Our friend from Moira, Juze Bostiaum, appeared on Kaun Banega Crorepati, the famous ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ hosted show. Juze had miraculously reached the end of the rounds by saying all his Rosaries & Novenas & had already won Rs. 50 lacs.

“You’ve done very well so far,” said Amitabh, “but for Rs. 1 crore, you’ve only got one lifeline left – Phone a Friend. Everything’s riding on this question… will you go for it ?”

“Sure,” said Juze. “Aum ek last chance, marta!”

“OK ….. The QUESTION is ….. Which of the following birds does NOT build its own nest ? a) Robin,(b) Sparrow,(c) Cuckoo, or(d) Crow”?

“Heje maayinchem caazar … I not knowing dat,” said Juze, “so better use my last life line, and phone to my friend, Pedru Pochok (actual name: Pedro Pacheco) from Mumbai. He’s East Indian, but a Bandra boy, & born & brought up in Mumbai, so he’s too smart-a real shaana buggar.”

Juze called up his friend in Mumbai, told him the circumstances and repeated the question to him.

“Arree Baba Anton !” cried Pedru, “Sarko Endo Mure Tu, Simple it is .. it’s a cuckoo.”

“Ah-vois, sure mure Pedru ?” asked Juze.

“Arre Baba, hundred percent sure re ! Pakka !”

Juze hung up the phone and told Amitabh Bachan, “I tell Cookoo.”

“Is that your final answer ?” asked Amitabh.

“Sarkem sure, Sir !”

There was a long, long pause, then Amitabh Bachan screamed, “Cuckoo is the correct answer ! Juze, you’ve won Rs..1 Crore ! !”

The next night, Juze threw a big party for all the people from Moira, at the Moira Club. Pedru was specially flown in from Mumbai, as the Chief Guest.

Time for speeches …

Juze takes the mike and asks Pedru, “Saang mure, Pedru ? Foo told you ? How you know cuckoo isn’t building its own nest ?

Says Pedru, “You’re sarko bondo re, Juze. Everybody knows a cuckoo lives in a clock! ”

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Well, it’s been two weeks since I got back from Goa and I’ve spent the last two weeks documenting the daily visits of Goa.

To sum up, my entire visit of Goa was fun. It was the first time that I went there, but I’ve learned how to get myself around it (hopefully)

Anyway, here’s the listing of the trip to Goa.

• Day 0 – Bombay to Goa
• Day 1 – The Hitchhikers
• Day 2 – Museum Hunting
• Day 3 – At Home
• Day 4 – Shopping and Walking
• Day 5 – Wining and Dining
• Day 6 – Church
• Day 6 – A Day at the Beach
• Day 7 – Goa to Bombay
• Photos from Goa

As all good things come to an end, our exhausting but extremely enjoyable vacation in Goa finally drew to a close. We had tickets for the afternoon Shatabdi Express back to Mumbai.
But, the return journey didn’t mean we didn’t have an exhausting morning.

It began with Lil white mouse and me gardening, more like pruning the the plants out there in preparation for the monsoon, when they grow uncontrolled. This also meant my debut in this field

Before that, Crispin headed off to Badem to meet his grandmother. He returned with a huge box of mangoes… a huge, extremely heavy box that we had to lug back to Mumbai.

After lunch, the three of us, viz. me, Lil white mouse and Crispin, who would be travelling back set off with Ruth and Dora towards Thivim station.

However, looking at the size of our luggage we realized it would be extremely difficult to transport it without proper transport. Now Goa doesn’t have proper transport, unless you own it! We were lucky to find a rickshaw who agreed to take us and the luggage. Lil white mouse and me went in the rick with all the bags, while the others walked it out via a shorter route.

We were joined by Valley who came to the station after work.

We located where our coaches would come. The train was late by almost 30 minutes. Lil white mouse was in a seperate compartment, but we managed to get the TC to arrange for her to sit in the same comparment with us. And the man beside me kindly moved so that Lil white mouse could sit with the two of us.

The train ride was comfortable, except when the train went into the tunnels and we had the compartments all filled with smoke!

We reached Mumbai a little before midnight where Crispin’s dad picked us up. We dropped Lil white mouse home and then returned to Andheri.

Changed, deposited the bibic in the fridge and went to bed. Unpacking shall wait.

