Contrarywise

(19 Feb ’12)

            Nothing artificial, no plastic, everything as Nature intended it to be: some people like to be like that. They’re the kinds who make rassagullas and spaghetti at home. They buy ingredients from shops that promise them they are grown with cow-dung. No chemicals, nothing artificial about what goes into their mouths. If you notice, they lug back kilograms of organic stuff, sun-ripened, hand cut or ground or plucked, packed in jute or paper bags, to their cars. There are a few who use cycles made of steel and hardened rubber tyres, but they’re really only a few. Mostly the organic-food, khadi-kapda-natural-dyes, no-synthetics kinds are also lovers of new cars and air-conditioners. Bullocks and carts that go with them are a bit too natural to use.

            I use either my feet or the local bus to take me from point A to B. I carry canvas bags to avoid strangling the gutters with discarded polythene bags. At the end of a shopping junket, I’m quite often exhausted. It’s preserving me versus preserving the planet, I feel at times.

            The Earth Saving Mantra comprises three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

            Reduce actually means don’t shop. It means you can do with eight sets of clothes. One for each day of the week and one for formal occasions. I believe in uniforms. If every office or factory worker wore one, they’d save on their own clothes. Companies aren’t likely to buy new stuff readily, so overall there is a reduction in use of one’s personal clothes. What will happen to the economy if people don’t shop? How’d I know, I’m Green. Now Reduce means shop only when necessary. You break a chappal, buy another. You run out of perfume, buy another. Is perfume a necessity? Fresh topic for debate. It could be flower-based, not synthetic. What if it’s sandalwood based? Sandalwood is almost extinct. Should one extract oil from it for cosmetic use? Is man to live by bread alone? Would this come under Beauty Without Cruelty or is that restricted to fish, feathers and four-legged creatures? Reduce will save you a lot of dusting, tidying and money: think egg-beaters, chapatti-makers and milk-boilers. And, curios: plastic Japanese dolls, plaster of Paris Ganapatis, pen-stands, table-lamps, ashtrays, Taj Mahals imprisoned in acrylic, brass vases… thank heavens for digital photography, we are spared photograph albums. 

            Reuse means when that jar of skin-softening or hair-styling cream is over, wash it, dry it and use it to store masalas. No plastic you say? Line the container with foil. If you throw it…. You’re not really Green then. Real planet lovers shouldn’t be into new mobile phones, televisions or anything that can be thrown away. Any kind of non-essential shopping is anti Planet.

            Recycle is what isn’t happening to our Goan Garbage. As far as plastic is concerned, the first two R’s aren’t being followed. Even the organic-foodies don’t. Most states have a wonderful community called the Bhangar or Raddhi walas. Goa doesn’t. We could, if we wanted clean neighbourhoods, burn our plastic stuff. We have some way to go before we realize that we create our own garbage without help from the Bhailley.

            Next on my agenda is the killing of eight Puneites by a bus driven awry. Everyone’s debating about how horrid the bus drivers are. Everyone also needs to figure out (for our own safety’s sake), how many drivers are diabetic, or have neurological problems, or are plain stressed out and overworked. Pilots have tests, even train drivers to, but not the bus chaps. I’ve traveled multiple times by Kadamba and Maharashtra State Buses in and out of Goa and can vouch for the quality of their driving: good, and even on very wet, poor visibility monsoon days. We spare no thought, no time for training (be it of policemen, teachers, surgeons or tailors) and then we bad mouth them when something goes wrong. I think the aam aadmi needs to be locked up once in a while for jaywalking. I have little sympathy for someone who has dodged across moving traffic and then got injured. Ask for trouble, and you’ll get it. How is it that no mother is ever pulled up when a child runs onto the road and gets injured by a passing vehicle? I’ve never heard of a motorcyclist getting into trouble for weaving in and out of speeding traffic. Truck-drivers are rash. Of course. But motorcyclists are rash, too, far more often and dangerously so.

