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Posted on: Jun 25, '09

Getting Together in Goa -- THE Fropper Meet!

Sigh! The same old dilemma again! What to tell and what not to tell!
Should I tell you about our whacky invention of ‘Spot Fat Reduction through Lap Top Therapy?” Naah! That’s censored stuff!
How about Arjun’s version of Newton’s Law of Motion? Nope! Not relevant without ‘back ground’ information! I’m sure that the participants of the Goa meet are laughing now, but those unfortunate enough to miss it just won’t get the ‘flow’!
Then again, do I tell you about the scalping, skinning and mincing that took place? Ummmm… maybe… let me decide as I go along with my narrative, eh?

The prelude to the get together was a saga unto itself. Finally 18th June 2009 arrived!
Geet came from Belgaum, Bharat Selvan from Bangalore and Sunil and Khushi from Pune!
Arjun and Sumedha flew down from Delhi the next day.

1. Geet Sudha – She’s no stranger to most of us. Serene, charming, beautiful, loving and wise are just some of the adjectives that describe Geet. It’s no surprise that anyone who meets her is besotted by her! How impatient I was to meet her! And how happy I am that I finally did! She gave me some much needed advise on looking good and also boosted my self-confidence a lot! Thank you Geet! I’ll surely start working on your advise ASAP!
2. Bharat Selvan (BS) – I didn’t really know him before he came to Goa; and I still don’t really know him! Meeting does not necessarily mean knowing a person, does it? He’s

new to my friends’ list. He knew about the Goa get together from a chance comment of mine on one of his blogs and was very interested in joining, so there he was! Several times during the meet I actually felt sorry for him – he didn’t know us very well, so didn’t know that most of the times when Sumedha or I seemed to be howling for his blood we were actually teasing him! I do thank Sunil and Arjun for making him feel more at home. I definitely had communication problems with BS. Maybe it’s because he speaks with a strong Tamilian accent and most of the time has an expressionless face. That’s in total contrast to the way I speak –with my mouth, eyes, gestures—when I talk, my whole being speaks! One of the reasons why I don’t talk when I’m driving! ;-) Also, since I didn’t know him well, I couldn’t pick up much of non-verbal cues and many a time though he was serious or being offensive till he clarified that he was joking. . But overall, I really admire his spirit for attending a get together where he wasn’t bosom friends with everybody. Are the chickens reading this?? :P

3. Sunil – the new guy in my friends list. His zone id is sun9009. E4T introduced him to me and though I’ve thanked Uncly for it, I would like to do so again! Thank you Uncly, for introducing this fab guy to us! His kobra (that’s colloquial for Konkanasta Brahmin) looks did intimidate me a bit in the beginning, added to the fact that he smiled like it was a strange gesture which he had never made before. But as I got to know him better, we got along fantastically! A through gentleman, thoughtful and caring towards others, has good self-confidence, good sense of humour and is in great shape. Those of you who saw his pics in my album will know. He drove us around a great deal during the get together. Inspite of drinking beer from morning till next morning, he could really handle the car well. I’m impressed!
4. Khushi – does this lady with the enchanting smile need

any introduction? She and I had got to know each other better before the meet through chat and on the phone and I was certainly looking forward to meet her! She has joined Keeran as a respondent in my PIL against women who look the way they have no right to! A mother and a 74MIL, she had to constantly remind me that she is more than a decade older than I am. What to do? I take people at face value and her’s belies her age! Groan! Did you guys see her smile? And her eyes?? Enough to send someone on a trip without weed or wine! Like I said – respondent in my PIL! ;-)
5. Arjun – what do I tell you about this guy? Tall, broad, handsome (remember the Mills & Boons heroes?), charming,

funny, intelligent, caring…ok, I’ve run out of adjectives! He’s been my anchor throughout the planning of this get together. He helped me choose the resort, kept coordinating with the others, figuratively held my hand and patted my head when I was howling about nobody replying to my mails. I still remember him saying, “I’m confirmed. My tickets are booked. If nobody else comes then you and I will have the meet ourselves.” That’s the kind of lovey-dovey fellow he is. He was suffering from food poisoning and couldn’t eat or drink anything except curd rice and water, but he was a good sport through out and livened up our gathering with his awesome sense of humour. He was even sporting enough to laugh and joke when I threatened to take him to Casino Royale in Khushi’s sexy dress if he didn’t recover by then. It’s a rare man—one who’s extremely confident about his masculinity – that can take a joke like this. Hat’s off to you Arjun! He has also clicked some of the best pics of the get together, but refuses to email them to me. I either have to wait for him to courier a cd of pics to me or for you guys to get on his case and have him send me the pics faster. Which one is it going to be folks?
6. Sumedha – another person who really needs no introduction. More people know her than me on Fropper. As far as I am concerned, I got to know a bit about what having a sister is like. Fighting, growling at each other and the

next moment hugging, kissing and making up. Freely expressing our jealousy over who gets to sit next to Geet or hug her and then sharing wardrobe tips too. I sometimes wondered if people would start hunting for the local PETA or SPCA numbers, when she and I were snarling and hissing at each other like a couple of felines. And then they would see us giggling together like the best of friends… our interaction was certainly the ‘hatke’ variety. Though she can scare me when she starts glaring and shooting nukes, on the whole I found her to be a fun person to be with and am really glad to have met her. Perhaps because she has lost weight, Sumedha now looks like a Junior College kid. I quite felt like a much older and wiser elder sis, till she dropped a couple of revelation bombs on us. Sumi, I do miss our cat fights!

