A Weekend to Remember

2 weeks before the trip –

            Well as usual we were having lunch when Vatsa broke the news that he has to leave for Germany on Jan 1^st week. Well there was nothing new about it, but we had plans to go for scuba dive in February and his travel meant we might not be able to go there. Further Rahul didn’t want to spend the new year in this boring Bangalore.  So they decided to go for scuba dive on Dec 31^st and 1^st Jan. Well I was still in dilemma if should go or not as mom was planning to go her mother’s place as it was her birthday and dad would be alone, so told them that I won’t be able to come. Vatsa already contacted the diving instructor and started to plan for the trip, I decided to go home and decide. Even while driving on the way back from home I was still pondering over the options of skipping this time and going for scuba dive in February finally decided to tell parents that I will be going to Goa on Dec 31^st and will be back on Jan 1^st. I decided not to tell anything about scuba dive since I was pretty sure mom would never allow me to do that, moreover she told not to go anywhere near the water :P, I know you will be thinking that I shouldn’t have hidden it from parents but sometimes you have to do that :P. So finally I said yes to join Vatsa and Rahul for the trip.

On the day of the trip –

            Well I thought I wouldn’t have that much work as it was year end and the onsite team had the entire week off. I was wrong L had to do some peer level testing and it was getting late and finally told my manager that I had to leave by 3 for which he agreed (had it been the previous project I am pretty sure my trip would have got cancelled, rather they would deliberately create scene where in I would be forced to cancel my trip.). All of us except the Trip CTO Vatsa, M and the cab were near my house by 4. Finally we started the journey by 4 45 PM, 45 minutes behind schedule :P. Since it was still 5 we decided to play DC Team 1 – V, R, B, S and team 2 – A, M, M, N, S. Both the teams were equally good but team 1 had an edge :P the game was fun and it went on for 3 hours until we stopped for dinner. The fun part was when R gave a movie name which had 16 words in it, M had to literally sweat it out by the time his team guessed the entire word. After having dinner most of them went to sleep I decided to stay awake and with great overconfidence told Sanjeev to go to sleep :P only to realize that I went to sleep and he was awake, really was so boring to see the road which was straight with no overtaking L :P. 

            Finally we reached Bogmallo Beach by 7 30 AM where Gary and team had already got their vehicles along with the diving gears on the beach. All of us went to rooms to freshen up quickly and within no time we were near the boat all excited about the first dive. We ha to shift all the oxygen cylinders on to the boat, to be frank the oxygen cylinders were really heavy and I was wondering how we can have it on the back while diving :P then our google alias Vatsa gave us an excellent scientific reason stating that buoyancy will make sure that you don’t feel the weight! We set of for the ship wreck area where we had to dive which was hardly 15 minutes boat ride from the sea shore in the mean time Gary explained us the basics of diving, it was like customer explaining the requirement where in we think its easy going by his words only to realize it’s a lot more complicated during implementation :P. There were three instructors and we were 9 of us. So we divided ourselves into batch of 3, first batch was R, M, S; second was N, M, A and third batch was me vatsa and S. It was fun looking at R, S and M with all the gears and off they went to the bottom of the sea. From the top we could see bubbles indicating their position. After 30 minutes in heaven of they came to the surface smiling like a baby after it had cerlac :P. Finally it was my turn to go, after wearing all the gear and having that oxygen cylinder on my back which felt as though an elephant had put its leg on my back I jumped into the water. Breathing through the mouth was harder than I thought, I had to spend nearly 5 minutes on the surface to get myself adjusted to this. Then slowly I descended under water using the anchor rope. I was hardly 2-3 meter under water that my ears started paining due to the pressure of the water which was nullified by the equalizing technique J. Slowly descended deeper into the ocean boy was I surprised. I had seen fishes only in aquarium or in tv first time was watching them so closely J also the ship wreck was a big one, then Gary made me sit in the ocean floor which I had never dreamt of. The best scene is when you are sitting on the bottom of the sea floor and you look above : ) you cannot believe that you are so deep. Finally after 35 minute experience I slowly ascended to the surface. Finally removed the weights and handed over the oxygen cylinder to them and then I decided to swim across to the island near by, at the back of my mind I remembered that previously when I had tried to do I almost drown. So asked Gary if it was safe to swim across when he said yes I set off for the rocks near the island, just then Sanjeev told that he would join me, but told him that I wont pull him back if he gets tired :P so he decided not to come, kinda felt bad but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to swim that far and didn’t want to take any chances. It was so nice to be floating in the surface of sea and looking at the greenery of that island : ). Finally it was time to leave and we set off back to the sea shore from where we started. Well it was surely the best time in my life. Every one of us was still recalling the awesome experience. We then decided to go for lunch which almost took 2 and half hours, I guess the wait also played an important role in the decision we took regarding the New Year plan. While 3 of them wanted to stay in the same place 6 of us decided to North Goa where the party was, little did we know that we will regret our decision. After lunch all of us went for sleep, we slept so much that we didn’t even realize that Rahul and Vatsa were standing in front of us and laughing. Then we had a walk in the beach and watched the beautiful sunset.

