Breaking Stereotypes and yet leaving room for some :Goa

Some cities are like a dream . You nurture the thought of being there like a motion picture playing in your head. The sounds and sight have already played up in your mind a million times , different versions of the same story.
There’s nothing that one doesn’t already know about Goa that one can possibly include in a travel-checklist.
There’s the fenny drinking , the walking on the beach under the stars , the haggling at flea market for junk that maybe you’ll never end up wearing, the bike riding through a line up of coconut groves, lounging at the beach so on and so forth.
And in the idea of experiencing the many treasures that they hold, you some how escape the reality.
So when you end up making a trip to this tourist paradise and don’t end up ticking any of those checks in your head , you end up feeling a little disoriented and a lot disillusioned.

But perhaps like the saying goes – you win some , you lose some . It was the other way around during my latest trip to the land of beaches , fenny and coconut groves ( discounting the fish curry and many other items of sea food that don’t appear on my list )

And winning I did , at the Casino Royale , a floating cruise with a three deck casino – complete with a dance floor , a restaurant , gaming arena and splendid views.

But other than this fleeting realization , all the other stereotypical signs were missing. No carnival mood, no frivolous dressing up, no devil-may-care attitude. So does that count as a trip to goa at all?

I ll save my answer to that till I actually experience the must-dos on my next trip. But calling these 4 days (largely spent inside the conference rooms) a waste would be unjustified.

I did manage the sunset on a quiet beach ( the wind in my hair and the waves playing around my feet) & the long walks exploring the “limitless luxury” of The Lalit .

I came back with some pretty sights , but there’s unfinished business and there’s hope that it won’t be long before I am back to experience Goa the way its meant to be.

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A moment to stand and stare:Kovallam

How long does it take to soak in a place? Some years? Months maybe or a couple of hours. Even though we might want our holiday to last forever sadly we seldom have the luxury of time. No casual strolls across its hidden lanes, no tale-swapping with the people who lived there , no sight seeing and no old legends unearthed. Not too long back I realized I only need a moment to capture the essence of a city that I visited.
My business travel took me to Kovallam. A small little world tucked in south india , in the exotic backwaters of Gods own country , Kerela.

Well connected with comfortable but not very frequent flights from Delhi. The nearest airport is 20 kms away at Trivandrum. But its totally worth your while to travel for over 5 hours , when you take a ride to the exotic Leela Resort at Kovallam with the rows of palm groves running by the side and the well turned out suburbs that have mushroomed around them.
You could take a cab or arrange for pick up on request. But even if you decide to walk down, nothing quite prepares you for the sights in store when you land at the plush property.
Sea facing cottages, elaborately staircase styled resort , its very own private beach and a choice of four excellently planned restaurants with their own unique flavour – right from the second you are welcomed at the grand entrance , the sights and sounds envelope you with the detailing and grandeur that is over whelming.
But in true signature style of most rustic resorts , not everything is manmade. If there is a plush pool side bay , there are tall ceilings partially open to let the breeze come in. If there are well planned rooms with open jacuzis there are private little spots created for you to spend a moment in tranquility.
If there are an array of cabs connecting the main resort at a height to the private beach and cottages at ground level, there are pebbled streets and brightly painted windows and exotic brass door knobs to add that rustic charm to the place.
Lounge at the pool , take an all famous kerela massage, eat under the stars or enjoy water sports at the private beach – its amazing how one can spend doing whatever one wishes to choose to fill up time here.

But like I said luxury of time is sometimes what we don’t have. Between more than ten hours of travel, elaborate strategic class room style presentations ,team bonding activities in the sun and partying without a care in the world before yet another grueling year begins – packed up in just 30 hours of my stay there. All it took was a moment of silently soaking in the sun going down the playful waters , with my feet in the sand and the wind in my hair , all by myself – that I experienced the serenity that people come looking for .

At the cost of sounding theatrical I could help but think , What’s this world if full of care. Not a moment to stand and stare?

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Discovering a treasure called Orchha

One month down the line from this trip and the travelogue still remains tucked away in the draft folder ! what a shame. perhaps it was the postaweek prompt or the urge to relive the holiday .. am back here trying to finish this one. It’ll take a little while .. but well begun is almost done in my case!

Some of us feel the need to take a trip to escape from the daily hassles of life and some to explore what’s out there that we have been missing knowing about. A little about former but essentially about latter , travel for me has always meant a journey towards discovery.
A lesson in history well learnt , a legend that still lives on , a purpose that binds an entite community and its generations together and a belief that refuses to be taken over by our modern sensibilities .I was looking for a weekend getaway for my birthday and I came back with more than a bargain.

This trip was planned almost a year back in thought if not detail at least. The husband and I were drawing up a list for the perfect weekend get away sometime around july and we came across this fantastic travelogue on the thought express at a blog that I regularly follow .
A place that we had never heard of held a mystical charm and the descriptor “land of kings” made the prospect too tempting to resist. But like few things are meant to be , it all fell in place in feb this year and I turned a year older at orchcha.

Barely 20kms from jhaansi ( an overnight journey away from delhi) this small little town was once the capital of bundelkhand. Infact the entire city is built around what was once a lavish kingdom.
On the bank of river Betwa , spread across just a couple of kms , the kingdom was passed on as a legacy from one generation to another.

Here’s to..

A new land yet unexplored,
Watch some new stories unfold,

Live the special day in the emperor’s land
Walk back into the past holding someone’s hand

Experience another adventure that life has in store for you
With strokes of colour and a folklore Or two

Am packing my bags , as the countdown begins
Am heading to the lands of kings and djinns

Here’s Turning 30 @ Orchcha and mumbai!
5 days to go :-)

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Happiness is..

….Winning!

Yes, undoubtedly … there’s nothing more fulfilling than doing something and getting rewarded for it. We can all kid ourselves with the idea that its only the pleasure of ‘doing what we like’ that really matters. but nope. The bottom line is winning!!

Clearly , Winning also has its side effects. Like dementia for starters. And that’s why I feel a little crazy with joy right now. Coz between yesterday and today I got not one but TWO WINS,

one , fuelled by obsession with starting something of my own – my entry for an internal business idea contest made to the final shortlist. If I make it further , who know I might strike gold and get motivated to actually realise my dream of being my own boss. more soon,when the time is right.

and second, on my way to ‘writing my own book’ , just when I thought I should write some more to develop as ‘ a writer ‘some one might actually pay to read’ , I sent in my entry for Chillibreeze Travel Writing Contest . Apart from some very kind comments , I also WON.

Check out the happy news here on this link.

Watch out for my very first interview of the site very soon..can I sound more delirious?

:)

 

Update : The Interview is right here .. Check this link and express yourself!