Goa, just as the backdrop Frederick Noronha
It's that time of the year when the rest of India (and parts of the globe too) hop down to Goa. Everyone, and their uncle and their dog, wants to visit the place. Long-lost friends remember those based in Goa. At sometimes, there can be frantic requests to help with getting accommodation. I don't know what's it with the crowded, overpriced, and this year's music-less nights in the week between Christmas and New Year. Just a lot of marketing hype, I guess. If friends ask for a recommendation, it's easy: avoid. Goa is at its most overcrowded, sees heavily inflated prices, and is best stayed away from at this time of the year. There's no place at the inn. This is like a perverse interpretation of an event going back two-thousand something years. There are many locals who avoid travelling and moving around their State at this time of the year. Some even flee for this crowded week, and move somewhere outside Goa for this week (like during some other noisy, cracker-filled days). As if that was not enough, event organisers insist on dragging their shows here precisely at this time of the year. They seem to believe that it's their god-given right to elbow out those residing here. To squeeze some more space for themselves at a time when Goa is at its crowded worst. Our political class ultimately obliges. You would have thought that locals would be thrilled by all this kind of travel to Goa. Some, no doubt, are. Business is business is business. Crowds brought on by the casino chemical-high and laundries are anyway welcome business. But the folks in Fontainhas are not amused by crowds invading their little lanes. Or their scenic home getting museumised. The impact of mass tourism has been debated in Goa at least since the mid-1980s. But, after that, the issue has turned stale, got forgotten, and is neglected. Now, even when an updated analysis of the same seems most required, few seem to be understanding or analysing it. * * * Given the more-is-better approach of twenty-first-century capitalism, one would have thought bigger numbers make better business sense. But no. In another field, that of art-and-culture (including entertainment and music) we've been having some grand shows here. Serendipity ("India's largest art festival") is on us now. It comes not many days after the Lusophone cultural musical fest (and related events) got over. Bonanza time, right? Hardly so. We hear about such events mainly from the one-sided PR blast that comes our way. So, the average reader is not to be faulted to believe these are something grand in themselves. But this is far from the case. There are many issues here. In such grand and big-ticket event, more people would be left out as compared to the very few can be accommodated. Secondly, because the content is decided largely outside Goa, the mix results in a lot lacking. Even if it is decided locally, there is a strong tendency to make such events into a "friends and family" show, and invite the same speakers repeatedly, time after time. Even more seriously, such large, top-heavy, and over-funded events can be guilty of destroying, rather than building, local culture. Not only does it sideline local performers, but it also gives visibility to those from elsewhere who already have a lot. * * * Artists, at least some of the outspoken local ones, see things that way, as became clear during a discussion last weekend at the Museum of Goa. Serendipity is not exposing Goan artists as a platform. It was accused of "ignoring Goan artists", and there were questions about how Goan artists could somehow become more widely known. Subodh Kerkar, the doctor-cartoonist-artist who is behind the Museum of Goa, supported Serendipity, in as much as he said he welcomes any art event, and all societies needed art. But he went on to call Serendipity "an external art injection to the bottoms of Goans". People from "Delhi, here and there" come, inject art, and leave. Kerkar noted that the amount of money spent on Serendipity is "so huge", and sometimes involves renovating a whole building. "Every year, the amount of money they spend, we could do one permanent museum with that money," he commented. Expenses, as per the organisers own figures and taking their total budget, came to about Rs15,000 per visitor! Very little of Goan art is represented there, he noted, adding that he was not making a case for regionalising art. "But since the festival happens in Goa, and the infrastructure of the Goa government is used here, it is very important that more and more Goan artists are showcasing their work and getting a platform." But art is not the only field where a small state like Goa loses out, sheerly on grounds of its small scale. Many smaller parts of the country thus have their culture and arts and literature colonised by decision-makers who have little to no understanding of local sensibilities. This happens in the world of books (GALF can accommodate only so many, and keep out many more), or music. Or even films. Part of the problem seems to be that when large resources are allocated, the big fish simply eat up the small ones. There is a jostling underway, and aggressiveness wins the day. In such a context, how does local art sustain itself? This is not a case of fighting for regional reservations. But it has got everything to do with realising that local culture is not swallowed by neo-colonial predators of the 21st-century kind. Promoting regional art and culture is a widely discussed topic in many parts of the globe. But we in Goa seldom have the time and energy to host art exhibitions in public spaces -- parks or libraries and museums. One needs [political] godfathers to make that happen. Local artists have hardly any art galleries to encourage them to showcase their work. We have a department for art and culture, but few initiatives to promote aspiring artists who might be interested to learn to paint or sculpt. Initiatives have mostly been done on an ad hoc or voluntary basis; while this is good, it is simply not enough. And yet, we roll out the red carpet to those who want to showcase the rest of the world's work with Goa just as the backdrop. ### *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Join a discussion on Goa-related issues by posting your comments on this or other issues via email to goa...@goanet.org See archives at http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-