Croaking Frogs Leap

It finally rained in Goa today - and cats and dogs too! We'd seen it coming for some time now. Over the past few days, the sky was often cloudy and there were some pre monsoon showers. Initially we were all gay about it, but the Rain Gods are cruel and they know how to make you beg. If there's something worse than the sun's heat, it's humidity. And although the clouds might make it less sunny, all that humidity in the air makes you feel really stuffy and uncomfortable.

But there was something different in the air today. It was rather pleasant. There was a cool wind as I watered my plants in the afternoon and by the evening there were huge rain clouds in the sky - all around, as far as you could see them. And the strange thing about rain clouds is that you can't see them separately. They are like a genie in the sky - dark and strong, dangerous and not merciful.

The winds howl through cracks in your house and there's thunderous applause from the heavens above. The dead leaves outside rise again and dance around in circles - joyous to see the spectacle unfold before them. And the sweet smell of the parched earth which spreads around you adds a solemn feeling to the whole ceremony. Oh welcome our mighty saviour - the Monsoons are here!

Humans are not the only species which enjoy the arrival of the monsoons. There are a lot of others too. I'm hoping to see some peacocks around my house soon. :)

But this post is about the frogs. On my drive back home, I saw a lot of frogs leaping all over the place - in the veranda, in the garden, on the road, all over. Must be a happy moment in their lives too I thought. Unlike the peacocks, since they have little to show off by the way of dancing, they like singing. Well, they croak really. You can't expect much more from such ugly looking creatures :P

Male frogs generally croak during the rainy season to attract female frogs or to mark thier territory against other male frogs. I'm sure some of them got lucky today and went leaping around to tell their friends. :D

Down and Humbled

When you're at home on vacation, you'll do anything to kill time. And I think I've been lucky to find things to do this time. A unique opportunity presented itself when one of my dad's friends suggested I go for sailing at the Naval Sailing Club.

I don't know if you've seen anybody sailing before, but I'm sure you'd like to check it out if you saw it. It's a lot of fun. Typically you start with enterprise(dinghy) sailing. A dinghy is a light boat with two sails which are controlled independently by two persons. Before you set sail, it's really important that you know about all the parts of the boat, so you know what to do and how to communicate with each other.

The person who sits in front and controls the fore sail is called the crew. Apart from that, he's also supposed to make sure that the boat doesn't (which can happen sometimes when there are strong winds or if you have a noob at the helm - like me). The person at the helm of affairs, and rightly called the helmsman, controls the main sail and the rudder simultaneously. He's solely responsible for changing directions and steering the boat. Slight error on his part can cause the boat to capsize. And righting the boat is a daunting task in itself.

So as long as I'm giving teaching you the basics of sailing, I'll tell you what happened yesterday. Although I've tried helming before (read once), I committed some rookie mistakes. Firstly, the boat was already hall full with sea water because was a small leakage in the boat. Also I suspect, there was some water in the bouyany tanks (which are supposed to be empty to make the boat lighter in water and keep it afloat). Secondly, I committed the stupid mistake of taking a rookie with me who didn't know a thing about sailing. And being a rookie myself, things were bound to go wrong.

Having gone far enough into the sea, I thought it would be safer to come back. And turning your boat around is a tricky thing to do. If you're at the helm, you have to duck under the boom (the metallic rod which fastens the main sail to the mast), go and sit on the other side while controlling the main sail with one hand and turning the rudder with the other. So you're obviously bound to make mistakes if you aren't confident about what you're doing or if you're too slow. And I think I was too slow. I turned the rudder but couldn't pull the sail fast enough. Mother Nature played her part and we were soon in water.

And when the boat is capsizing, it doesn't really happen just like that. First you commit the stupid crime of tempting Mother Nature. Then there's a brief interval in which you see what's happening and you try to rectify things. And that requires a reflex action. In those few seconds, your mind goes over half a dozen things and if you don't have enough experience, you're bound to go down...slowly but surely. And no matter how many times you revise it on land, you can't learn without actually being there. It's all about mind over matter.

There's nothing to be proud about capsizing your boat. It's dangerous and if you don't know the capsize drill properly, you can be in a lot of trouble. But on the other hand, you can't learn the capsize drill without actually capsizing. And neither can you learn how to sail properly without making a few mistakes. So I guess all in all, you just have to take it as a stepping stone and not try and make the same mistakes again. Also never be overconfident about these things - take a trained professional who can quickly react to mistakes you make and teach you tricks properly.

Driving through Goa

Roads in Goa can be pretty confusing, probably not so much like some other places in India, but still. And it's not the highways I am talking about - like those from Margao to Panjim or Vasco but all the lanes and by-lanes which join these highways from all the villages scattered all over the place.

Typically only a single narrow road passes through an entire village before joining some other road from some other village and that finally joins the highway. And it's not the scenery around which I am complaining about. Mind you, that is always a pretty sight. Roads usually pass through the forest, or by a church (when you're passing through a village) or by large water bodies - by which of course I mean ponds. rivers or the sea.

So if you are a simple man, you'd love to drive through Goa. But what I was really trying to tell you was that since these simple narrow village roads typically all look the same, it's very easy to get lost and end up in some other village with a very similar sounding name. Your best bet then is to retrace your path back to the highway and find the right turn to the village you intended to go to. Highways on the other hand are pretty neat, long and wide (unless they are forced to go through some village) with signboards at regular intervals. So they help you cover the greater part of your journey with considerable ease.

By now you must have some idea that if you were to get lost in some village in Goa, you'd take a lot more time finding your way through the village to the right place than you did on the highway. And if you're wondering why I am taking so much effort to educate you about the roads of Goa, it's because I learnt a very valuable lesson yesterday on my way to my friend's house for his birthday party.

I bet you're thinking that all that I'm saying telling you is gibberish and that I must be a terrible driver with no sense of direction whatsoever. Sure it can't be that tough. But that's exactly what I thought. So take my advice and always consult Google Maps before you go around in Goa, especially if you haven't been to the place a couple of times already. :)

Epilogue

How does it feel?
To be back home...
With all that gold.
And no school to go.

School's out. Finally. Life's not very different from how it used to be when we used to come back home for vacations. But some things have changed forever...

Final year was a lot different from what I had expected it to be. It was very liberating...

The only thing on everybody's mind when we entered final year was getting a job. And the first few months in final year were pure madness. Everyday somebody was getting placed. For some, jobs were available on a platter. And the exultation after getting placed... was like popping a champagne bottle, with all that fizz ready to pour out and fill our empty hearts with happiness and joy.

Some had many dress rehearsals. The diligent ones would iron their shirts and polish their shoes the night before. We, on the other hand, used to beg and borrow whenever the situation called for it... take shoes from the guy next door and put a lot of deodorant on a shirt worn already... once, twice or whatever... :)

And even though we all had different experiences (and let's not forget about how frustrated we used to get when there were rumours that somebody 'screwed' the interview), I guess we all felt the same when we had landed jobs... ecstatic as we'd probably never been in our lives.

Second semester was the best. Always found a reason to celebrate. And even if all those we knew were placed already, we'd go out on a binge - and that was really a lot, every other day. It really seemed like nothing could ever stop us again...

Sail on into that horizon,
With joy in your heart,
And a smile on your face.
Nothing's going to stop you now.

And final year was a lot about things we'd never done before - poker, binge drinking, riding like crazy on highways, or just getting drunk and crying on each others shoulder or just getting drunk and dancing like crazy... any occasion we had always called for a round of drinks - the only way we knew how to pour our hearts out to each other and mean every word we say...