Sujay Gupta
This is not a journey
about food but is a
veritable feast. It’s a diet
on which many lives
can be spent. And quite
amazingly, it’s a diet on
which livelihoods can
be created. Away from
our towns and even
from the bigger villages, there are groups of people who
are on a treasure hunt – to look for musicians and artisans
and craftsmen, who Goa has literally camouflaged and
forgotten.
Across Cotigao in Canacona, Pernem, Bicholim and
Valpoi, the search is on. And with each visit to jungles and
remote villages, amazing talent has been unearthed. Of a
signer who has never had a platform, an artisan who still
creates and sculpts like in the days of yore using natural
material, a painter who does exquisite wall painting, of
folk singers who keep alive the songs of Goa, a toddy
tapper who sings wonderful melodies as he climbs trees,
of artisans who make stuff out of bamboo, of potters who
work on clay. These are simple, from the heart tasks,
carried out scientifically and professionally by a group
of social scientists working under the overall tutelage of
UNESCO. They are not from Goa, and we will stop short
of introducing them, because for one, they need to keep
this low profile and secondly they happen to be very dear
friends. (perhaps some other time).
They have been coming back from their field trips,
excitedly, with their notebooks full, their cameras full of
pictures and recorders packed with sounds of villagers and
their work and their voices and their songs. This material
is not on display and nor are the songs sung onstage or in
concerts. But the real Goa that we are moving away from
is trapped in these.
But there is a higher mission here. Each of these
talents, which are natural and passed down from
generation to generation in these remote villages, can be
sources of livelihood if handled properly. Take musicians
for instance. Across the eastern states of Bihar and Bengal,
bauls and fakirs were lost to the entire generation born
in the seventies. They have, through the efforts of groups
like the ones working in Goa now, been brought into the
mainstream for the world to hear them. This has not just
changed lives but given livelihoods and protected an art
form which would have died in the next decade with the
next generation not carrying the baton from their fathers
and mothers.
It is in this context that one must understand how
important this mission is. As Goa gradually “converts”
from village to town and cities and fields and forests are
sacrificed at the altar of commercialisation, it leaves a
huge impact on rural traditions, culture, music and craft.
They need to be preserved, protected and resurrected.
And if this needs to happen outside the government space,
so be it. In fact this can work only outside the government
space as long as the government decides to step back and
not be a stumbling block.
The challenge now will be to inject livelihood through
these efforts without necessarily uprooting people from
their spaces. Unlike in the rest of the country, Goa already
has a base of tourist inflow and importantly tourist spaces
are not too distant from these remote areas. Many of these
talents can be showcased for tourists. The challenge is the
challenge of the last mile, of taking the tourist away from
the tried and tested platforms of beaches and nightclubs
and giving them a glimpse of Goa which is truly real and
indigenous.
Then there is a backend to experiments such as
these. While studies like these are being conducted, it
is important to make villages self empowered. Here, the
villages must start taking decisions that empower and
positively impact the most disconnected. The good news
is that there are contemporary missionaries doing that
too. The Mitsuko trust is working in villages to empower
children who have in some villages set up fully functional
bal panchayats and conduct bal gram sabhas, where
children attend and voice their needs and concerns and
the bal panchayat (a formal body enacted by the village)
takes children friendly decisions for the village. In the
village of Camurlim, children recently have been the force
behind the construction of eco toilets in the village. These
toilets have not just improved hygiene but will lead to
security – especially of young girls who went to the fields –
and dignity.
It’s easy to see a point when the group of people
working to preserve rural art and music will be working
with people who make eco toilets together improving lives
in areas untouched by governance.
These are exciting revolutions happening in a space
beyond politics, corruption, accusations and fights. These
refreshing interventions are done funded by the currency
of fresh initiatives and the honest will to make a change.
