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| Uddo beach, Siolim, Goa |
-Brian Mendonça
‘I want to see the sunset,’ declared my friend, retired Prof. Lakshmi Chandra, who
was sojourning with us last week in North Goa. Sunset? Why should anyone want
to see the sun set? I thought to myself.
Besides, as Lakshmi made it clear, she wanted to
see the sun set in the sea. I began
to appreciate the nuances of ‘sunset’ (noun) and ‘sun set’ (verb).
It was already 5 p.m. We were racing against time.
For a vantage point to see the sunset, I chose Thalassa –- the much-touted Greek dive in the innards of Vagator.
After some fearful driving on dimly-lit village roads via Parra we came to a
dark, forbidding place which was securely locked and boarded up. GPS aunty said
brightly, ‘Your destination is on your left.’ It was still the onset of October
and the establishment had not got into the act yet. Yet internet gave the
impression that it was open. It was creeping towards 8 p.m. now. The sun had
set long since.
I chaperoned my family and our guest to Souza Lobo, Calangute. At least the food
would be good. As we savoured the chicken cafreal
and mutton xacuti, I noticed a sliver
of the moon over the sea. It was going down. ‘Hey, that’s a moonset!’ I
exclaimed to a stoic silence.
Uddo
beach,
Siolim was next on our list. It overlooks the area where the Chapora river
meets the Arabian sea.* I called Dhananjay at Uddo Sunset Bar and Kitchen,
and asked him to tell us what time we should arrive to see the sun set. ‘5.50
p.m.’ he said. Come 6.30-ish, the sky mellowed into a gorgeous palette
of ochres with the receding tide. My only grouse was that instead of a
sun-downer – a pint (330 ml.), or a cocktail, with the pakodas – we were served milky tea.
On another evening Queenie and Dwayne drove Lakshmi to Miramar beach to watch the sunset. The urgency to watch the sunset by
the sea seemed to have ebbed now, but we still had an ace up our sleeve. On the pretext of watching a play (which never happened) I
drove her to Reis Magos, Verem to see a brilliant -- if bemused sun –
dipping into the Mandovi estuary.
I recalled the times we were also on a sun/sea
spree in Goa. Palolem beach, Canacona; Bogmalo beach, near Vasco; and Morjim
beach, Pernem all have their own magic. At Gorai beach and Malvan beach across the border, the waters are a deeper grey.
The connection between the sun the sea and you is
like an electric charge. Watching a sunset, slows you down, you feel one with
the infinite. The sea calms you, the sound of the waves, a lullaby of absence.
Instead of knowing everything, one is faced with the immense and mysterious. The October sky is gorgeous for sunsets. Thanks to our dear friend Lakshmi, we are closer now to the rhythm and beauty of the seasons.
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