In his Stray Thoughts, in the current issue of Goan Observer, Rajan Narayan has conveniently shielded himself by saying that it is "public perception.... that Goa is a hedonistic paradise where both liquor and girls are available cheap." In the book, 60 Stray Thoughts, Rajan has proclaimed Goa to be a "hedonistic paradise." But this time around, he attributes the "hedonistic paradise" tag to "public perception." In the earlier para, he says, "The film Dum Maro Dum only reflects the ground reality in Goa." Later on he blames the film for "the denigration of Goa." It seems Rajan hasn't seen the movie, and if he did see, he has failed to understand the line in question, "Liquour is cheap, women are cheaper" in the context of the story. Spoken by the female lead actor, Bipasha Basu, the line does not mean to say Goan women in particular, though it could be surmised to include Goan sex-workers. Isn't it a "ground reality" that there are Goan women working as sex-workers? It seems to me that Rajan is at a loss which way to focus his thought and, thus, straying along with a misguided mind. In the following para, "In fact due to the huge kickbacks allegedly demanded by Churchill for not only AVOIDING (caps mine) the contract for any major or minor work, but even clearing the bills, most PWD contractors have stopped bidding for tenders floated by the PWD." Instead of using the word "alloting" he has used "avoiding." He has used the word "allot" in the preceeding para, "....allot work to contractors and pay their bills." I have found this sort of hurried writing in his book which is a full of grammatical and spelling horrors, not to mention inconsistency in writing style and confused thinking. I will come to this book after I finish reading it.
Eugene Correia
