(10 Dec ‘06)
I work in an
environment where some of the best minds of India work, where people gave up
large-dollar incomes to come ‘home’, where recently the topic of discussion on
Goa has involved a sad shaking of heads.
Friends (of Goan
origin), relatives and those who made Goa there home are concerned that Goa is
going brown. The rest of the world is getting back to Nature, planting trees,
saving water, recycling garbage, saving traditions and forest land. We’re
selling our souls to cement. We’re selling our greenery….considered to be
amongst the most opulent in the world…to golf courses. So don’t other places
have golf courses? They do….but does Goa need them on land that already has
wealth? Do we need ‘parks’ when we have
the real stuff: old, hardy gigantic trees with such a thick latticework that
hardly any of the tropical sunrays touch the ground. Can we not cope with the
growing population without harming what few other places in the world have? Are
we going to allow our greedy brethren to impoverish the rest of us? Do we need
more hotels? Do we need to cut trees? Do we want to drive through and live
beside mounds of garbage?
I moved out of Goa
because there was better opportunity in Mumbai for me. But Goa’s home. It’s
where my ancestors lived, where precious childhood memories are housed, where
my mom still lives, and where I will eventually return. I want my grandchildren
to enjoy the malkuraad, the fresh kokum fruit, the jackfruit, the aboli, and
the sight of huge centuries-old trees. I used to love the neighbourhood of Dona
Paula. Today, when I point it out to visiting friends, they shrug and ask me to
show them something really Goan, really nice. Sorry to say, one has little to
show these days. Even Canacona, within a year or two, will lose its charming
character. Quepem will become no different than a suburb of Gurgaon. Why?
Because readers like you prefer to look the other way. Who cares if Goa turns
brown? Does it matter if the builder down the road gets himself a couple of
cars?
D’you know when you’ll
get affected? When you’ll be spending a couple of hours a day filling water.
When you’ll be stepping over, around and across your neighbours’ stinking,
decaying prawn shells. When you’ll have to spend a fortune buying and
maintaining a generator because of lack of electricity. When you won’t get your
favourite muddashyo because they’re extinct. When you’ll crave and crave to see
your favourite trees/sights and it’ll be too late. Goa’ll be on its deathbed by
then. Just as we repair and look after our own health, our families’ health and
the condition of our ancestral homes, we need to look after our State.
Protect those
communidade lands. They’re not for sale. Save those forests….it’s not a
blessing God gives easily. Remember the beaches of your childhood? Remember
them? Take a look at them now. Remember how one could comfortably walk around
Panjim/Mapusa/Margao? Remember? Go take a look at the accident ‘victims’ in GMC
and see what our towns are really like.
I hang my head when
colleagues and friends who return from Goa tell me they’ve seen better stuff in
smaller places. It hurts when they say they don’t want to go back again. Those
who are investing in hotel rooms and spas and the leisure industry, please
note…cut your trees, build your concrete jungles and you stand to lose
everything. It’s not that one shouldn’t progress, but one must do so wisely,
not recklessly. Kill Nature and you’re committing suicide. Every Goan must
stand up and demand to know what’s happening to his state and defend it
fiercely. Otherwise we all perish.
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