Newsletter: eM's Quick Guide To The Goa Life (part two)

(Part one here.)

(Sent out as my newsletter last month, subscribe here.)

Week two of my Month In Goa life, and I think, I really do think, I can see myself living here. Probably not full time, but for a few months of the year, definitely. And to that end, we've been looking at places we can rent at affordable prices so as to always have a house we can run away to. It's a different sort of tourism--house hunting--and it's been fun looking at all these homes and trying to picture them as Home. Well, Another Home, anyway. I've been imagining something wildly different from our Delhi house, which is, of course, the place of my heart (if only I could collapse it and carry it around with me like a snail), so that each home is distinct from the other. I've been itching for some kind of CHANGE in my life this last year, something new and different, and moving towards becoming the global citizens we want to be (few months in Delhi, few months in Goa, few months abroad, maybe?) feels like the coming together of something that's been simmering at the back of my head for a while. However, all this is purely hypothetical at the moment, so more updates as and when I have them. (We're probably going to share with a friend who lives in Goa full time, so as to halve the rent and also have someone always living in the house, which is important because even a few weeks of neglect makes the old Portuguese houses return to the wild.) (UPDATE: Reader, we rented it.) 

This week in SKILLZ: Have been trying to master the art of riding a scooter. That's how everyone here gets around from old grannies to young college girls, and so I was all, "How hard can it be, really?" It's not, but it's still a little scary. I realise that the fear bit in my brain (the amygdala, an "almond shaped structure in the limbic system") works a little harder than most people's, which is why I'm usually risk averse. However, K is a good teacher, and often sits right behind me so he can take over control if I begin to lose it, and maybe soon, I'll be able to ride that sucker by myself.

This week in food and drink: Mainly drink. A kind Delhi friend (hi Niyati!) introduced me to Black Jewel gin at hers, a while ago, as an Indian gin you could only get in Goa, but which was pretty good. (Not Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray good, but one step up from Gordon's. Beefeater, perhaps?) It's distilled in Italy, but sold here at a ridiculously low price for good gin (Rs 520!) and after re-drinking it at my friends, who had a little bit left in a bottle, we went in quest for it at several different liquor stores until we finally found it. That's my evening unwind now, local gin with local tonic and another friend taught me to slice a green chilli down the middle to add a little extra sparkle to it. I've ensured everyone I know here has tried it, and so there'll probably be a huge demand for Black Jewel pretty soon. (Delhi friends, I'm bringing back a few bottles in my suitcase for you all to try!)

Also, OMG OMG, it's avocado season! And it's best to eat it now, says the cook, because during season, which is fast descending on us, the prices are ridiculously high for all the foreigners who demand avocado on everything. We always have fresh guac in the fridge. Guacamole and gin and tonic. Mmmmm.

This week in clothing experiments: So I thought I'd be very practical in Goa and live off only seven dresses, rotating them every week. HOWEVER, that was a TERRIBLE idea, and I am now thoroughly bored of all my clothes and never want to see them again. I'm all like, "WHY DID I PICK THESE ONES?" and thinking longingly of my lovely dresses hanging in my cupboard at home and half of the ones I brought don't even FIT properly and basically I'm going to have to buy some tourist tat or die of Closet Boredom. Is that a thing? It should be. I have never felt so unfashionable.

This week in stuff I wrote: On Aunty Feminist, talking about why progressive parents can also be protective * In my relationship column I talk about ghosts of social media and the "so-and-so is now typing" ellipse **

Saturday link list: Home births are on the rise among India's middle class. ** Dalit food and the history of it ** Roald Dahl's granddaughter on "Mold" her beloved grandpa. **