A week in Goa without visiting the beach is something very people would do. Well, we aren’t among those people.

We had plans to go swimming in a nice swimming pool, but when plans didn’t work out, we chose to visit the beach.

The beaches in Goa are usually crowded and on a Sunday afternoon it’s at its worst.

And Baga Beach is among the most crowded of beaches as the picture above shows you. However, Valley knew of a secluded portion of Baga Beach, which is where we headed to.

It worked well, because we got the beach almost to ourselves, with the exception of a few lechers which is a disgusting characteristic of uncouth Indian men at beaches.

Had brought along a change of clothes, but wasn’t too keen on entering the water. Finally decided to take the plunge and we all spent a good hour in there. Lil white mouse sat on the rock like the little mermaid, but joined us later.

I didn’t need to change into my other set of clothes, because the sun shone down bright enough to dry up all my clothes.

We took the longer route on the way back because we didn’t want to get wet crossing the river again. We finally piled ourselves into the bus heading back to Mapusa, which took a long time as it stopped at Calangute, where it got stuffed to the brim (luckily we were seated the whole journey).

We got back to Thivim safe and sound and extremely exhausted. Changed and got cleaned quickly and hit the beds for a sound sleep.

The next day, we come home and if you’re interested, here are the pics of the beach day.

We slept quite late (infact early in the morning) after the barbecue on Saturday and it was quite a bit of a problem awaking by 7am to make it for the 8am mass.

However, we did struggle out of our beds and get ready.

Now Thivim Chapel is right on top of the hill, which means a great deal of walking indeed! I had received strict instructions from Lil white mouse to wear formals. Walking is bad enough, walking up a hill is worse, walking up a hill in the heat can be a real pain, but walking up a hill in the heat in formals is a real killer!

By the time we were at the top we were totally drenched in perspiration. And the chapel was also overfull and we didn’t have any sitting place.

We ended up sitting in the corridor which had one lonely fan that did throw some breeze. Crispin and Valley arranged for some chairs, so, thankfully, we didn’t stand the full hour.

We headed back home after mass, glad to have a good fan over our heads. Lil white mouse wanted to visit St. Christopher?s Church, which is the main church in Thivim. However, before that I was treated by the friendly neighbourhood witch doctor for a major catch in my neck, the result of me sleeping on a soft pillow on hard ground! (for some strange reason sleeping in Goa was a problem)

Got some pictures of the church, which was all locked up before we headed back. Had to pickup some provisions and we treated ourself to fake orange fizz.

We also stumbled upon Valley who was drawing water from the well and so I decided to give it a shot (for the photo ofcourse).

Also found some touch-me-not plants out there so indulged in shutting their leaves… hey it’s been a while!

It’s late now, so I’ll keep the beach stories and pictures for another post. Until then…

We may have walked all over Thivim the previous day, but that wouldn’t stop us from travelling to Badem to visit Crispin‘s Grandmother.

Our last visit to Badem was pretty much a disaster as it involved us hitchhiking all over the place.

Our trip to Mapusa was by the usual bus. We were accompanied by Dora, who for some strange reason buys half tickets for all of us. And the stranger thing is that the conductor gives her them knowing it is for us!

Anyway, our journey from Mapusa to Badem was extremely comfortable as we got a ride in a car, yes a real car, and one with an AC as well :O

We bundled ourselves in and reached there quickly. Picked up charcoal on the way for the barbecue in the evening.

Crispin’s Grandmother greeted the four of us with ample food, cold drinks and mango juice. You know I love to eat, don’t you?

After a good deal of eating and some TV watching (the first in Goa for the whole week), we finally left the place a little past 2.30pm and got a drop right back to Thivim!

Barbecue preparations began a little after we got back. Well, atleast I began to cut up the dried coconut leaves, while Crispin and Ruth were away in the fields with Dora and Lil white mouse was out visiting a friend.

Did manage to get some PC work done as well before they returned, but I really missed the internet then (a geek’s only link to the world!)

The barbecue was good fun, with us eating, drinking and singing till midnight, after which we washed up and hit the beds. The next day would begin early.

After a rested day at home, Friday was a tiring and leg breaking experience!

