The Great Money Vanishing Trick at the Land of 3 ‘F’s

“Da, what abt going goa? Monday and Tuesday are holidays, right?” It was Sabari at the other end of the line, asking me these questions at around 3.30 in the afternoon on Friday, 10^th October 2003. That was all the discussion and planning we had to fix our Goa trip. I checked who else was coming and was told that only Salim was available. The rest of the gang was either working through the weekend or had already left for their own respective hometowns. I was at our Seepz office and he was calling me from a travel agent’s place at Vashi. I had as usual come to office and didn’t even have an extra pair of undergarments with me for the trip. But that can not be considered as a good reason to postpone a trip to Goa. I committed and asked him to pack some extra T-Shirts and shorts for me. :_)

All set. Volvo to Goa starts from Vashi at 6.00 PM and I am a good 45 minutes away (during normal traffic) from the place. It was Ganesh Utsav time, and anticipating a heavy traffic and blocks, I left my office at 4.30 PM, giving myself double the time needed, took a BEST bus, and started my (then unknown) long journey from Seepz to Vashi. I don’t remember how many Ganesh processions I saw (or rather participated in) that day. The only thing I remember now is I stopped counting when it reached three digit figures. My bus proceeded so slow that I seriously contemplated the idea of walking all the distance to Vashi :_(. Sabari was calling me every 5 minutes and was in turn updated about the current location, which changed very rarely. Finally, somehow, I managed to reach Vashi at 5.58. Straight to a mall, bought three jockeys and a towel, and I was all set to start my trip.

The journey was uneventful... We reached Panchim on Saturday morning. As soon as we got down from the bus, an Omni came to a screeching halt barely a foot away from us. Having seen this in a number of movies, we waited (with bated breath) for the door to slide open and terrorists to jump out with outstretched AK 47s... Nothing of that sort happened... A tourist guide got out and approached us with a broad smile, promising to find us a hotel room for 50 Rs. Relieved; we agreed and got into the cab. Usual bargains at the hotel. At last, we settled for a room with three beds and a TV set. We had to pay double the rent because of the TV, but the sad fact is we never switched it on even once.

The next four days went in beach hoping, digging into delicious seafood, babe watching and fun in general. We started with a visit to Dona Paula. Have to admit that I was pretty impressed with the legend of the lady coming to that beach in the evenings. The list of conquered beaches grew fast- Baga, Vagator, Benaulim, Colva, Anjuna, Miramar, Candolim, Calangute etc etc... We climbed on top of all possible forts. Aquada deserves a special mention. Every fort and beach we went, we were told that all those movies, which have at least a distant shot of a sea, were completely shot there. Anyways, it was nice fun posing at the spot where Urmila supposedly sat for Rangeela. :_). I don’t know if you people have seen one particular advertisement of a lubricant which portrays 4 marine pegs and a woman. We saw some similar marine pegs at one place, and took a snap of us caressing those pegs ;_D.

All was going fine until we reached Calangute. Salim, who is the die-hard nature lover of our group, had started his nonstop commentary, “What a beach maaan.... look at those waves....that bird...wow...woow”. Problem with him is he will go on ‘wow’-ing on practically everything he sees around including a muddy pond or even a crow. All mellow and romantic (sadly no company, even then) we descended the long steps leading to Calangute beach. It was then that we saw a gathering where people were betting on cards. 3 cards. 2 blacks and 1 red. Thoroughly shuffled and placed upside down. If u keep ur money on top of the red card, u get double the money back, else u lose all.

As bad luck would have it, we were interested in that bloody game. Stood watching that for sometime and I could see a smile growing on Sabari’s lips. He told us “Aliya, I am fast enough to see where the red goes, I am gonna bet”, with that typical lopsided laugh. We didn’t say anything. In the next round, he took out a 100 Rs Indian $ note and placed it on a card, which he diagnosed to be red. BOOOM... the card turns out to be black. He lost his first 100. We should have stopped with that highly rewarding first round of cards. No, he (or we, at least we should have dragged him away) didn’t stop. The club-owner (aka cheater) offered him a ‘double’, whatever that bloody term means. He said, “Keep 500, u will get 2000 if u win”. Sabari becomes double alert, takes out a 500 Rs note, observes the club-owners fingers very carefully and keeps it in the next round. Wonder of wonders!!! Black again and that money also disappears. We the fools didn’t stop with that also (should have run away from that place at least then). Now comes the ultimate challenge. As if being sympathetic with our lose, the club-owner showed us the card from the left end which turns out to be black. He lifts the rightmost card also, which is also black. And then he says, “Now you know which is what, if you keep 2000, you will get 5000 back” We the morons were damn tempted, we carried out a high level strategic discussion, pooled in money, and placed the money on the remaining card, extremely happy about our unexpected fortune change. The guy casually flicks the card, and lo and behold, that’s a BLAK again. :_( Those buggers had changed the card while we were conducting our high-level discussion. This was a simple way of losing 2.5 grands in less than 2.5 minutes.

We were dejected for the next fifteen minutes. Then I said, “Da, this is a lesson for you. Remember there is nothing called a free meal”. His reply was quick “No, on the contrary, this proves that there IS something called a free meal”. Salim and I were perplexed. Sabari continued “Yea... for HIM...” pointing at that buffoon who fooled us. Anyways, we decided to forget abt the incident. More beaches, more fish, and more babes (read only mode)... :_). That evening we went for that unforgettable Santa Monica cruise. Salim had to return the next day morning as he had some project work. It was then that we rented out a YAMAHA ENTICER and started exploring Goa on that. Man, it was absolutely heavenly. Beaches and bike ride for 2 days.

We decided to go back to Calangute on the bike, as we heard the beach had a very good restaurant. This time we entered the beach thru another road, avoiding the card-game-cheater altogether. After lunch, we had this bright idea of riding through the beach. I had this doubt “Da, its illegal, will there be any problems?” Sabari was at his assuring best, “No man, this is Goa, rules are liberal, no problem here”. We had to ride through a stony terrain to reach the beach. We drove through the beach to our hearts content – circles, spirals, towards sun, away from sun, chasing waves... We took some snaps also. Once we were done, we tried to get the bike out of the beach. It was then that we noticed a police officer who was watching the entire great-goa-bike-show. He was very polite and just asked us to accompany him to the Police Station. Regular scenes at the police station - we came out of the Station after paying 500 Rs for riding on the beach. Thus, Calangute turned out to be a nightmare for SabriMan and me. Next time I go Goa, I am sure I will stay away from that area. :_)

Now about the title. During one of our beach trips, the travel guide asked this question. “Goa is famous as the land of 3 Fs... could you guess?” There were answers like “Female, Female and more Female” ;_) But the right answer turned out to be

1. Fish
2. Fenny
3. and the last one is Football...(surprising, uh? Not when you think of Salgaocar, Dempo, Churchill Brothers and Vasco)