Another trip to Goa

My sister, my mother and my self had to go to Goa last week for some religious occasion accompanied with us was a brat called “Bandar” alias my nephew.
The earlier day after work and winding up at home I left for my mom’s place by bus as next day the train was early in the morning. On my way I came across many Christian places, now distinguished by their “stars” lamps for Christmas on the Christmas eve. The whole journey was eventful as I was fascinated seeing the beautiful lamps emanating the mysterious red or yellow light.
Half asleep I reached home. A bit late. My nephew was already there and was waiting to sleep even if his mother was trying to make him go to sleep. Stealth that I never knew before, I tried to enter bed, but he got up and called me “pachi” and hugged me…I smiled all the days exertion seemed to wear off it was only after this short meeting that he went off to sleep.
The next morning in a hurry we finished off everything and after hailing a taxi, headed towards the station in cold early morning. The train was miraculously on time and we with bag baggage one of which was not staying in place at all (who else except the “Bandar”) managed to get into the train. Later life was full of events with my nephew not staying at one place and giving us missed heartbeats the moment he was out of sight. We devoured poha (which my sis thought was free as the last time we went the food was included in train fare but this time the poor girl had to pay for it) and sandwiches and teas and coffees. We reached the destination in the early evening. And after a wash and short tea break we headed to the market since my sis (here she comes again) wanted to buy stuff “exclusively” from Goa. (Nope not feni) like “tirfal”, “kokum”, “sukke mase” and “amsat” etc. my sis incidentally wanted to buy “Christmas” sweets from the store. As per my suggestion we got hold of the same from mongenis. Outside was a person painting tattoos on people’s hands for free on the day of Xmas. As a token of Christmas when I offered him a pastry, his simple face showed so many joys that I thought that the day was worth it.
We came to our place and it was beautifully lit with lights including the deepastambha ( a structure found at every old temple of Goa, where lights/diyas are decorated).after having an early hearty “Satwik” meal in the canteen, we went to our room for some rest before the “aarti” at the temple. Finally the bong sounded and we went in the direction of the temple. Before aarti there was a round outside the temple with decked up beautiful idol of the goddess, this time on a beautifully lit peacock. My nephew aided in pushing the peacock, how proud we felt of him at that time. The procession ended as magnificently as it had started, with the beautiful aarti (the chants actually vibrate as they are supposed to) and later generous Prasad of fruits, sweets etc.
The next day passed in flurry with the gorgeous ladies performing the abhishek and me managing the brat J lunch was simple and wholesome fare at the purohit’s place (the one who performed our puja), after having a real sleepy nap, we headed for a toofan mail visit to other temples, buying papads and achars in between. Dinner was again in the canteen and after the aarti we headed to our room for packing. The next day after completing 21 “pradakshanas” I headed with my sister to “maruti chi tekdi” where I saw a kingfisher and fog draped Goa and warm early rays of young sun and smelt the lush of greenery and freshness. A fragrance that I always loved…after coming down, we had a hearty breakfast and we headed to the station. Such was our jet age trip to Goa. The main thing that I enjoyed was being with my sis and mother for a trip after a really long ago, the place where we stay and the simple life there. People who don’t have much but are happy in what they have and don’t pretend with what they don’t. The simple food and simple living where I would love to come again and again, not as a tourist but as a native.