The trip to Goa was long overdue, perhaps since 2001 when I had the opportunity as a teacher with my school children. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it as I was supposed to behave like a good girl. Good unmarried Indian girls don’t go anywhere without an escort. To qualify as an escort, there are lots of criteria to be checked and considered, like a friend’s brother, acquaintance from the neighborhood, etc., which is a BIG NO. They never go out after dark alone and never spend the night at a female friend’s place, especially if the friend has a brother, no matter younger or elder.
Dialogues like “I am old enough to take care of myself” never worked with my parents - you can say kind of a very conservative upbringing in certain matters. And it was normal for me to argue on all such matters, though the consequences were known to me. So, out of anger, I told my parents “you will never go to GOA without me or unless I go there first”. They kept their word though they travel extensively within India.
On Santanu’s part, he visited Goa for the first time with his parents in the summer of 2002. They went to visit their relatives. He detested the heat and did not find Goa as an attractive tourist destination. That was the time when we first met in Bombay after his Goa trip. After moving to India, whenever Goa came up in our discussion as a destination, the fear of the glaring sun haunted him.
As Santanu is blessed with long weekends (Indian holidays follow a strict Sun or Moon Calendar) at work this year, we booked our flight with Spice-Jet, which was the only no-frill flight quoting less. Initially, we did book our hotel with Hotel Mandavi at Panjim. But later came to know from various sources that if one wants to enjoy beaches, then the choice needs to be made between north Goa and south Goa beaches. We opted for north Goa at the last minute and booked with TICLO resort at Calangute.
Different people had different views on Calangute, which made us a bit skeptical until the last, but I think we made the right choice. Normally, hotels provide a “pick-up” service at Goa. Upon reaching Dabolim airport, we realized our hotel hadn’t sent any, and they requested us to use the “Pre-paid service,” which they would reimburse upon reaching, and they did stick to their words.
After being ushered to our quite spacious room, we left to explore Calangute. We soon figured out that we were not very far from the beach, so we walked a few meters along the beach in the early evening and then had pomfret and chicken for dinner.