Neither-here-nor-there November

THE month of November took off on a subtle note with the feast of All Saints, followed by the Old Souls Day. Anyway, hardly any of the feasts will be visually appealing, outlandish or bearing Goa’s rustic tradition. Of course, there will be Hindu zatras and Catholic feasts but these are of the conventional types celebrated round the year at one place or other. People seem to have been worn out by all the celebrating we did since the beginning of the year. We have arrived at a sort of plateau now, in preparation for a busy December.

A general feeling that the new political dispensation may provide sensible governance seems to prevail in Goa at the moment. But one cannot definitely rule out abrasive moments in the healthy communal atmosphere enjoyed by Goa. Suddenly, some one said that Goa’s church should go swadeshi. No one was really clear as to what that term meant. However, it was thoughtful of Chief Minister Parrikar to come out with a statement that the church in Goa has been conducting the services in the mother-tongue Konkani and hence was already swadeshi in nature. A few days will sail by and then some other sage may drop another pebble in the placid pool to create disturbing circles. Living in an age of uncertainty, particularly in Goa, the people have to put up with all sorts of inconveniences.

Goans have already been complaining that their staple diet—fish—has been disappearing and one fine day we may only have the names like murdoxi, pomfret, rauns, korli, kingfish, tiger prawns, etc, at dinner time in the future. The scientists of the National Institute of Oceanography have, in fact, found the reason for the disappearance of the fish. Scared that the ominous news may bring tears flooding our eyes they released the information in a British journal called Nature. The nature of the news was surely not meant for our ears because the scientists declare that it’s the high incidence of the laughing gas—nitrous oxide--in the waters along the India’s coasts which causes pomfrets and prawns to escape from our shores. That’s the reason, they say, that we are left only with sardines (no pun intended) and mackerels.

The above sounds somewhat like what has happened to tourism due to the presence of the River Princess. Some tour reps advised the continental visitors that they would not enjoy their vacation at any of the North Goa beaches because of the oil slick affecting the Sinquerim beach. Well, some of the tourists agreed to be shifted to hotels in South Goa. The backpackers and FITs headed for the cabs to Candolim, Calangute and Anjuna, as they keep track of the situation better than Goa’s Tourism department. Some of the honoured guests decided to have a proper look at the Sinquerim beach. They found that the welcome waters had hardly any trace of oil floating on it. They returned home after enjoying their Goa vacation…and there is already rumours that some of them might sue the tour operators for promising them North Goa and booking their stay miles away in South Goa. A bad beginning to the tourist season this year is being evidently made worse by some self-seeking operators.

Was it said that Goa was now blessed with an effective government? Mea culpa…it was done inadvertently (looking back). Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is already cribbing in his Weekender column that it’s not a joke to root our corruption and that he is almost fagged out already. One doesn’t really know whether to laugh or to cry, in the sort of circumstances in which Goans have been placed by our politicians. People elsewhere must be happier…of course…this is our conjecture.

Joel D'Souza
EDITOR