Goa - The Sunny State

chillibreeze writer — Ginza George

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Goa – such an appealing and friendly name for a state, just three letters and two syllables: easy-flowing vowel companionship. But it holds within these two syllables an entire people, their culture and life force. The state has lent so much material to history with the innumerable inroads by different dynasties and groups.

Goa is situated on the western coast of the Indian peninsula canopied between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. Goa attained statehood in 1987 after 451 years of colonial rule predominantly by the Portuguese. Before the Portuguese set foot here it was once part of the Mauryan Empire and later on the Satavahana Empire before it came under the Kadambas, Rashtrakutas, Chalukyas and Silahars. Its economy is mainly nourished by fishing, agriculture, tourism and mining.

Goa is popular for its primary tourist asset – beaches, myriads of them with silver sands and non-silver. Yes, there are these beautiful beaches sliced along the coast under interesting names. There are also the waves and beach sports, the salt in the air and the beautiful horizon. Any write-up on Goa is incomplete without a mention of the Goan carnival. It is one of the funkiest festivals in India and happens for three days in the month of February just before the forty-day period of lent as a run-up to Easter. The word carnival comes from the Latin word “carnavale”. The Portuguese borrowed it from the hedonistic cultures of ancient Rome and Greece and generously made it a regular feature of Goa as part of its colonial rule. King Momo, king of hedonism, orders the crowd to start the merry making and carousing on the first day of the carnival. It is followed by street plays, floats, musical bands and dance troops showcasing their talents. The evenings are exclusively and blissfully devoted to uninterrupted feasting and drinking. The flea market is another distinct feature of Goa. It started off in the late sixties and seventies when the hippies disposed off their stuff to be auctioned for phenomenally high prices. Over a period of time it has become one kind of a souvenir market where traders and hawkers from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Kashmir sell their artifact, knick-knacks and curio. It is a hub of activity and a celebration of cultures where you can even have your body tattooed or hair braided. The Saturday night bazaar in Calangute is a similar scene in a different venue. However, my two-year stay here has endeared me to the place for other reasons. Goa is also the land of an interesting community, their siesta, love for food and feni, and the brightly colored buildings against the backdrop of the sunlit sky. Goans celebrate life by working not too hard and burning out, and by sticking to their treasured siesta. Can you imagine the siesta even figures in some travel guides to Goa? The streets thriving with life otherwise look so dull and sad in the afternoon. Shops close by two in the afternoon and bring up their shutters at five in the evening. The trade lost in between is hardly a loss. You breathe well and easy in this place. It helps you live life not survive. There is a plethora of creative energy and artists love to steal escapades into this laidback city. Farhan Akhtar is totally justified in saying that Goa is an integral part of his creative process and it helps him unwind.

The slow-paced lifestyle helps you laze and day dream but Goa also gives you a lot of scope to dream seriously. At least for me I have acquired new skills here. I dream of opening a cakes and bakes, ginbakers or tombakers, which sells pretzels and pretzels and pretzels. I would have also developed one whole line of signature croissants, strudels and muffins by the time I retire and start this confeitaria. Definitely bebinca, dodol and jaggery bol will be the regulars. My bakery will stand out in flamboyant purple and pink that hurts the eyes. It will be a misnomer among the sober colors of other shops in the Kerala premise but that is a feel of the soulful, robust Goa. This place gives you a reason to waltz. I have learnt to jive and waltz decently here. I have started learning the guitar. I was enquiring about cake-icing classes in my town, Vasco. That is how I bumped into Eunice – a huge lady with a dimpled smile and endless charisma and talent. Eunice reflects the average Goan spirit, warm and down-to-earth, not complicated by sophistication but graced by fineness and decorum. She said she does not hold classes but kindly offered to demonstrate. I was thrown off-balance. She came by bus, that is, she did not even ask for a transport and spent two hours or so with us and showed us the beautiful skill of cake icing with aplomb. The discussion was not limited to cakes but a lot of other Goan cuisine and how in yester years Goans used to prepare for the onset of monsoons by garnering dried fish visiting the pre-monsoon fair, purumentachim festam or “feast of provisions”, all of which is dying down, as she said with the readymade stuff easily available over the counter.

