Heart to Heart
By Ethel Da Costa
Can God atleast save Goa?
Because apparently He's given up on India, according to the Supreme Court?
For a multi-faceted country like ours, imagine all Gods giving up on us
collectively? Like a mega strike by the heavenly bodies against one single,
physical entity? Am I supposed to react with anger, amusement or
despondency? My morning tea has since turned sour waiting for a course of
action.
On a friend's recommendation, I picked up `The God Delusion' by Richard
Dawkins and pondered long and intellectually on His existence. No answers
there, mate,except that Dawkins most certainly does not believe God exists.
And that is no respite for my questioning mind. So, is this state of limbo a
spiritual delusion we've all been living in for centuries? Is it true for
India as well? I escaped to Ambolim in the bosom of Nature to find some
precious peace of mind for contemplation. To my disbelief, I found that even
baby monkeys all over the ghats posed for photographs with practiced élan.
The laws of Natural Selection ensuring that animals adapt faster than the
extinct dodo who disappeared some moons ago. Not to forget, drunken men in
wet half chadis and grossly protruding pot bellies hollering on the slippery
roads in the most unbecoming manner, that even monkeys dotting the highway
conducted themselves in far well behaved decorum. Is this an evolution
reversal? The torrential rain at Ambolim could not drown the drumming inside
my head. Nor the mist swirling romantically against my car, as we sped
through the fog, distract the chilling questions leaping out of my ears.
Back home, I woke up to a Monday morning, annoyed.
My anger perhaps is justified because the country's apex court is right in
saying it, as it is. It's simply the bloody truth. On the face and no words
minced in between. Why pretend otherwise? Why beat around the bush? That
yes, not even God can save this country anymore, as long as we have scum of
the earth disguised as politicians, bureaucrats, police, clerks, peons, file
pushers, political kin dropping names and their runners abusing our
administration, laws, monies and its policing bodies to their own advantage.
It's like a zoo of greedy, moral-less humanity let loose on this country, on
a rampage plundering whatever little is left of the law-abiding citizen,
who, as I see it, can't really seek succor from those in their jobs to
protect and uphold the law. Is it any wonder that acts of terror have
become everyday occurrences in the midst of our everyday lives? Like, you
know, your building has no water, yet your landlord harasses you to pay the
water bill!! In real life, even simple pleasures like watching the sunset
with your best buddy invites cops to descend on you like moral police
shunting you out of their sight? And if-you-may-please, threatening to take
you to jail and impound your car with it!? If they treat normal adults such,
can you imagine the fate of teenagers catching a stroll on the beach with
nothing on their minds, but a peaceful evening out with friends? But hey,
does all this moral policing ensure that we are a safe State? Who are you
kidding! I'm all for night patrol and street nakabandis. In fact, night
patrol frequencies should be increased across city peripheries, but please
spare us normal citizens the intimidating tone of weight throwing. Are Goa's
cops policing terror or abetting it with their own goondari? Can you blame
Babush - now a minister - to take on the police station with a show of brute
physical force? He openly expresses no regret for his street fisticuff with
Panjim's uniformed minstrels and would rather police himself. Can you blame
Narvekar for plundering the sentiments of cricket lovers and filling his own
greedy pockets with the loot? Or, Churchill Alemao shape shifting his
awesome weight from one party to another when berths and tickets skip under
his mighty nose? Poor, poor Digamber trying to keep these errant children
together under one roof. I shudder this soap opera that has outlasted its
TRPs and weathered down to cold, stale yesterday's broth. Can Goa switch to
another channel, please?
So, does this affect your life and mine? You bet, it does. Especially when
you begin to feel like a second class citizen in your own home-state,
because right from the shop-keeper to the hairdresser to the driver and
landlord will look mighty annoyed if you so much as demand better service to
the money you're paying him to stay in business. Because now the driver,
hairdresser, shopkeeper and assorted Goan service providers has suddenly
woken up to the fact that they have the option to entertain the `outsider'
who will not bargain, who will not complaint, who will simply doll out more
money to state his presence in your life. Money buys loyalties these days.
Your once familiar community acquaintances will simply shift attention to
somebody they can fleece charmingly. How many times have I seen Goans
sucking up to this way of life? And no apologies here. They have simply
ceased to care and instead dislike if you frown this new standard of
`friendly neighbourhood' ethics. Surely I endorse `change' as the only
constant and progress the yardstick to globalization, but, do we have to
obliterate our identity and courteous traditions to achieve this change of
status? This country and State is really going to the dogs, isn't it?
Somebody please tell me it's not..
The rain has been pelting hard and mercilessly against my window as I write
this. Dawkins has replaced Ayn Rand's `The Virtue of Selfishness.' Perhaps,
the answer to this generation's malady and mine lie in the philosopher's
vision of "self first before altruism?" Is that why she died young and mad?
God - if He can hear me at all - do make time to save at least Goa. (ENDS)
The Ethel Da Costa weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=492
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The above article appeared in the August 3, 2008 edition of the Herald, Goa
