Seven Days in Goa

(3 Aug ’08)

            “It’s no better than U. P. or Bihar now,” friends told me. “Nothing moves, nothing works.”

            Had Goa changed that much in a year? I had a week to complete several tasks, and was hoping that would be enough.

            The first trip was to collect a duplicate electricity bill from the office at Porvorim. It took me ten minutes. The pace of the clerks was unhurried, but not lazy. The impression was good. A notice said I could pay the amount at one of several banks in the neighbourhood. It didn’t say I needed to have an account in them. Small detail, could have been provided. The counter near the A. I. R. colony was quiet easily found and that, too, was efficient.

            The second trip was to pay the tax at the panchayat at Sangolda. Again, the staff was unhurried, but helpful. They chatted amicably whilst they took out the registers, filled in the details, handed back the change. Do U.P. and Bihar work like this? Why do we run down everything that the government does? Daily, through the week, this thought came to my mind.

            I had to renew my licence at the R. T. O. To avoid the crowd I went early in the morning. The staff was punctual and organized. As the licence had expired sometime back, and since I had changed my address, I was asked to produce certain documents. Yes, I had to make an additional trip to provide those, but the process was smooth and I walked out with the new smart card. When I showed it to a friend who is involved with several heritage-saving projects and NGOs and committees, she nearly ridiculed the police department: “What’s the point doing all this? Can we provide smart-cards to so many crores of people? Will it stop terrorism?” Sad, that we run down any good that any government department does, without knowing the thought processes behind them. We seem to see only the negatives. The cops had asked me for relevant documents. Routine stuff the world over. Just because terrorists get away with crimes, should ordinary citizens not be asked for them? Smart cards will reduce paperwork, and if properly used, traffic offices can be marked on them, they don’t fray and spoil, are difficult to duplicate and easier to track than the older ones. I could feel the same resistance many had to computerization of banks a few years ago.

            The discussion then went on to the monstrosities that are being built all over the state, destroying the loveliness of nature. The same friend asked, who gave those licenses, who allowed such awful things to come up? Whilst I agree whole heartedly that those buildings really are ugly to behold, there are buyers who believe they aren’t. That’s why those flats are being sold at exorbitant rates, no matter how they look. Who will dictate which tastes are refined, what is aesthetic? The buyers know that water, sewage, traffic, electricity are going to be problems, but they don’t seem to mind. Are they morons? Unlikely, considering the kind of money they’ve earned for themselves, if that is a measure of intelligence.

            “You know, it’s the N. G. O.s and the activists that are making the right things happen,” I was informed. Sure we need citizens to be active watchdogs. We also need citizens to support any good the government may be doing. We need volunteers who will strictly monitor traffic (let’s trust that they won’t be open to taking bribes for they won’t be part of the government), who will help clean the garbage (citizens must participate in municipal activities, right?), who will help catch and thrash all criminals in the neighbourhood. Why is it that the good always fear the bad and turn to the policemen in times of trouble if they don’t trust the policemen in the first place? Why don’t they form really tough neighbourhood/village teams that can flush out criminals and deal with them at their level? “It’s the cop’s job”, some might say. True, but it’s nothing works better than alert and active citizenry. 

            The week’s gone by, I’ve got several jobs done quite speedily. Am returning pleased that Goans are participating in governance. I have noted that there are lot of ordinary government workers who are doing their jobs sincerely. Am not sure about their counterparts in U. P. or Bihar. I will tell my friends that.

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Goa This Time.

 

 

 

 

(23 Dec ‘07)

            It began with so much of rain, and because of a family commitment…we had to cancel the train journey and come to Goa by air, a rare treat. What was interesting is that GoAir, that fine new low-cost airline didn’t believe in announcing its flight. We walked into Security because we were bored of sitting in the airport lobby. Yes, of course, the flight was delayed, we didn’t know why or for how long. There, we found some faces that appeared to be on our flight and we were ushered into the frisking process. We’d barely settled across the other side, when we found the same people walking up to the exit, showing their tickets to a staffer who was guiding them into a bus. The mike spoke of all flights but ours. The number on the board didn’t match ours, either. We asked the uniformed fellows at the counter and he confirmed that our flight was parked on the runway, ready for take-off. But, we pointed out, this number on the board is something else. That’s okay, he said, it’s been like that for four days. Ha, no one had thought of covering it up, blanking it out, even putting up a blackboard and writing on it with chalk, or at least sending a person to call out loudly, flight 105, so passengers could move. Low cost really shouldn’t mean no quality at all. I was terribly worried the pilots might have bought their licences and not know how to fly the plane at all. There I was pleasantly surprised. In spite of the turbulence and the visibility, the flight and the landing were smooth.

            Better things were in store. The airport’s pre-paid counter worked well. The taxi driver was pleasant and friendly.

            Now I have hope that the local rickshaws will go by the meter, sometime. And the private buses will improve so everyone needn’t own a vehicle.

            Moving on to mundane living in Goa. We had applied for a transfer of a phone connection from Sangolda to Panjim. We went to check on what had happened. A Mr. Bhushan at the Panjim office was so helpful that we were taken aback. He looked at our papers, called up the Mapusa office and asked us to quickly go there and meet a Mr. Baid. This latter gent was as helpful. We learnt later that they’d put us through a longish procedure which possibly could have been avoided. But the point was, they came across as caring and efficient workers. They were quick, they were concerned. They certainly restored our faith that there are enough Goans around who make this state work in spite of politicians who come and go.

            As always, I wish the billboards would go, wish the architects/engineers would build pretty buildings instead of the monstrosities that are marring certain areas. There are residential buildings all over the place. Who’s living in them? Everybody we met complained about Delhi-ites coming in and buying off ancestral homes. Look at those ancestral homes, they’re dying. At least let some good new owners get them cleaned, painted, repaired, modernized.

            Panjim still doesn’t have a raddiwala system in place who will come and collect or buy recyclable material. That’ll help many homes segregate their garbage. Making rules isn’t enough, there has to be a system in place that will help people follow those rules. And if those rules are to be successfully enforced, target the source, I say. For example, if we don’t want thin plastic bags to be used, don’t issue licences to the manufacturers. If you don’t want people to smoke and you’re serious, stop cultivation of tobacco and production of cigarettes. Anyone have the courage to do that?

            A dear doctor friend, Sandip G, had quit a lucrative future and returned to his roots. He’s now taken an assignment abroad because Goa couldn’t really offer him an infrastructure for his qualifications. I hope by the time his tenure is done, it can. Another friend, Dr. Yatin Vaidya has also struck root after acquiring education and experience in Mumbai. Setting up practice in a place with such a good doctor-patient ratio isn’t going to be easy. Vrindavan, Apollo, Vintage appear to be making headway, and I hope in the years to come Goans won’t have to travel out for good medical facilities. Most of all, I hope GMC turns around. Let the professionals handle it, and choose good ones to do that, keep the politicians out, and well it might.

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Goa As People Now See It.

(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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