Friday is the big Mapusa bazaar, which means lots of things to shop and lots of crowds to shop with… I’m not a crowd person.

Anyway, caught the morning bus to Mapusa and entered the bazaar. Ruth didn’t join us, so Crispin, Lil white mouse and I had to share the carrying of the bags.

We walked through the bazaar and picked up loads of vegetables, some bread and then visited the fish market for some bangdas (mackerels) and prawns. Then went to pickup the things we needed to take home, which included cashews, booze and Goa Sausages.

While shopping, we made sure we kept consuming fluids; sugarcane juice, lime soda (got fleeced), lime juice and flavored milk. Needed this as it was horribly hot and we really sweated like pigs!

After a good few hours of shopping and several heavy bags later, the three of us caught a bus back to Cansa Board. We should have taken the rickshaw but tried to save a good deal of money. The consequence was increased biceps after lugging the heavy bags up the hill and down into the valley.

We had lunch and hoped to get some sleep which didn’t happen and then set out on our next adventure. This time we were joined by Ruth, Dora and Vally.

I didn’t know fully what I was getting into, but within the first half hour of it I realized. Well, we walked… yes … walked and walked and walked some more and when we were finally done walking, we walked some more!

Walking was up a long uphill road, along which we found some cashew fruit, some other weird fruit (which meant more of eating unwashed fruits of a tree). We also stumbled on a Gold Mine, where they are mining and exporting gold ore for further processing. And after still more walking, we finally reached the place we setout to be, a small spring.

I was rather disappointed seeing the size of it, because it just wasn’t worth the walk. And, one thing about walking is that you have to walk back. So, we began the long journey back in the dark (the sun had almost set by then), with one stopover for water at a house.

We finally got back extremely exhausted, with my legs almost broken. Again, it was a quick dinner and sleep in preparation for yet another long day.

After two travelling days in Goa, we didn’t have any plans for the third day and so decided to take the day off and recuperate.

We spent the whole morning and afternoon at home, though Crispin and Ruth did pay a visit to the fields which Lil white mouse and me visited later.

You must note that I am and have been a city boy all my life, and definitely have OCD when it comes to keeping myself clean! So, walking through a cow dung ridden field was pretty much a major nightmare for me.

Lil white mouse stayed in the lead at all times and I follower in her footsteps… literally.

The fields were huge, stretching in all directions. They aren’t normally this green at this time of the year, but due to recent showers a month back, the fields still had a good deal of grass. Grass brought the cows and buffaloes grazing as well as some geese (or were they ducks?) besides some goats.

And, Lil white mouse pointed out a strange shaped coconut tree, that just had to be snapped.

The sun sets quite early and the lack of good lighting results in darkness setting rather immediately. I did manage a picture of the setting sun, which I think looks really cool. Feel free to use it as your wallpaper

Before it got completely dark, Crispin and I ventured up to higher ground, where the chapel is, in hopes of getting a signal for the internet. Got the signal, but the speeds sucked as expected so after almost a frustrating hour, we returned.

The rest of the evening was as lazy with dinner and quick sleep. The next day we visit the Mapusa Bazaar.

If there is one thing I hate doing, then it is walking. And more than hating walking, I hate walking around in the hot sun, which is pretty much what we did all over Panaji.

I began the day making frankfurters and eggs for breakfast. Could have done with some pepper and a fan as well, but well, breakfast wasn’t all that bad.

We set off around 10 towards Panjim or Panaji as it is called now. The plan was to meet Dora near Miramar. We caught the tempo (mini-bus) to Panaji directly and landed at their prass (depot) in an hours time.

We took another bus from there and landed at Miramar which was the last stop. We harrassed the conductor a good deal because we weren’t sure where we intended to reach. This portion seems to be a lot more developed, with good roads and beautiful houses.

Miramar also happens to have a clean beach where Crispin, Lil white mouse, Ruth and me killed time until Dora joined us later.

We took quite a few pictures at the beach for those interested in the view (with some of us in it).

After spending sometime on the beach, we left it in search of the museum, which was the original reason we had come to Panaji. Along the way I stumbled upon Lil white mouse noticed the LnT House in Miramar. For those who know, I was with LnT till August 2006, before quitting to pursue my MBA.

