Wednesday, February 08, 2006

moharram

yet another public holiday, which means the great public sector banking entity that i work for will have its shutters down tomorrow. i'm beginning to get used to this kind of thing. number three this year.

i have a short road trip planned for tomorrow. i figure i can have a lot of area covered around the city if i takeoff for the day every time theres a bank holiday. this way i can cover sixteen areas of interest this very year.

during the previous bank holiday, the wife and i rode to bassein fort near vasai on the outskirts of bombay. this was once the cultural, political and military capital of the portuguese empire in this part of the world for close to 200 years, apart from being a major port. then the marathas invaded which resulted in one of the bloodiest battles of the time. the appalling losses convinced the colonialists to move to the refuge of goa. today bassein is a ruin in the true sense of the word. nothing much to see, there are no major buildings, nothing for the sight seeing tourist, no attractions whatsoever. the ramparts adjoining the sea are all thats really left of the fort.

its a lesson in humility. this place was not unlike bombay today, all thats left to show for it is fallen walls. structures such as these serve as a reminder to the fragility of our environs everytime we get arrogant as a race.

we had great sea food and the beer tasted that much better since we were in the sun for the entire day. all in all, a great way to spend an unexpected holiday. though we did end up with sore butts at the end of the day, not surprising since we rode 150 kilometres on the round trip.

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