and the hearts connect - either in the circle of dance or via heavy saree-clad 'Ben's and 'Bai's. So when we arrived, the Gujju boy of our gang was given a once-over by a Black Saree Ben snickering something into her companion's ear. The Gujju girls - one who hadn't been to a Dandiya night in 10 years and another who felt like it had been that long since she had done it - were also weighted and rated by their dance moves, smiles and... more. Our South Indian friend decided he was better off amidst the stalls packed with Gujrati flavours than wielding sticks to give a friendly smack to his rotating partners.

I was pretty freaked out by the intricacy of the dance movements - the garbha and what-not - till i got the basics, after which i was set for the night. Two rounds of basic, then another three with a bit more flourish, and i was bathed in sweat. The movement might be slow and the beats well-paced but you can bet your a** that it exercises your body like hell. And because the circle is so enormous, we dandiya-d with the same people over and over. I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of the night, we'd started addressing everybody by their family-given nicknames! We wound up at 2:30 in the morning after a last ten minutes of frenzied dancing during which the drummer fancied himself to be a band member of Rammstein.

Exiting the place and fully excited at having inaugurated my Dandiya experiences, i turned to my friends and said, "So, shall we do this on Wednesday too?" to which my friends replied with withering looks. Like me, i guess they'd never dreamed of dancing to Dandiya versions of Beedi Jalai Le (Omkara), Tadap Tadap Ke (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam), Bin Tere Sanam (Umm, don't remember movie), and other very new-age disco numbers - one night of it was as much as they could handle.

Oh well, until next year then.

He said, "Love you" and meant it.

The only man in my life so far who's said those words - almost an embarassed confession (not to anything clandestine, though) just before he hung up.

I was on the phone last evening, talking to him. We hadn't had a decent one-on-one despite my meeting him several times in the past couple of weeks, thanks to some stupid clingy bitch and a big crowd. I really wish i had the time to talk to him some more, but the conversation we had was enough. He couldn't stop thanking me for the gift, cracked a couple of bad-ass 'man' puns (his justification: "You were listening to a whole lot of shit from the other boys and laughing your ass off, i say one thing and you're all chee-chee?"), laughed, said we'd keep in touch. And just as we were hanging up: "I will remember you with fondness, thanks sweetheart, take care" and just before the phone could be disconnected, "Love you".

I knew it, i always knew it. The affection was mutual, from the beginning.

When the words were uttered yesterday, though, i didn't know how to react. I just cut the phone. And i gave a bit of a head jerk - sort of like how one is awakened from a stupor when they're slapped. It's just a comparison, and not how i felt at all.

Ironic, isn't it? That when i hear the words from boyfriends and lovers, i fervently wish they're true. And when it actually comes from a person i feel a great deal of respect, affection, even a healthy amount of attraction for, i'm unable to feel anything much except that this time, the words were genuine.