A voice in the darkness

Who doesn’t like to see the underdog win? That’s why Goans all over the world are rooting for  Nachom-ia Kumpasar  (Let’s dance to the rhythm), the crowd-funded Konkani film among 112 films in contention for a nomination in the original score category for the 88th Academy Awards. It also made it to the list of 305 feature films in the running for best picture nominations. On January 29, the film, which has won several awards and travelled to film festivals around the world, including London, Melbourne and Chicago, will be screened at the Indian High School auditorium in Dubai, more than a year after it was first opened to packed houses in Goa on December 4, 2014. Made on a shoestring budget of Rs45 million (Dh2.5 million),  Nachom-ia Kumpasar  pays tribute to the unsung Goan musicians of the ’60s and ’70s. Ten years ago, director Bardroy Baretto, an advertising professional, decided to make a film about Chris Perry and Lorna Cordeiro, two of Goa’s music leg...

I dislike shopping. The charms of window displays are lost on me and discounts fail to get my blood pumping. The prospect of haggling, however, unnerves me. “How much did you pay for it?” and “Did you strike a bargain?” are questions I have dreaded since the time I was first tasked with grocery shopping back home in Goa. My answer sparks amusement, disappointment, and occasionally rage, depending upon the age of my interrogator. Sometimes I even get a ‘haggling for dummies’ tutorial. A tour of the Ajanta and Ellora caves, world heritage sites in India, last month convinced me that haggling is an essential life skill one needs to master, especially when visiting India as a tourist. It serves as a potent weapon against the swarm of touts who descend on you, determined to play havoc with your holiday budget. These touts were upon my wife and me the moment we stepped out of our car. One pressed a small quartz stone in my hand, saying it was a “gift”, and asking me to visit “shop numb...

In an article titled ‘We shouldn’t be blaming the Indian tourist alone for Goa’s troubles’ published in the  Wire  — an Indian news portal — on August 6, writer Samir Nazareth accuses Goans of “playing the victim card”, arguing that the tourism quagmire that Goans find themselves in is of their own making. He advises Goans to stop blaming the domestic tourist for their problems. I grew up in my mother’s ancestral house in Curtorim — a verdant village in south Goa — and am quite sure that the average Goan, especially us villagers, has no axe to grind or fish to fry as far as tourism is concerned. We are only concerned with preserving our  goenkarponn  (the Goan way of life), which is steeped in tradition but open to new ideas. Let me make it clear that the only kind of tourist that is unwelcome is one who believes that Goa is a place to indulge in debauchery fuelled by cheap alcohol. How is a Goan supposed to react to groups of tourists who drive in from neighbo...