My World

I came back a week ago from a trip to Goa. Unfortunately the 3-day trip got converted into a 2-day trip because of our extra-cautious bus driver. The journey from Mumbai to Goa was of 12 hours by bus but the driver was able to make it in 21 hours. We had our accommodations done in the beach huts of Palolem Beach in South Goa. Finally when we reached our destination at 4 in the morning, the sight of the moon with the roaring ocean and the mountains was so amazing that I forgot all my tiredness due to the bus travel. This beach is really a hidden paradise as my friend Ujj says on his post here. Theres everything here for a beach bum – a huge beach, shacks with sea view, cheap beer, delicious cuisines and live music performances in the night and if you are lucky like us you could also see dolphins early morning. We were so spellbound by the beauty of the place that even we had only 2 days to see Goa, we decided to be on the Palolem Beach for the whole day except going to nearby places in South Goa only. It was really a nice sight with people swimming, kayaking, rafting, sunbathing, children playing with balls and enjoying the large ocean waves with a soft music in the background.

In the evening we visited Colva beach in Margaon, where we enjoyed seafood and some of my friends also enjoyed cheap Kingfisher beer in one of the restaurants around the beach. We had the delicious crab, prawns, shrimps, pomfret fish. My friends made me taste the beer but the taste was so terrible that made me think how can anyone enjoy drinking it. Another beach in Margaon is Benaulim Beach but instead of visiting it we visited a church where mass prayers were going on in Konkani language so we couldn’t understand a word. After a short visit to Margaon we enjoyed local bus ride on our way back to Palolem. The buses were quite crowdy as people were returning from their work. We hurried to the beach and lay down there enjoying the music performance by a famous Rock band of Goa, dancing tourists , the sound of the ocean waves, sea by moonlight and Fenny for the whole night. Fenny is a local drink of Goa which comes in 2 flavors – cashew and coconut. If you enjoy alcoholic drinks do give it a try as it is a very strong and superior drink as told by my friends.

Early next morning we had to leave for North Goa. We bid adieu to the roaring waves of the ocean and the serene beauty of Palolem and headed towards Old Goa. In Old Goa there are world heritage architectures like Basilica of Bom Jesus, Church of St. Francis of Assissi. Basilica of Bom Jesus holds the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier and gilded altars. The imprints of the Portuguese culture was visible in the lifestyle of the people here and the architecture of the churches and buildings. After the visit to churches we saw the Fort Aguada on the Sinquerim Beach. There is also a lighthouse near the fort. The sight of the ocean with boats, motor-boats and ships from the top of the fort is amazing. After the historic tour we enjoyed the Goan food – rice with fish cooked in Goan style and seashells on the peaceful Vagator beach with tall Palm trees and white sand.

After seeing the peaceful beaches, we visited the most popular and crowded beach hangouts – Calangute Beach and Baga Beach. You can see why it is so crowded – the markets with stalls from all over India from Kashmiri shawls to Silk Sarees from South and all types of water sports- water scooter, paragliding, parasailing, water-skiing etc. on the beach. I tried the water scooter ride which was for 200Rs/person but they would come to 100Rs/person after bargaining. But the ride lasted for only 30 seconds. The moment you start enjoying it, you realize that its over. I enjoyed the small but thrilling ride on the large ocean waves with waves hitting on my face and me holding the life-jacket of my ride partner very strongly as the scooter zoomed through the waves with great speed.

Viewing the sunset over the Arabian Sea was quite breathtaking. The shades of yellow, orange and blue made the sky colourful.

After the sunset, we all loitered in the market admiring the Goan handicrafts and buying little souvenirs. Heard by many ppl including our beach hut owner, Ingo’s Saturday night market and Anjuna Wednesday flea market is a must see but unfortunately we missed it because of lack of time.

We were tempted to stay longer but had to get back to college so finally we reluctantly left Goa where we had a fantastic time. If you are a peace lover you can go to Palolem Beach else if u like partying then you would enjoy the night life at Baga and Calangute beach.

