The Mystical Monsoon of Goa will Haunt You Forever

Tripoto
Photo of The Mystical Monsoon of Goa will Haunt You Forever by Vinnie Singh

2 years ago, I did something crazy. I'd just got over with college, and I was going to apply to jobs in Delhi and other big cities... Embark on a career in writing or teaching or study further.

Instead, I packed my bags and left Delhi. I left the big city for a small coastal village in Goa. The tourist season was over, so I knew that I would not have much to do there. But, that's precisely what I wanted to do - to not do anything for sometime and just sit and think about things. And so, I booked a train ticket and arrived in Goa with all the stuff I had accumulated as a student - mostly clothes and books, to settle down there for a few months and experience a different way of life. That was it... that trip was going to ruin me for forever.

I arrived in Goa right before the monsoon, and took a job in a small beach resort, the only one which was to remain open in that rainy season. This is what the few days of my stay looked like -

Note - All the photos have been taken with an Iphone 5s and most of them have not been edited at all.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

It took my eyes a little while to get accustomed to such a vast, people-free expanse of land (and water). The first couple of days were fine, but then loneliness started creeping in. The beach had begun to look more and more like something out of the beginning of civilisation as all the shack owners had wrapped up their places (literally, with tarpaulin) and retired for the off-season.

I had very little to do the entire day because we hardly had any guests. So, I'd sit on the beach for hours and watch the waves dash for the shore, retreat, repeat. It was like the same song playing on a loop.

On one part of the beach, the waves had become particularly fierce and cut through the sand and made a small channel. The sea had begun reclaiming what was hers.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

The rains had not started yet, but the sky would often be draped in spectacular hues. It was still hot and humid, but you could smell the monsoon in the air, you could feel it in the vigour of the waves.

50000 shades of the sky

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

Monsoon can give you strange days on the beach. Sometimes, it'd feel like a different planet altogether. What would you feel if you woke to this sky after your afternoon nap?

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

The monsoon was arriving fast. The colours vanished after the first week of June, and came the greys...

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

It wasn't like that all through the day... we'd still have fiery evening skies... and a moment later, it'd be all dark and grey again. We initially had spells of rain spread over the day... Sun in the morning, rain in the noon, cloudy in the evening, rain at night...

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

The mornings were a different shade of ethereal when the sea retreated as further back as it could, only to spring right back on the beach we knew, a few hours later... (This was shot at about 6:00 am)

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

The sea was reclaiming what belonged to her, and throwing back what did not...

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

Despite of having lived by the beach for a month, the sea, to me, was still an enigma, and I was in awe of it. But sometimes, it would terrify me as well - like that one time I went for a walk alone on the beach after sunset.

It was getting dark and there was no artificial light on the beach - all the shacks were closed and packed. The sky was thick with clouds, so there wasn't going to be moonlight either. I kept on walking with the light of my phone because I wanted to touch one end of the beach. I was about half a kilometre away from where I was staying when it started raining. I had to turn my phone off and put it in the bag so that it would not get wet.

Now, it was pitch dark. I turned around and started walking as fast as I could. The only sound I could hear was that of the waves thrashing madly against the shore, and the thunder. Once in every few minutes, the darkness would be broken by a flash of lightning and I'd see the beach and the sea bathed in a faint blue light. I was walking really fast but I had no idea about where I was because there were no landmarks to tell me that. Also I could not see much because of the darkness and the rain. My heart almost stopped when I stumbled upon a coconut shell. I thought it might be a dead body or something. So, yes... that's what was going on in my mind at that time - that if someone came up behind me and tried to me kill me, I would not be able to call for any help at all. All my cries would be drowned in the racket of the sea and the thunder...

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

Even scarier was the thought that perhaps the sea was a living creature, and it would drag me and drown me into its bosom when no one was watching... I have a childish imagination *sigh*

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

However, not every day was dark and thunderous. Once in a week or so, we would get to see a blue, almost sunny day, and we'd make the most of it by checking out other beaches.

Photo of Galgibaga Beach, Goa by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Galgibaga Beach, Goa by Vinnie Singh

Somedays, when we'd want to get away from the beach, we'd drive to the hills. Yes, Goa has a fair share of those as well - small, but green and gorgeous, and they look their best during the monsoon.

Photo of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Khotigao, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Khotigao, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

And on the way to the hills, we'd stop by farms and orchards...

Photo of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Khotigao, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Khotigao, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Khotigao, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

Back on the beach, sometimes we'd see rainfall in the ocean from a distance... those scenes were just stellar! When we'd see the rain approaching the beach and we'd run back to our shelter.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

I could go on and on about the superabundant greenery of that time... Goan soil gets extraordinarily fertile, and an intense green blankets everything.

Photo of Cabo de Rama Fort, Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Cabo de Rama Fort, Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Cabo de Rama Fort, Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

After that rainy evening incident which creeped the hell out of me, I never went out alone after dark. This doggo used to keep me constant company on my evening walks.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

This is a deserted property next to the place where I used to live. It was on the top of a hill and it had a breathtaking view of the ocean. But when the wind howled, it sent all its doors and windows crashing and banging. Does it remind you of any horror movie? Rebecca, maybe?

Anyway, why was such a magnificent property left to rot like that? Even I have not been able to find that out.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

On a less spooky note, sometimes, we would pack a picnic lunch and drinks, and come to green pastures like this one here...

Photo of Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

...because the sea would've thrown up hundreds of these Portugese men o' war on the beach.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

But soon, we'd be back again. The beach life. *sigh*

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

I saw a familiar figure in Goa after two months of being with just enough people to count on one hand, and a few guests who stayed for not more than 3 days. I cried because of happiness, and she cried because she saw the sea for the first time. She was so overwhelmed by the power of what she saw, that she could not hold back her tears. She later told me that she could not explain what had happened to her. She was happy, terrified, spellbound, all at the same time. It was a deeply moving, spiritual experience for her.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

After the sea, I took her out to see something less overwhelming but equally beautiful - a monsoon waterfall in the middle of the jungle. We splashed around in the pool at the bottom of the fall.

Photo of Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, Khotigao, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

By the end of August, monsoon had thinned and we'd started seeing sunnier days with shorter spells of rain...

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Cabo de Rama Fort, Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Cabo de Rama Fort, Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Canacona, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh

I spent an entire monsoon in Goa, and the tourist season that followed it. Both the experiences were dramatically different from one another, and they both contributed to changing my perspective about life... remember, that's what I had come to Goa for - t0 gain clarity on what I wanted in my life. But, it was that monsoon which initiated the process of my transformation. The entire place - the land, the sea, the sky and the trees, they hold an unfathomable power over me. The sea has become a dear friend. Goa has become my home...

I moved back to Delhi after a year to build my career, but I have been miserable all this while. I'm done with cityscapes and this exhausting, unfulfilling city life. Memories haunt me and all I want to do is go back. I want to spend many more monsoon seasons in Goa. I don't know how that's going to happen, but I know that I'll get there, sooner or later.

Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh
Photo of Agonda, Goa, India by Vinnie Singh