Round And About With Busybee
By now, most of the people who went to Goa for the millennium have returned. From their talk, they seem to have had a good time meeting their friends from Bombay, who were also in Goa for the millennium. Goa, in that sense, has become one big private club. Its members consist of the Goans who live in Goa but have ties with Bombay, like the singer Remo Fernandes or the architect Lucio Miranda. And Goans who will live and die in Goa no matter how many opportunities beckon to Bombay, journalist, writer and historian Mario Cabral e Sa for example. Next, the Goans who live in Bombay but visit their homes in Goa regularly. They include the Bombay First Gerson de Cunha, advertising guru Frank Simoes, and, till recently, cartoonist Mario Miranda, who has now more or less decided to settle in Goa. There are also the Goans who have lived in Bombay but have finally retired to Goa, Air-India’s Sydney Almeida for example. Next, there are the Bombay people who have bought or built houses in Goa and spend the summer, X’mas, etc., there. They include bon vivant Asit Chandmal, architect Charles Correa, and a recent entrant, cricketer Dilip Sardesai. Also, journalist Rahul Singh and horse-owner Sheena Peters. There are also Bombay people who have built houses in Goa and are living there more or less permanently now -- very wise. Advertising man Bal Mundkar for example, what a lovely house he has built on the river, solid as a fortress and directly facing Panaji with only the Mandovi separating it. There is also a certain crowd which regularly visits Goa and stays at the Taj Village. I wonder what it is that beckons all these people to Goa. It could not be just the beaches, Kerala has better beaches and warmer waters. And, in any case, how many Bombay people, including those that I have mentioned above, spend their time on beaches. Also, it could not be only the sea food. Cochin has an equally wide variety of sea food, and, arguably, better cooked, with much less use of the ubiquitous palm vinegar. The landscape is pretty, no doubt, islands covered thick with palm trees, green paddy fields with white churches sitting in the centre of them. But once you have seen one church, you have seen all, or once you have seen two churches.... And, the music, it is nice, but how much of it can you take in a four-day stay. And the Goans tend to sing the same songs over and over again. I shall not mention the names of the singers. So why do I keep going to Goa? I enjoy the peace that descends on me the moment I get out of Dabolim airport, the little village bars, the children going to school, the poultry crossing the road, the grand dining room of the Mandovi Hotel, the things they do with dry prawns and dry coconut, the road that descends to the prison by the sea, a kopit of feni — coconut, not kaju. |
Home Page