The countdown to the New Year has begun in Goa with the evening skies exploding in colourful sparkles, our air increasingly saturated with festive aromas and melody; and our vivacious people wearing celebratory attires and attitude. The season is replete with optimism in the true spirit of gaiety and Goemkarponn, against all odds and ominous circumstances that we find ourselves in.
I am skeptical if this indomitable spirit of resilience and celebration can be witnessed anywhere else other than in Amche Goem! And as it is time to usher in the New Year, I have a sincere prayer to offer for my beloved state and fellow Goans. May all that is unpleasant, undeserving, and agonizing for Goa and Goans be exorcized and vanish, and may our lives be filled with lasting joy and ecstasy.
During the festive season, our Niz Goemkar forgets his chronic aches and ailments, veils his depleted provisions, hides the empty coffers, and steps forward with a smile to partake in a community celebration. His festivity is not to be measured by extravagance of food on his table, clothes in the wardrobe and décor in the hall; rather look into his sunken eyes that still twinkle with staunch devotion, and the tears that cannot sink his buoyant hope.
Goem and the Goemkar have their tribulations; some imagined, some invited out of their own folly, but most having been heaped on him. He is a victim of reneging by those he chose to represent him and he is let down by those who aspired and conspired to ascend by resting their weak ladder on his tired but strong shoulders, kicking the ladder after reaching the peak.
Goemkar is embarrassed in retrospect having got carried away by hollow promises and shallow allegiance. He’s flummoxed by his loss of identity in his own land, and at being pushed into oblivion by the influential invaders who view this land of our forefathers as purchasable commodity.
Goemkar gets ridiculed, snubbed and dubbed as anti-development for raising legitimate concerns about his shrinking land, contaminated water and polluted air. When he reasons that the window-pane oysters are rare and that our rich fish stocks must be preserved, they tell him that he is trapped in his measly antique life style.
When he trembles seeing lathi-wielding khaki, whimpers feebly about the coconut palm groves and paddy fields being cleared to accommodate their massive linear concrete, they ignore him; and when his cries grow louder they hammer sermons of development and national priority into his petrified grey matter and label him as ‘influencer’ and a liability to Goa’s progress. This is simply mean, arrogant posturing and resistance and reluctance to engage with stakeholders.
Of course, it offends me to the depth of my bone marrow when some Artificial Intelligence freak floats in the social media an image of a Christmas tree in Amche Goem, with liquor bottles hanging all over that iconic symbol of Natal; emphasizing that liquor is what best represents this state. In flaunting of this ‘artificial intelligence’ there’s greater display of ‘natural stupidity’ and a complete disconnect with the ethos and identity of this land we love immensely.
Goa surely isn’t the top ranker state for alcohol consumption if one goes by the national family health survey (NHHS-5) that puts Arunachal Pradesh in the top slot, with ‘pie-eyed’ men and women displaying ‘liquid courage’. Among Indian cities, it is not us, but Kolkata; where people down maximum volume of the alcohol and yet the disrepute is bestowed upon our state, while AI decorates Babumoshay’s Christmas tree with fish!
It is time that we collectively wipe off this jarring and dishonourable projection of Goa as a haven for dipsomaniacs, while also registering our discomfort for the shameful surreptitious sale of immoral pleasures like prostitution and gambling. Of course, for cash-starved state that has incurred a fiscal deficit of Rs 31, 758 crore in 2023, one fully well appreciates the milch cow that alcohol is. However; alcohol, escorts and poker-machines cannot represent our culture and ethos, notwithstanding our colonial past. Goa must brainstorm to evolve our own template of responsible tourism; balancing safety of tourists with their recreational experience, safeguarding of our natural assets, and granting stakes in leisure industry to hinterland communities.
Let my state not accrue debt of its decent and docile citizens through bureaucratic bullying and legislative arrogance; by ignoring the rightful and just voices of dissent emerging from its democratic constituents, through vindictive acts of depriving the deserving for not ego-massaging the authority and refusing to partake in the illusion of progress, by shouting down the feeble and the under-represented, by their refusal for accountability to those who bestowed power and authority on them in the name of Indian constitution, by violating the faith and demolishing the trust reposed by the naïve electorate in the lame guise of ‘power for progress of constituency’. May political poaching be thwarted by conscious and conscientious Goemkars.
The coterie politics is on a rise in the state and there is increasing intolerance towards diversity of thinking and ideas. This homogenization of mind and mandate is sure to devastate the magic of a liberal, pulsating and participatory society where one stays in mainstream and still has the privilege of being in benign disagreement with a majoritarian tilt without feeling intimidated or sidelined; and in worst case scenario punished. The singular echo of accomplishment and the obsessive compulsion of self back patting can only raise the morale of a few who bask in the sunshine of authority, but the resentment on ground gets ignored.
While we pray for our leaders, asking that supreme cosmic power to give them a vision of selfless leadership and lead them on the right path for betterment of the state, let their arrogance be doused by sense of service, their authority transform into amity, their instinct to ‘prey’ on the defenseless be annihilated and may they demonstrate humility in thoughts, words and deeds.
