The Sea And The Sunset: A Travel Story

Mobor – Benaulim – Velsao

We drove towards the south in an incapable bus full of capable people.
A few men boasting of their travels as if this old bus has been their companion for way too long, some silent women who are far more concerned of the heat, three children- such pretty little birds and I, on the second last seat, trying to hear every conversation that I’m not a part of.
There were kind advices suggesting me to take a nap but the sea was calling out to me a little too loudly.
A delay of 2 hours and 2 short conversations later, I was standing in front of the water. My eyes were as salty as the sea and I could not believe on my luck.

Mobor – Benaulim – Velsao

22 km trek along the coastline in two days with some 50 strangers and too many crabs. Our camping tents in a football stadium awaiting our arrival and to stay in for the night.
Goa was a dream came true. Too tangible, I could touch it. Too salty, I could taste it.

The sun shone in all its glory whenever I entered the water. The big vast goddess, breathing in and out, I was exhaling out laughter. I was twenty-one years old and picking up seashells like I would pick up dreams.

The evenings were made up of a golden sky, leaving a glittery red in the sea. My newly found friends and I, our hearts pounding on Louis Fonsi’s track, And our toes- bare, unapologetic and unharmed. We were thanking every embrace of the sand that was sliding off our feet.

 

Too many metaphors hushing a song. “The waves are roaring”, some would say, but I knew it was music. The sweet calling, the hum of the water, flowing, singing. A prayer worth recalling. Miles away from home, it still felt like a homecoming. In that night, Goa was all mine to behold, all mine to love. The sky was my shelter and the coastline was my gorgeous companion, dearer than a friend, lovelier than a lover.

But the candlelit shacks dancing slowly in jazz music reminded me of someone back at home. I wrote a love letter in my mind and threw it in the moonlit grace of the sea. “I’ll come back here again with someone I love more than I love you. You shall return this letter to me that evening.” I asked the Arabian sea quietly.

 

Photo Credits – Self.