            Having said that, may you and yours reach home safely, day after day, and may you consider going organic even whilst you’re wondering how to deal with the plastic waste in your house. Ciao.

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Speed Speech and Healthy Hosts.

(29 Jan ’12)

            One of the things that I notice about Mumbaikars is the speed at which they talk. There’s so much energy in their words, their choice of words, in their gestures and the directness with which they talk. That robustness and tempo is best experienced in their local trains, especially at rush hour. Nothing in Goa, indeed in most places in the world except perhaps for a handful of metros, comes anywhere near it. Think of a day that begins well before dawn. By seven in the morning, the water is filled, tiffins made and packed, the entire family has bathed and readied itself for work (or school or college as the case may be). The trains are full by eight. When I say full I mean something like the private buses that pick up the passengers at Panaji jetty and head for Taleigaon.

Working Goans are as rushed, quite often more stressed because of the lack of good public transport. From home to closest bus stop is a walk. Time taken from closest bus stop to town bus-stand varies with the number of people wanting to take the bus on that particular morning. At the bus-stand, there’s always a problem getting into a bus. In Mumbai, the Railways have considered space for feet and heads, the private bus-operators in Goa sincerely believe we stand on one foot each and are shoulderless, bumless wonders, to be stacked skin to skin. If one can afford him (how come there aren’t any female ‘pilots’ in Goa?), a ‘pilot’ is a Goan’s best friend.

            Back to the speech. by the time my Goan maid Shashi finishes saying: “Bai, haon tuka sangtaa..” a Mumbai woman would have recited one adhyaay of the Ramayan. For those who take pride in susegaad, I have nothing to say. Except that it’s time we stopped taking pride in laziness and wasting minutes/hours/ days in doing something that can be done pronto. The faster the thought, the speedier the tongue, the quicker the action… and the more prosperous the person. I believe that a well-co-ordinated tongue does indicate a certain sharpness of brain. It’s a theory I harbour. Not proven. Which means that an average Mumbaikar is smarter than an average Goan. Again, a theory, not proven.

            The other thing a working Goan doesn’t have: easily accessible, inexpensive but good office food.

            Talking of healthy food. A Mumbai relative invites me for breakfast. Makes an omelette. On a non-stick pan with a drop of oil. A second drop might clog my arteries and make me drop dead, she assumes, thoughtfully sprinkling a couple of grains of salt in the egg-white. See, she says in glee, carefully chucking away the yolk, there goes the cholesterol. Less sugar in the fat-free milk, sans anything brown: no tea, coffee, cocoa or any other additive. Would I like some oats, though, she asks. I shake my head sadly, refusing everything. I can’t taste anything. The whitish fat-free liquid, ‘soya milk’ tastes like dishwater, the omelette like nothingonearth. Post breakfast, any medical blood test that I get done is bound to be ‘normal’. Should there be any test for satisfaction levels, it would be abysmally low. On that count, I must add, Goa’s the place for food-satisfaction. Whether one goes to someone’s house, or decides to eat out the food’s great here. (Whilst many places have inflated prices, there are still some, like Dropadi in Palolem and Nawabi Tunday at Porvorim which allow those with meager incomes like mine to occasionally indulge. Goa certainly has better ambience and choice of international fare than Mumbai. The goras who came to stay have taught locals valuable lessons is cooking. Thank you, paklos.) Humble Goan homes will go to great lengths to give guests the best available, be it fish or fruit. Vegetarian Hindus will make extra dishes so that the shivraak menu is compensated for. My ancestors ate food happily smothered with coconut oil. They lived long and healthy. They didn’t know how bad coconut oil was supposed to be. Their catholic neighbours loved their pork and beef and lived as long and as healthily. They hadn’t heard that red meat would kill them early. They exercised you say? Nope. Servants did that. (Cardiologists are not going to like this paragraph, what with heart attacks on the rise in the state.)

