By Asmita Goyanka, Batch of 2017
Like the chorus of your favorite song, or the climax of a gripping novel, the tradition of going to Goa at the end of your college years is one of the best memories you’ll take away from college. At NSIT, the moment you’re placed, a nervous, bittersweet excitement will grip you. A whole new life, with a moderate amount of security awaits you, and you know you’ll be spending a good twenty years wading through files and all-nighters at the office, and tiffs with your bosses and colleagues. The golden days of college have almost come to an end and the realization has just begun.
There is only one thing left now: Goa!
Going to Goa is no child’s play. You have to be a responsible adult who takes care of things, keeps in control and knows left from right at all times.
That’s what you tell your parents, anyway. Then you grab a bag, board the plane and take off for one of the most memorable trips you will ever have. Travel tales from the Goa trip have become legends that are passed down to college juniors. No one who goes to this paradise-like land returns without a story, a life-lasting memory, and a fulfilled dream.
From people who got so drunk, that they were lost on the beaches of Goa for three days and stumbled onto their friends only in time for the flight back, to having found their life partners: everything happens in Goa. It’s the Shangri-La of college students. If you have been placed already, this is the perfect way to celebrate and if you haven’t, it’s the perfect way to let go of your worries. Going to Goa makes jobs and marks an unnecessary anxiety, meaningless. The only meaning lies in the fact that life will get better.
For a moment, life will pause and you will be climbing out of a window into what life really should be like. Waking up at 3pm and going to bed at 8am will become a norm. The afternoons will be spent wandering around town looking for filling food, and the post-meal time will be spent sun-bathing on Anjuna beach. As the sun will drown beneath the horizon, the chirpy Goans come out. The early evening cafés will start lighting up with twinkly lights and the sizzle of cooking oil will flood the air. The next few hours will be spent munching exotic dishes in these cafes as you have a good laugh with your friends.
Goa will also change your dynamics with your friends. They will become family to you. You may discover that your best friend is your soul mate, or maybe the person you just met is ‘The One’.
It will also give you insights into your soul. All the dilemmas and worries that may have been troubling you will fade away, as your thoughts will automatically untangle in the serenity of Goa. Life will start to make sense.
Or maybe you just get drunk and collect a load of colorful seashells. That happens too.
That is what Goa symbolizes – the freedom to explore things and think things you have never thought before. You are still bound by the legality and physical laws, but within that realm, you are allowed to be anyone you want even if it is just for a couple of days. Goa is a window into the dream life.