All that Fall

Tuesday 2 December 2008
Palolem Beach, Goa

I read the local Goan paper over breakfast which is full of seemingly justified bile aimed at the corrupt, lazy and self-serving politicians whom the journalists are holding responsible for the security failures that led to the Mumbai attacks. Apparently the attackers had been stockpiling explosives in Mumbai for days without anyone doing anything about it. Fishermen who had seen boats arrive alerted the police, who couldn't care less, given that it didn't provide them with an opportunity to line their pockets.

Politicians who had promised to be tough on terrorism in the past had essentially done nothing about it, as a result the commando unit that was stationed outside of Delhi took nine hours to arrange a flight, and astoundingly took three hours to travel from Mumbai airport to the Taj hotel as there wasn't a bus available. It tells you everything you need to know as to why India is such a mess.

Anyway Evan was feeling better but still a bit ill so he took it easy. I chilled out and more or less finished Niall Ferguson's Empire which is awesome. Interesting to note the parallels of the end of the British Empire due to the debt of war, and the current threat to the American proxy empire due to the debt of war, and fiat money. I also managed to work on my tan a fair bit, and go for a nice swim that made me feel all healthy and proper.

We have dinner and then seek out a bar that I was given a flyer for. It's at the far end of the beach round the back and we have to ask directions a few times but finally find it. It's like a mini open air club amongst the coconut trees that line the back of the beach. They're selling huge mojitos for 60 INR so I have to try one of them. And then there's a rumble of thunder.

The weather system that's been harassing us over the last few days has gone now, so I didn't think much of the thunder. Then a very few spots of rain appeared. And very, very gradually the rain starts to fall. We all congregate around the bar as it's the only place with a solid roof.
While we're waiting there and the rain starts getting heavier, suddenly there's a loud crash, followed a second later by a rolling sound, and then a coconut appears from the roof we're standing under and lands on the ground. From the sound it must have more or less landed straight above me, and if the roof wasn't there I would probably be in a bad way. Death is cheated once again!

So by now it's raining like a bitch in full on monsoon style, and there's about ten or twelve of us standing around the bar. And then the power cuts out. In these beach resorts in Goa the power tends to fail every now and then, usually remaining off for about five minutes or so, before returning. So now it raining hard, we're standing under the roof by the bar, and it's pitch black. The staff light a few candles but there's a good wind blowing so only a couple stay lit.

Then the power comes back on. Then immediately goes off again. And this happens again and again before it more or less gives up the ghost. After about half an hour or so the rain eases off almost completely to just a drip, and with the power still off we decide to call it a night and head home.

But with the power off there's practically no light at all in the forest behind the beach. Mobile phones provide a bit of light but not much. We can't go back the way we came as the ground was a mess so we have to take the main road. It takes us on a scenic route that is much longer than the way we came but eventually we return home. Some Russians and some locals walk most of the way with us, and they seem to know where they're going so we follow them. By the time we're backit's only 10.30 but with the rain and the power out, almost everywhere is shut. Evan is hungry and luckily once the power returns we manage to convince someone to cook him some food. Bravely he goes for steak but apparently it's OK. After that we call it a night.