The flop New Year Party :

            We set of for Calangutte beach in north Goa, initial journey was good and there was no traffic until we were 3 km from the beach. It took us nearly 3 hours to travel 2 km finally we got frustrated also feared that we might end up spending the new year in the cab itself which would have been a disaster. With cab parked in the nearest parking lot, we set off for the beach assuming there will be lot of fun and also dance floors. There were lot of crowd and 99% of them drunk, on the way we came across Titos where Ashik found interesting people (according to him) he was so much interested that he was listening to whatever conversation they were having and also following them :P. Finally he came to his senses and started to follow us. Once we reached the beach we found that there were so many people that there was hardly any space for any one to stand. The worse part was that there was no hotel which was free and many were closing down. So we decided to go back and look for some hotel to have dinner. Finally we found one and had to wait nearly 25 minutes for the seat. We had a kind of peaceful new year celebrations in the hotel and finally left for home and promised to never repeat this kind of mistake ever  :P.  I decided that I will never ever visit Goa again ;). We were so happy to be back in our rooms and went of to sleep hoping that 1^st turns out to be better than how it began.

Off to Colva Beach for Winch Parasailing –

            In the morning we set off for colva beach which was on the way back, this beach was in a good condition and there were all sorts of water games. We were all interested in doing the activities in which we wont get wet :P and hence we decided to do parasailing. While we were going through the board where the prices had been put up, there was an activity called winch parasailing which was parasailing from the motor boat which all of us unanimously agreed upon. The price on the board was 800 which was too much for it and then came a guy who was eagerly waiting for customer. Since we were 9 of us he said we can talk about the rates, with relatively less talk he agreed for 500 L we thought we should have bargained for even less. We boarded a power boat on which the winch parasailing was to be done, we were told that 2 people had to go together, it was fun and mine was funnier, me and vatsa went together for parasailing. When it started instead of going up it went down, all thanks to vatsa’s weight  : ( :P although it lasted just for 1 min it was fun J.  Then we set of to Karwar beach where we decided to play beach football :D.

Karwar Beach –

            We set of for Karwar beach and on the way there were 2 check posts where the police check if people are carrying liquor bottles above permissible levels, the police on both sides were surprised that the vehicle didn’t have even one bottle and they were asking how was this possible, it proved that good people like are very rare these days :P. It was nearly 4 when we reached Karwar beach, this beach was even better than the ones we saw previously. We walked for a few distance and decided to play football, beach football was the one which I always wanted to play because its more exhausting than normal football due to the sand. So we formed teams, on one side it was me, Rahul and Ashik while the opposite team was Manju, Vatsa and Sanjeev. The game had an exciting start with both sides adopting attacking tactics. Finally the deadlock was broken by Rahul who scored a beautiful goal from an equally brilliant pass from Ashik who caught the opposite team on the break. As usual Manju acted like a typical chealsea fan by screaming it was offside, we didn’t even bother to argue since we thought it was waste of our energy :P. The opposite team were not in a mood to give up so easily they kept on attacking, they were successful in breaking our defence but were not able to score :D. Soon it became 2-0 thanks to a well taken from Rahul. After this Vatsa admitted he was completely exhausted and so we decided to change the team. Ashik went to the other team and Vatsa came to ours, if the opposition thought their luck would change after the change in the team they were completely wrong :P very soon we scored the 3^rd goal and finally we decided to end the game and Rahul was the man of the match with 2 goals and 1 assist :D. Then we took rest and enjoyed the beauty of the sea which was so calm and the weather was so pleasant.  Then we left Karwar by 7 on a long journey back to Bangalore and already I was speculating as to go to office or not :P since I had a rule of going to office on the first working day of the year :P

On the way back –

            On the way back we were kind of bored and I had already dozed of sitting in the front until Rahul came and screamed in my ears and we planning for something which will keep everyone awake but nothing was coming to the mind. Most of us decided that N had to sing now but Vatsa suddenly told M sings well. Well then all of us decided that M should sing and since we all were fan of Vatsa’s dance in December 2010 we wanted to Vatsa to dance for the same, as usual he resisted saying he didn’t know how to dance and was asking us to show few moves. Ashik then showed few moves and then Vatsa came to centre and was a bit nervous and he waited for few minutes to think of the moves which he will do :P. The M started to sing ‘My name is sheela’, ‘Munni badnaam hui’ and vatsa started to dance, to be frank Vatsa’s dance was too good :D. I am sure if he is reading this he will say that I am bluffing but seriously dude it was good you can watch it in the video as well. Then it was turn of N and R to dance, as usual N said no no, but due to Rahul she also agreed. The husband and wife danced very nicely but unfortunately we didn’t record. Then it was turn of Manju and Sanjeev, they did a salsa kind of dance which came out very well phew it was as though they had practiced it a 100 times :D. Then it was turn of S, she was more reluctant than her brother Vatsa, her enthu was more only while making vatsa dance but when it was her turn she hesitant. Finally Vatsa and Ashik made her dance but only for few seconds.

            Then when we were searching for other means of entertainment Sanjeev came up with a nice game called Mafia. We had played it during our training days but had totally forgotten this game. We ended playing this game for 3 hours until we had to stop for dinner. We stopped in some hotel where we were the last customers. It was kind of funny, what ever we asked the waiter told its not there, finally we ate by 2 meals and boarded the cab. Thanks to the wonderful road we reached Bangalore by 4 30 in the morning, only problem was the toll fee which was very expensive.

            Finally the trip came to an end. It was an action packed 60 odd hours where in we had gone to the bottom of the ocean and flew in the air, the only bad part in the entire trip was the new year eve part. But in all we had an awesome time with awesome people :D. Finally thanks to Rahul and Vatsa for planning such a wonderful trip :D.