Sometime ago, in Goa.

When I returned home to renew my visa in June, all I wanted to do was get back to France. Now that I'm in France and lovely Par-ee all I want is to go home, sleep in my super comfy bed, under my mauve sheets, play with our pets and eat the great food my aunts make. France is great but it doesn't hold a candle to the hospitality, the warmth, the honesty, the pure affection you receive in a nice Goan home. If I can boast that my life is filled with riches, it wouldn't be wealth I'm referring to; it would be the simple yet exquisite things that make home so amazing. The things you overlooked while you were home and would give anything now to see them again.

Dogs and cats are the cutest. Although since our cat passed away, I will find it hard to not have any feline presence in the house.

"Breathless, we flung us on a windy hill, Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass." Rupert Brook

You fall in love with sea town stuff strewn around the coastal belt.

Finding wild ferns in my backyard always makes me happy! :)

Monsoons are gorgeous in Goa, farmers are sowing tiny rice saplings, raindrops stay on leaves, some people shut shop..

I miss ooh-ing and aah-ing whenever I pass colonial Portuguese houses filled with history. I wish I owned one :'(

Because then I would have a magnificent ballroom with chandeliers and a piano to accomodate my imagination and all the people living in it! I would probably have guests over too but wouldn't let them use the antique furniture.

I would also have a beautiful façade with colorful ornate windows!

 If you get over your fear of creepy crawlies, you realize that they look good in photos.

 I miss plucking guavas from my grandma's guava trees, eating them in the form of jam or Goa's infamous guava cheese (it isn't really cheese, it's a chewy fudge-like candy made from fresh guavas, yum!)

 Sigh! Seashells on the sea shore. Who doesn't love the crunch crunch sound they make beneath your feet :)

I even want a wind chime made of shells, how pretty is this! Seashells are a form of positive energy, no one ever gets tired admiring them.

 Oh how you love the beach. Especially during the rains when there is no one around! 

 You love it when the sun peeps out of the grey clouds, you love when the surf gently flows over your feet..

The best time to visit the beach in Goa? Anytime :)

 Goa is filled with religious buildings which are architectural marvels and you can't help feeling proud of the unity in diversity, of the hundred religious groups who have decided to co-exist peacefully, you can't help feeling proud of your India :)

Churches are a perfect example of Portuguese architecture that is still well preserved and appreciated.

Roads- some lead nowhere, some are filled with potholes and puddles, most are lined with coconut trees, some roads lead to the sea, you remember clearly all the roads that you trod on to get to where you are, but sometimes you wish you was on the road this carefree toddy tapper is taking, maybe the road that passes through the latin quarters or on the road leading up hill to your grandma, or simply the road to simplicity. Happiness.