Recent visit to Goa

I recently visited Goa for official work. Had taken much younger and smarter guys Dr.s Angom, Bapat and Ray from PRL to help me. We visited the Calangut beach one evening. By the time we reached it became dark and we had to be content with only wetting our feet. Rushed back not to miss the food (the GH canteen closes at 2130). It was an anticlimax! After many reminders, the food prepared could not come up to the mark. Really hungry souls managed, while I decided to go to a nearby restaurant on my own. Yet a large number of outsiders were eating in that canteen! The GH has deteriorated with time. No academic activity can be carried out: (i) no tube lights in the room! (ii) there were no extra plug points, you had to either disconnect the TV or AC: with too many mosquitoes, even if had carried my own mosquito mats, would have been able to use them! Forgot to carry the spray which Krishamurthy had gifted me when he left Ahmedabad early last year!
While at NIO, I met Dr. Ganeshram, visitor from Edinburgh University. Apparently he had visited PRL during the Golden Jubliee conference in 1997, I could not recall. He seems to know M Bhaskaran well. He also hails from Srirangam! I missed Nagoji, who usually takes me to the beach when I am in Goa. Ganeshram, Ray amd I went to the Cidade de Goa beach and had a swim for two hours last Thursday, after all our official work was over. Had forgotten to take change of clothes, so went around wearing a wet towel, including the lobby of the five star hotel! Naidu came to pick us up and took us to Ritz, where we had good lunch. Too many people were waiting to get a sitting place in that restaurant, reminding me of the good old days at Ahmedabad!
While at Goa, Ray showed me that our paper has already appeared in Current Science. Also, Shreyas’s paper got accepted. Spicejet service was excellent, flights arriving well before time! After my return, Ranga could not give me any juicy PRL news! Had expected some as lot of dignitaries had visited PRL for the Chandrayan meeting.
Fasted for the whole day on 12th (Shivratri) and kept awake the whole night, watching Aastha channel which had live broadcast from Velliangiri, Coimbatore. It was indeed a great feast to hear Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia’s Hansdwani, accompanied by Ghatam Vinayakram. Sevikkunavillathapodhu siridhu vayirtrukkum eeyappadum*! How appropriate was this Kural!
After a long time, keeping awake the whole night (the last time was on 22 May 2002, when I received the news of my mother’s death, who went into coma after heart surgery in Dec. 2001) was no problem, but I got bored! Early in the morning I discovered that several movie channels were also broadcasting religious programmes, not connected with Hinduism, though. They were lectures by Shri. Satyanarayan Goenka on Vipassana. So I started doing vipassna, though I could have fallen asleep, could not tell the difference!
• When there is no food for ears, some is given to the stomach.