Goodbye Goenkarponn By V. M. de Malar vmingoa at gmail.com
It's over now, we Goans cannot afford to be laid back and famously sussegado any more, the world's ills have become our own. For generations we have sheltered in our jewel-like homeland while remaining quite shielded from the killing winds that swept through less fortunate lands. For generations, we had all that we needed deposited right into our laps by the hard work of our visionary ancestors; they carved out rich agricultural lands on the banks of our rivers, and set sustainable patterns for living that relied on nature's endless bounty. The resulting gentle lifestyle is the essence of Goenkarponn, the unparalleled graciousness that has been envied by countless others, where generation after generation lived without onerous worries that less fortunate peoples have suffered. Well, it's goodbye Goenkarponn forever, as we wake up in the first week when Goa has become a terrorist target just like Bangalore and Mumbai, and New York and London, in the first week after that vicious little pogrom in Sanvordem. No more complacency now, not when our temples and churches and public spaces are threatened with explosives, not when grim paramilitary personnel patrol our airports and railway stations. No more light hearts when our children are on school trips to crowded locations, or when our mothers and fathers go to the marketplaces that have shown up on the nabbed alleged terrorist's hit list. Goa feels a bit like the USA after the horrific attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, though we have been mercifully spared any of the horrors visited on New York. It feels similar because there is a similar overnight throbbing of recognition that things will never be the same, and the same real pang of loss for a state of mind - a certain innocence, a certain taking things for granted - that will never be ours again. We have had it so lucky, for so very long; our whole culture has been lulled into believing the good times would never end, that this party could not be stopped. But it's all surely gone now. Sanvordem demonstrated the home truth that we are neither immune nor particularly different from the rest of India, no matter how high our rankings in human development rise. We've seen that killing mobs can gather and wreak havoc just as easily here as in Gujarat or Mumbai, or indeed, benighted Baghdad. And now we have this paraded terrorist, with his expensive shirt and confused mien, with that horrifying bag of plastic explosives and those grenades, member of the same breed that has wrought so much bloodshed in the world in recent years. Let's face this fact; even if every allegation made about this Kashmiri is proved false, there is no turning back Goa's clock to the good old carefree days. Even if he has been set up, even if this is all a plant, there is no denying that our atmosphere has been completely vitiated and it is only a matter of time before there is a genuine threat on exactly the same lines. We are not immune. We are not that special. It will happen here, all we can do is remain fearfully vigilant and fend it off as long as possible. We slumbered peacefully for years because there was no interest in Goa, no attention and nothing to gain for anyone who wanted to make a nihilistic statement. But all that is gone, we're high profile now; there is lots of international attention, and there are lots of high value targets. Goa is much more a part of today's world, a truly globalized little hotspot, and there are many benefits that we've received as a result. Trouble is, today's world is full of entrenched problems and gruesome human behaviour too, and now all of that has come to Goa permanently. We can never take things for granted again. So, it's over folks, this week we enter twenty-first century reality for the first and most decisive time. Let's just acknowledge for our own sake that we're never going back. This fearful genie cannot be put back in its bottle. The faster and more thoroughly we accept these unavoidable truths, the better it will be for everyone. (ENDS) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above article appeared in the March 14, 2006 edition of the Herald, Goa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THE AUTHOR: VM is an early Goanetter, who put his money where his mouth is and returned to settle-down in Goa in late 2004, while in his thirties. VM regularly writes for the Goa and Mumbai media. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
