SUN, SAND AND THE SEA
Travel Diary: Goa
Amitabh Shukla
Goa to India is similar to what Hawaii is to United
States—known for idyllic holidays with fun frolic and parties common to both
along with sun, sand and the sea. I have never visited Hawaii and have heard
about it only from friends, Goa is a familiar territory having visited the
place quite often in the recent past.
Often friends ask me, “What makes you visit Goa so
frequently?” Well, the answer is not simple. Let me explain this. I do not have
the intention to travel to Hawaii nor have I calculated the cost. What I am
sure is that I cannot climb every summit nor do I aspire for it. My summit is
Goa for that purpose and that’s enough sea, sea food, sand and sun for one life
time.
Can you describe the sound of the waves crashing the sea
shore, can you explain the sudden sight of the sea from a distance, can you
explain the enormity of the sea and the music which each of the wave generates.
These have to be absorbed and can never be explained. As the adage goes “beauty
lies in the eye of the beholder”, similarly I can say, “Music is in the heart”
and plays out whenever the ears hear what it wants to. That is the beauty of
the place.
The idyllic walks along the beach, the drunken brawl between
a couple or friends, the child playing with the sand and building castles, the
lone fisherman trying his hooks to get an early morning breakfast, the middle
class housewife breaking free in a dress which she can never wear in her in
laws house. The list is endless.
You just have to have the ears and the eyes to absorb what
is happening around and there is plenty anytime of the morning, day and the
evening. That is music and meditation. That is complete relaxation and
rejuvenation.
Long walks on the road, singing, practically shouting, at
the local bar and eatery with only applauses from the few foreigners sitting
around, being foolish and no one giving a damn, a fat person trying to fit in a
small brief and making a dash in the sea or the pool, a skimpily dressed woman
or man not even getting a second glance.
All these can happen only in Goa and nowhere else in India. That is for
sure.
Visiting the local fish market at Mapusa and elsewhere
leaves you marveling with the enormity and variety of food the ocean generates
everyday and sustains the coastal Goans. The Saturday Night market in Arpora
gets into you and all of a sudden you realize that the entire humanity is
one—Black, Brown and White people enjoying the same music, drinking from the
same brand, window shopping the same stuff and appreciating the diverse world
of varying hues.
Often I harbored the dream of owning a small apartment in
one of the Goan villages, a little away from the tourist hubs of North Goa and
enjoy the life as it came. This is simple. People here are on a song most of
the time and live life as it comes according to their terms and conditions.
People open up easily and it is wonderful to strike a conversation with any
Goan. They would reveal all their life history to you and even their crushes in
younger days in five minutes of conversation. Trust comes naturally to them.
They give you a two-wheeler or car on hire with minimum of paper work, knowing
well that you will come in the evening and return it back. The system works so
perfectly here.
Afternoons are reserved for a siesta and not even a Tsunami
would wake the people. The Taxi wallah would refuse to take you anywhere in the
afternoon. He would simply park in the shade of a tree and have a nap, not
bothered about the money you offer. The shopkeeper would down the shutters, the
housewife would snore and so would the security guard of the apartment you are
living in. It’s infectious and has caught everyone. That is determining pace of
your life. I did not check with the health authorities, but I am sure that the
medical college does not receive cases of sleep disorder in this state. Sleep
comes naturally to a Goan.
Over the years, over commercialization has taken its toll
and the main tourist hubs of Baga-Calangute-Candolim are busting at its seams
now. Too many people, little concern for environment and the young brats
ensures that the place is littered each morning with waste of the evening gone
by. More troublesome was the sight of broken Beer bottles on the beaches on
which people walk without shoes. I saw this at several places between Baga and
Calangute and was an eyesore. Stray dogs
on the popular beaches in hordes, particularly in the mornings and late
evenings, make the matters worse and forces you to walk with a stick to scare
them off. Isn’t there any Government programme to stop their breeding on the
beaches?
By the way, you have the option to move on to the lesser
known beaches of North (Ashvem, Morjim, Arambol) and South Goa if you want to
enjoy solitude by the sea. I would give a tip here. Have a drink from early
till late in the evening at one of the shacks of Colva in south Goa on the easy
chairs in front of the waves and it is magical with a candle lit in and gentle
sea breeze blowing on your face.
The Taxi system too needs to be improved upon. The unions
and taxi owners have ensured to keep out players like Ola and Uber from Goa.
What is means is that you pay Rs 2000 for a 50 km journey from North to South
Goa while it would have cost a quarter if the web based services had been
permitted to operate in the state. But the taxi owners and their unions have
their say in the government and so far managed to keep Ola and Uber away. “They
can never enter Goa and affect our business,” summed up a driver whom I had
hired for the day. (April 10. 2017)
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