Towns and villages are lit and full of warmth as the temperatures drop.
The secret Santas are out there quietly sliding special gifts for near and dear ones and then there are the samaritans, who ensure that everyone around them feel cared and loved by providing for the needy and poor. Despite knowing well that there is no Santa Claus in its truism, the child within everyone awaits to receive a gift.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
While everyone from celebrities to the neighbourhood ‘uncle’ and ‘aunty’ is gifting something to those close to their hearts, it’s also a moment to sit back for a few moments and ponder upon the realities and gifts that everyone enjoys without paying much attention to them. Seek a reality check about the efforts that as individuals we invest in safeguarding the gifts.
Goa is blessed with the serene beauty of hills, valleys, flora and fauna, rivers, sea and sand. However, the infrastructure creation for ‘development’ and ‘progress’ of the State has handed out a beating to all the natural resources across the landscape of Goa.
The physical infrastructure development has meant land filling and cutting down of hills. The changes in climate are here for everyone to witness – the skies pouring down every month of the year for the second consecutive time this year too.
The law and order situation in Goa is turning to be a nightmare. There’s not a single day when the news mediums wish that they could avoid a crime story. Goa’s image as a safe abode has been marred with consistent incidents of rapes, sexual assaults, fatal accidents, drugs and gang wars.
The icing on the cake is that our tourism industry is reeling under the pressure of a boisterous taxi lobby which has without doubt earned a bad name due to the way it has behaved with guests visiting the State and the hefty fares charged.
But, far and beyond the environmental and economic suffering that entails the State due to several reasons, the social divide as a result of the political and ideological fuel of separation has meant that communities keep simmering.
From one political party targeting to snatch away the rights to domicile and restrict it to a particular section of the society, to the State waging a war against the migrants, holding them responsible for ‘setting up criminal business’. By evoking religious sentiments and disturbing social amity in order to keep the flame of hatred simmering, a section in the society attempts to push forth their own beliefs and practices on others. By cooking up stories from the past – and some of them related to persons and events as old as five centuries and beyond, attempts are made to puncture the smooth drive of co-existence and mutual understanding.
The political leadership of Goa has to rise up to the occasion and as proclaimed time and again, the ‘double engine sarkar’ should ensure that a multi-religious State, diverse to the last mile in every village and town, is not dragged down to ruins in the future.
The political appeasement, irrespective of minority or majority, must stop in order to ensure that social peace, harmony and brotherhood remains the identity of Goa.
“Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself”, should become the pre-eminent feature of social, political and economic lifestyle of every Goan. The true gift that any individual can give is the sense of security and unconditional love, which do not cost money but an effort to shun selfish needs.
