Ahhh

Big city—Cabs. Flooded Roads. Cattle. Dirt. People. Horns. Brands. Spirit. Choices.

Small city—Peace.

its here..

for the first time since i moved to goa..
i had trouble sleeping because of the din from the 5-hour thunderstorm.
the sun hasnt come out all morning.
its been completely overcast.
theres a cool, rain smell-laden breeze wating into my living room.
i feel the spray of fresh rain coming through.

say hello to the monsoon 2010.

weather update

the weather has been consistently hot. with a few bearable days in between. a few days ago i read a piece in the papers about how this is the hottest summer goa has witnessed in the last 4 decades.

gasp.

why now?!

while we had a few surprise showers last week, the past couple of days have seen temperatures rise steadily, and taking humidity levels to an all new high.

its becoming unbearable. its so hot that my brains are beginning to melt.

where frustration meets dejection meets creativity

our hunt for simple, basic, essential, affordable, yet nice furniture around the house has left us severly frustrated, dejected and disappointed. the only good thing is it got us thinking of creative ways to make furniture work.

at the staurday night market at arpora, we came across an enterprising french couples stall, featuring furniture and random knick knacks like frames, mirrors, trays, shelves etc, made form scrap wood. very cool and very kitsch. for quite a reasonable price we picked up a restored wine crate and 2 old school wooden cold drink crates -- the kind one would see in an old provision store..

next, we bought glass slabs, cut to size and placed them on top of the crates. the wine crate is now a decent very cool coffee table of sorts and the lower crates make interesting side tables.

one sunday, we even bought red and blue oil paints to color our coffee table with.. see for yourself!

homesick

its true. i miss home. and im referring to the goan one here.
my trip in bangalore got spontaneously extended. TWICE. im not complaining. extra time back home is always good. but i DO miss goa.

i miss the birds i hear every morning. i miss the easy driving. i miss vc. i miss chandralekha. i miss my maid. i miss cooking. i miss walking over to the general stores across the street every morning in my shorts, without a care in the world. i miss how easy it is. i also miss how hard it sometimes is.

i know when im back in goa, il probably miss bangalore again (im kind of schizo that way), but i do miss goa. i miss that sense of settledness. which one can only feel at home. the feeling one misses when youre away.

goa = home.

hallelujah! we're connected.

im posting this from my home in goa. yes, our BSNL broadband saga has ended. we're now connected.

the BSNL fixit man showed up out of the blue, fixed our modem, keyed in our settings and voila! we were connected. as simple as that.

it only makes me wonder why all the fuss and delays and procrastination and lack of accountability for the last 2 months!

project broadband internet

When we moved to Goa, "broadband internet" was on our list of essentials to get at the new house. We did our research, asked around and soon found out that Airtel hasn't figured out how lucrative broadband internet could be in Goa, so we were left with Hathway or BSNL. Everyone we spoke to seemed to recommend BSNL. Since we were not left with much choice, we decided it would have to be BSNL. And soon an adventure unfolded. One that is punctuated with many "WTF" moments, and is still unfinished 3 weeks since it began…

