Of People and Places

Goa diary : 16 August 2016 South Goa is for the traveller. Let the tourist be content with North Goa and all the touristy things it has to offer. We went to the fine white beach of Colva in South Goa in the monsoons. The sky was overcast, men stood in a haphazard line, in shorts and raincoats, funny because some of them were going to wade into the sea anyway to draw the fishing net! The boats drew closer and the men came alive. They brought in the fishing net tangled with seaweed, bits of shells and of course fish. Fishes gasped for air, swishing their tails, and all at once it seemed like the entire beach was filled with them, shining like pieces of tinsel here and there, jumping out of the nets. The stray dogs eyed them, nosing around them in the sand. The crows overhead also waited for a chance to swoop down. A slight drizzle had begun. Undaunted, the men hauled the net in. Women hung around in the background with raincoats and umbrellas, waiting to load the fish into ...

On the banks of the lake Pichola in Udaipur, A folk musician played a stringed instrument while tourists milled about. He was playing a Ravanhatha, it has a beautiful sound and surprising resonance. The sound is bewitching, especially when he does a legato kind of thing (slide from one note to another after it is played) It is called  meend in Hindustani Classical  music where one note dissolves into another seamlessly. He played popular hindi songs diving into one from the other while tourists walked past to other attractions. The lake Palace stood behind him,  blinding white, enigmatic and mysterious to us outsiders. It must be quite something to stay at the Palace, which has now been converted to a luxury hotel. Right in the middle of the lake! How exciting.

For most people Goa is a holiday destination, a place of endless booze and partying, fresh seafood, expensive restaurants and weekend getaways. Not for Konkanis, though. As a child, I hated the fact that visits to Goa were mostly restricted to visiting the Mangeshi Mutt (temple), with an occasional trip to the beach and I longed for all those touristy things that other people did :) As I grew older, I began to see that a lot exists beyond both these things. A vast part of Goa is unexplored, untouched by the madness that tourists bring with them. Take Chandor, for instance,  a charming village in South Goa. It is a small village that can be explored on foot. In the monsoons, this place is too beautiful for words. Luckily, we had a friend who lives there to show us around. On the way to Chandor, amid stretches of forests, you will see typical Goan houses. The houses have covered porches that face the street, and invariably you will see someone sitting there, reading a newspap...

"For her the coming of tunnels meant she was home. They followed one after the other, three tunnels, black as existence, red streaks from the tunnel lights giving everyone and everything a tinge of unreality. The little boy in the berth looked particularly unearthly as he squirmed about,excited by this sudden darkness that descended on the compartment. A never ending darkness, while the train went about its determined way, and then sudden daylight, as if the tunnel was a dream." Every time I see a rail neer bottle, nostalgia engulfs me.  I spent 2017 in a daze, one train journey after another, going from Bangalore to Hoshangabad and back for a course in Children's book illustration. Months, as short as they are, really did run like rabbits, with one week spent in Hoshangabad and the rest of the time spent catching up with work and classes back in Bangalore. So, I could say I spent at least four - five  days a month in trains. A kind of home. Not to mention t...