Goa, hidden paradise

Goa, on other hand was a part of Vijaynagar Empire when king Harihara captured it in the second half of the 14th century. In 1498, the famous Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama invaded a small village at Goa called Vasco, which was named after him. From that period the Portuguese had been staying in Goa.

By Phurba Sherpa

It was a dream come true situation for the 3rd year students of Campaign College, Kupondole when they headed towards their destination on January 9 this year. It was a gloomy, chilled dawn. When the whole valley was sleeping quietly, the students of Campaign College were preparing for the trip to Bombay and Goa. All had a sign of glimmer on their faces, more excited and thrilled to visit the place far from their hometown. In fact, it was vivid from their appearance that they seemed to be the most sophisticated and witty person who ought to broaden their outlook and sympathies. All the students knew that travelling is not only a recreation, but also educative. For instance, in Europe, a young man is not considered fully educated unless he has travelled over the continent of Europe after leaving the college. Similarly, since this was the last year of their college session, the students were inevitably ready to face the adventurous journey ahead of them.

If we turn back the page of Bombay and Goa, we would obviously know that the Portuguese were the first to settle in it.

From the small struggling, unpretentious fishing village of Mumbai, it has grown to be one of the world’s greatest seaports. In 1534, the Sultan of Gujarat ceded it to the Portuguese. The king of Portugal transferred it to Britain in 1661 as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza on the occasion of her marriage to Charles II. Few years later, Charles leased Bombay to the East India Company for the trifling sum of 10 million pound a year. At the time of the transfer, the place consisted of seven islands separated at high tide by the sea, which at low tide left a wilderness of malicious mud flats. By steady reclamation and improvement in drainage and through the hard works of the Indians, the pestilential swamp has been transformed into a great modern commercial city.

Goa, on other hand was a part of Vijaynagar Empire when king Harihara captured it in the second half of the 14th century. In 1498, the famous Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama invaded a small village at Goa called Vasco, which was named after him. From that period the Portuguese had been staying in Goa.

Even today, we can find some Portuguese in the nearby villages. ‘Khokani’ is the local language used by the inhabitants of Goa. Most of them are devoted to Christianity and are merry making people. In my opinion, these have been due to the influence of the Portuguese.

But today Goa is a paradise steeped in the richness of historical, cultural, topographical and archaeological environments. Hence, visitors have chosen Goa as a place where they forget all the agonies of their life. In short, it’s an enchanting heaven with several beaches. I remember the day when we arrived Karmali station in South Goa at 5.50 p.m. From the station it took nearly half an hour to reach the hotel where we were staying. Delmon hotel with a difference was located in the heart of the capital city (Panjim) near the bank of Mandori River. Soon after checking in the hotel, we refreshed ourselves and had tea with snacks. At 7.30 p.m., all of us including our Principal, the Director, the Supervisor and the Co-ordinator of Campaign College plus the cameraman of Tara TV (local channel of Calcutta) proceeded to boat cruise, the night entertainment in Goa. As we headed towards the Mandori river we could see the ship called Paradise was ready to welcome us abroad. Actually, it was a cultural night organized by the local people as part of their cultures. The weird guy on the stage dedicated the songs to the students of Campaign College and simultaneously the students and teachers participated in the programme by dancing and twisting.

Next morning after breakfast and lunch, we went for a sight seeing of North Goa. The places visited were Dona Paulo Point, Vagator beach, Rocky beach and the Kulangate beach (Queen of the beach). We spent about 4 hrs in the beach and had a really nice time. Since, Nepal is a landlocked country obviously the students enjoyed having fun in the beach. There, we could notice the different faces from all over the world dating in the beach and relaxing as if they had no tensions in their minds. The boys were swimming and the girls, on the other hand were riding motor boats, banana boats etc. Few of them were busy taking snaps with the waves of the Mighty Arabian Sea. Next day, we were supposed to visit South Goa the land of churches and temples. Immediately after having breakfast, we went to St. Francis Xavier’s church, but the sunny day with scorching heat of the sun made us bit lazy. Everyone wore light dresses to suit the weather. All of us knew about St. Francis Xavier who had dedicated all his years for the contribution to and spreading of Christianity. His dead body has been preserved at the right hand corner of the church. When we entered the church premises, I remembered the motto of our school in Darjeeling, "Per Ar dua Ad Astra" (latin word) that means " through hard work tail up to the star". It is better to live like a lily of a day than to live like an oak for several years with no value.

Later, we visited Mangeshwari temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and our last visit was the Colva beach (king of the beach), the second largest beach in India after Marina beach in Chennai. Our train was leaving at 8.30 p.m. from Mandavia station and for that we had to report to the station one hour before.

Spirits were a bit low in every student perhaps because of the fact that the last day of the tour was nearing.

In order to liven up the atmosphere, a barbecue dinner was served on the terrace of the hotel. In fact, this was the last night of the tour. On 16th Jan, we visited Essel World and had fun with the games. To add a little bit of spice the tour was organized judiciously and the credit goes to the team of Exotic Nepal Tours and Travel. Our principal K Deewan ensured that the trip to Bombay and Goa was one of the best moments that all the individuals would cherish for the rest of their life. I had somewhere read about the amplified descriptions of heaven but I did find it in Goa.

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