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ALL TYPES MAKE GOA THEIR HOME: STORIES FROM THE COASTLINE
By Joseph Zuzarte
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Goa is irresistible for way-out people. All types come here and make it
their home, at least for a while. But those who used to give it that
distinctive 'Goa' flavour are becoming harder to spot in the rising
touristic tide. Though they~'re there, a part of the scenery now, enjoying
Goa and finding themselves.
In my village of Candolim, there's a distinctive group of people who stand
out, the Taiwanese. There's about a dozen of them who stay for long periods
here, a few of them only a couple of houses from me. Sometimes I see them
doing Tai Chi in an abandoned volleyball court next to the hill. They're all
practicing the art of 'Living Zen' and all work with an entity called the
'Living Zen Trading Company' which imports consumer and other items from
Taiwan, which they sell at the 'Taiwan Market' in Calangute.
Life for them revolves around their leader, Cuckoo, a Zen master.
"We're his followers," explains Elephant, the stout one amongst them who
resembles a Chinese priest with a long wispy beard and moustache. Cuckoo is
also the name of a restaurant on the beach where they and all their friends
mostly congregate to eat some delicious food and discuss the finer nuances
of life. Cuckoo is also a master of acupressure/acupuncture and used to heal
at the Osho Commune in Pune. So the Osho types also hang out there.
Why Goa? "Because it's a nice place," says Elephant in Taiwanese while a
friend of his translates. "It's a nice beach, the local people are very kind
to us, the surroundings are very comfortable. Everything looks natural and
original," he concludes with a beatific wave at everything.
He's been coming here now for eight years.
"The first time we came on holiday, we used to cook for ourselves. Some of
our new friends would eat with us and they liked the food. They paid us some
money to share the costs. Then we decided to make a restaurant and slowly we
started a shop here," says Elephant pouring me some more of the green tea
which they also sell at the shop, besides soya sauce, Chinese food noodles,
etc. It's all very nutritious, specially their food (also the most popular
food outlet at the Saturday Nite Market, Arpora) as they use original
ingredients. Cuckoo restaurant is well known in gourmet circles.
What is Zen? "We don't know," he says matter-of-factly. "We're still
learning. We're just following Cuckoo. He points out to us when we do
something wrong and pushes us in the right direction. It keeps out energy
going."
They explain that their approach is to be more alive, more in tune with the
simplicity of nature. How do they handle people who are different from them
in Goa? "If people come with their cultures, slowly they'll cut down and
become simple because our life is easy," he says. No unnecessary
complications. What about the crazies? "We've got nothing to do with that.
Some people will always be confused; some people will always be clear."
Swami Jeevan Roshan first came to Goa in 1981. A German (from Berlin), he
had been to Kovalam and was going back to Bombay through Goa.
"When I came here, I knew I had come home," he says simply. With his money
almost over, he was sprawled on Calangute beach watching the glorious sun
set, wondering what to do next.
Always a creative person, an idea came to him, so he called up his mother in
Germany and asked her to send him a tattoo kit. Today he's possibly Goa's
best known tattoo artist. "If you have art in you, you can do anything and
the art will be reflected in whatever you do. It can be anything, simply
cooking, for example. I have many engines going," he says with a pixie-like
smile. For many years he ran a popular restaurant in Calangute and in
between also took Osho sanyas -- "It was a joke, and it is still a joke," he
says grinning widely. He also married a Goan lady, Yolla.
Why Goa? "Really, it's just the climate, the trees, the tropical
environment, the sun. I love the monsoon, then the season comes; full six
months it's the season. I play the guitar in the evenings (at some
restaurants), come home, crash, wake up, somebody comes to do a tattoo. It's
the kind of work I was looking for a I love it -- creating, cooking, playing
music."
His latest production is a 'Goa Trance' album, Galaxy Bubbles -- Made in
Goa.
He has also noticed the changes happening in Goa. "Before, Goans were all
smiling, but now you can't ask them the time. Now it's better because it's
the monsoons -- it's relaxed, they're smiling. But after the season starts,
they've got no time; they're trying to make money."
Roshan feels the people have become tense because of the loans they
have taken. "They're building buildings, they've got loans for cars.
The way they go asking for business, it's sad, because they have to
pay the loans. I say, full stop. End this, all this building. There
are enough hotels, most of which are empty for half the year. I
think the scene will change again," he says optimistically. He feels
particularly sad, he says, because he has learnt the beauty of a
simple life from the Goans, while the Goans themselves have
abandoned their simple lives for the stress of 'development'.
Karen Nelson Sheehy, now a matronly 65, has been coming down from San
Francisco, USA, to Goa since 1969, one of the first 'hippies' in Goa. She
has been on the hippie trail ever since. Except for a six week period this
year in the U.K., she has been staying in Candolim non-stop for the last
three years.
"Goa offers an amazing range of possibilities, specially for people between
50-65. After having been all over, I'm ready for this." Karen wants to spend
the rest of her life here and even die here. "I feel so nourished. Whatever
you take in, it nourishes you. And Goa, now that I'm 65, it nourishes me in
a way I never expected it to. My health, it's very taken care of; I've got a
wonderful gynaecologist; they're very knowledgeable."
Talking about the old days, she says in the late 60's Goa was filled with
Haigh Ashbury hippies. She had come down with her husband and child on a BMW
motorbike. "We came down with my son and put him in Kodaikanal."
Why Goa? "The weather, the plenty of trees -- what grows here, the cost of
things, of course. I like where I am. I look out and I like what I see
(chickoo and other trees). I'm 65 now. It's not too old, but it's the time
when you start to get a little spiritual, when you want to come back to one
point."
In the beginning, Karen was in Anjuna. "From no electricity in Anjuna, a
completely naked beach (in more ways than one), to now. In 1982 I came this
side (Candolim). We used to turn up for the season; in the season people
were in Goa. We'd come in October-November, and leave on the first of March.
Nobody would stay after that. The people who stayed on were in a really bad
shape, completely off their face.
"We used to go down to the beach in lungis and sing. Carl (an
American) brought the first generator from the States and Gregory's
(the first restaurant-shack in Anjuna) got going with its parties. I
remember walking down from north Anjuna to the beach with a -- what
do you call it? -- a Goan torch-light (a candle in an empty coconut
shell). There was something so basic and sweet about the whole
thing. It's almost like you want to recapture it, but you can't."
Change, of course, is the only certainty. As Karen puts it, "What you're
going to get here is a huge flood of people who have no money, working class
people, who've never been to a beach before, who've never gone to a hotel
before. It might end up with a whole bunch of English people, drinking beer
and watching football.
"But there are a lot of other people who're around here, who've embraced the
culture and who will be around because they love the place. And the Goan
people, I think they're amazingly good. Mama Cecilia -- write about here.
I've seen the same people for 40 years. They have looked after people like
nobody else would, this rag-tag, screwed up, drunk, whatever, crowd. These
guys would get themselves into so much trouble. The Goans would look after
them very well. They could never find this kind of thing in the West. I know
how kind they've been."
To keep her 'spirit going' she has a small group of women who meet, paint
and discuss life in her garden, secure in the knowledge that they're in Goa.
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