Going GOA

“I am sorry to tell you this. But the changes in the FAM VRC have caused some problems which need to be solved as soon as possible. I want you to come tomorrow and go through the problem sheet and solve them”

“Oh, I am sorry, but I am flying to Goa in less than 2 hours to meet my parents there. I won’t be available in any case.”

Woohooo, this is exactly the MSN chat between me and my Team Lead (from Netherlands) on the evening of this Friday. With these words hastily typed in I quickly hit the button sequence “Windows + twice the U” on my keyboard, pressed the power button on my monitor and hurried off my office to pack the bags. Yes, that weekend I was going to be in Goa, major purpose being meeting my family on vacation there.

In the quick packing that followed, so many things were forgotten as expected. In an hour and half, my friend dropped me at Hyderabad Airport and I found myself at the Spicejet counter, claiming the boarding pass for the flight bound to Bombay. Well, yeah, for those of you who think I was being out of my mind, going to Goa via Mumbai, these are the days after I submitted my resignation and I preferred not to take leaves. And the timings of the direct flight wouldn’t allow me to avoid a half day leave.

I would say that one advantage of being a little late is that we don’t have to sit idle waiting for whatever we have come for. An idle person is a devils product, isn’t it? So as soon I finished my security check-in, I found the green LEDs blinking near to my flight number on the ‘Now Boarding’ notice board in the waiting lounge. In less than two hours I was walking down the steps of Chatrapati Shivaji Airport at Mumbai. Well, I had a pretty decent 5 hours in hand as my next flight to Goa was at morning 5.10. I found the sign ‘Departures’ and soon headed that way, only to find all the long seats filled by snoring passengers and couples who are relaxing, laughing over some jokes of their own. With little effort I found a chair where I could rest with my bags near me. Since I didn’t want to be a devil’s product, I took out “The Afghan” and began reading. Thank god I didn’t forget the book in that hasty packing in the evening.

It was after sometime that I noticed that in the departure terminal I was sitting, I couldn’t find the boarding counter of Air Deccan, which was going to be my next carrier. It was huge hall, so I tried walking here and there to see if I could see the counter in any corners. I began to get tensed. Is it some other airport itself that I have to reach? I asked one the baggage handling guys and he told me that Air Deccan, Spice Jet etc are at Terminal B. Wow, Now to terminal B. I got out and with little difficulty I found myself infront of Terminal B. I was impressed. It was the first time that I was seeing an airport with more than one terminal. I was trying to imagine how the structure would look from the view above. All flights arrive at terminal A and some depart from terminal B, which means the flight bay surrounds both the terminals to a great extend and the connecting roads form a junction. It will definitely be a scene worth taking a shot from the skies. But inside of the new terminal was not at all impressive. If at the first terminal I found long chairs with people sleeping comfortably, here I found people sitting on floor and watching the world cup cricket game that was going on. The number of chairs was very much inadequate. Luckily I found two empty chairs in a corner and put my bag on one and sat on the other. Contented after I found out the Deccan Check-In counter, I took a short nap by leaning sideways on to my bag.

Nothing much happened after that, and after waking up and having a double shot espresso, I soon found myself aboard the Deccan flight. I feel asleep soon and was waked by the request of a beautiful airhostess to fasten my seat belts for landing. The plane shook violently a couple of times and a big groan came from some of the lady passengers. Frankly I thought something was falling apart from below me. Maybe, it was because I read ‘Airframe’ recently. Even though the pilot didn’t bother to give an announcement as it was expected of him, as to what caused that shaking, I hope it was turbulence. It better be, or else India’s first lowest fare air carrier will be in trouble soon. However, within a few minutes I landed at Goa airport and was home soon.

I was in Goa a second time. Goa is a land of churches and beaches, and last but not the least, Football. Next day I visited a small tomb site (Called 'Darga' in vernacular dialect) of some great muslim saint (whose name was so big that I decided to forget the instant I read it). I was told that youngsters in Goa believe that praying at this tomb yielded better results in whatever they were about to indulge in. I stepped outside the building and was waiting for my family to return. Across the road, a young couple arrived on a bike. The guy parked the bike there and leaving the girl behind, he went inside. While I watched him offer prayers at the tomb site and silently reciting the Quran verses, I had the proof of what I was told. I was trying hard to imagine what he might be asking for, with that gorgeous young lady waiting near the bike for him. I turned back and found that the girl was fixing her makeup and hairs on the mirror of the bike, looking in the direction of the guy and gave a questioning expression which said “When is this guy gonna be back?”

