As some of you know, whenever I (or we) take a trip, it never ends with us just returning back with a solemn body language (and dreadful workdays following). It almost always comes to a stop with a blog post capturing some of the great moments from the days gone by...
With that tradition in mind and our first outing in India in more than a year, K and I and the cast of Gr8six embarked on a beautiful and remarkably short trip to Goa. Most of you don't know the gang of six - which has added a few new members (namely the wives and the kiddos) and has missed a few (they being out of the country). Introduction beckons...
KiMo (or as Mayank calls her - Dollar Bahu/DB) and Rajesh (Madrasi - again, coined by Mayank. I don't quite remember when he called me by my given name).
Mayank (let's call him Banker), Anjali (Bahubali/BB - strong reason behind the name) and Nanhi (Nayonika for the rest of the world).
Nishit (we call him Producer - eventually he is going to produce a movie), Priya (our own Vidya Balan/VB - due to the extraordinary resemblance to the star) and Avishka (the youngest one of the lot - and the star of the trip).
Samit (fondly known as the Mountain Goat, or lovably Sam) and Nandini (the newest entrant and nicknamed Aakhri Bahu/AB for obvious reasons).
Now that the cast is out of the way, the way this trip was cast is nothing short of history making. One fine day, Goat says, work sucks (or something like that), Banker says let's go somewhere and within a few hours Goa materialized. This was early July and the dates set for mid-August.
One would think with a trip planned this early, travelling and accommodations would be a breeze - NOT!! Heavily dependent on BB's contact - who understandably came through - 24 hours before the train departure and exorbitant flight prices (just for the return leg), travel was set. Now what do we do about the stay. Do we stay in a bungalow? (ideal but rejected outright by Producer), Do we stay in a place where BB and Banker have stayed? (Lemontree, fair but rejected outright by BB) or Do we stay in a 5-star? (Doubletree Hilton, bingo, Producer has the last word). While it really created a hole in our pockets, the stay was extremely comfortable and excellent.
While the dates (15th-18th August) certainly were good, what added brownie points to these dates was that Producer and Goat had their birthdays smack in the middle (16th and 17th respectively).
With the 10 of us reaching Goa by the best (or worst) possible means - Train, Flight and Bus (sorry S and N), the vacation within the vacation was beginning to take shape. It just so worked out that K, R, M, A and Nans took the train out to Goa; Ni, P and Av took the early morning flight and; Sam-Nandu trudged out of Bangalore in an unpleasant monster of a road trip.
This is already a post without getting into the details of each day, so I am just going to split this into multiple posts....
Did we get drunk? Did we eat a lot? Did we fall sick? Did we laugh our hearts out? - All coming up....
Stay tuned....
With that tradition in mind and our first outing in India in more than a year, K and I and the cast of Gr8six embarked on a beautiful and remarkably short trip to Goa. Most of you don't know the gang of six - which has added a few new members (namely the wives and the kiddos) and has missed a few (they being out of the country). Introduction beckons...
KiMo (or as Mayank calls her - Dollar Bahu/DB) and Rajesh (Madrasi - again, coined by Mayank. I don't quite remember when he called me by my given name).
Mayank (let's call him Banker), Anjali (Bahubali/BB - strong reason behind the name) and Nanhi (Nayonika for the rest of the world).
Nishit (we call him Producer - eventually he is going to produce a movie), Priya (our own Vidya Balan/VB - due to the extraordinary resemblance to the star) and Avishka (the youngest one of the lot - and the star of the trip).
Samit (fondly known as the Mountain Goat, or lovably Sam) and Nandini (the newest entrant and nicknamed Aakhri Bahu/AB for obvious reasons).
Now that the cast is out of the way, the way this trip was cast is nothing short of history making. One fine day, Goat says, work sucks (or something like that), Banker says let's go somewhere and within a few hours Goa materialized. This was early July and the dates set for mid-August.
One would think with a trip planned this early, travelling and accommodations would be a breeze - NOT!! Heavily dependent on BB's contact - who understandably came through - 24 hours before the train departure and exorbitant flight prices (just for the return leg), travel was set. Now what do we do about the stay. Do we stay in a bungalow? (ideal but rejected outright by Producer), Do we stay in a place where BB and Banker have stayed? (Lemontree, fair but rejected outright by BB) or Do we stay in a 5-star? (Doubletree Hilton, bingo, Producer has the last word). While it really created a hole in our pockets, the stay was extremely comfortable and excellent.
While the dates (15th-18th August) certainly were good, what added brownie points to these dates was that Producer and Goat had their birthdays smack in the middle (16th and 17th respectively).
With the 10 of us reaching Goa by the best (or worst) possible means - Train, Flight and Bus (sorry S and N), the vacation within the vacation was beginning to take shape. It just so worked out that K, R, M, A and Nans took the train out to Goa; Ni, P and Av took the early morning flight and; Sam-Nandu trudged out of Bangalore in an unpleasant monster of a road trip.
This is already a post without getting into the details of each day, so I am just going to split this into multiple posts....
Did we get drunk? Did we eat a lot? Did we fall sick? Did we laugh our hearts out? - All coming up....
Stay tuned....
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