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| Satarda bridge, Sawantwadi, Maharashtra-Goa border |
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| Beach Resort, Bogmallo, Goa |
One of the ways by which one emerges into healing - post-COVID - is to be laved by water. Laved not only by touch, but also by sight and sound - and at times smell. The four senses are often undervalued in terms of their contribution to our general well-being.
Last week we nipped across the border to pick up our aunt from Sattada (Satarda) in Sawantwadi taluka of Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra. 'You have got to cross the Sattada bridge,' the priest had told us. I was wondering what could be so captivating about a bridge. However, the way he said it seemed that there was more to it than meets the eye.
Sattada village is 30 kms from Mapusa and we did it in an hours time on an afternoon run. The roads are horrible considering the work going on. We were also uneasy about whether we needed to COVID negative certificate to cross the border - and whether we would need a FASTAG which we had not managed to do yet. Our fears did not come to pass.
As we drove on GPS we were directed to turn in off the main highway and approach a sleepy checkpoint which seemed unpeopled. As we crossed over into Maharashtra form Pernem we beheld the Sattada bridge which is one of the most beautiful bridges I have seen. The bridge is over the Terekhol river. This was most welcome, having left the Chapora river behind after crossing the bridge about 20 minutes back. I was tempted to stop to take a photo of the Sattada bridge but did not want to attract unnecessary attention. I hope to go someday back and spend some time near the bridge.
Mr. Satardekar - who hails from Sattada - mentions that the bridge is newly built. The earlier one used to get flooded causing hardship to the passengers proceeding to Vengurla.
We had an opportunity to see the magnificent sea, the following Sunday. After a vigorous swim in the pool, we sat down to lunch with the sea telling her stories in the background. The swim was after one whole year since lockdown was clamped in March 2020. As we moved out of our society in Porvorim, we were delighted to hear the splash of water from the pool - which had just reopened after a l-o-n-g hiatus.
Chilling out at the resort was like a homecoming of sorts. We often spent the day here - as far back as 2011, when we had just moved to Goa and lived in Vasco. I even spent almost a month as a guest relations trainee here during college.
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