• You realize the need for broadband internet and you soon realize BSNL is you only option. The next logical thing to do is to try and find the local BSNL office. People point you in all possible directions. One sweaty blistering afternoon you walk around for about 2 hours, before you actually find it
• You go to the BSNL office and on making an enquiry about their broadband services, you have a hard time understanding what the person across the counter is telling you
• You figure out he's telling you that you need to fill 2 forms out – one for the telephone line and another for broadband internet
• You then proceed to ask him for the forms, since it seems that your enquiry wasn't a sign enough for him to hand them to you as well
• Then you try and fill the incoherent, roundabout forms despite the fact that there is not a single place in the office where you can put a sheet of paper down and write on it
• Then you hand the form over to the man behind the counter
• He then tells you that you need to go to the other BSNL office – the customer service kind of office
• You ask him where it is and he responds to say it is "behind that building" (and he points to the building in front of him)
• Ok. You think that makes sense, so you walk over, and luckily there is a sign indicating it
• You stand in queue and wait endlessly till the man behind the counter lazily deals with one person after another. Sometimes taking random breaks in between to drink water, flirt with the lady at the system next to him, randomly make conversation with his colleagues – while we continue to wait in the queue thinking WTF!
• Finally your turn comes and he takes an eon to process it, repeating the antics which you have now become quite used to, considering the amount of time you have been watching him do his thing
• He scribbles a telephone number on a receipt. That's your telephone exchange he tells you, and he says you need to call them and demand that they come fix your telephone. You think WTF again, but then again it's Goa – maybe that's how things work here. So you agree and move on
• The next day you call the telephone number in the morning. No answer. You try again. Still no answer. You try again and again and again. Then you think there's something wrong. So you decide to wait for your wife to come back to Panjim so she can go to the customer care centre, speak in Konkani to hopefully flatter the executive into getting your phone fixed sooner
• In the meantime you find out from your watchman that the BSNL linesman has come to your home and gone away twice in your absence
• Oh well. You decide you'll just have to wait for your Konkani-speaking wife to come to Panjim to work her Konkani charm on them
• When she does finally come, it's ironic that she calls the blessed telephone number and someone answers it at the very first instant! What's even more ironic is that she speaks to the voice at the other end in English and he conveys to her that the linesman will be sent to our home that very evening. WTF indeed
• She waits. There is no linesman
• She calls again at 5 15 pm, and is told that the office closes at 5 30, so there is nothing they can do
• The next day the doorbell rings. Your wife is astounded because you know nobody in Goa, who would show up at your doorstep. Unless some friend of yours decided to surprise you with a visit!
• It turns out it's the linesman. Looking very pissed off that his job isn't getting done. So you invite him in to do the deed. But he says he will have to come back again since he hasn't carried the instrument with him. Again, WTF indeed
• He promises to return at 4 the same day and you give him your telephone number so he can call you before he arrives
• You're out in the evening, but you make it a point to return home by 4 so you can welcome your new telephone into your new home
• Of course, the linesman doesn't feel the same way about having the job done. He doesn't show up
• The next day your Konkani speaking wife calls the exchange again and furiously demands that your phone be delivered, up on which he is told that the linesman has been instructed to do so since incidentally there is another telephone to be fixed in the same apartment complex. You feel fortunate that "the" day has finally arrived
• When the linesman does finally arrive, he behaves like its entirely YOUR fault that he wasn't able to fix the telephone
• Through the ordeal that you've been through, you imagine that the process of fixing the telephone will take an age, so you sit yourself down on an uncovered mattress and prepare for the long wait. You're already cursing the crap out of the linesman for arrive just when you were all ready to shower and leave the house to go get your errands done
• The linesman starts the job, carefully taking the telephone line in through the window and connecting it to my brand new handset
• And voila! That was it. In less than 7 minutes you have a telephone
• Excited, you pick up the receiver, only to find there is no dial tone. The linesman tells you disinterestedly, that the exchange will give me a call soon, which will activate my telephone and give me my number. WITHIN half an hour he assures me. You believe him
• You shouldn't have. Because more than 24 hours later you still haven't received the call. So you have a BSNL telephone. Without a dial tone. And you don't know your telephone number. And you cannot apply for the broadband internet services unless you have all of the above

WTF indeed.

ironic

the ironic thing about telling people you're moving to goa is that people who didnt visit you in bangalore, or when they visit bangalore, or when you visit their cities, now suddenly want to meet you. in GOA.

Beached!

Week 1 in Goa

Agenda - House Hunting


A black swift brought us to Goa in 16 hours. A pile up on Tumkur road put us back by an hour and a half. A road accident further up en route to Hubli put us back by another hour and a half. Dharwad to Londa. What in the world were we driving on? Rubble? Gravel? We were averaging close to 25 kmpl. Oh we also lost a wheel cap and found it when a truck driver handed it to us. We lost a remote to our music system. Haven't found that yet. I think Nijay threw it out the window. Stress has a weird effect on people.


10 pm - Reached Bernado. Oh by the way Bernado is a residential hotel in Dona Paula. Cheap and clean. Checked in, went out for dinner and called it a day.


We were excited about the next day. We had to meet people. We had to look at apartments. Saw apartment no. 1. Fantastic location. Not too expensive. And water problems (something we didn't know then) Saw apartment no 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 over the course of the week. Decided to take apartment no 1. "We'll get the Indian loo replaced with a western one" I said. I did that. But more on that later.


Lets hit the beach. I wanted to celebrate. Baga it was. Captain's Cabin beach shack. Downed a few Tuborgs, braided my hair, watched as Nijay passed through to new heights of physical pleasure with a full body massage. A full body massage? From a guy? I had to snap a few pics.. So I did. And I had to put these up. So I did that too.

Went back to Bangalore with braided hair. Quoting my bald friend G, "What you looking at? That's the way we roll in Goa biaaatch".

Week 2

Agenda - Settling in

Came back the following week and finally realised that the apartment we chose had water problems. We wanted to wash up at 7 in the evening and didnt have a drop of water. To make things worse, our WC wouldn't drain out. Which means that you would see lumps floating around. Disgust. Nowwadddodo? Start house hunting for the 2nd time.

Finally we found a great one. Moved in. Bought a fridge. Stacked it with beer. Sat in the balcony and drank. Cheers to a new beginning.

why goa?

because of this and this.
enough said!