Goa has now evolved from a party atmosphere to an environment
where people from all walks of life can enjoy the state. Co-working cafés and
spaces have been popping up all over Goa with more and more students and
working professionals enjoying the freedom of working away from their lazy
bedrooms.
Café Rasa owner, Navneet Prakash, a
documentary filmmaker by profession, has been working from various locations on
his laptop for the last 12 years. He says that all the immense experience he
has gained from traveling and working on a laptop, has contributed to build his
Vogue-featured cafe. He shares how co-working has evolved in Goa over the last
few years, especially after the pandemic and lockdown.
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He says, “Co-working spaces and cafes like
my own, are now frequented by not only tourists on a short work-cation but also
by locals, who prefer working out of home with places that offer better
infrastructure for work as well as interaction with other professionals.”
Navneet continues to speak about how co-working has become the new normal among
individuals and how more and more people are hopping on the trend. He says,
“Co-working is a trend, especially since the lockdown and ‘work-from-home’ as
people prefer a change of scene to work, instead of spending weeks on end at
the same office space. When I planned the cafe, I knew I wanted a bright and
vibrant cafe with a dedicated section for working, so you could put your head
down and finish your daily tasks but also take a few minutes off, enjoy a nice
coffee/meal and meet someone they know before heading back to work. Unlike
co-working places, Cafe Rasa is a co-working cafe, so no two days feel the
same.”
He also describes his riverbank café and the vast array of
individuals that are welcome to the friendly space. He says, “Our cafe is
frequented by professionals in the design and art space, architects, writers,
filmmakers etc. Our co-workers come to not only work for long hours but also to
meet new people in the same space. What sets us apart from other places is
unlike a large co-working space, we focus on independent professionals and
smaller teams, the layout and planning of the cafe is more community centric,
where co-workers can interact and collaborate with each other. We are
essentially a community space with a cafe, co-working infrastructure and a
really productive but cosy vibe.”
Mayur Sontakke, founder and CEO of NomadGao in Anjuna and
Assagao, also talks about the growth that co working has been recently having
in Goa. “We started NomadGoa pre-pandemic to make Goa popular among global
digital nomads. The pandemic has given Goa an opportunity to rebrand itself as
a place to work from and we have seen a lot of people moving to Goa for the
same. We are in the middle of a transition. Offices are opening up and it might
look different over the next few months as people go back to cities. However,
over the long term, we are bullish about Goa’s potential to attract Indian and
global professionals and digital nomads to work from here.”
He says, “The co-working culture in Goa is still at a nascent
stage. Even after the pandemic, there are only a handful of true co-working
spaces in Goa. We see a lot of potential in Goa for co-working as Goa as more
and more urban people are working remotely and would like to work closer to
nature. We have dedicated co-working spaces with meeting rooms, call rooms,
deep work zone, ergonomic furniture, multiple broadband connections, power
backup, and great views with additional stay options.”
Barefoot Goa in Parra is a mixture of both worlds where Bansari,
FOH and team member, explains the co-working culture in Goa. She says, “The
co-working culture in Goa is a large spectrum. There are serious co-working
spaces and there are some cafés. Co-working has benefited us in a way that
Barefoot Goa is more of a constantly growing community and not just a place to
work from. We’ve seen friendships build when two co-workers meet in a slightly
informal space.” She, does not agree that co-working is just a trend in Goa.
She says, “Calling co-working a trend is a stretch. It’s more about people
finding base and a good time, but Barefoot Goa is a hidden co-working gem in
the fields of Parra.”
Nihar Manwatkar, co-founder of Clay Café in Anjuna, takes one
through his journey of the café. He shares, “The co-working culture here in Goa
is emerging. It had started building a bit in spurts here and there for quite a
while. Although, when I personally moved to Goa, four years ago, we didn’t
really have many thoughts for co-working spaces. Mostly, cafes doubled up as
co-working spaces which wasn’t really sustainable for someone like me looking
to move to Goa for a better quality of life and needing access to stable
infrastructure. Covid and the months that followed definitely accelerated the
trend. Today, Goa, from our point of view, sees a stable flow of people who can
leave their city lives to move here for short periods or mid-sized tenures or
even longer. And when they’re here they need a stable environment to work and
that’s where we come in. Our cafe is really built with a lot of love and
empathy. Its objective is not just to give people a ‘workdesk’ but to give them
a peaceful experience and helping them realise that working hard is good but
not at the expense of one’s own mental and physical well-being. Over three
years, we’ve built a very strong community of people who have moved to Goa, and
attributed a significant part of their Goa life, network, experiences to Clay.”
Starting as a co-working space, Nihar elaborated how it soon
turned into a homely café plus work space. He says, “The cafe is really a
support system to our space where as people come in and spend the entire day,
they’ll naturally want food and coffee and juices etc. So, our cafe provides
clean, freshly made home food from our in-house cafe menu. We’ve now gone ahead
and also started a bar in our backyard that’s called The Shed. A great breakaway
for people to shut their laptops and enjoy some time with friends they’ve made
at Clay.”
He further adds, “When we opened Clay, three years ago, we were
the only ones in almost all of Bardez that was a co-working cafe and then quite
a few others popped up after the first lockdown was lifted. While Covid is
definitely the main reason for such accelerated growth, I personally believe,
remote working is the future. With rising living expenses in the city,
increased commute time, air quality levels, deterioration in general quality of
life and on the flipside, incredible achievements with respect to connectivity,
data transfer speeds, and just pure tech operating in the space of
interpersonal communication, it’s just a matter of time before people will want
to work from nearby locations instead of going all the way to an office. Not
saying that offices are redundant, but it won’t be the only place where work
gets done.”
These
cosy and bright places are what the people have been looking for since the
melancholic lockdowns were lifted. There’s no turning back for these welcoming
spots that keep reeling in not only tourists with their aesthetic charisma but
also local Goans with their homely ambience.
