THE PRINTED WORD ----------------------------------------------------------
OF RAVES AND ANJUNA A researcher puts together a new book offering new insights into the rave scene, and a photographer focuses on Goa's tiatrists, writes Frederick Noronha. Recently, an Australian lady journalist wrote in to enquire: "Have rave parties been formally banned by the Government and when? So are the tourists who normally visit Goa for rave parties (eg. the Israelis) going elsewhere?" Raves, or whatever else one calls them, that happen on the North Goa coast, are a little understood reality in Goa. Journalists sitting in Panjim or elsewhere have been accused of sensationalising the topic, almost randomly, every once in a few years. Police make bold statements from their headquarters, but the reality is something else. Politicians talk of a 'clamp down' often has implications other than that of cleaning up the system.... 'Psychedelic White: Goa Trance and the Viscosity of Race' is Arun Saldanha's new tome on this work. I knew Arun as a young researcher, and currently he's assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota. His book has been described thus: "In 'Psychedelic White', Arun Saldanha proposes a highly original theory of race as a dynamic event arising from a complex field of embodied encounter whose fundamental contingency it can never fully shake off. A major new statement that will contribute centrally to debates in the fields of race and globalisation studies." (Brian Massumi, Universitéde Montrél.) In simpler terms: "The village of Anjuna, located in the coastal Indian state of Goa, has been one of the premier destinations on the global rave scene. Tourists travel to Goa to take part in round-the-clock dance parties and lose themselves in the crowds, the music, and the drugs. But do they really escape where they come from and who they are? A rich and theoretically sophisticated ethnography, 'Psychedelic White' explains how race plays out in Goa's white counterculture." Comprising 239-pages, this book is published by the University of Minnesota Press in Minneapolis and London. Published in 2007, it is not available in India (my review copy came in by post) and falls in the category of race studies, travel and geography. ISBN-13 978-0-8166-4994-5. The author can be emailed at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check out the contents of the book to get an idea of what it contains -- Psychedelic Whiteness, What Materialism?, Tripping on India, Goa Freaks, Drugs and Difference, Faces of Goa, Zombie Beach... and more. Much of this work has a bias towards academic theory. But there's still a lot to learn from the local nuggets that crop up, for anyone interested in understanding Goa a bit better. Some interesting maps here too. One of the Hippy trail from the early 1970s -- Goa, Bombay, Karachi, Kandahar, Kabul, Beirut, Cairo, Athens, Rome, Prague, Berlin, Copenhagen, Ibiza, Marrakesh, Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore, Bali (and elsewhere in the Americas and Australia). Another useful map comes on page 32. Saldanha, of Mangalorean origins himself, writes: "It is interesting to learn of Anjuna's cosmopolitan and tumultuous past." An interesting book, all in all. * * * PORTRAITS OF ARTISTES I ran into the work of Alex Fernandes, a Bombay-Goan resettled in Goa, first via cyberspace. It struck me as being very classy, artistic and creative. 1963-born Fernandes is putting up his first one-man exhibition, showcasing the portraits of tiatrists. This is currently on show at Literati (on the Calangute-Candolim road) in early Jan 2008. To accompany the event, Fernandes has put out a well-printed book which consists of a couple of essays and photos by the artiste. This long-sustained, commercially successful form of the Konkani stage has been orphaned for long. It's considered too Catholic for it to get sufficient State backing or stage-space at the Kala Academy. And, ironically, the Catholic elite and middle-classes themselves look down on it as being too plebeian and "crude". Finally, it was left to scholars like Pramod Kale to grant the tiatr some degree of legitimacy, by writing that long academic essay he did in the 'Economic and Political Weekly' some years ago. Now, Fernandes, with his classy portraits of the artistes from the tiatr stage, could take this folk art form to another plane. Let's hope that happens. Fernandes can be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * * AN INVITE One thing leads to another. In 1983, while at the Goa University, I stumbled across an essay by Dr Robert S Newman called 'Goa: The Transformation of an Indian Region' (in Pacific Affairs). It struck me that for the most we in Goa didn't understand 'our' own region as did others writing on it. That led me to many years of collecting books on Goa, and writing on it (as a journalist). Recently, an accidental phone call led me to suggest and start writing this column for the Gomantak Times. Last Saturday (Dec 29, 2007), a small alternative venture I've worked on -- http://goa1556.goa-india.org -- released its first book, authored by Yvonne Vaz-Ezdani, titled "Songs of The Survivors", on the Goan community that lived in Burma (Myanmar). Please check out the details at http://goa1556.goa-india.org/index.php?page=songs-of-the-survivors -- Feedback welcome: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or 2409490 or 9970157402 (after 1 pm)
