Sunday, January 3, 2016

Two different times, two different places

December 23, 2015: The day came when I was supposed to leave Bangalore and start my journey to Goa to meet my college friends who were coming there. I had finished my work and started for the bus station where my bus was scheduled to leave from. Though I was little late due to heavy traffic, yet I reached the station before the bus had left. I was traveling alone this time and started a conversation with the guy sitting near to me on the window seat and got to know that he was pursuing MBA. He gave lots of information to me regarding MBA and its future prospects.The bus stopped at a place and we had dinner after which we started again and the bus reached Goa an hour late in the morning. 

My friend Abhilash was at the bus stand to receive me. A couple of friends arrived in the evening and by then I had moved to a GTDC hotel near Vasco-da-Gama railway station. I had visited Goa to meet high school friends in July, 2015 when heavy rain welcomed me. Whereas last time we hopped on the beaches and visited forts, this time we spent more time on one or two beaches, ate near the beaches and visited Churches. My friend Jishnu drove the car. 

When I look back a week, I feel that Goa seemed to be different this time. It may be that I saw it with different eyes. Eyes which had seen it once, eyes which felt happy seeing friends but somewhere or the other it felt loneliness. I don't know what it was but when I reached about 100 metres above the sea level while parasailing, everything seemed to have stopped, still as if it never moved. I saw the sky, the distant water, other boats and there was no ground below my feet. That was the moment when I felt as if I am not even a pebble beside the sea. That was the time when I had the flashback of one of my friends who had told me about the thrill in paragliding. I felt the same and returned with lots of memories. 

There were two other friends who shared room with me. One of them was Amit, whom I saw after about five years. All of us shared lots of memories of college. We also visited Dona Paula, where we got an awesome panoramic view in the moonlight. The rays on the water surface seemed to have created a path in the water, a path which lead to somewhere unknown. 

At last, the day came when we had to return. I had spent four days in Goa but still I wanted to stay back with my friends. I knew that it was not possible and we had to separate one after another. I boarded on the bus to Bangalore on 27th. And thus ended my journey to Goa with lots of happiness but with heavy heart.