Whatever, there’s no doubt that when it comes to hospitality, Goans have it. Specially when it comes to food. Again, this is my theory and belief; but this one’s been proven many times over.

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The Baaboos of Goa.

(15 Jan '12)

            The young man sitting next to me in the bus was chatting away, telling me the story of his life. He was born, nurtured and had done some kind of a technical diploma in Goa. The latter meant he could safely call himself an engineer of sorts. (Not very different from chemists doubling up as 'dotors', I guess). He'd got a job in Dubai where he worked for two years. Then mother intervened. She wanted her baab back. The boy returned. He whimpered as he told me how he got another job in Goa, and with a multinational, too. This job required him to travel to neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka. Guess what, wherever he went, his father accompanied him. Baab had to be looked after: toilettaam vachoo zaay? Khaupa zaay? Ulti beshayn distaa? Hoon chaa zaay? Biscuit zaay? I wasn't surprised that the boy actually told me this, and with more than a hint of regret in his voice: he would never go far from home. He was lucky to have got this job, but with the father shadowing him like that, I wonder how long he'll keep it. The father, not more than sixty, for sure, apparently had nothing else to do.

            This isn't the first such story I’ve heard. When I was working in a hotel, a well heeled woman came to me one evening and nearly demanded that I help change her son's mind. The latter wanted to join either a hotel or an airline and therefore planned to join some hospitality course. Why on earth would I dissuade someone from joining the industry that was giving me my bread and butter? But think, said the woman, my boy will go away from me. Maybe that's just what he wants, I said. She didn't like it. She didn't like it at all. Was I a mother, she wanted to know. I refused to answer personal questions.

            I read about an army recruitment drive happening in Margao. It would be interesting to know how many join up.

            A woman I know, who has married and settled in Mumbai, has carried with her this trait of clutching tightly to the nears and dears. She preferred that her husband give up two good opportunities rather than shift out of her comfort zone. When her son got married, it was a given that he and the daughter-in-law would never, never 'abandon' her.

            What is strange is that Goans, specially Catholics, have been really adventurous travelers. Africa, Portugal and later the USA beckoned in the late 1800s and the 1900s, too. Goans in Mumbai seized airlines jobs that allowed them to visit and settle in various continents. Today, a certain kind of Goan still encourages his or her offspring to go, achieve. And yet, paradoxically, those that don't let their baabs out of their sight get the approval of all around them. When mother says stay, sit, give paw, the kids must do so.

            On the other hand, our devoted moms don't really care about what's happening to the child.  When a child runs onto the road and is hit and injured by a vehicle, the driver is thrashed by the villagers. No one asks the question: why was the child not supervised? Why was he playing on a busy road? Drivers are bad and so are the roads you say? What about when children fall into wells? Are the parents questioned then? I’ve seen parents in Panaji buy projects for their children. School projects. The child simply gives money to someone to get the model or craftwork made. Nothing learned. According to me, a loving parent would give a child the skills to survive after the parent is dead, to be able to adjust to people and situations without constantly asking for advice on the mobile phone. 

            A friend said, That's Not Fair. This happens everywhere in India. She gave the example of  incidents which take place in zoos, where toddlers' hands get ripped and chewed by lions. No one says anything about how irresponsibly the parent with the child was. Considering the fact that Goa has a better literacy rate, should one not expect a different attitude? Some sociologist somewhere must answer this one.

            I’m amongst those who believes that calenders and greeting cards are a waste of paper. Most of us own mobile phones and those who don't have people around who do. As for greetings, emails and phone calls and personal visits are cheaper and more effective. However, I got an interesting calender from an NGO, Coastal Impact that I will display and use. Venkat and Karen of Barracuda Diving decided to do something to save the marine life they so love. They made presentations about fishes and life under the sea to various schools in Goa. Many of the children drew pictures of what they believed underwater life looked like. Strange, that a state whose staple food is fish knows so little about marine life.  These paintings need to be displayed, exhibited, maybe even sold, for they are a piece of modern Goan culture. And they're beautiful. Anyone interested can contact me through this paper and I'll get you in touch with them. If you believe Goa's beauty must be conserved, this is a good way to make a start towards it.

