Goa

Me and Sujit (IIMB classmate) at Colva, 1983. I had gone with Subodh, a childhood buddy, who clicked this.

 I have been to Goa a dozen times, at least. Maybe more. At IMT Nagpur, we hosted a Case Conference and the location was Goa. I also drove from Harihar to Colva beach three years in a row, for a Diwali vacation. The drive along the Hubli-Karwar route was fantastic.

I have also been there on invitation by Goa University or GIM a couple of times. The latest was a conference at BITS Goa. January or February 2019, I believe it was.

Also drove with family through Gokarna, to Palolem one December. 

All these were memorable trips. Once, we drove all the way up from Mangalore, stopping at Turtle Bay beach, and on to Colva though a picturesque part of Karnataka- Honnavar, Padukone, Kundapur are some spots we drove through.

But my first visit was with Subodh Bhide in 1983. Remember a bar called Ding Dong in Panaji from there, and meeting Sujit in Colva for a beer (pic above).

More recently, Bogmalo beach.

Road-tripping

Being on the road (in its positive sense) is a nice feeling. While in the U.S. between 1986-1991, we went often. Some long trips, and some short. Driving was fun, mostly, and roads excellent. But in India too, we have been on some-with a driver in a couple of cases. While living in Harihar, we went to Colva beach at Goa regularly, driving there via Hubli-Karwar, a very nice road at the time.

Recently, we went to Jaisalmer via Chittorgarh and Udaipur, and also stopped over at Jodhpur's Mehrangarh fort. Belur-Halebid, Jog Falls, and Hampi were some other memorable trips from Harihar. Ooty-Coonoor with some IIM buddies was another recent one, and a couple of Golfing trips with friends from IMT Nagpur, to Munnar and Kodaikanal were good ones.

Bryce Canyon, U.S. with my parents (above). Mysore, with German students and faculty from Lubeck (below).

Yellowstone National Park, with parents.

Jaisalmer road trip.

Observations on Road Travel

Road travel takes a toll. And inefficiently, at that. The toll amounts are not in round figures, leading to huge delays in taking or giving change. One does not mind paying, but can't the process be easier? That's true of every payment made to anyone, actually. Message for all service marketers- make life convenient, and customers will pay. Offer excellent service, likewise.

We have made a lot of progress in road quality, but speed breaker (the term is a funny one too) quality is atrocious. Needs lot of thought on humane speed-breaking. Without breaking necks.

Went on a quick road trip Pune-Mumbai to attend a wedding reception of a friend's daughter. These observations are born out of that. Thankfully, on a Sunday, the traffic was manageable. If not, I would have taken a bus. And saved my neck from the breakers.

Fogged Out

Thus speaks the wiki on Fog-

Fog is a collection of liquid water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated locally (such as from a nearby body of water, like a lake or the ocean, or from nearby moist ground or marshes). Fog is distinguished from mist only by its density, as expressed in the resulting decrease in visibility: Fog reduces visibility to less than 1 km (5/8 statute mile), whereas mist reduces visibility to no less than 1 km . For aviation purposes in the UK, a visibility of less than 5 km but greater than 999 m is considered to be mist if the relative humidity is 70% or greater.

The fictional character in Jules Vernes' book 'Around the World in Eighty Days' was called Phileas Fogg, I don't have the foggiest idea of why anyone would want to have a name like Fogg, but then, I have encountered  (sur) names like Cabinetmaker in my life too. 

Anyway, the point of this post is to mention that I had a fog delay- not, as is the fashion, in the air, or on the airport, but just driving to work-on the road. That I am fogged out as a result goes without saying. But what is life without a bit of fog-or other kinds of excitement? 

Learnings From Traffic

Traffic is the ultimate punching bag for all of us, with apparently no redeeming features. But during one such heavily-filled road journey, I came up with the following things one can learn from negotiating traffic on our roads (apart from of course, learning to use choice expletives, which some consider a useful part of language training)-

1. There are no kings or commoners here. We are all as the maker intended-equal.

2. This makes us contemplative- note that my (above) contemplations happened on the road.

3. This teaches us patience- I would have said forbearance, but I realise not many would recognise the word.

4. It lets us appreciate the beauty of our existence- the mind wanders into all the beautiful places that one could have been in -especially when you are not driving (it could be fatal if you ARE).

5. It makes us acutely aware of how much we long to be at home, or even at work. Therefore, it increases our positive feelings for both. Even the boss appears to be better than what we are going through.

Happy Trafficking (of the right kind, with the right mind).