Tag: India

Adventure Tourism Goa, Goa Heritage

Adventure Tourism in Goa: Are you ready?

This blog post might not be for the faint of heart!
After relying successfully on promoting its beaches, Goa is now trying to expand its tourism portfolio to other kinds of tourism including heritage tourism and now adventure tourism. The Goa Tourism Department has now turned to adventure sports like hang-gliding, white water rafting and hot air ballooning to attract the more active minded tourists to Goa. 
“Adventure tourism is an emerging trend across the country. We are trying it to diversify our tourism portfolio,” says Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar. As Mr Parulekar rightly notes, adventure tourism is a huge emerging trend, not only in India but all across the world. While people today spend more and more time sitting at their desks in front of a computer or screen, they are looking to be a bit more active and adventurous when they are on holiday. “We are now considering other adventure sports as well, such as hot air ballooning and setting up a hang-glider base,” Parulekar said.

And for those who find hand gliding or wind surfing too strenuous, there is also a plan to combine adventure tourism and Heritage tourism by offering a ride in a hot air balloon that would provide a birds-eye view of the historic old Goa church complex (a UNESCO Heritage Zone) as well as Fontainhas, the Latin quarter of Panjim. 

So if you do find yourselves in a hot air balloon over my Mitaroy Heritage Homestay in Fontainhas, don’t forget to wave !

Goa Heritage, Goa in Bollywood

Guzaarish and the Goan Scenery

Today I watched Guzaarish, a Bollywood film by Sanjay Leela Bhansali starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachhan and set in Goa. Although the film was released in 2010, it took a while for the DVD to find its way to my Austrian library. 

Guzaarish is a movie about a famous magician named Ethan Mascarenhas who has an accident during one of his magic shows and is left a cripple. After living for 14 years as a cripple, only able to move his head and neck, he now wants to end his life and appeals to the court for permission to kill himself i.e. euthanasia or “Ethanasia” as he calls it. 

What follows is some wonderful acting by Hrithik as the cripple looking for freedom, Aiswarya Rai Bachhan as the nurse who is in love with her patient and the rest of the star cast that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has put together. 

But what I really enjoyed the most were Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s amazing visuals and sets. 

Set in an old house in Goa (called Villa Mascarenhas in the film) that resembles a church, Bhansali goes to great lengths to depict Ethan Mascarenhas as one of the old guard, the old landed gentry with their Portuguese lifestyle, old Portugese styled mansions, servants and spacious grounds. 

Each of the characters, especially Sofia, also wear period type dresses with Sofia’s typical headscarf and flowing gowns, and the servants typical Goan/ Portuguese dresses. 

The old Portuguese bungalow itself forms the backdrop of the film. Large, with high ceilings, winding staircases and a leaking roof, it could be anywhere in Goa. During the film, we learn that Ethan has many debts and is unable to financially maintain the old house. We also get glimpses of the fierce Goan monsoon when the roof leaks down onto his bed and it is mentioned that the roof can collapse any time. Unfortunately, most old Goan bungalows across Goa find themselves in this state and it is important that the Government and the NGOs come together to act before it is too late. Tourism presents a great opportunity for these old houses to be converted into Heritage Guest Houses or Heritage Homestays (as is the case with Fontainhas, the neighbourhood where my own Heritage Homestay is located – The Mitaroy, Goa). Here the tourism department and Mr Manohar Parrikar, CM of Goa must make it easier for home owners to convert their old houses into Heritage Homestays without having to run around or pay bribes to the corrupt Government officials. 

When Ethan Mascarenhas does leave the house, we are treated to some beautiful shots of Goa’s natural beauty with its green verdant fields, swaying palm trees and of course the famous Goan beaches when Hrithik is placed on a wheelchair and the waves sweep over his crippled feet. 

If you can get your hands on a DVD of Guzaarish (or Die Magie des Lebens as it is known in German), do watch it. 

Watch it for its wonderful acting and its thought provoking theme. But also watch it for its depiction of a Goa that many of us rarely get to see. 

Goa Heritage

The history of Fontainhas, Goa’s Latin Quarter

Today Fontainhas is renowned as the Latin Quarter of Goa. But it had its own set of problems when it was being developed in the beginning. 

As more and more Portuguese families came to the settlement, the ward of Fontainhas grew rapidly and haphazardly, without any clear town planning in place. A set of houses, built wall to wall without proper sanitary and hygiene, raised grave health concerns. As a result, the then Governor of Goa, Jose Ferreira Pestana was forced to write to the President and Councillors of the Municipal Council to take action. In his letter he writes:

“The Governor informs the municipal authorities that there is urgent need to take all care and make all possible efforts to improve the Bairro das Fontaihas, where a large number of people live crowded in small houses, with little light, poor ventilation and little cleanliness and lot of humidity and heat. This may cause health problems to the inhabitants and, consequently, grave damage to the city. Therefore the municipality is asked to take action to see that the people of the ward as well as others in the city observe the ‘posturas’ that the Municipality has published. Also to remain watchful and have good management of its Taluka regimen”

Further the Governor General instructed the Municipality that the following measures needed to be undertaken:

  • Open windows on the walls for those houses that have none
  • Increase in size others that are small
  • Increase the height of the houses
  • Expose Enclosures made of ‘ollas’ (palm leaves
  • Clear the lanes and by-lanes of shacks, which they are trying to get converted into legal acquisitions using roof tiles and buildings walls of stones
  • Tenants should be asked to maintain the cleanliness  of the properties and drains of their area in order to allow free flow of water into the river

History of Fontainhas, Panjim, Goa

The Governor General also feared that the dirt and unhygienic conditions could cause sickness and epidemic which would spread much faster in a warm climate like that in Goa. 

