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Published: August 23rd 2009
I can remember that all my schoolbooks still showed Goa as Portuguese when I was at school - they hadn't caught up with the 1961 Indian takeover. I'm staying in Fontainhas, one of the oldest parts of Panjim, which is the capital of Goa State and it still seems quite European in appearance. It is sometimes known as Goa's Latin Quarter. Most of the food is Indian in style but with lots of influence from the Portuguese which means that this is the only part of India where pork can be quite a speciality. I was hoping that some restaurants mght serve steak, but no luck so far. They do have a nice drink here called Fenny or Feni which is made either from coconuts or from cashew nuts. Cashew nuts are something of a Goan speciality and are on sale at lots of shops. So far as I can tell they taste just like the cashew nuts you get in England.
I had a glass of Feni (cashew type) after a meal. It was pleasant enough but I couldn't detect any nutty flavour. In the interests of research, I am going to have to try the coconut type too.
The town of Old Goa used to be the capital until towards the middle of the nineteenth century when that city was smitten with many diseases and plagues and was practically abandoned and the Portuguese decided to relocate the capital to the more salubrious Panjim or Panaji. Most of the important catholic religious buildings are still in Old Goa and they even left the body of St Francis Xavier there - it is on show in a crystal casket in the Bom Jesus church. At least most of it is. The Vatican has one of his arms, I think and his internal organs were taken away too. For a long time the body was held to be incorrupt and there is a legend of a woman in Goa who bit off one of the Saint's toes so as to take it home in her mouth and keep it at her home for luck. Apparently there was so much bleeding (and bear in mind the Saint had been dead for some hundred years or so) that the church officials followed her by the blood. But more recently the body has deteriorated and occasionally toes drop off by themselves. The body
will be taken on display again in about five years time, in 2014.
It was interesting to walk around Old Goa and look around that church and also the neighbouring Se Cathedral ( I don't know why it's called Se, it's dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria because the battle securing Goa to the Portuguese was won on her festal day). It's also quite odd that the cathedral took over a hundred years to erect and the Bom Jesus went up in a few years. Presumably that's because one man paid for the whole of the church whereas the community as a whole had to pay for the cathedral.
There are some other things worth seeing there - the Viceroy's Gate, with an interesting sculpture of a heathen being stamped on by a Christian and a small gate which is all that remains of the palace of the Kings who reigned here before the Portuguses. There is a nice statue of Gandhi with a little girl between the Bom Jesus Church and the Se Cathedral, It bears a text implying that all religions are essentially the same and all are equally valid ways of attempting to find god.
There is also a very interesting small archaeological museum where you can see the giant statue of the first governor which stood in the Panjim Azad Maidan until 1961.
I caught a taxi from my hotel when I went there and this cost Rs300. But on the way back, I caught a bus and that was only Rs8! It was a crowded bus and I had to stand, but it was definitely good value. I ended up in a bus station quite far from the city centre but I managed to find my way back, walking through a nice park on my way. The park is dedicated to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar who was the founder of the movement to convert Dalits to Buddhism and so avoid the Hindu caste system. It should be said that even Goa's Christians are still grouped by caste and ally themselves with the Hindus to preserve the rights of Brahmins and other high castes.
Something I noticed was that the gutters here are deep and wide and dangerous. This is one of the peculiarities of the Portuguese architecture and was designed to help drain away the water after monsoon rains. Many of the
older houses have sloping roofs and gutters for the same reason. Some of the roadside gutters have been covered and are relatively safe but most are open and provide a danger when walking, especially after nightfall.
The street, however, are relatively well-lit at night and the corollary of the roadside gutters is that nearly all the streets have pavements - and these are generally in good repair. For some reason, thouigh, they have been paved in a material which becomes incredibly slippery after rain, so you have to be very careful during the monsoon season.
The autorickshaws have evolved similarly to those in areas that were formerly in British India. The only difference that I noticed was that they have a curtain separating the driver from the passengers. There are also a lot of motorcycle taxis which are authorised by the state.
Generally speaking, Goa seems to be better run than those parts of India that were subject directly or indirectly to the British Raj. I don't know if that's because the Portuguese did anything better than the British, or because they did less and thus accustomed the Indians to do more or because of the natural
advantages of Goa or because it's a small state and so more easily ruled or because of the proclivities and personalities of the native peoples or because it gained independence later than the rest of India and so knew what actions to avoid and what actions would likely work. Or for some other reason. But it does seem to be the case. Goans expect things in their State to work and, mostly, they do. And there does seem to be a general feeling of content in the air, so it is hard to stay angry or upset here.
Many shops still have Portuguese sounding names - I've seen a Centro Commerciale de Drogas (a chemists shop) and several Commerciantes (I think they may be accountants). Also you see surnames like Menezes and Da Costa and Fernandes everywhere. But English is very much more used than Portuguese here. The street signs are in English and even those like 31 de Janeiro, which commemorate dates of importance to the Portuguese (this was the date when the Portuguese regained their independence from Spain), are translated into English. One of the main roads is 18 June Road, but I think that name may
always have been in English. It commemorates a day of action against the Portuguese in 1946.
There are many statues in Panjim and the other Goan towns that I have visited. But unlike the controversial statues in Uttar Pradesh they are mostly not of politicians but are symbolic of cultural or religious practices. One, near the bus station and the Ambedkhar Park shows women at a "Divja" Festival. But I haven't been able to find anything abou this destival in Wikipedia or using Google. Another interesting statue is one of the Abbe de Faria who was one of the first hypnotists. The statue shows him in the act of hypnotising someone.
