Do Da Diu

It all started with a phone call a couple of weeks back. I was sitting in my room, orkutting and listening to some crap blaring out of my pc, when my phone started ringing. The screen showed ‘Sid calling’. Well as is the tradition he wouldn’t ever call me…it was a missed call. I called him back and the first statement he uttered was that lets go to Diu in the Holi holidays. And I, the eternal wanderer was more than happy to agree.

The next few days were lost amidst assignments, tuts, labs and even more assignments. Finally the D-day arrived. The six of us were ready to embark upon our journey. Chintu, Goru, Mio and Golu along with Sid and I rounded up the team.

We left the campus at about 8:45 pm and our train was to depart exactly an hour after. The adventures began as soon as the driver decided to take a left from Gh-0 instead of a right. We managed to catch our train, but not before a few nerve racking moments on an unknown route through Adalaj and Sabarmati, and yeah how can I forget the sprint across the platform.

We reached Werawal the next day at about 6:30 am and after freshening up left for Somnath. I guess a detour is needed over here. Somehow amongst all our packing and preparing for the trip (which actually was not more than 2 hours for me) we had arrived without a camera! Now how can we enjoy our journey and not have any proof of it? A camera was needed and that too urgently! We decided to rent one and started looking around. A photographer agreed to lend us a Kodak. We thought about the cost of the developing the rolls for a minute, but hell we needed the damn thing! We told that guy that we’ll have our breakfast and get back to him. This is when Providence intervened. After breakfast as we searched for that photographer, we ran into this guy, or rather an angel. He had a digicam, was ready to lend it, and that too without any deposit!!! Now that’s what you call luck fellas. :)

The Somanath leg of the trip was over without anything interesting apart from a couple of hours of kickass fun on the beach. Now it was the time for the real fun to begin…Diu beckoned us, and we were more than happy to oblige. We managed to find a great hotel; cheap and very close to the beach, in short a perfect solution to all our needs. The fun began soon after. We decided to take our lunch at the road side stalls that were lined along the beach. Now is there anything funny in that? Nope you would say. But it was funny…Mio a vegetarian to the core had trouble finding a place that offered vegetarian food!!! After a couple of inquiries and a trip to the Tourism Information Bureau, the poor soul finally managed to find a restaurant that could satisfy his appetite.

Once all had topped up their tanks, it was time for some fun. The Sun was bout to set and after hitting a couple of churches, it was time for some real fun. We headed towards the INS Kukri memorial and the sunset point. It was here that we spent some of the most memorable moments of our trip. Be it walking on a rocky path into the sea, with the tide rising and water rushing over your feet or the tom foolery on the nearly vacant beach or the ‘trek in the dark’. It was during this trek that I slipped on the mossy rocks and ended up with a soar knee for the rest of the trip and Lanky clicked arguably the best pic of the entire trip.

We returned to our hotel( I guess I need to find some other word for it, calling that place a hotel doesn’t do justice to the benefits that it offered us :P) at about 9 in the night and after freshening up left for dinner. We again hit those stalls and this time luckily for Mio there was a Pao Bhaji stall so that he didn’t have to wander in search of something ‘edible’.

Hmmm now that the dinner was over, it was time for some more fun. Coming from a dry (or rather not so dry ;)) state it was time to satisfy our thirst. We grabbed some vodka and it was time to hit the beach. Yeah people trust me, there’s nothing better to drink on a beach under a moonlit sky with the water gently lapping up your feet. And well with a number of first timers, it was even better. Accompanying the drinks were stories of all sorts; love, lust, hatred, disappointment, anxiety, expectations; the emotions flowed as freely as the vodka.

By God’s grace (or rather lack of alcohol) we were not drunk that night, and it indeed saved us. For as we were returning to our hotel (somewhere around midnight) we ran into a couple of policemen. It just scares the hell out of me to think what would have happened had we been drunk at that time. But the brief encounter did tell me one thing, those guys lacked all manners and talking in a polite manner was as alien to their nature as smoking is to mine.

The 2^nd day dawned and in spite of all our plans to start early it was not before 10:30 that we could leave our hotel. If the first day was good, the 2^nd was even better. We started with the Diu Fort and well I don’t have words to describe how majestic it was. Even after having seen a fair share of forts, this one managed to surprise me. And it was one pleasant surprise. The aura of invincibility that must have been associated it with this master piece in it’s hey days was still evident even after centuries of its construction.

