It happens only in..... Goa!

I first visited Goa in January 1999. I absolutely loved every thing about it, and promised myself to come back for as many new year vacations as I possibly could. Little did I know then that I'd be spending the next 3 New Year's in a row here! With time I've realized that Goa is a funny place. Funny when you compare it to most of the rest of India. Little 'isms' that I've realized over the months. This blog post is an attempt to capture them, no matter how silly or trivial they may seem, with the hope that reading them years later would trigger happy memories of this place I've come to love.

1. Any night of the year, you look up towards the sky, and you see stars!

2. You, a woman, can walk down a deserted road, where 2 men are standing by a scooter and chatting, and they don't stare at you. They don't start singing or whistling. They don't pass any comment towards you. They simply ignore you as if you don't exist, and carry on in their conversation.

3. Travelling on a 2-way highway, when you lower your dipper at night, the on coming car actually lowers his dipper at night.

4. A cop stops you at 2am in the morning, and finding nothing to catch me or book me for, simply reminds me that my friend is smoking and that that's not good for my health.

5. You can talk to your house help in English. The bakery owner talks to you in english.

6. The older women wear western outfits. Dresses, skirts, gowns.