Goa today is at its lowest at every level.
Governance is something that should now be included in fairytales, tourism is
about nostalgia, regret and hopefully introspection, and attempts are being
made at dividing our unique society. Goa is in need of very deep reflection,
not just by the government and stake holders, but by every single Goan, about
what we really want Goa to be, most importantly, for our future generations,
and what we want to offer as a tourist state.
For decades all we have done is taken for
granted the natural beauty and resources, and completely mismanaged them. What
we have ignored, people around the world have, after the realisation of its
potential, taken full advantage of… our unique heritage and cultural identity,
flavoured and infused with so many other cultures that traded, visited or
colonised our land. We can harp on about atrocities committed centuries ago and
get nowhere or celebrate our uniqueness and share it with the world.
A festival was conceptualised based on this
concept, christened ‘The Taste of Goa’, basically to celebrate and showcase our
music, our art, our food and our culture. For me, this festival was a great way
to do just that, but also to remind Goans of all the non material riches we
have and how it has become so imperative to vociferously aim to protect that at
all cost, because we are losing it, and very quickly. We need to reinforce our pride in our
Goanness or Goenkarponn, and save it, not for ourselves and our kids but to
share with the world, as they share with us what is special about them. We had
five chefs that visited us and demonstrated and shared with us their respective
cuisines, and although being top chefs of great international repute, still
managed, in what little time they had, to take back so much from our humble
cuisine and culture. We needed a Parsi chef who worked in Goa for almost a
decade to remind us about the greatness of our food as far as its influences
and history is concerned.
I have been going on for a while about Goan
food and how it’s getting lost, and how the ICC has taken over almost every
restaurant I know. ICC stands for Indian Chinese Continental, and is what most
restaurants openly proclaim, some restaurants will not say it but their menus
are a give away, and then we have these restaurants serving amazing specialty
food. Goa is becoming a food hub and it is great news for the consumer but
there will come a day when we will crave a Feijoada, and it will be gone. Think
about it, Feijoada is no longer on wedding menus or festive menus and I can’t
remember the last time I ate it. Goan food has to get more focus because I feel
that the cuisine is the last bastion of a community’s identity and once that
goes, we will be irrelevant.
Tourists should come to Goa to experience
Goa and everything about it, and seafood at a shack, butter chicken at a
restaurant chosen by the taxi driver depending on his commission, alleged folk
dances on the cruise boats, a visit to a Kashmiri shop and buying African
cashew nuts from non Goan shops is definitely not it.