Without much to explain, I visited a couple of churches and many beaches. Goa beaches had the water skiing and parachuting available. But time didn’t allow me to try them out though I wanted to. Next day we decided to spend at a quiet beach that is not frequented by many tourists. It was quiet and suspending one self with head deep in the water is a truly refreshing experience and I enjoyed it. I was wondering if there will be any human who won’t like the prospective of taking a dip in the sea. Isn’t it some kind of a Going-back to Mother Nature’s lap, where the first life forms are believed to instantiated in single cells, some of which choose to migrate to land forms? Well, who wouldn’t like a little pampering from their mothers? I do.

In that beach, I tried out the amphibian variety of my girlfriend, sorry, I meant the water bike. Trust me people, its damn thrilling experience. Cutting sharp through the beating waves, and with zig zag motions, the bike ride makes one feel truly energetic and kicking. With a little conversation with the bike guy, I came to know that these sleek machines are imported from France and cost around 7 lakh. No more comments. J

By evening, I was all packed to get back to Hyderabad and was waiting to board the Spice Jet flight back to Mumbai. The airport was jam packed. Almost 60% of the people were families (both foreign and Indian) and the remaining 39.9 % were young couples. And I thought I was the only one traveling alone, until I noticed another. The flight was late by almost an hour. Thank god, the connection flight from Mumbai was only after another 4 hours, so that I didn’t have to be tensed now. There was some confusion when the spice jet to delhi began boarding and passengers to Bombay also came to the same gate. Amidst all this confusion a foreigner lady holding a ‘Go Air’ ticket was lining up at the same gate and was soon put down by the Spice Jet executives. She was bewildered and was looking around for some help. Everyone was busy with their own things and so, I called out to her and showed her the nearby gate, where ‘Go Air’ passengers were boarding. I wondered why people are like this. Even after repeatedly announcing that ‘Go Air’ passengers board through the other gate, this lady managed to be present at the already confusing Spice jet queue. Well, better late than never. Soon a Boeing 737-800 came in and I noticed that it was written ‘cardamom’ near the nose of the plane. So Spice Jet internally names its aircrafts after the spices. Good.

“Due to some technical errors, the seat booking is not available and it is free seating. Passengers are kindly requested take the nearest available seat”. This was the announcement that greeted me who was the first one to board the flight. Without any hesitation I took the 28F window seat that I had booked online. Within sometime, a pandemonium broke out. With the passengers occupying seats of their choice and the people who have booked that seats coming and claiming for them. “The computers were spoiled. So they are giving free seating now” I heard a girl explaining to a foreigner who came claiming her seat. Wow, it was as if she was present when the computers crashed. Being a software engineer, and feeling safe that no one had come asking for the 28F seat I claimed, and also because the seats near me were already taken up by a couple busy watching a video IPOD together, thus reducing the probability that I would be asked to move out from my seat, I tried to imagine what could be the real reason for the so called ‘Technical Error’. It could be a small ‘variable refresh’ problem (non-engineers skip this part) in the code for assigning seat numbers written by some lazy software engineer like me. Or it could be as simple as that the executives missed the seating arrangement printout all together. Whatever it was, it delayed the flight by another half hour. Many more spice jet officials had to come aboard to convince the angry passengers. With many discontented passengers, soon the Jet was airborne and I was vaguely aware of the probable turbulence.

It was midnight by the time I reached Hyderabad ('pepper' :) from Mumbai) and I felt sorry for my friend who came to pick me up from the airport. I was vividly narrating to him the entire experience in the flight. When I woke up the next day morning, my head was swaying sideways, because of lack of sleep of the previous nights. Well, sometimes life is like that, isn’t it? No gain comes without any pain. Hope you all enjoyed reading this. Don’t forget to give a comment.