Re: [Goanet] Paan, Piss, Panji
Rajan, At some level, you appear to be a man of good intentions... and then at others, one simply wonders... Anyway, doesn't really matter what I or anyone else looks at it, I guess. What does, however, matter, is the manner in which you put things across--more so at a time when the liberty to ask people to get lost or stay, is no further than the fingertips. And like many of us have learnt (the heard way, sometimes!), it would help to re-read your post, before, say, hitting the send button; to enter the shoes of the 'demons' you're so desperately trying to drive away--even if only your pet peeve, the ghatis. Just a suggestion :-) Reena Rajan P. Parrikar wrote: To Goanet - There has been a fresh drive against the city paanwallahs and encroachers. Councillor Surendra Furtado has been admirable in his efforts to enforce the law. However, the paanwallahs and other city law-breakers are said to have a patron in one of the CCP councillors. That is, those entrusted with upholding the city's law are active in gutting it. This must not stand. In every town and village around Goa, the encroachers, illegal hawkers, and squatters must be evicted. Once you let this poisonous weed take root it will be difficult to dislodge it. Let these ghatis go to Belgaum or Hubli or wherever. If you want to live in Goa, you play by the rules, else get lost. I don't mind purchasing one-way tickets to ghati huggers - go with your ghati flock and set up your own paradise. Warm regards, r
Re: [Goanet] Paan, Piss, Panji
To Goanet - There has been a fresh drive against the city paanwallahs and encroachers. Councillor Surendra Furtado has been admirable in his efforts to enforce the law. However, the paanwallahs and other city law-breakers are said to have a patron in one of the CCP councillors. That is, those entrusted with upholding the city's law are active in gutting it. This must not stand. In every town and village around Goa, the encroachers, illegal hawkers, and squatters must be evicted. Once you let this poisonous weed take root it will be difficult to dislodge it. Let these ghatis go to Belgaum or Hubli or wherever. If you want to live in Goa, you play by the rules, else get lost. I don't mind purchasing one-way tickets to ghati huggers - go with your ghati flock and set up your own paradise. Warm regards, r
Re: [Goanet] Paan, Piss, Panji
A reader from Mumbai emails, Isn't it the responsibility of the Goa govt to provide tourists with sanitation facilities? The short answer is: no. Are they supposed to carry portable lavatories, Mr Parrikar? Btw, have you seen Mr Vidyadhar Gadgil's side-splitting post on this thread? I laughed so hard over it that my stomach still hurts! :-) -- RKN
Re: [Goanet] Paan, Piss, Panji
From: Rajan P. Parrikar [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Goanet] Paan, Piss, Panji The first sight in Panjim during my drive home from the Dabolim airport last evening was that of two tourist buses offloading products of their metabolism on the Miramar beach, near Sharda Mandir. We get information about the return of certain people to Goa by the arrival of a fresh load of ordure in our inboxes. It's not just the prejudice and bigotry that is on display -- in fact, by now I have developed a certain admiration about the way these attributes are proudly and shamelessly flaunted, as a kind of badge of honour, to an extent that even Bal Thackeray is yet to match. Admire me, I'm more bigoted and abusive than anybody else, seems to be the mantra here. Truly, nirlajjam sada sukhi! They say in a pithy proverb in Marathi (which happens to be the mother tongue of this particular ghati), 'Hagnara tari lajto nahi tar baghnara tari lajto' (if the defecator isn't embarrassed, the watcher is). Well, in the role of 'baghnara', the person who writes these posts seems to be unfazed and, leave alone feeling embarrassed, is perpetually heading out in search of more 'hagnaras'. Verily, seek and ye shall find -- in unlimited quantities, at every turn, all the time. You'll even find yourself dreaming about it if you persist... The posts themselves are repellent and abusive loads of crap about, predictably, shit! But I, as a 'baghnara' in this case, am by now acutely embarrassed at this outpouring of effluvium and am in future just going to be pressing the delete button when such mails appear. In any case, this particular psychological problem seems to be so deep-rooted that it is more deserving of pity than censure, and bothering to respond is just a waste of time. But here are some links that may cast some light on the problem and maybe help to alleviate it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anal_fixation -- Question everything -- Karl Marx