Before I proceed, let me ask you, do you remember the movie “The Mask”? And do you remember the Mask’s response when he sees Cameron Diaz at the night club? The tongue rolling out and hitting the table with several thunks? The eyes popping out and bouncing around? And the ‘wolf’ whistle? Here’s a description I copied off the net from Time magazine just to remind you:

“When he spots gorgeous Tina on a nightclub stage, his eyeballs pop like demented Slinkys, his anvil jaw drops onto the table, and his tongue cascades from his mouth; it's a red carpet for a red-hot princess to walk on. His heart thumps about a yard out of his chest. He lets howl a wolf whistle Jack Nicholson would envy and bashes himself with a huge mallet.”

I’m reminding you of this particular scene because it occurs several times in my narrative. Minus the ‘wolf’ whistle, because I can’t whistle. Though I sincerely wished that I could, during this meet! My reaction was minus the mallet too.

Now this post has already become quite long, so let me just give you some highlights.

We stayed at Laguna Anjuna resort in Anjuna. Everybody paid their own share for the accommodation, food, drinks and transport.

Sunil brought me 10 rose plants from Pune. When I first saw them in the dickey of his car was the first time I had the ‘Mask Reaction’.
Geet gifted me cushion covers, Khushi brought dress material. I wasn’t prepared for all this gifting, so didn’t buy anything! Gosh! How embarrassing!

That day (18th June) we finished lunch at about 4 p.m. and decided to go for the sunset cruise on river Mandovi. However, we started quite late and it was already dark during the cruise. Though it did help Khushi to get a good pic of the Casino Royale.
Then we picked up drinks and mineral water from Panjim market and headed for Dona Paula for dinner. The restaurant I was looking for was closed, so we went to another one nearby. The dinning area is on the terrace and we had a lovely view of Dona Paula jetty with the lights reflecting off the water. There were also a lot of mosquitoes that feasted on us. BS and Sunil are vegetarians, so they had a very limited choice of food there. Sunil made up for it with a liquid diet of chilled beer. BS, being a teetotaler, didn’t have the luxury. Sunil drove us back to the resort and drove well, inspite of the beer sloshing around inside him!
I was to return home that night and a friend came to the resort to pick me up. Even though everybody else heard me saying that my friend is picking me up and even saw him in the car, BS went up to him and asked him whose car it was and if he was the driver?! I wonder if this had anything to do with my friend’s decision to go to Bangalore and not pick me up from the resort on Sunday? Thanks BS, now I have a colossal calming down job to do!

The next morning I was to check in at the resort, but at the last minute was delayed. I had already asked a friend to adopt the roses for the weekend and water them, but as I was about to leave for the resort one of my neighbours handed over three bills to me. He had forgotten to give them to be earlier and 19th June was the last date for payment. Goan administrative machinery is extremely proficient when if comes to shutting off telephone connections if bills are not paid in time and since I didn’t want to test the water and electricity departments in this matter, I had to go and pay the bills before heading for the resort. I was so flustered that I left my make-up box and accessories behind!
My three fropperite friends were rather upset with me for wasting the morning, but did forgive me when I explained. I gifted everybody crochet doilies and table-cloths that I had made myself.
We had planned to go to Colva beach that day, but ended up talking all day. We all met up in Sunil’s room for drinks and talks, eventually Arjun and Sumedha arrived and the ladies shifted to a two bedroom cottage. When I saw the hall area of the cottage was the second time when I had the ‘Mask Reaction’.

We immediately decided that this is where the ‘durbar’ would be held and we met up again in the evening for more drinks and talk. Geet started humming ‘Yeh shaam mastani, madhosh kiye jaaye’ and I accompanied her. Sunil made some appreciative comment and I asked him to clap. He said he would clap only if we sang the whole song. So I did the whole song and he did clap. Then Geet started talking about how she loves the Koli dance and would like to learn and I obliged by showing her some of the steps. I was quite amazed that I felt comfortable enough with everybody to break into an impromptu dance! Even more amazing to me was that I remembered the song and the steps, since the last time I had danced that dance was in 8th standard! BS made some comments about us being ‘drunkards’ and the women being ‘bad girls’, but we magnanimously decided that he’s attempting to joke and so let him go unharmed. Then he told Sunil, “Very soon I’ll have a pot belly like you.” And he got promptly nuked. I said, “Excuse me, but you are the one who’s got a pot belly. Even though he’s slightly older than you, Sunil is in much better shape than you are.” This prompted Sunil to show off his muscles. I had the ‘Mask Reaction’ for the third time!

