And I should remember these...

I have this bad habit of forgetting the compliments but remembering the taunts. I figure, I should remember these as they did brighten me up :

1. Abhilasha telling me "It's very difficult to know you and not love you". Whatever that female did is not that important, this was something that really touched my heart.
2. Mandeep at the admin after hearing my big plans for life "I think you're going to have an interesting life. Do keep in touch". And yes, we are still in touch!
3. Rahul Roy Chowdhury "I think it's your work, your work with the kids - that you've your innocence intact!".
I think I'm really lucky to have met him, though I keep telling him to get insurance and make me the nominee, figuring with his rate he won't live long ;)
4. Deepak Boro, a 16 yr old kid at Ummeed, a hard nut to crack : "I wish I had a teacher like you when I was young, I would have already become something" and then gives a big smile. Some days later he decides he doesn't want to give the computer paper, so skips my class , indefinitely..
5. Dinesh, the crazy photographer from Jaipur  : "You're a devil, but when somebody looks at you from a distance talking, laughing, fighting, you're very amusing. There are very few people like you"
6. Frida, a 9 yr. old girl, from the family I was living with in Goa : "Now, who is going to tell us bed-time stories?"
7. Suraj, another kid from Ummeed, a good dancer, singer, but a lot of aggression : "You must be a real kid lover?? that can only be the reason.. why someone like you should come to a place like this "

Some unbeatable moments in Goa..

1. "You have an underwear on your face". So I walked into my PG, and I see Gavin (7 yrs old) playing blindfold chase with his friends in the house with Elaine's(his elder sister, 11 yrs.) underwear on his face. And this is how Frida (other elder sister, 9 yrs.) responded to the scene.

2. I enter a bus in Goa, and I see everyone at the window seat with the side seat vacant. It's a Goan thing, always aim for a window seat.

3. Discovering that Goa would be the only place, where you can hear psychedelic in local buses!

4. Solomon's "Do you know?" fact updates with an Irish style, is clearly something unforgettable.

5. Erikson(class 7) saying I want a divorce from my wife; that Indian wives only keep cribbing about sarees and jewelery with his typical fast forward gestures. Funniest kid over there.

6. Walking into Khareband for the first time; a slum area near Margao inhabitated by people who create 'Dhols' for a living and produce kids at lightening speed. Met a family with 10 kids, none of them going to school, hardly dressed, not sure of next meal. Response to why so many kids - 'Allah deta hai!'

7. Getting lost near Gaondongri and following instincts to find a place (some village called Nuterlim) where I went during the first few weeks. Recognizing the waterfall and realizing it's the best place in Goa.

8. Entering into the 24/7 Nescafe near Margao and since there was no one at the counter; making my own coffee and waiting. After 45 min : Instead of the counter person, more people wanting coffee came :) Discussing the concept of 'honest Goan' and paying the next door shop for the coffees.

9. The star-lit sky at Palolim beach. Trying google to find out names of the constellations, pissing off other friends :P

10. First day of swimming :))) Nothing like it!

11. Parasailing for 10 min. Wanting to be in the air for eternity. Wishing to be doing everything - Reading, dancing, eating, drinking, chit chatting - one day suspended in air.

12. The orange-red soil of Sanverdem (a mining area) putting a sort of tan on your skin while waiting for innumerable trucks to cross.

13. The faces of over 1000 kids radiant with unseen joy while dancing to songs by the 'Light of the World' movement. Goosebumps seriously!

14. Diwali celebration at Iona's ancestral house (more than 150 years old) in the frontyard of their "Jorge's Family bar and restaurant". Ferry ride with her, after seeing the place where the river and the sea meets. Meeting her father who is food enthusiast to the level it gets crazy :P No matter how much food there is in the house, he'll always get more in the morning/evening. Eats in courses. Likes to argue about Goa being separate form rest of India over dinner. Quite a happy soul :)

15. Sleeping downstairs with neighbours as Iona feigns illness to her 'about to be divorced' husband saying she's in Belgaun. Crazy but kickass female, never met anything like her!! Super-mom, plumber, mechanic, chef (who hates cooking btw), wild bikrider, forger, fixer and much more..

16. Noticing that there are more extra-marital affairs in Goa than anywhere else in India.

17. Slow dance when intoxicated by moon-lit beach and a lot of other things :)

18. Few silly things I noticed... the way Gavin and Iona always say "See haan, see" before showing some trick; the way Xisto always laughed after making a serious face; the way Frida would touch the inner wall of her left cheek with her tongue when trying out something for the first time; the way Ranjitha's face will have thousand expressions when she's explaining something; the PWD road always buffallo ridden; the pink bus that used to come every morning, with two brother conductors always asking everyone to "Fatle yo" (go back); the way I used to get lost in my own interpretations when people were talking in Konkani, and 'Raju' :) the dog at the bungalow, the way he barked at me the first day and kept me out; and fell in love with me from next day..

19. Frida and Elaine (kids at my PG) using Priyal's and Rishabh's hands and faces as canvas - my last night there. Elaine keeps hugging me, Frida keeps me close when sleeping. Gavin tries to appear nonchalant. Last bed-time story :(

20. At 5 a.m., on my way to airport, still not knowing how quickly everything happened; felt as if I lived a lifetime. Kept remembering my first day at Joet's and how I imagined my time in Goa to be and how drastically different it turned out to be!!!

As I sat there on the beach, I stitched
thoughts for a life to be,
Blinked and found
a different wave, a different sea...

somethings that left an impression..

Born out of random conversations, somethings just stick forever with you; guiding you, reminding you! Sometimes you realize much later, how big an impression something has left on your mind..Trying to recall a few..

• A friend, Sidharth Jayaraman, with whom I shared a pretty solid like-hate relationship, told me once during college winters, 'You don't change yourself for someone, you mould yourself..' And I didn't, after that. 
• A hostel room-mate (a senior, her name began with 'A', that's all I remember) gave me a very good advice, when I was feeling confused about helping certain people in the hostel, who were bitches, to say the least. She said, 'Don't help someone because he/she will like it, help only when you'll like it. Don't do it for someone else, it should be in sync with who you are. That ways, you'll never regret it.' Simplified a lot of paradoxes for me.
• A very talented photographer, Himanshu ji, in Jaipur fixed an idea in my head. He believed, that in the act of capturing the beauty, you kill some parts of it. When you click, when you paint, when you define something pure and beautiful; something in it dies. In the madness of giving expression, we commercialize it, we make it visible, too accessible. If you speak your heart out, the thought doesn't remain intimate anymore. It's never the same again!
• A very close college friend, Varnika, while trying to counsel me out of something, said something invaluable in symbolic language. She named one hand 'self-respect', and the other 'impulsiveness'. She started out with both hands at same level, then a competition started between both of them to be higher than the other. Sometimes self-respect's higher, sometimes it's 'impulsiveness'. Hands keep going up, but in the end, 'self-respect' wins. Precious!
• Well, this one came from a movie, 'The Nanny Diaries' - " I read that critics of anthropology believe that just by observing a culture you inevitably change it." Have been stumbling upon this line, quite often nowadays.