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The Tourists This Season

(11 Dec ‘11)

            This wasn't the first time I’ve met visitors who weren't interested in the beaches.

            True, there are increasing hordes that crawl over the Sinquerim-Baga stretch and all the way to Palolem, out swimming, shopping, eating, and drowning, too. But I’m not sure how much Goa benefits by them. They are low spenders who make up by the volumes. Quite often, theirs is a single trip.

            The no-beach kinds are friends and relatives who come to 'do' the Mangueshi-Shantadurga bit: they don't want to see the sea at all. They come at least once a year and again, aren't good spenders. Those who come for conferences venture out in hotel-arranged vehicles. For one day. That's it. For the rest of the while they dip in the pool by the banquet hall whenever they have time to spare. These are the ones that have been here, done everything on the itinerary and can compare 'those' years with 2011. These have the money for upmarket entertainment and the will to spend... at casinos, they confess, more than on the evening cruises on the Mandovi. Or they go scuba-diving or driving around to discover spice farms in eastern Goa. They've bought the Portuguese nostalgia over and over again, it's time to do something different. Like IFFI.

            I met a lot of them who came regularly to Goa, have been doing so for the last 9 years. The paediatrician from Assam has been coming here with her family; she knows exactly which hotel will give her a good deal (internet zindabad,  agents are no longer needed) and isn't interested in buying cashews or feni. “The ones with the skin are of pathetic quality and no one can tell me the name of a reliable, smooth feni, so I don't shop for the stuff. Cashews these days are available easily everywhere, so why buy from here?” she said.  

            “We come only to see the films and enjoy the festival,” confessed the  CA from Hyderabad. Over the years, these regulars who come from different corners of India, who are knowledgeable about films, have become well acquainted with each other. They know which restaurants will give them a good meal and at what price. They, too, avoid the shopping bit and the regular routine tourists are expected to follow. “Why,” they asked, “has the festival been split, with one part in Margao? The place is not as charming as Panaji.”  Point noted. Hope CM takes note.

            One introduction of a tourist 'event' came to me via a terracotta coloured 104 page book named 'Cholta-Cholta' (or walking, walking in English). Architect Pritha Sardessai has made sketches of localities in Panaji one can amble through to get a flavour of the history of the town. From the Church to and through Fontainhas, the Mushti Fund lane, the waterfront, Altinho,  Dona Paula and more. There are 10 walks, each about an hour long. 'Cholta Cholta' is a notebook, of good paper, good sketches, usable maps... and the publisher, Bookworm, is a fledgling institution that I do believe will spread its wings beyond Goa.... it's the ONE place that really encourages children to read, helps them think and see beyond their school syllabii. I recommend Cholta Cholta not just for the tourists but for   all who live in Goa. This is a vital step in knowing one's history, and taking pride in one's heritage.

            My neighbour, who has a pleasant collection of tropical flowering plants, tells me she's learned a lot from a certain Ashok Dande of Taleigaon who takes one or two day sessions in teaching interested folk about how to make their gardens flourish. I intend to take his classes soon. I want to grow my own vegetables, maybe fruits. Healthier, cheaper, and the weeding and watering will give me much-needed exercise.

            Things are happening away from the beaches that is making me look forward to a great Christmas-New Year. Compliments of the season, everyone. 

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Thinkfest.

