The sceptic in all of us “ for we have seen this far too muchand for far too long “makes us believe that the raids, the noise, the pressconferences and the same quotes from police officers, is nothing but a slightstir before everything settles down. Otherwise how do you explain that a womanwhose parlour was shut down, because a “handshake” and a “lollipop” had emergedon her massage menu, reopened at the very spot in a different name? And mindyou, since this is a family paper, we can’t elaborate on the innocuoushandshake and lollipop but suffice to say that it doesn’t quite mean what itsounds.
Yet, times are changing. There is hope for the sceptic. Thebelt, a loose term for Baga, Calangute, Candolim , Arpora, Anjuna and beyond,is in danger of over feasting on its self. Years of packaging the version oftourism that persists on the belt, as what Goa is, has brought in so much ofwhat Goa doesn’t want to be. Sleaze in various forms is eating into the veryinnards of not just Goan society but the belt itself. And that is the bigchange today. The belt is making money and will continue to do so, but if thebelt was a woman, she would be in her late forties now, preening into hermirror to look for wrinkles and grey hair, and would look back rather than lookahead. Goa’s belt tourism isn’t ageing gracefully but is actually becoming awreck. It had its good times, feasting on its natural beauty and its unnaturalriches that poured in. Careers were not made but lives were. Drug money madeeveryone, from the fisherman who rented one of his rooms as a drug godown tothe chemist who surreptitiously sold medicines for the body and wonder drugsfor the spirit across his counter, very rich. Massage parlours offered sex by day and the prostitute lined streetsoffered it by night. A drink was always available at a bar and dope not too far.This became a giant churning factory that fed off and fed into other businessesof bars, pubs and restaurants. Sleaze and vice are shared privileges and asconsumers, the invading army of tourists, arrived, everyone made money. Hopefuls sought a better world but therewould be no better world, because this was the best world.
Yet, there is a lining on the horizon and its certainly not ashadow of a moral fibre but rather a reality streak. Belt veterans are gettinga trifle tired of so much of sleaze, prostitution and drugs. The belt feelslike a drunk bounced out for bad behavior even in a high consumption bar. Folksstill go there, a lot of happy simple folks out to have a good time. They gothere despite knowing the other side of the belt. The two sides actually co-existwithin shaking distance and yet stay away.
But slowly, Baga, Calangute, Candolim and the rest willreclaim itself and that’s because people here still want their villages to behome. And that is why we have reason to be glad when a Candolim residentbecomes the first I am the Goan citizen journalist, campaigning for the closureof sex shop massage parlours. This movement to make their villages home againcan come only from within. The local MLA has made money to feed and feastgenerations from the spin offs of sleaze to want a good thing to end. The onlymoral has been the marketplace.
We will therefore witness a very interesting social clash onthe streets of Baga. A Baga which firstsaw the builders, and then the peddlers and pushers and then the prostitutesand now the eunuchs, will now battle to get its identity back. This will helpbusiness too because Baga and its business cannot live if families and normalhomes don’t find a place. The Goan humblypledges to play a part in making these villages home again.
