ADHVAGATI

It is not really anyone's fault that the idea of Goa is limited to images of  Beaches & Churches,  Villas & Vindaloo, Feni & Fado ...and little else beyond or before all that .  Goa was the first Indian State to be Colonised by European Imperialists and the last to gain freedom . 450 years of foreign rule (1510 -1961) , more than the proverbial  "7 Generations" ; long enough to forget that there was actually a very different culture that enriched this region before the ships from the West, looking for "Spice and Souls",  started weighing anchor on its coast .  A recent re-visit to South Goa , with a small group , proved to be an eye-opener jaunt into the "pagan" past , which has now been retrieved and re-established with renewed zeal .  Cross-cultural influences cannot be wiped away easily , nor should such a misguided project be undertaken . Any society is a  product of all forces and influences that ever contributed , in any way , g...

Our first visit to Goa was marred by an unsettling incident. A thief slid in through the baywindow of the hotel in Gaspar Dias, and made off with money, house-keys, a windcheater and a pouch containing my vitamins,antihistamines and a music cassette - I hope the delinquent enjoyed Harry Belafonte's rendition of "Hava Nagila" . The hotel staff and the policeman were very helpful, giving us avuncular smiles with the sage advice: Never carry money while touring ! It was almost as if they were holding us guilty of malfeasance ; the logic being, if we hadn't carried stuff, the thief wouldn't have thieved. Thanks, we had to bleat, perhaps the next time we could travel light, take PG accomodation in a fishmonger's hut, in barter for mending his nets . And sing "Hava Nagila " ourselves............   But the "next time", which was quite a few years later, we landed in Fort Aguada Resort. And lived out the holiday without any untoward incident. That...