(13 Nov ’11)

            I read about the controversy around Thinkfest after the event was over. I’m glad I attended it. I don’t know how my not attending would have helped ‘protest’ against an ‘illegally’ built hotel (the illegality is of/in the money put into it plus the permissions given). It would have denied me access to hearing first hand inventors (Karl Dietrich – he’s made a car-aeroplane), politicians (Shukria Barakzai from Afghanistan), terrorists-turned-crusaders, very brave young persons who don’t fear death to take on the Taliban (Sherbano Taseer)… or the Indian government forces (Dayamani Barla, Kopa Kunjam), researchers (Esther Duflo), architect Frank Gehry, those related to films (Aamir Khan, Prasoon Joshi,  writers (Shashi Tharoor, VS Naipaul, Siddharth Mukherjee), politicians (Nitin Gadkari), anti-politicians (Khejriwal and Himanshu Kumar) and more (Justin-Hall Tipping). It’s a long and impressive list, comprising the best brains in the world today, and in India.  Pavan Sukhdev, Prakash Jha, Pavan Verma, Abhijit Bannerji and Esther Duflo (of The Poor Economist), Aruna Roy and so many more. On time, all three days… well, maybe only a couple of minutes stretched, and without wasting a minute, it was well organized for a first time large scale function here. Next time maybe they’ll organize the reception counter better: Many had registered my name months ago, yet had to stand in a long queue with non-registered persons, but that, too, was sorted out rather fast and without much ado.

I thought Sam Pitroda would bore me to death. His was a monologue. After listening to him, I wished he’d been given more time. As one of the very, very few people who believe that the government is actually doing a good job as compared to the private sector, I was pleased that he gave us news no channel would. Maybe DD does, who watches it. Maajid Nawaaz told us how he became an extremist, how by the age of 24 he had set up terrorist outfits in six countries, how and why he got out of terrorism and is promoting peace today. Mike Brown told us how he ‘discovered’ that Pluto wasn’t a planet after all. Naresh Trehan’s session was about genetics, how the manipulation of the genes in petridishes already has and will further change our lives. He countered many of the arguments, saying we can’t afford to play God. Fact is, genetic engineering and stem cell treatments are already here and come to stay, we can’t turn the clock back, the negatives notwithstanding.

The music sessions, I thought, were the loo-breaks. They were superb sessions on the explanation of music; I made sure I sat through them all, L-3-L-4 herniated disc pain notwithstanding. I had one life to live, I wasn’t going to waste this opportunity to learn, hear, absorb… when I had pain-killers on my side.  Anil Srinivasan and his colleague Sadhana Rao didn’t just expose us to tunes on the (very well played) piano, they helped us explore just what music does to our lives. In fifteen minutes every session. Brilliant. A music-lover like me hadn’t come across such an appreciation course ever.

Where did Tehelka get all these names from? How did they choose the topics? It must have taken a great deal of effort to contact the people, considering that they did it all in just a few months.

Amongst my acquaintances, some cribbed that though the Goa Government had given money for the event, no Goan was included. My take: I can hear Goans on local platforms, I’d never be able to hear (or in the case of this fest, meet in the corridor), people from all over the globe). Plenty of aam Goans made use of this free opportunity (there were those who paid for it, too), specially students and young professionals. Why not KA for the venue, someone asked. I’d wondered the same, initially, because reaching the hotel wasn’t easy. But, KA doesn’t have a hall so big, and when one is dealing with speakers from the world over, the logistics of lodging and boarding is better handled ‘on-site’. Having attended many events in KA, I must also add, the sound and lighting, the smoothness of functioning here was better. It makes a lot of difference.

What remains with me after a week is the diversity of topics. I’m still googling to get more details about the points I had been furiously noting down.

My generation was brought up to believe ‘money is bad’. Many of us look down on industrialists and traders as somehow morally inferior to us. It was interesting that the Thinkfest included Mittal, Ruia and KD Singh representing that class, giving us their points of view. Businesses change the world, but, as Tarun said: “It’s ideas that make a country/civilization great.” This celebration of ideas, it was announced, is going to be an annual feature in Goa. Good news, that.

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