Strangely, no one had heard of a museum in this area, so we finally headed back to Panaji in search of the museum. Out there, we came across several people guiding us in several directions, as well as the occasional a museum doesn’t exist message.

It was almost lunch time and we were highly irritated by the whole deal and so decided to just eat first and ask questions later!

Crispin was raving of a place he got a full fish platter for only Rs. 200/-. In Mumbai, you would pay anything between 450 to 750 for a platter in a decent restaurant.

Crispin took us to The Ritz … nah not really, it was the Ritz Classic where we were served this huge platter of fish. Also added a prawn curry and rice and all four of us were stuffed properly with minimum damage to our pockets!

And on our way back, Ruth, Crispin and I indulged in some paan.

We renewed our search for the museum and the conflicting answers continued as well. It was nearing 3pm and we had walked for pretty much most of the day (read above how I feel about this!)
My frustration levels were reaching a peak and was really glad when everyone agreed to stop walking and just get back to Mapusa, which is exactly what we did.

Back at Mapusa, the trio introduced me to Gadbad Icecream. Gadbad Icecream is a mixture of several flavours of icecream along with jelly, fruits and nuts and a wafer biscuit. Will say that one such icecream is enough to fill an empty stomach and all this for just 25 bucks!

After the stopover, we headed back home. On the way we stopped by at Andrea‘s house, where I decided to check if I could get the Reliance Netconnect working. I did get signal, but it was too miserable to do any browsing.

Also had a glass of burnt feni. Burnt feni is made by setting the feni on fire. I was able to get a low quality photo of this, but you get to see the blue flame.

Dinner was quick and after a short rosary, we tucked ourselves into bed.

Having arrived in Goa safely, Crispin and I reached the house to find that there was no electricity. We played around for over an hour to get the electricity back, but it was more than we could handle. Was able to arrange for the electrician thanks to U. Diego‘s help who came in the afternoon and fixed it.

Before that Lil white mouse, Ruth and their granny reached Goa and our first job was to setup the house, i.e. bringing out the sofas, table, fridge etc.

Lil white mouse also managed to con me into eating a mango that fell of their tree… it wasn’t all that sweet, but this marked the beginning of eating a lot of unwashed fruits from trees!

Crispin and I walked down to Cansa Board to pickup some drinks (no alcohol yet). Cansa Board is a good distance away from where we stayed and you got to get through a massive slope and so we picked up another 500ml to help us on our journey back. It was a blessing we picked it up!

Post lunch, Lil white mouse and I went back to Cansa Board, this time to pickup essential groceries. This time, I learnt of a more comfortable route than the earlier one. It has its slopes, but they are a lot less steeper.

Our third trip to Cansa Board on the same day was to head towards Mapusa in the tempo. Actually, the tempo is a mini-bus, but for some strange reason it is called a tempo. Maybe, that is because they actually ship a huge number of people stuffed into it!

We spent a good deal of time at Mafusa shopping coupled with a bit of eating and drinking. The result was that we got late to head towards Badem to drop off things at Crispin’s grandmother’s place.

We decided to go anyway and on landing there found out that there would be no more buses back to Mapusa. Now, Badem is a good 20 or so minutes away from Mapusa by vehicle and is definitely not a walking distance. Anyway, we dropped the parcel off and decided to walk back to char rasta (four roads) which was a place we could hopefully get some transport.

As we walked down the dark and deserted road, we started to get a bit tense about getting back. The problem was that Lil white mouse’s Nana was at home alone and we had to get back. Otherwise we could have just camped at Crispin’s grandma’s place.

A little before the char rasta we were able to flag down a pickup-van with a couple who dropped us at Calangute (which wasn’t in the right direction) where we had some hope for transport. We flagged down a taxi who asked for Rs. 300 and refused to come lower than Rs. 225.

In Goa, the rickshaw and taxi drivers are just waiting to fleece you and we weren’t going to let this guy do it. We asked him to go and waited for more transport. Luckily for us, another pickup truck came along with a guy who agreed to take us to Mapusa for just Rs. 40. So we stood in the truck and travelled the entire journey with the cool breeze in the air. We reached Mapusa safely and quickly caught the connecting bus back to Cansa Board.

Dinner was quick. The washing and drying the dishes were not so quick and after a quick rosary we dropped into our beds and slept peacefully.