AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 137 of 332 Arabian Sea is a cul de sac shouldered by mountains on both sides. We drove straight to the club on the waterfront. The weather was beautiful. Beer was served and gulped, the couple accompanying us drank the beauty of the beach. The area we stayed and the roads we took were so secluded, it looked as though the Navy had left it for us. It could have been in Fiji or in Polynesia. We were back on the beach for drinks and dinner in the evening. The beach was lit as the dusk settled. Sumit joined us with his little son when we were having dinner. I gave him a bottle of wine for his father. He is a teetotaller. We left the next morning after breakfast after paying a “hefty” mess bill of a couple of thousand rupees, not before Tommy without flinching a second pulled my iPhone out of the commode while I went looking for a plastic bag. This can be an adage too, “true friend is….”. Men of the hour here were Sumit Lakhanpal and Vivek Bhat. Our next destination was Mangalore, 270 kms away. The entire stretch of the road on Konkan coast is enchanting and the traffic is not much because the bulk of the traffic is on the national highway connecting B & B, Bangalore and Belgaum. On the way we visited a temple at Murdeshwar. It is a Siva temple on the Arabian Sea. The temple tower is built like a matchbox in terms of proportion, tall but flat on the sides. Siva is the world’s second tallest statue. I had decided wemust stay at theMangalore club while there. Navneeth, my wife and I had stayed there in 2001 and it took our breath away. It was a quaint little club located on the banks of river Nethrawathy with hills of Kasargode, Kerala across. If you sat on the balcony of the guest rooms, these are the only things that are seen. And at night, the train crossing the river, just the light travelling on the bridge is really lilting and more so if you are sublimely under the effect of mood enhancing brew. Barges and boats cross during the day. With the river in full flow, one will not wish to be disturbed. We stayed an extra day just for this two decades ago. In 2018, this posed a little problem to us, a little because by this time we were sure of the hour. I am a member of Madras Gymkhana and the Mangalore club is affiliated to it. But accompanying us are the couple who were not members but they had to be accommodated by a regular member. Then the man arrived in the form of Sampath from J batch. When I went to attend a wedding of my friend’s son in Madras a couple of years