BOMBAY GOA !!

It was in December 2003, I was in class 11th, our school trip was being planned and cancelled, again and again, due to the reasons best known to the school authorities only..
Finally after a lot of dilly dallying a destination was finalised, BOMBAY and GOA, there was a tremendous initial response. But gradually the response kept getting cold towards the trip as a lot of time had been taken to finalise the trip, students had made other plans to spend their winter vacations.
I had very high hopes from the trip, as I had been very excited from the time the idea of the trip was mooted,  it had been a long time also since I had gone on a school trip, the last being in 1999...

As the minimum no of students did not opt for the trip, the trip got cancelled.

I and my friends were shattered, we had made a lot of plans....So, we decided to approach the principal, who was very warm to us and assured us that he would try his best to organise the trip, but the chances were very bleak, we knew, since all the girls had backed out, it was no way the trip could've been given a go ahead.

Jammu-Delhi road trip

Finally, one day we got to know the trip can go with minimum 25 students, here our work started, we started convincing our friends, and finally we did it, 25 students and no girls :(
But still we were overwhelmed with joy, as we were going !!

Our journey started from Jammu by bus in the evening as we were to reach Delhi to catch the train next morning. We were more than 10 of class XIth and the rest were our juniors from other classes...Although this journey yielded new names for juniors such as 'Gujjar ji' and 'Gylcodin'..!!!

Train journey

Our road trip got through within no time as we listened to songs, thanks mainly to Ujjwal's big stereo, troubled our juniors, chatted, and it was 4 in the morning while we were outside New Delhi Railway Station in the midst of dense fog...When we reached the station we got to know that our train was running late....a phenomenon that takes place too often in north India, we were left stranded at the station, and didn't know how to pass our time....It also affected our stay period in Bombay, we lost half day due to this...

Finally after waiting for 6 hours, the train arrived and we continued our journey...The train journey was the most memorable one...One of our friend Maneck, while sleeping on the upper birth of the coach kept mumbling "Bhopal aaya kya ??" and when Bhopal actually came, he didn't even get up !!
Another fellow, Yogeshwar, he created a sort of record by drinking countless cups of tea and the best part was that he didn't pay even a single penny for it !!!  We played a lot of UNO, thanks to Vasit, who brought the cards...Ate Batata Vada on the Railway Station, as soon as we entered Maharashtra...

In Mumbai, our hotel was on a very unique location, and we only got to know on the last night of our stay, the thing was that it was situated in the Red Light Area !! We also went to Fashion Street,  Gateway of India, Marine Drive, Juhu Beach, Linking Road, Haji Ali, obviously these are the places where everyone generally goes..Whatever time we spent in bombay was worth it, while the I&B ministry was not very strict those days, everyone used to gather in one room of the hotel at 12 am midnight to watch special channels on TV !! Our bombay trip ended with a visit to Essel World and Water kingdom which were really amazing, we enjoyed to the max there. After that we were to leave for Goa by bus in the evening.

Goa Fort

We started our Goa journey with very high hopes and kept on singing songs of Dil Chahta Hai !
We reached Goa the next morning and checked in in our hotel 'NANUTEL'...incidentally this hotel was named after our legendary friend Zubin (also known as Nannu......).After that the sight seeing followed with churches, beaches and other small adventures...
The next day was a very different one though, an incident happened which has taken its place in my permanent memory, and I cannot forget it now...
While roaming in and there in Panjim market, we all went to an optical shop, everyone was just checking out the different varieties of shades the shop owner had kept, I realised most of my friends had disappeared from the shop, and I also decided to go. While I walked out I saw the owner's men chasing me, I suddenly changed my way and found my other friends who to my surprise had taken a piece of shades without getting noticed from the owner...It was a very narrow escape for us...!!
In the evening we cruised in the river Mandavi and also went to Vasco on motor bikes, while the rest went back to hotel for a swim in the pool...

Our Goa trip ended with a Christmas party at a 5 star resort, and we again boarded the train in the morning for Delhi.....It was indeed the best trip of my life which I'll never forget...

PS : I apologise for the use of the word 'Bombay' instead of 'Mumbai'...