3 Questions Q1: Why is there no contactless payment in India? None of the hotels, restaurants, shops in Bombay and Goa accept payment via the smartphone. You have to hand in your credit card for swiping or pay in cash. For a nation that keeps boasting about this and that, it is amusing. There are tiny countries today where you can simply hold your smartphone near the card reader and be done within seconds. But Eye-Eye-Tee!
Q2: Yesterday at a bank I spoke in Konkani throughout to this Goan lady and she kept responding in English. Is there a rule that officers in the bank must not speak in their mai-bhaas? Why? Q3: The December and Christmas spirit that pervades the Goan air around this time seems to be entirely missing this year. Why is that? Parenthetically I will note that the tourists numbers of Westerners seem to be way down based on my quick sweep through both the North and South Goa coastal belts. Conversations with those in the tourist industry confirm the observation. But then, why would normal folk come here - to see the garbage and the concrete rubbish? To see ill-mannered, loud Indian boors? Goans made this bed - now we have to lie in it. (The best thing would be if we could somehow convince the Indian tourists to go elsewhere.) PS: Regarding #3 above: partly the low number of foreign tourists is explained by the fall of Thomas Cook. But I don't think that's the whole story. Occupancy in high end hotels is also quite low. r