To Goanet -
The Goa Marriott has emerged as a one-stop bazaar and watering hole for all
matters pertaining to the sale of Goa. Every land dealer, land shark, land
grabber, builder, broker & politician worth his name can be found lounging
in its corridors. The irony is not lost on me. For long before the CRZ
rules were flouted and the hotel erected, I spent many a golden evening of
my youth at this very location, sitting on the rocks & watching the sun go
down.
It is in the lobby here that you can find our ministers striking land deals
with Mumbaiwallahs, Dilliwallahs, Bangalorewallahs, and Barodawallahs.
Business is now conducted in the open, not behind closed doors or in dingy,
secluded bar rooms. Complete transparency in corruption is the order of the
day !
Some bhaile guests at the hotel are on a long term stay. Their full-time job
is to drive around Goa every single day sniffing out old houses, properties
and land to buy. As I reported some days back, the bhaile are pawing Goan
territory in areas as far and remote as Netravali.
But it is the gym at the Marriott that buzzes like a beehive, where the
haute of Goan society gather, presumably to firm up their abs. A few of our
ministers are well known regulars when they are not on "study tours." The
captains of Goan industry are well represented. A high-powered scion of a
prominent Goan family is known to have bragged to fellow gym buddies about
the excellent rate he has been getting from bhaile for the flats offered by
his company. Real estate, CRZ conversions & related topics dominate the
chatter around the treadmill.
Some days back I discovered yet another curio in the gym - an operator
planted by some real estate agency, ostensibly in here for his workouts.
His real job, it appeared to me, was to smoke out the well-heeled among the
hotel guests at the gym and dangle before them the juicy carrot of Goan real
estate. This fellow had skills typically found in used-car salesmen in
America, for he quickly struck me off his target list when he heard me
converse with the gym staff in Konkani. His modus operandi was simple: make
eye contact, initiate small talk, and then whip out his hook: "Well, you
know that Goa has been ranked in the 10 topmost pleasant places to live in
in India, don't you?" By the time I left, he must have bagged quite a few
interested scalps.
Warm regards,
r
