SOUND of the BEACH..

How a sudden plan with your favorite girl friends, to an unseen place at the not so right time makes it full of amazing experiences to be cherished for a lifetime.

We were on a conference call – All three of us in different states of India and suddenly one of us said let’s plan for a trip. I was the one who recently had joined a new project and could not take a long break, so we thought of a quick one. Easy as it sounded at first, it became the most difficult task to select the place and then we did what we were best at during in our childhood: Inky Pinky Ponkey!! Am i kidding?? Nope, we really did it on the map and finally got our destination – KARWAR it is – said one friend and we were silent for a few seconds. haha! What?? I wanted to hear the name again and make sure she was talking about India. This is a small coastal city in the state of Karnataka.

I wanted to go by train and enjoy the scenic beauty on the way. Observe the people travelling and share experiences. The other two got their tickets confirmed and I being the most excited one was still struggling to get my seat confirmed. Finally, i was in the waiting list but still happy to have got it. I was imagining myself bribe the ticket checker to let me travel in case my seat doesn’t get confirmed. I just had to go anyhow. 😀

The day of travel: In a hush-hush i reached the railway station and my ride was already there waiting for me to hop in. Not finding my name on the chart outside the coach, i sadly went inside and found a gang of boys who were in the same boat as mine and one of them just smiled looking at me. I knew now, the next 36 hrs are going to be fun. 😉  None of us had our seats confirmed and were eagerly waiting for the TT and when this guy walked in his black uniform, all what these boys wanted to know was which seat was I getting. Men will be men after all and i sat quietly with ease knowing that I’ve got the same seat i have been sitting on and luckily it was the passage side. I got what i wanted and now was only hoping the train to run even faster. Hmmm, after some awkward exchange of looks, the silence finally broke when one of the guys asked, are you also going to Goa? (For those of you who don’t know – Goa is a very popular tourist destination in India with beautiful and happening beaches with water sports/nice pubs and great food). It was fun to see one of them scratch his head knowing that i was going to a place 45 kms ahead of Goa and knew nothing about that place. All i knew was that it was untouched and peaceful and wanted to be surprised by the place itself. We all were from the IT industry so had a lot of common topics to talk about so the time just flew and the next day they got down at Goa and went smiling again making me more anxious to see the yellow board with Karwar written when finally after the looonnngg 45mins, my ears heard the train halt. It was raining outside and there at the far end i could see two colorful umbrellas – Pink and Black!

Fixing his tools for the next catch @Karwar

Within seconds, i was soaked up. With my bag all wet i ran to hug my girl friends. People at the station were staring at us like aliens shouting and too excited. It had been mere 5 mins that i was there and i could feel the magic. The place was a beauty and my heart was filled with joy. The next one and a half day, away from the sounds of the city, far away into the south, just near the  Arabian sea. Woww, all those memories are afresh and i can smell the earth after a splash of rain. The beaches were waiting for the high spirited girls..

Instead of going to the guest house, we went to the Rabindranath Tagore Beach which is said to be the place where Rabindranath Tagore enjoyed writing his poems. Seeing the vastness of the sea and peace around i could well imagine why he loved sitting in this quiet and how inspiration poured into his words. It was raining cats and dogs and we three were the only humans on the beach. As kids, we ran into the water and i was trying to hold on to the sand under my feet when the waves tried to drift me away. What a joy it was being a child again.

Nothing is permanent, just like the sand under your feet on  a beach.

 

 

There is a lot more to share and i will fill you in tomorrow. Till then, i hope you could imagine this place and would come back to know what happened next 🙂