Later in the night Sunil offered to take Khushi and me to Calangute beach, since everybody else had gone to sleep. We reached the beach after midnight, when all the shacks were closed. Though there was no moon, Khushi’s glowing face made up for it after she had been to the water’s edge! After almost a decade I saw the Milky Way again. Thank you again Sunil, for that night trip to the beach! It’s something that I don’t get to do at all and was a wonderful experience for me. You know guys n gals, it’s also a rare treat to be able to interact with members of the opposite sex without kabaddi-playing hormones factoring into the equation. It was certainly great to be able to go to an almost deserted, dark beach with a guy and not feel insecure in any way. Kudos to Sunil for providing us with such a secure atmosphere and also to Arjun and BS for making things so comfortable that we gals were able to interact with them without a care!

The next morning, 19th June, we hired a vehicle to go to Colva beach. Arjun wasn’t feeling well enough to join us, so he stayed back at the resort. On the way to Colva beach we had lunch at Mardol Residency, where the fish and veg thalis are awesome!

At the beach, the three other ladies went through a transformation and emerged as mermaids! Geet has a lovely pic of them on her camera. Though I too have some great pics of Geet, Khushi and Sumedha at the beach, I haven’t

posted them in my album. I leave it to them to share the pics. This is where BS bought Sunil the sleeveless T-shirt which showed off his arms so well.
BS also gifted us with some souvenirs and Sunil gifted us ladies some jewelry.
We returned in the evening with just enough time to shower and get ready to go to Casino Royale. This is one of the off shore casinos that are anchored in river Mandovi.

There was some confusion about the dress code, especially for the men, which was finally sorted out. We women had come all prepared to dress up for the evening and had been looking forward to it for quite some time! I had left my make up kit at home remember? So Khushi and Geet helped me to doll up for the night out! Khushi was the one who suggested this outing and we all owe her thanks for a wonderful evening. It cost us Rs. 1,500/- per person, with unlimited drinks, food and dance entertainment.

We didn’t dance there, but the ‘Russian’ dancers were certainly a treat! Arjun was the one who was getting us all drinks and snacks from the counter. He made me a cocktail of his own recipe and it was ‘surlp’erb! Sunil was the only one who went to the casino deck and came back in 5 minutes after losing 1K.
We got back to the resort at 3.45 a.m. the next morning and again had a drinking session in the ‘durbar’. I think it was about 4.30 am when we all finally crawled off to our beds.
That was the last day of our get together. We all checked out by noon and went our own ways. Sigh! It seemed we had too little time with each other, and yet we got to know so much about each other and had so much of interaction.
Overall, I for one am blissfully happy that we had the Goa Get Together. Now over to the others for their feedback.

P.S. I've copied 2 of the pics from Khushi's album, I hope Khushi won't mind!

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Poeticsoul said:
A joyful get-together of Fropperites!

September 13, '09

friendzone6818 said:
wow so beautiful description of a journey of net friends dear i also went with a net friend
i also enjoy a lot with my that net friend
that lady and me both were alone in the journey
we both meet on the net. she is a lady of some anothe country. we enjoyed a lot but that lady is in love with some salesman in delhi so in the journey too she many times thinking about that salesman only that thing give me some trouble otherwise the journey was so funny and enjoyble journey. you can read my blog of journey on my zone.

September 13, '09

friendzone6818 said:
wow so beutiful description of a journey of fropper friends manisha
it is my heartly with to see goa one day and when i came to goa i must see you ok

August 13, '09

ranadil said:
Read it at long last.... so you guys really partied hard! Good job done! Thanks for sharing.
Bhalo theyko,
Ishani.

July 23, '09

Latav2063 said:
You have described the meet so well. It must have been great fun. Enjoyed reading about it Manisha. Its almost like being there.

July 19, '09

gags804 said:
seems u guys had a great fun!! keep it up

July 14, '09

writer2001 said:
Exciting froppermeet and a very good writeup though rather long.

July 12, '09

creativefront said:
Wonderfull meet. Hurre Manisha & clappings for fropperites in Goa.
Thanks for writing this write up. Congratulations to all of you.

July 11, '09

4everfriendzone said:
lovely writeeup manisha!
surely as wonderful as the get together!!

July 04, '09

Garret2000 said:
quite a few need a dose of gymming... grt that u guys had fun.. happy for u all.. i missed it i guess.. MB.. U never called me..??

July 01, '09

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