My first rafting experience

Last week, my office team went on an offsite to Dandeli. About 150 kms from Panjim.

It was my first experience:
Driving all the way by myself
Driving through ghat section at night
Enjoying the highway driving experience

River rafting
Sitting beneath a waterfall
Kayaking

All in all, a great way to get to know my team better :)

3 of 3900 weekends

the latest weekend getaway was yesterday. a nice long drive to arambol, where iv been before. with anand in town, vc too got enthusiastic to hit the beach. after a good long 9 month hiatus for him. the workaholic in him doesnt let him see enough of the beach. thats life being a bitch -- making you WORK in a place like goa.

anyhoo, armed with the new 10-24mm lens and the beaut that is the 35mm prime, we set off. and here's what happened:

another weekend, another island, another morning with photographs to remember it by

date: 12 december 2010
time: 6 am to 9 30 am
place: diwar island, somewhere along the river mandovi

shooting sirish shooting the beginnings of sunrise at ribandar ferry point.

our car being driven off the ferry as we reach diwar island.

chasing the sun. literally.

..some more sunlight.

trying to make the most of the 50mm lens, since shooting wide landscapes is out :( tragic!

wild flowers. open fields.

and then some.

touch of light.

what can i say. thats 50mm glory.

atop the hillock on diwar island.

piyush paparazzi-ing everything in sight!

an IFFI evening

IFFI times are here. and evidently if youre into the artsy-fartsy movie scene, this is the place to be this time of year. im not, though. so i decided to stick to the food-festival part of it, charmingly set out along the promenade by the mandovi river.

as fas as i was concerned, IFFI could very well have been the international food festival of india, with everything from delhi chaat, bombay pav bhaji, nasik special gola, mysore special gobi manchuri (yes, manchuri!) and seek kababs, dum biryani, baida rotis and rolls.

we made an evening out of it, karishma and i, later joined by VC. beginning with beers at the kingfisher village, where we subjected ourselves to some really bad music and probably the most heavily dressed goans i have seen in a long long time. we then proceeded to try everything from the chaat to the kababs to the chicken lollipops and we also dared to sample the mysore special gobi manchuri.

here are a few snapshots:

in which i discover more reasons to love goa

coming from the city of moral policing, where dancing in clubs/pubs is banned, where you give in your last order at 10 30, where you leave your watering hole at 11 30, and you go back home straight to bed, i discovered several more reasons to love goa.

on saturday, a few friends and us visited cavala, posibly the only place in the north that is open, functional and a whole lot of fun even in the rains and the "off-season" time. tucked away in what seems like an old brick house, cavala turns into a web of music dancing revelry and magic on saturday nights. with a completely authentic "pub" feel and atmosphere, a super enthusiastic and colorful goan live band in action, and a whole lot of twisting and jiving people having fun, cavala gave me the chance to let my hair down.

so back to my new reasons to love goa:
- it lets me get dressed, without worrying about being stared at in public
- it lets me leave home to head towards destination party not before 10 pm
- it lets me enjoy some brilliant LIVE music
- it lets me enjoy some lesser appreciated music like the beatles, santana, ccr, gypsy kings, etc
- it lets me DANCE amongst other dancers enjoying the night and jigging their way through it
- it lets me order my last drink whenever i want and NOT at 10 30, thankyouverymuch
- it lets me stay out till way past 11 30, still dancing the night away
- it lets me leave a pub when i want to, at 1 30, when the night is still young for many and the pub is still bubbling with activity
- it lets me satisfy my urge to have ice cream at 1 30 am, at the nearby baskin and robbins place that is YES, still open

the next day however, i woke up with that familiar ache in my muscles, that seemed like it was reaching all the way inside my bones. and i could only attribute it to a lot of alcohol and not enough water. oh, that and dancing on heels, after what seemed like FOREVER!

best birthday in recent times..

i turned 26 on saturday. and celebrated what was the best birthday in recent times. here's snapshots of the day we spent at anjuna..picture postcards of how i will always remember this day..

i missed amma and anna terribly. but thanks a friggin million ak, pa, g, niyu and vc -- for the most memorable birthday of all time.







now, to go and tick off "beach birthday" from my bucket list.