Don’t trouble trouble, even if troubles trouble you is a belief deeply ingrained in us. We have indeed mastered the art of ignoring. The ‘Ostrich Approach’ works best for us. How else do we explain and justify our careless deeds – be it rampant mining, haphazard real estate growth or the reckless tourism ruining the State. Add to it the insurmountable garbage problem, corruption, crime, and now the dual airport issue and many more related issues. Under the superficial facade of peace and progress, there is chaos and anarchy. We are sinking in the quick sands of time. We are marching ahead at an irresponsible and irreversible pace, where our sussegadpon is going to be our undoing. How do we face the next generation and look them in the eye should be the primary question that should haunt every Goan soul.
Have we bothered ourselves as to what will Goa be in 2021? I suppose there will be precious little to boast off. After the frenzied boom we will be left with wretched set of people and God forsaken ghost towns, with hills cleared, greenery stripped and massive concrete complexes dotting the landscape wanting life and living. Very much like the ghost towns of Bannack, Oatman, Arizona in the United States or Barkerville, British Columbia in Canada, Craco in Italy etc. But, I for one will not be surprised if we would have our politicians and fellow Goans marketing the skeletal remains of the Dourado with grand gusto. Old habits die hard. And not surprising there will be takers, people flock for anything under the sun. Dark Tourism, Grief Tourism, Black Tourism will be the new catch.
But, the most distressing and disturbing trend is the mass exodus of Goans. Like rats leaving a sinking ship, they are disowning their mother, rejecting the land of their ancestors. Land that gave them life, land that gave them identity, land that gave them nourishment and nurtured them as Goankars. Goans are selling off their ancestral property without hesitation. It is not whether Hindus or non-Hindus are indulging in this practice. It’s the Goans who are abandoning their motherland which is frightening. There seems to be frenzied drive to be uprooted and set out roots in other part of the big wide world and start anew. Start all over again, with a promise of better life, adding to the statistics of POI (Persons of Indian Origin).
Goa in turn in inundated with migrants and foreigners who have made Goa their home and have settled here for good. They are the embryonic Goans who call the shots. They speak Konkani albeit with the accent nonetheless they are the torch bearers who will keep our mother tongue alive, they are the ones who till our fallow lands, they are the ones who have ships and shops. And more importantly, they are the ones who vote en masse and decide who will represent us. Last but not in the least they are the ones who have made way in our homes by being our ‘zavoi’ our revered sons in law. Strangely, they have not made inroads to our hearts, they are still labelled – the bhaile, the ghanti, the bikanakars and the adjectives could go on. But, its just a matter of few years and we will be the proverbial ‘bhaille’ in our own land, our Goa. The sooner we wake up to this fact the better.
