Yesterday I went to Caritas in Panjim to see my old friend Soter D'Souza. They don't make men like Soter anymore: scrupulous to a fault, gentle, and with the constitution of a yogi. And very, very Goan.
If you seriously want to probe the roots of the current disaster that Goa has become, then you need to have a sit-down with Soter. He has all the goods. He knows where the bodies are buried, where the skeletons are stashed away, who did what and when. More important, he calls it like it is, sparing neither friend nor foe. I can see why there are no puff pieces on Soter in the Goan media (correction: there are no pieces on Soter, puff or otherwise). What he has to say about the people at the helm of Goan politics and society - and he doesn't shy away from naming names - is unpublishable. No writer would want to stick his or her neck out and run afoul of Goa's power players. Far easier to preen and offer anodyne. Those 'Likes' on Instagram and Facebook are more precious. We both had a chuckle of the revisionism we encounter these days. Expect more of this in the future. Outsiders of no relevance will be elevated and projected as Goa's saviours. Never mind that there's nothing left to "save." After I bade Soter goodbye, I followed my typical locus, the short walk around the Hotel Mandovi bend to Varsha Book Stall to pick up copies of the Hindu calendars - the 'panchang' and Kalnirnaya. Pleasantries were exchanged with the Bhate brothers, owners of this Panjim icon. The story of Varsha Book Stall deserves a longer treatment. Next stop was a few feet away - Café Prakash. Now, alas, a pale shadow of its glory days when Goa's worthless 'patracars' (journalists) would gather here and shoot the breeze over chao and bhaji. Metabolizing bhaji and samosas was their true calling. Reporting on news and events an afterthought. I met Prakash-bab Sakhalkar, the owner, who turned emotional upon seeing me. I could tell he feels weighed down by the change in tide. As the years roll by, he is one of many I knew in Goa when they were in their prime, but now depleted with age and in some instances, by an adverse turn of events. To those of us closing in on 60, this decline of the body and spirit serves as a preview to our own conclusion. r
