Goa - My Birthplace #WOW

Planning a trip 

I had never been to Goa until 2011 when I visited this beautiful state despite it being my birthplace. It was when me and my family were planning a trip and we had just 4 days that we could spend. I decided to visit Shimla but my mother said that we should visit our hometown, Goa. I was stunned at first but later I agreed to visit Goa and spend sometime. The fact that was making me unsure of my visit to Goa was the fact that it was summer and the heat in Goa would be a torture for us. Also, this state is polluted that was a matter of concern for me. It took us 2 weeks to decide on the hotel and the places we need to visit in Goa and when everything was finalized, we left for this state the next day.

The first step in Goa

The travel time was 14 hours and we finally had reached Goa via a private bus and the entire travel time was a pain wherein we had to sit in just one position and the seats too were uncomfortable. The hotel in Mapusa that we booked was away from the place the bus dropped us that made it even worse for me to like Goa. We checked in and the food served to us was Goan food but I kept comparing the taste to the taste of the food we get in Mumbai and my mother scolded me for being so nasty about everything in Goa.

Sea waves calling me

We went out in the morning the next day and I watched the city from my balcony and heard the sound of the silent sea communicating with me in its own way saying "Why Erika?...Why have you been away from me since all these years?...Why have you never even thought about seeing how I have been in the hope of seeing you one day?...Was it me being just an ordinary state or was I in no way appealing to you? You ancestors have lived a happy life here and have had a great respect for me, then what's stopping you, Erika? Did you never think about me at all?" Hearing these words brought tears to my eyes as I've been very rude to my own native place. How could I not even think about visiting my homeland? I was truly being heartless and that's what I realized when I came here. I was guilty and hence was taking out my frustration on everything and everybody who was near me.

This is the Photo that captured me which I clicked in Mapusa:

Watching Goa smile and hug me in its arms

It was similar to what I see in Mumbai but it was the first time I felt connected to this state, Goa. I don't know what was this feeling like but I just remembered how my grandparents and great-grandparents lived in this place all their life and were born and brought up in this land. This state is not just a piece of land for me but it's the land that's a part of me and it was calling me all these years whose voice I refused to hear. My hometown, my native place Goa wanted to make me a part of it and it kept reminding me that my ancestors have lived here and hence I need to respect that fact and visit this place to see how beautiful it is.

Watching my ancestor's house in ruins

The same day, we visited the place Assagao where my grand father owned a house but the house was nowhere to be seen. It had been ages since my parents visited this place and hence the house was in ruins with no trace at all. That made me really cry a lot and it hurt me that I never ever even tried to see the house of my grand-father and this factor would pinch me all my life.

The Goa market made me connect to myself as a Goan

We then checked the Goa market wherein people spoke to us in Konkani. It was so musical to my ears to hear so many people being able to speak my mother-tongue and it felt as it they were a part of my family. That's the magic of visiting a native place is what I told myself. As I kept checking out the market, all the sweets like bowl and bowlinia reminded me of how I used to grab these sweets when my mom used to bring with her from Goa when I was a kid. Gosh! I had missed so many things in my life and I just wished I had been there that time.

End of our trip

We kept visiting beaches in Goa and the last beach we visited was Calangute whose fresh air hugged me deeply into my thoughts and wrapped me around itself. The people, the atmosphere and the food that made me experience myself, talk in my mother tongue, make me eat pure Goan food and walk on a land that represents me, all made me feel so special and so proud of being a Goan and finally visiting Goa.


This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.