Goa: Chicken, Lies and Carry 3

The main day found me in Goa. I woke in a honeymoon cottage near Vagator Beach with priyanka in my arms. Flashback: I obliged to all Vennela demanded and want my family wanted. The only person I could trust with my plan was my brother Jomon. I broke the news to him a few hours before I boarded a plane to Goa. I explain to him how cruel Vennela was and how unhappy I would be if I married her. I then left a note behind. It was a short one: Sorry for the trouble I might have caused all of you but I had to do this. I don’t think I will ever be happy with Vennela. Give me a chance to fall in love. I am taking a break from this and will be back soon. But I was taking a one way ticket.

So, back to the point. Waking up with Priyanka in my arms was a dream come true. She was the master mind of all the plan and it seemed to work so well. She had also flown from Jamshedpur the same day as me but had arrived a few hours before I did. The rest of the plan was like this: we would be in Goa for a week and then fly to New Zealand after that. Apparently Priyanka had managed to secure partial residential permits for her and for me. After we stayed in New Zealand for three years without any crime, we would be allowed to acquire New Zealand citizenships. We had done the paper work secretly; that’s another story. 

The first thing Priyanka did when she came to meet me was show me the tickets to New Zealand and the residential permits from the New Zealand immigration department. She was beaming with joy as she did this then we hug till we fell by the Mapusa Airport exit. From then on it was rollercoaster of happiness and explosion of love. It was like we were on our honeymoon before we officially got married. But actually we were. Priyanka had obtained marriage certificate from Delhi. The only thing she told me about that was that their family was connected.

Life was ok now. I had withdrawn all the money my family had deposited for me to start my life, which included a seven days honeymoon in Goa. I had also carried all the money I had saved over the years plus the bonuses I had received from my employer. On her part, Priyanka had a fortune. She was the only child born to her rich parents. So, on this trip she had carried a loaded credit card and some cash which according to me would last us a month. But, I really didn’t want her to spend much on this trip since she had already spend a lot trying to get us to New Zealand.

Priyanka was an all rounded girl. She was good in making love, good in making me happy and good looking. She was principled and stuck to her principles. No matter what time we slept, she would always wake up at five in the morning and go jogging. The second morning she invited me for the jog and I was enthusiastic about it. I could fancy myself jogging with this stunningly beautiful girl with a figure of a model. But the jog wasn’t pretty. We jogged from Vagator to Candolim Beach, passing through Anjuna, Baga and Calangute beaches. I felt like one of those Kenyan long distant runners I used to see on TV. When we reached Candolim, I had to take a taxi back to our cottage but Priyanka decided to run back. I was astonished by the stamina of this girl.

That was the last time I ever went jogging with her. I used to sleep and wait for her to come back then we would play together, tell each other stories and go out touring Goa. We had hired a Taxi that was on a 24 hour call to take us anywhere we wanted. On our third day of our ‘honeymoon’, we toured the beaches of North Goa. We started our tour from Keri Beach on the upper north where we watched the sun rise from the orange waters of the Arabian Sea. We then drove to Arambol Beach for breakfast, a kiss on the sand and mud treatment by the pools along the beach.

After this we drove to Ashwena Beach and walked all the way to Morjim Beach via Mondrem Beach. It was a walk to remember. We held hands, chased each other on the sandy beaches in the characteristic Hindi movie style and tugged each other like aimless toddlers. I was in heaven with Priyanka. She radiated joy and warmth each time she smiled, and she did it all the time.

From Morjim, we drove to Anjuna beach but spent some time touring Chapora Fort. We were late for lunch but we found a nice place still opened in mid afternoon. Even before we could make up our mind on what we wanted, Priyanka had already settled for roast chicken, rice and fish curry. She explained to me that no matter what she ordered in hotels, she had to have a roast chicken. I liked the way she made the orders. She took very less time to make up her mind unlike me who took forever perusing from Chinese dishes to Portuguese, to South Indian and so on.

It became like a fixed order for Priyanka—roast chicken, rice and curry. At one time I asked her why she was so fond of roast chicken, rice and curry. In her usual way, she explained with a joke. She told me of a story about a thief who went to steal from a certain lady’s house. The lady was so shocked to be in a house with the thief. In shock, she asked the thief to take whatever he wanted but he should not harm her. To her astonishment, the thief told her that he would not take anything if she made a nice meal of roast chicken, rice and some curry for him. The lady did exactly that. The thief then asked the lady if he could sleep there and leave the next morning. She agreed and showed him a place to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, the thief had vanished with all her jewelry and left a note on the table. The note read: thank you for chicken, lies and carry. It took the lady a few hours to get the true meaning of the note. He had eaten the chicken, told her a lie that he would not take anything but had carried her jewelry.

That was the story with Priyanka’s love for the dish she often ordered. As for me, I experimented with various dishes served in Goa hotels. I especially loved Portuguese dishes. They were a quite expensive but who cared, we had the money or rather, I had the money. Priayanka really wanted to pay whenever we ate in hotels but somehow her credit card had a temporary problem which the bank had promised to solve in a matter of days. I therefore used the cash I carried to take all the bills. On our fourth day in Goa, Priyanka suggested that we move to Taj Holiday Village located in Sinquerim at the Bardez Beach. I was a little shocked with her decision. We seemed very happy with the place we stayed. Taj Holiday Village was way too expensive for a normal couple like us. But, I really didn’t argue with her. It would be a bad way to start our new life!

We moved into a one roomed terra-cotta roofed sea view cottage. It had all the facilities of a five star cottage and the service there was world class. On this day we didn’t go touring Goa. Instead we spent the day in our cottage having fun and in the afternoon went swimming in the pool near our cottage. We watched sunset lying on the beach talking.