We spent about 3 hours exploring the fort and after a few refreshments left for the Nagoa beach. On the way to the beach we stopped at Gangeshwar and the Sea Shell Museum, another wonder of its own kind. We reached the Nagoa beach at about 4: 30 pm and took our lunch. What followed lunch, can be best described as 3 hours of pure fun. No amount of time spent in a swimming pool gives you the feeling that a couple of hours in the lap of an open sea gives you. It was simply too good. From Nagoa we left for the Goghola beach. And believe me the experience at Nagoa had prepared me for this. If Nagoa was exuberant, Goghola was calm; if Nagoa was all about fun, Goghola was about peace; if Nagoa was a place to be adventurous and outgoing, Goghola was for those one on one conversations wherein words are not necessary to convey one’s feelings.

We went in for dinner after spending nearly an hour and a half at Goghola and for a change we all decided to visit’s Mio’s pao bahji vala. Dinner and dessert was done. The time for another beach blast had come. This time round we decided upon breezers and fenny (yeah that blissful delight from Goa). The amount of alcohol was much more than the previous day, and it was inevitable that we would get sloshed. Goru and Golu abstained from the bash, the former didn’t feel like drinking and the latter, well he didn’t like fenny and it was more of sprite that he drank :P.

Chintu, Mio and Sid were soon sloshed and we all started having fun at the beach. Be it throwing the bottles as far in the sea and then retrieving them as the waves brought them back, or trying to throw Chintu into the water, or chase Golu all over the beach; we did it all. And yeah how can I forget this, once sloshed the tongues began rolling and what followed was an account of love, of lust; accusations and apologies; confessions and concessions, admissions and assertions; revelations and proclamations. All in all as the clock ticked by, we came to know each other better, we looked at the sides of our friends’ personalities that we hadn’t known existed.

And well if you guys think it was all fun, nope it wasn’t. For the non-drinkers Goru and Golu and I ( I seriously don’t know why I didn’t get sloshed :P) it was one hell of a task to get the other three back to the hotel. What with Chintu adamant on enjoying the best moment of his life, and Sid just content in throwing sand on other people while getting washed over with waves with a silly smile pasted on his face. And oh how did I forget this, Mio who just wanted to roll and enjoy in the waves and Chintu, well he was the most trouble some of all. He somehow thought that if he had the ability to speak, he should go on blabbing continuously. He lectured us all on all topics ranging from certain courses, to Indian Geography to his love (or rather his lust) aspirations.

The night was moving on and with each passing moment my worries were also increasing. Not only was the tide rising, the memory of last day’s encounter with the police was still fresh in my mind. Frustrated with Chintu’s constant ranting I lost my temper and bang! Chintu experienced a classic slap. But lo behold he was so drunk that it stopped his ranting only for a couple of seconds.

We somehow managed to get Chintu, Mio and Sid back to the hotel but if you think that the night was over; think again. Chintu was still blabbing away and this pissed off Lanky and he decided to sleep on the floor, outside the rooms. It took all my persuading skills to get him up and move into the other room. In the meanwhile Mio decided that we weren’t having enough fun. So he decided that he’ll add another twist to the story by puking his guts out. Goru and I had just finished getting Mio to bed after he had puked a couple of times that Sid decided that he too wanted to join the party.

After getting these two settled back in bed, Goru and I were left with the daunting task of listening to Chintu. Blissfully the fenny finally caught up with me and I fell asleep. However the night wasn’t yet over for Goru as about an hour later Chintu decided that he too would like to puke. Kudos to Goru that he not only handled Chintu alone but also cleaned up the mess that the bathrooms were. And yeah if you are wondering where Golu was during all this; well he was rotating between Goru and I, continuously saying, ‘Do something’.

After an eventful night, it was time to head for the last phase of our journey, Gir. We were hoping that if only we get a glimpse of the King of the jungle, it would be just the proper ending for our trip. And well what happened was beyond our expectations. We boarded the bus praying to spot the majestic beast. And when we returned we had seen not one, not two but six of these royal beings. All lying peacefully, aware of our presence but not worried, as if secure in the knowledge that it was their domain. As we were busy clicking away snaps, one of the lionesses obliged us and started posing for the pics( I guess the tendency of the females to look good and pose transcends across species :P)

As we returned to Werawal, I reflected upon the happenings of the last two days. And what I felt was that this was a trip of many firsts. It was our first trip after coming in college, it was our first visit to Diu, many of us drank for the first time, and we saw ions outside the zoo for the first time. But apart from all it was the first time that we really got to know each other. We talked and laughed, threw tantrums and got drubbed for it, partied like beasts and ate like animals. But most importantly, we had fun!

Till next time…