Goan ladies mostly wear frocks – cool summery frocks not too colorful but in small and big prints. Their zeal for food is evident in their physique. They have generous amounts of fat and wide girth. I like the complete comfort with which the ladies try and squeeze their bulges and flab into these tight-fitting frocks. It is a feast for the eyes to see the Goan crowd proceeding to church mass in their Sunday best. Men wear blazers though the Goan climate is hardly congenial for it and ladies don colorful skirts and tops.

Restaurants are the glory of Goa. The entire state is dotted by the typical Goan shacks offering seafood and feni and other drinks. Lovely, bold and bright colors splash the restaurants. Goans are clever at transforming commonplace rooms into attractive spaces in an extremely cost-effective way. Many of them have illumination to spice the ambience and enhance the otherwise ordinary look. They have the traditional ceramic tiles in hues of blue stuck in beautiful designs. Some carry inscriptions but most of them are paintings. A whole lot of them are sketches of the market place done by none other than the famous cartoonist Mario Miranda. He is a resident of Loutalim, Salcete in Goa and is widely known for his vignettes of the village life. They are beautiful and funny without any malice. Music and dance is second nature to Goans. Many restaurants have live bands at the weekend. Solo performers are also not an uncommon sight.

My favorite joint is Hotel Mandovi in Panjim. I love the food there – curry rice, recheado pomphret – and the ambience with an elderly man with his guitar singing soulful numbers. The tangy, spicy ambot-tik, which literally translates to sour-spicy, is another delectable authentic Goan fish curry with the popular Goan kokum petals in it. Balchao is a dark red and tangy masala made with prawns and fish. It is almost like a pickle. I am personally not so fond of it. Meat cafreal was brought in by the kaffirs of Africa and people relish this unique blend of strong spices. Vindaloo and sorpotel are pork dishes popular in Christian homes along with the spicy chourico sausages enjoyed mainly during the monsoons. Xacuti is another strong masala with a lot of spices and ground coconut in it. Most of these dishes use coconut vinegar. Among the sweetmeats, bebinca is undoubtedly the king. It is traditionally made in sixteen layers of coconut pancakes baked on a specially made clay oven that uses hot coal placed over it for heat. Cold fresh bebinca made in pure ghee is an absolute melt-down for the sweet tooth. Dodol is made either with rice flour or ragi, jaggery, coconut milk and cashew nut. It tastes like halwa. Martin’s Corner in Betalbatim, south Goa and Souza and Sons in Calangute, up north are equally reputed restaurants. I am yet to try out Souza and Sons. I cannot help but mention the O’ Coqueiro restaurant in Porvorim up north. It started decades ago and is housed in an ancestral Portuguese bungalow. I tried the salted bombil (bombay duck) fry which was delicious. Did you know that the crime samrat Charles Sobhraj was handcuffed here in the middle of a sumptuous meal? Cafreal used to be his favourite and the cops, obviously, did not let him finish his meal. This cool and flashy criminal would have been thoroughly disappointed. None of these restaurants shell out formidable sums in doing up the place. They do admirable subtle makeovers making the place decent and neat. I noticed that except for the really plush and swanky hotels all the joints have one thing in common – nilkamal chairs.

It is said that the charm of Goa is in having retained the innate quality of refusing to move with the times. Tourists like this pristine quality. I was surprised to enter Souza and Sons (another one), a popular bakery I was referred to, and realize that the place needed a white wash and replacement of furniture and shelf. The Souza son looked hep and up with the times but not his work space. However, this has not managed to hamper their business in the least. My middle-aged driving instructor had only begun handling a mobile in a most uncomfortable manner. I do not in the least intend anything derogatory in these remarks of mine. In fact I am impressed with their courage and cool in choosing to remain where they want to without obliging the fast pace in life. However, the state reels under an unresolved garbage disposal issue and a bleak educational sector. There is also a washed-down feeling you get as you pass some roads with their run-down houses and buildings. I have heard someone remark that the free-flowing liquor in the state has devastated many families and their future. One cannot overlook this but let me stick to the luminous side of the state – the sunny side up. Viva Goa!

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—About our writer:

Ginza says, "I have an eye for detail. I like to write and edit. My dream tag is “connoisseur of cakes and desserts”. Favorite line: “When is the last time you did something for the first time?”"

Goa - The Sunny State

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