When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Going... To Goa!

It’s been raining like a bitch over the last few days. Now people who do have a life have been cribbing about their weekend being spoilt. I would do no such thing because it’s not like I go out partying every weekend. For me, it was just another normal weekend when I stayed at home, cleaned my apartment, cooked, did my laundry, had a friend over, spoke to another half a dozen people over the phone, read and planned exotic vacations to exotic locations. But the rain does get you down and it does perpetually remind you of all the things in your life that you would want to change. Of course, Anna Hazare finally ended his fast and the dance of democracy itself was entertaining enough to keep your blues away. But even my new-found admiration for Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan was not enough to cheer me up.

Things have been pretty slow at work. While I believe that my job is safe for now (not because the company can’t do without me, but because I am too cheap to be fired), a lot of restructuring is happening around me, and I no longer have any clarity regarding my role/objectives/mandate.

Then I am obsessing about what to do with my life. Should I just write CFA like everybody else around me (that should keep me occupied for the next five years till I give up)? Should I go abroad to some Ivy-League University for some fancy one-year course and study something impressive (Public Policy, International Relations, Media and Communications)? It will be quite an experience but the middle-class accountant’s daughter that I am, I can’t help worrying about the opportunity cost, not to mention the cost itself. Also, what will I do AFTER one year, once the course is over and I am back to India with no job and a 20-lac loan? I am pretty sure I don’t want to go through the MBA/Finance/Economics grind all over again.

Also, Mumbai is sort of getting on my nerves and I just want to get away. So I have been doing a lot of research. Ajanta Ellora, Coorg, Kumarakom, Ganpatiphule, Angkor Wat and Sri Lanka are some of the places I want to visit in the near future.

But as of tomorrow, I am going to Goa, AGAIN: a place that never fails to cheer you up, a place which has a lot of memories and a place which is so beautiful in the monsoons that it takes your breath away. Even if it’s an impromptu trip, even if it’s to celebrate the bachelor party of some random stranger and even if it means going back to the same old places. At least 66.6% of Room No 213 is going to be there, but the remaining 33.3% will be thoroughly missed.

So it’s time again for lot of cleavage, bare legs and beer bellies (none of it mine), it’s time for cheap alcohol, it’s time for soaking up the rains.

It’s time for Goa…