Watch the documentary BullDozer made by the Budhan Theatre on the plight of their Chhara community.

You can read more on the documentary, Budhan Theatre and Chharanagar on my previous post here. Read about the recent demolition in Maninagar by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s Bulldozer here .

Watch the documentary on the Chhara tribal theatre “The Budhan Theatre Group”. This documentary has been made by P. Kerim Friedman & Shashwati Talukdar.

Logged into my orkut account after returning back from 5-day trip to Goa. And what I see on my homepage is 9 friend requests and none of the requester looks familiar to me. No doubt orkut has made life easier by helping us find old school and college friends but the annoying aspect of orkut is getting friend requests from strangers. Especially women are bugged by these friend requests from the romeos of the cyber world. Don’t know if the same happens with the guys. All those guys out there do tell if you are also flooded with friend requests from the juliets on orkut.

The above picture is my orkut homepage where I have 9 new friend requests(all males) from people I don’t know. I am not open to making friends on internet so all these friend requests would be denied by clicking ”no”.

Apart from the friend requests the scrapbook and the message inbox is flooded with messages from anonymous like -

“wanna have friendship with me” – The simplest friendship message

” hi i dont have any chat friend or girl friend……can we?????????” – This message gives an impression as if orkut is a dating site.

“hi girls,well i am a goan guy, aged 23 workin abroad. i am a simple and down hearted guy. i am tall, medium complexion and a very honest man. i am looking for my life partner. If any girl is interested in me, kindly message me on orkut or leave your telephone no. thanks alot “.

- This message was sent to the members of a girls’ college community. Ever thought that orkut would play a matchmaking role in India. May be time will come when it would leave behind all those matrimonial sites like shaadi.com and bharatmatrimony.com who claims to be no.1 matrimony in India. Infact I think orkut would be more effective than these matrimonial sites as the bride/groom can find all the details about the prospective groom/bride from their profile and not to forget the testimonials. So all the guys and gals out there getting ready for their marriage, make your profile look good and impressive and bribe your friends to write a perfect testimonial for you before the person looking for you hits on your orkut profile.

Orkut recently entered its third year. It has become one of the most favourite timepass leaving behind Yahoo messenger and other chat services. Orkut is addictive and I am also a victim of it. All is fine with orkut till you are able to stay in touch with your friends but becomes irritating when you receive friend request and messages from Anonymous especially if you are not in favor of making internet friends.

Orkut is a great social networking site but like everything comes with its disadvantages, same is true with orkut. I have never come across any guy in the similar situation. All guys there on orkut let us know if your scrapbooks and inbox also gets loaded with friend requests from anonymous gals.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s(AMC) bulldozer for the 12th time demolished the huts of the denotified tribes (DNTs) in Maninagar, Ahmedabad. It was on 8th Feb. 2007 when people of four denotified communities, who have been staying here for last 30-40 years, became homeless.

For their survival they used to sell maps in Ahmedabad city, villages. Women used to make plastic ropes at home itself and men used to go for ear cleaning work. Some used to sell toys while some of the women used to go for begging for their family’s survival. These people have been living under terror of the AMC as they demolish their houses and even beat women and children brutally.

Various applications have been submitted for a permanent settlement but there has been no positive response. Now “Sambhav” group has started a petition against the demolition drive of the AMC. Sambhav is a volunteer social group of the students of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar who go to Maninagar to teach the children of the people belonging to the denotified tribes. More on Sambhav here. The petition is a part of the struggle for getting a permanent settlement for these tribes.

People are suffering a lot. It is hot summer in Ahmedabad and there is no shelter for them. Now they cannot even go for earning because they have no place to leave their children. People are lying with empty stomach. They are facing great economical, social crisis due to multiple demolitions. These nomadic tribes need our help to make their dream of having their own house come true.

I request you to sign this petition and forward it to as many people as possible if you want to contribute to this struggle. Sign the petition here.

The previous post on the other DNT tribe of Chharanagar can be read here.