(7 Oct ’12)
As one born and brought
up on the west coast, it’s quite a treat to see the sun rising from the waves.
More interesting was to compare Pondicherry, another colonized (once, by the
French) union territory, with Goa.
First about Chennai’s beaches: the Marina has no equivalent in Goa. It’s
one of the longest beaches in the world. Alongside it runs a main road, like
the Marine Drive in Mumbai. Again, Goa has no road that sweeps so beautifully
along a bay. (To me, the road that almost touches the Mandovi at Ribander, is
amongst the most fascinating I’ve ever seen or read of). The Portuguese didn’t
build a road parallel to the sea and there’s no way our government will have
the artistic sense to build one. The people won’t allow it either. As a result,
a large section of the population is actually kept away from the lovely
coastline here. There, thousands of locals and tourists alike perambulate
through the evening, from sunset to late night, allowing the gentle eastern
coast breeze to cool them down. At the much smaller Besant Beach, there are
bungalows facing the sea, like at the Worli Sea Face, again in Mumbai, and
children skating, joggers shedding calories, couples building appetites,
teenagers building stamina, and lots of people eating ice-creams. What I liked
is that there is a road running right next to the beach, unobstructed by
private property, dividing the sandy stretch from the fancy homes. Wish we had
just one like that in Goa. Like Goa, the east coast also has a nice mix of
religions and conservative people with rigid but differing beliefs live
alongside sharing the same language, food and attire.
Pondicherry. No one
seems to consider the Pondicherian different from the Tamilian. There are
border issues (with Karnataka) elsewhere, but none here. Like in Goa, many
foreigners have made this their home and their art, their language, their food
have made a mark amongst the locals. Number-plates on cars mingle: TN, PY, even
DL. The single beach stretch doesn’t allow traffic when people need to visit
it. Not even a scooter. On Palolem and Miramar beaches, I’ve seen people
manouvre their four-wheel drive vehicles through the sand. We could walk at our
own pace without having to dodge anything. Quite leisurely. Considering the
number of people, it was cleaner than expected. I repeat, considering the
numbers.
Transport in these two
places was better organized. No, not the autos: they’re just as bad, charging
whatever they felt like, without any logic or reason. The buses were bigger,
not as crowded (as far as I could see), numbered, labelled and not racing. The
reason for not racing could be because the people there don’t know their left
from their right, nor do they have any clue which way they may turn in the next
thirty seconds. If traffic in most of India is bad, in Chennai it’s horrid.
Therefore the buses sort of glide slowly, very slowly through the marutis,
fords, skodas, audis, mercedes, scooters, scooters, scooters and (believe me)
ambassadors. We may say ‘Chennai’s a metro, so the bus service is good’, but to
some extent ours is a city-state or rural urbania and there’s much we can learn
from others. Perhaps we’ll never have a metro rail or traffic jams… I still
have hope that we’ll improve our public transport system.
It’s better to take a
taxi in Chennai than an auto. The prices are fixed, there’s a home pick up, the
drivers reliable. All transactions are done on the phone and through a
legitimate office. Makes life very easy for an outsider. And for Chennaites as
well.
The one area in which
Goa scores is communication. In Chennai, most people know only Tamil. I mean at
the worker level. No Hindi is understood or spoken. I hope we Goans stick to
our Konkani-marathi-hindi-english-portuguese-kannada-gujerati combo. Anywhere
in Goa, someone in the vicinity will be able to speak any one of the
above. It’s a big advantage in a place
that earns a living through tourism.
For a state that has a
high pure vegetarian population, it’s not surprising that the idli-dosa places
dot every corner. But there are international cuisines from Korean to KFC all
over the city.
The Dakshinchitra, the
Cholamandala Village, the Crocodile and Snake Farms, the deer at Guindy and the
magnificent banyan tree at the Theosophical Society grounds were my favourites.
The ride to Auroville was too short to see much. All in all, I do see why the
west coast has done better in tourism. We seem to love our guests more.
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