A memorable vacation

It was a bright sunny morning, just good to take a stroll on the beach. We decided to leave our 15 month old son with my parents & sister and went to the nearby beach (Bogmalo in Goa) for a short (1 Hr) break. Unlike other beaches during Decemebr, this one was very lightly crowded. After a short walk, the waves waved at us and went into the water. It was very fun to jump onto the waves and we both were having fun. We walked very deep into the sea as it was shallow. Shilpa was having the fun of her life with the waves. Suddenly a huge wave stuck us and we both shouted in joy. The joy did not last long as Shilpa immediately asked me ‘where’s your spects’ - the wave had taken away the beautiful spectacle I was wearing and the sea had swallowed it. I looked for it in the water like a fool, of course in vein.


We decided to have some soft drink and head to Vasco to buy a new spectacle. We went to a shack on the beach, ordered 2 Slice and just an Omlette (50 Rs for an omlette in a shabby shack) as we were planning to go home (we stayed in my sis’s house in Goa) for lunch. The guy in the restaurant started at us after hearing our order.

Now I opened the plastic bag from my pocket in which I had kept the car key and 50 Rs. Water had managed to get into the bag and both were wet. I went to the car to get my wallet as I knew the bill will be over Rs 50. I went near the car pressed the unlock button… no sound …I wasn’t surprised, cause I knew the water would have damaged the remote key. Ok..I was confident that I could open it by inserting the key into the key hole of the lock.

I tried to insert the key into the driver’s door lock, the key managed only to get half way, the lock doesn’t open..tried again..tried again..no luck…ok, I thought of trying at the other door. Same story... I was in a shock..I don’t know why the key was not going into the key hole, and I did not know what to do. Shilpa was in the restaurant, I din’t have enough money to pay the restaurant bill.

Took a deep breath..went back to the restaurant, sipped the Slice, ate the omlette and told her the story. I asked her to wait in the restaurant and returned to the car. Mean while a new idea had stuck me.

I opened the boot thinking ‘if somehow I can fold the rear seat, I can enter the cabin’. Luckily only one side of the rear seat was clamped and the other one wasn’t. The only way to get access to the clamp was through the hole where the speaker fits. I tried to remove the screws using the pliers in the tool box. Two of the screws came out easily, third one wasn’t fixed properly, thanks to the guy who fixed the speakers, but the fourth one did not budge and more over my hand wasn’t reaching that corner properly. I put some force to tear the board and finally the speaker was out.

I pressed the clamp, folded the rear seat, and crawled in to unlock the rear driver side seat. Opened the driver’s door, took the wallet, locked all the doors and the boot and rushed the restaurant to get Shilpa.

Ok…we are out of the restaurant, we are yet to get the lock fixed and to buy a new spectacle and it was already past 1 PM. I went through the boot and opened the door again. We sat in the car and turned on the ignition….bououououououou….started the siren, I wasn’t expecting this…I felt the whole world was looking at us…as if we are stealing our own car.

There was no way I could have stopped the siren…I had never bothered to look at those connections. The only option was to rush to the nearest service station and get this fixed. Being a Moharram day most of them were closed and the nearest we could find was 4 Kms away and the siren was continuously blowing aloud. Finally got the siren dis-engaged, still no luck with the lock, were directed to a car accessories guy who might have a solution for this.

We started towards Vasco about 6 Kms away. We approached Dabolim junction. Either because my mind was pre occupied with so many things or because I didn’t have my spectacles, didn’t notice the signal (couldn’t even hear Shilpa shouting, ‘SIGNAL’) and went past the ‘stop’ lane. The policeman standing in front seemed so happy..he came near and with a grin on his face he said ‘not even wearing the seat belt, that’s 500 for breaking the signal and 200 for the seat belt’.

What else do I do, I was not ready to cough up 700 Rs. to the cop, another 2K (may be) for the spectacle and I don’t know how much for repairing the lock. I managed with Rs 100 and went away.

The car accessories guy said he can’t do anything with the lock and directed me to the Tata service center in Baina another 3 Kms away. These guys were very helpful, took out the lock, dismantled it, used some spray to clean it up, assembled and fit it back and now the key perfectly mated the lock. That was big sigh of relief; I did not have to replace the locks. Thanks to these guys, even after working for 2 Hrs on the lock did not charge me anything. It was already 5PM by now.

Went back to Vasco, saw an Optho, got the prescription, and ordered a new pair of glasses, that I am wearing today.

uffffff.. what a day it was!!

The misery did not end here. Next day we were on our way to Baaga where we were supposed to attend the introductory session for the scuba diving. I called the guy on his cell phone to whom I had already transferred 50% of the money a week before. Someone picked up the call and said ‘wrong number’. Oh god, whom did I pay the money to, does that guy genuinely belong to the scuba diving agency, and similar thoughts flew through my mind.

Finally we had reached Baaga after driving through the crowded, narrow Calngut - Baaga road. Driving there was tougher than driving in Bangalore. I stopped at a junction to enquire the address. We were supposed to take the right turn few feet behind. I looked into the rear view mirror and started reversing the car…dhum, came the sound. I had banged an Innova parked on my left side, the guy who directed us said, ‘ arre kya kar diya’..We were already late for the session and on top of that this accident. The same guy said, ‘nothing happened, just go’

I didn’t even bother to look what happened, I just drove away, my tail light had broken, may be 5K, I haven’t dared to enquire about this.

Ok..we finished the introductory session and were in imagination about the next day’s real diving session in the middle of the sea. With these thoughts running in the mind, next day we reached the Siquerim Jetty at 8.30AM and boarded the boat after a 45 min boat ride, 2 diving sessions (I will write separately about the diving experience) we were on our way back to the shore. Everyone shared their experiences, talked to the instructors about a certification/career in Diving, looked at some of the underwater photographs that a fellow diver had taken, also looked at the pictures taken in my camera, as we got closer to the shore, started the pack up, put on the pant. As we arrived at the jetty, we took our bag and looked for the camera, but it was nowhere to be found, looked in the entire boat, everyone checked their bags..no…not to be found anywhere…disappointed about losing the camera as well as the pictures we drove home, luckily it was the old Sony 5MP DSC series camera and not the DSLR I bought recently.