Re: [Goanet] Paan, Piss, Panji
To Goanet - A reader from Mumbai emails, Isn't it the responsibility of the Goa govt to provide tourists with sanitation facilities? The short answer is: no. It is first and foremost the responsibility of the tourist to ensure that his needs are accounted for during the entire portion of his visit even before he has stepped out of his home. The primary responsibility of the Goa govt is to Goans, to provide for them a clean environment in which to live and thrive, and its upkeep. Unless I am headed for the deep Amazon jungle or the middle of the Gobi desert I have a fair idea where I'll be sleeping and showering. Don't you? Or do you just plan on showing up in town and taking a rousing dump in the nicest open yard available? The question posed above is a red herring. Indians simply don't want to face up to the truth - that they really have rotten civic and personal habits. You don't have it this bad even in the poor regions elsewhere in southeast Asia. It is only in India that you have the phrase Kiska baap ka kya jaata hai? or its variant, Tere baap ki property hai kya? This syndrome is better known as the tragedy of the commons. The place belongs to everyone, therefore it belongs to no one. Consequently you have carte blanche to stomp and sh*t on it without let or hindrance. In Mumbai you have housewives living in luxurious Breach Candy apartments who think nothing of sending down household waste from the balcony. Unkempt, broken, potholed, garbage-strewn sidewalks in every Indian city - same thing. Bathroomization of city pavements and city gardens - same idea. Through a peculiar set of historical circumstances - for which the Portuguese have to be given due credit - Goa had stood apart in this department. Not any longer, with ghatis, rich and poor, streaming in. Ghati huggers would have us believe that if only the employers provide ghatis with toilet facilities the issue of sanitation will be solved in a trice. This view is so off the mark that I am reminded of Professor Pauli's scathing retort that it is not even wrong. Throw open a spanking new toilet for the Indian's use and within 5 minutes it will be transformed into an unusable bog - clogged to the nines and stinking to high heavens. Potty training and education have to start early. So what next? Is it the Goa govt's responsibility to provide potty training to ghatis? And then is the govt also responsible for washing ghati a** so that he doesn't walk out smelling like a sh*t-demon? Where does it all end? Should we have the Goa govt assume responsibility for the ghati's entire alimentary canal, all the way from the entry point to the exit orifice? Nothing less would satisfy the lovers of ghati rights, it would appear. To them, the ghati is a noble animal exploited by all you lazy Goans. Warm regards, r
[Goanet] Paan, Piss, Panji
To Goanet - The first sight in Panjim during my drive home from the Dabolim airport last evening was that of two tourist buses offloading products of their metabolism on the Miramar beach, near Sharda Mandir. The buses bore number plates of Karnataka and Maharashtra, and the irrigation trajectories included not only liquid jets in projectile motion but also middle-aged mamis squatting in their billowing sarees. For a nanosecond I had cognitive dissonance thinking that some bunghole of warped spacetime had deposited me back in the uric acid-friendly outdoors of Bangalore. A hundred metres later, the paanwallah, presumably ejected a few weeks ago, had, like Murali Karthik, made a handsome comeback. So I was back in the Collector's office this morning. His Highness intoned that he is vested with all the powers to enforce civic discipline. There are laws in the books about no-urinating no-shitting no-spitting no-encroachment etc in public spaces. Why, I asked, weren't these laws enforced? Let's just say that the answer was in the form of a couple of coughs, pauses, a glance at the cell phone, and finally a stare at the ceiling suggesting an Einsteinian mind deep in thought. I later learnt that the paanwallahs have found a benefactor in a city councillor. He is building his vote bank paan by paan. Warm regards, r