The neighbourhood of Fontainhas was, as its name suggests, highly reliant on the “little fountain” of the area. The Governor General therefore starkly emphasized the need to improve the hygienic conditions around the fountain, which was the only source of potable drinking water in those days.

Being reminded of the origins of Fontainhas also serves to remind us of the importance of keeping our surroudings clean. My cleaning staff are instructed to not only clean the inside of The Mitaroy Heritage Homestay but also to sweep the front and back lanes that run beside our Heritage Homestay. If all of us do our bit, Fontainhas will be remain clean and hygienic for both its residents and its visitors. 

Goa Heritage

The tale of the Goan “shippie”

Ask anyone in Goa or South India for that matter what or who a Goan Shippie is and they will tell you –  someone who works full time on a ship, usually a Merchant Navy ship. 

But unlike in England where it was the lure of the sea and the big, bad world out there, Goan Shippie’s were forced to leave their homeland in search of jobs, due to lack of employment opportunities in Goa. With no single major industry in the territory and agriculture producing rice that was insufficient for even 4 months of the year, many Goans were forced to leave their homeland in search of a career at sea, especially if they wanted to feed their families. 

Thus Goans, mostly Christians, began to leave Goa for nearby Mumbai (then Bombay), Poona, Calcutta and other places in India, and for Africa, the Arabian Gulf, and former Persian Gulf areas, Burma and Malaya, then the British Empire.

With their easy going “susegaad” nature, natural intelligence and knowledge of English and Portuguese, Goan’s were a popular choice as seamen.

Both being Christians, the British employers were also partial to Goan seamen or shippies and hired the educated as clerks, and the uneducated as butlers, cooks, waiters in their homes, clubs and hotels. Goan shippies were also much in demand as chief stewards, barmen, cooks, and saloon and cabin crew of big and luxurious cabin liners.

But most importantly, Goan shippies were known for their hard work and positive attitude to work. Willing to work for many months at a stretch without a break, Goan shippies were known as being reliable, honest and hard-working.

These qualities are hard to come by in today’s Goan youth, one old-timer tells me. “Today, the youth in Goa is only interested in drinking, partying and having a good time. They don’t have the work ethics and respect for work that we had. Probably because of easy money coming from tourism and mining and sale of ancestral homes and land, they don’t have to work hard any more. In our time, it was different – work was worship” he wistfully recalls. 

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View from my Balcao – Liberty Port

View from my Balcao …my Dad blogs from Goa

Visitors, and they will descend in hordes come October, to this island in the sun, make the rulers of this tiny state genuinely believe that commerce & vice go hand-in-hand. Maybe true of the rampant mining over the past decade and more. Not entirely true of tourism.

Goa is certainly not a twilight zone of drugs, booze & sleaze, as is currently being made out – Bombay & Delhi score higher, for sure. Its just a fun-place where richie-rich kids from Bombay & Delhi (and lesser cities) come to have a spot of merriment. Beer, nay any booze, is ridiculously cheaper than other cities, so why not indulge in an extra tipple when on holiday. And why traveel all the way to Pattaya when Goa is round the corner.

The social-service wing of the ruling government has grabbed headlines for their enthuisiastic attempts to curb night-life. This middle-class anxiety about hedonism could change the perception of Goa forever, making it a dull and boring beach-state as against the carefully nurtured halo of being a free-and-easy one. Their puritanism appears naive at best. Bombay & Delhi too have rocking night-life, so why single out Goa ?

Goa serves a singular purpose of allowing young (and old too !) folk, engaged in stressful lives of today’s money-changing world, to chill-out and get a taste of Goa’s famed laid-back (sosegaad) lifestyle.

Goa’s night-time avatar is unknown to many – hot-spots at Baga/Anjuna/Calangute or any of the casinos moored in the inland-waters, that start rocking by 9pm and shut shop around 6am, and why not. Partying is the sole purpose of holiday-makers to Goa. Goa is not just the gateway to India but also a rocking paradise for the foreign, and increasing now, the Indian tourist.

Lest their prudism turn Goa into the least sexy beach-town in Asia and allow a more strident Pattaya to turn the tables & turnstiles, it must beg the question as to what is good, bad or ugly.

Across the icy gulf of time from the swinging 60s to today, Goa has been India’s best-known secrets among all foreigners.

The ruling Government’s collective anxiety about keeping a clean image of Goa’s beaches must perforce go hand-in-hand with the image of a state that has had 11 CMs in the past 12 years, excluding the previous Congressman, and one that allows the mining-casino lobby as much freedom as the beach-bums of yore.

Putting a check on both is certainly advisable, given the burgeoning mining & casinos scams, & increasing number of rape cases, but lets not overload it to cause it to tipple the other way and take away the charm of Goa’s liberty to all its visitors. The present CM, who has a blue-blooded engineering degree to his name, will have to find the correct balance, a middle-path as the wise Buddha said of life.