Tara Narayan reviews Fish Curry and Rice, by all accounts the best book on Goa this year.
As founder-director-environment activist of the Goa Foundation and ardent Goa-loving Goan Claude Alvares comments, one may be forgiven for assuming that Fish Curry and Rice must be a recipe book on Goan cuisine. In a sense it is, he qualifies in his preface. Fish Curry and Rice is not a recipe book in the conventional sense. But it does attempt to define the original Goan recipe for life. And why we should join and support all efforts to conserve it, nay, to enable it to flourish and thrive, in the interest of humankind. This is the latest and fourth edition of this fascinating, educative, eminently readable guide to understanding Goa: the piquantly and mouthwateringly titled Fish Curry and Rice (Rs. 750 hardcover; R.500 softcover) is out, and every home in Goa should purchase it as a reference guide, a ready reckoner for government, citizens and tourists alike. This is a valuable investment in understanding Goa: from where it is coming, where it is at this point of time, and where it is going. This is no easy, pleasant guide, it is bound to stir up our conscience enough to make us ask ourselves if we’re individually and collectively contributing towards making the state of Goa into a typical Indian state besieged with problems without solutions, or that rare state of the future engaged in finding solutions to remedy and resolve existing problems and irrevocable tragedies in the making all in the larger and longer interests of improving the quality of life for the many (and not only for the few)! When it was first published by the Goa Foundation in 1993, the book made it clear it wanted to be part of the solution and in this revised, updated edition, it continues to be just that. Fish Curry and Rice is much more than a guide, of course, it’s a conscience document, a persuasive document, laying out all the facts of modern-day Goa and appealing for a role model which is rural, agricultural, environmental-friendly (as against one which is mindlessly urban, industrial and Westernised). In short, here is a document which tells us in no uncertain terms why we should be environment-friendly above all, because it is in our interests as a civilization. Goa is one of the more interesting states of the Western coast of the sub-continent due to its naturally endowed fertile beauty and history. It is not surprising that with its 105-km coastline of pristine shimmering beaches it has become the holiday state of the country. For more than reasons of beauty alone, of course, it’s literate, fairly well-to-do, attracting the rich and poor alike from neighbouring states where levels of impoverishment and political corruption are at an all time high (we must see the relationship between political corruption and impoverishment of a state’s people). Not that Goa does not have its own fair share of political, economic, intellectual, spiritual corruption! In the reading of Fish Curry and Rice one gets to the dismal nitty gritty of all this, one learns that if abuse of power and money contribute towards an ever growing syndrome of frustration and unhappiness then the people are as culpable as the government, the giver and the taker equally guilty of contributing in small and big ways to converting Goa from a heaven to a hell, or rather, increasingly a heaven for the few and a hell for the many. This edition of Fish Curry and Rice is as informative as it is voluminous, packed with data on Goa’s ecology as a coastal and a Western Ghats State, the former more visible than the latter in terms of exploitation vis-à-vis tourism, urbanization, industrialization, agriculture, religion, culture. It’s a complete overview of Goa’s ecology, tracing the role of its rivers, fauna and flora, the traditional occupations of fishing and farming, how primary resources and activities have been affected negatively by the mining (first) and tourism (second) industries, all this enmeshed in the dream or nightmare of industrialization and urbanization (dream for the few, nightmare for the many). In short, Goa is a pocket paradise in terms of natural resources, but it is increasingly degenerating into a hell courtesy unplanned, haphazard industrialization and urbanization and a government which offers a virtual carte blanche to any businessman with money to invest in Goa. It would be a cliché to say that money can buy you everything and anyone in Goa. Maybe so but it doesn’t mean life rural or urban becomes qualitatively better for the common people of Goa. Fish Curry and Rice covers a gamut of vital issues in 13 chapters or sections, ranging from the history and physiography of Goa Western Ghats, plateau region, alluvial and coastal plains to the hitherto environment-friendly traditional activities of farming and fishing and how they’ve been affected by the large-scale dumping of mining rejects and mechanized trawler fishing, to the growth of tourism, the advent of the Konkan Railway, infrastructure projects, changing land use patterns, public health and finally the environmental crisis impinging on a people’s hitherto peaceful lifestyles, lifestyles which are rapidly becoming a thing of the past and to larger all-round detriment of Goa. Goa is an ideal example to study for a larger study because it is one of the smaller states of the country and here in Fish Curry and Rice are all the pointers towards how NOT to develop and progress. As Mr.Alvares puts it in his preface, “When going through this book, you will find that we have often used the word ‘development’ in an almost pejorative or negative sense. We therefore hasten to add that we are not against ‘development’. The difficulty is over what ‘development’ means and whom it is designed to benefit. We would therefore like to point out here, right at the very inception of this book, why we find the modern Western urban-industrial model of development objectionable, and to offer the outlines of an alternative development scenario which we here at the Goa Foundation subscribe to.” I imagine that any alternative development scenario would take into consideration the fact that Goa is primarily an agricultural state (pathetically destroyed in this respect thanks to mining/industrial activities); the fact that it is a State blessed with ample water resources in the form of rivers, perennial forest springs, most of them in danger of being taken over for commercial exploitation or just dying due to lack of maintenance and protection) and the bountiful monsoon rains (untapped for meeting water needs for want of a dynamic environmentfriendly technology) and the fact that it has a booming, literate and youthful population (ironically a largely unemployed or sadly underpaid and frustrated youth the average Goan youth male or female lives in hope of going abroad). In a hurried effort to fit into the political mainstream and with global aspirations, the fallout is a modernday legacy either in Goa or elsewhere in the country. In this context, it is useful to have a researched document on the lines of Fish Curry and Rice in the sub context of Goa. The study/ document/publication/book, it is all these describes itself aptly as “A sourcebook on Goa, its ecology and lifestyle” and the Goa Foundation must be congratulated for its perseverance in updating and publishing it in timely new editions so that those of us who live in Goa and care enough about it have a vividly educative reference point to build up an idea of Goa as it was, is and can be, given the affection, time and effort. This is a document of hope and not one of doomsday! And it comes complete with a quintessential recipe for xit-coddi or fish curry and rice, a time-tested and much-loved traditional Goan meal. Goa is a fish, curry and rice State at heart and fish curry and rice is the perfect analogy for larger concerns. An altogether simulating sourcebook, Fish Curry and Rice offers in one of its sections, a detailed and illustrated guide to the saltwater and riverine fish of Goa, plus other marine sundries like prawns, lobsters, crabs, squid, shrimp, etc., etc. In conclusion, if you’ve ever wanted to know more about Goa, more about its history, land, rivers, forests, food, people, its problems, solutions, here is a rewarding find in Fish Curry and Rice. The sourcebook is illustrated with maps, photographs, sketches by Mario Miranda (who has also done the cover), charts and graphs, all that is lacking is a detailed map of Goa and a section providing detailed guidance to the State’s various districts, something which can be easily remedied in the next edition). If you don't have a copy of Fish Curry and Rice in your home, do not consider yourself either a Goan or a friend of Goa! Published in Herald, Panjim dated 18th August 2002. The book can be ordered from Other India Bookstore, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