Most of the churches in Goa are painted or whitewashed in white. In the past no private house could be painted white and they were traditionally painted in pastel colours.
I have not noticed any public toilets elsewhere in India, but there are many in Goa. Most of them have a sign saying "Symbol of Cleanliness". They charge, or at least recommennd a "donation" of one rupee for use of the urinal. They are kept at least as clean as their London equivalents.
When I
first arrived it was very rainy and wet and not at all the weather to want to visit a beach. But the weather improved (from my selfish point of view - most of India is lamenting a "failed monsoon") and I went up to Anjuna beach. The countryside on the way was very beautiful. Goa is known for its greenness, which is now at its height towards the end of the monsoons and the countryside looked very beautiful. There are green paddy fields of rice and the darker green of the forests of trees that extend over most of Goa state. Panjim is only a small town and you are soon outside it and just surrounded by green ion every direction. Inland you can see the wooded slopes of the Western Ghats.
At the Anjuna beach itself, the green of the trees and the grass extends all the way to the beach, except wheer a space has been cleared for some shops and the market. Cows were wandering around right up to the beach.
I went on Wednesday, which is market day in Anjuna. There is usually a famous flea market there every week. But it doesn't open
Viceroy's Gate
Note Christian standing on heathenduring the monsoon, even when its not raining so there were only a few stalls. There were fewer customers, so all the stall keepers were trying to attract my attention and get me to buy something. Anything. As I walked away one told me I could have anything from her stall for Rs50 (about 60 pence). It was annoying at teh time, with all the vendors trying to get me to buy, but tehyt didn't mean any harm and it was aonly a few minutes later that I was finding it funny. In another part of India, I might have been upset.
There's what calls itself a dollar shop in Panjim, but it sells everything for Rs100. That's actually quite a lot here so you have to buy three or four of each item at a time. It seems an odd price to choose. A dollar would be closer to Rs60, anyway. It's more like a Pound shop, or even a GBP1.20 shop at current rates of exchange.
I went on a trip to one of the nearby Spice Plantations that are near Ponda, inland in Goa. THe countryside was spectactularly beautiful. Goa is so green. Rajasthan was
green too, and that was unlike anything I had seen in England too. Here, it's different again, as you mostly see the dark green of the forests of trees as well as the green paddy fields of rice. It's hard begrudge them the rain when it makes the country here so beautiful and productive.
We drove through Ponda and the sun's light was so bright that the displays of flowers and fruit and vegetables in the roadside market seemed to shine themselves with the most lovely colours.
Before visiting the plantation itself. I went to a couple of Hindu Temples near the town. There are many temples nearby and they are mainly there because when the Portuguese came they persecuted the Hindus and tore down their temples wherever they found them. They mostly stayed near the coast, so al the temples near there were destroyed. Wherever possible the HIndus would save the idols and move them further inland into the jungly area where they could be furtively and secretly worshipped. Later on, when it was safe, they built temples there to house the idols that had been worshipped.
The first temple that I visited was that of
St Catejan's
St Peter's in miniature Manguesh (this seems to be a local name for Mahesh - the benificent form of Shiva). The main idol here is a black linga and this would, of course, have been anathema to the religious Portuguese Catholics as it symbolises a phallus at the point of penetration.
I also paid a vist to the temple of Shantadurga, attracted by the seemingly self-contradictory name. Durga is normally an angry goddess - she fights demons, I tok a picture of her killing the buffalo demon in a museum. But here Shanta means peace, after she resolved a dispute between Shiva (to whom, in her aspect of Parvati she is married) and Vishnu. It is said that this shows the nature of Goa - here even the angry goddess is peaceful. I saw another Shantadurga temple in Candolim.
At the entrance to the temple an old lady sold me a couple of coconuts to offer to the goddess. I gave them to the priest and he gave me one back, saying it was now a blessed coconut. I returned it as I left the shrine.
The Sahakari Spice Plantation gave a guided tour to me and several others who had
Divja
This sculpture in Panjin celebrates a Goan festival of which I can find no other trace arrived at about the same time. They had lots of different spices growing there and also showed us ohter plants grown there not for sale but more fpr display. It was interestring to see a coffe plant, for example and a grapefruit bush. The plantation is entirely organic and does not use chemical fertilisers.
As far as spices go there was tumeric, and cardoman and vanilla and cinamon. The cinamon leaves are used in the same way as bay leaves are in England and the actual cinamon spice comes from the trunk of the tree. Long sprouts of lemongrass was growing in the grass under the trees and we all had some of the lemongrass tea when we arrived. There was a chilli plant, introduced by the Portuguese, that gives the Peri Peri flavour for chicken etc. There were allspice plants which give the flavour of five spices.
The nutmeg plant that we were shown produces nutmeg spice but also mace. Our guide told us that nutmeg was banned in some countries as it was an hallucinatory drug.
We saw peppers growing in chains on a pepper tree. The different colours come from how ripe the pepper
is and how long it is dried. We also saw Betelnut trees. THese are tall and thin and have supple trunks. People climb up them and when they get to the top they shake the tree from side to side so that the betelnuts fall down, beofre nimbly jumping to the next betel nut tree and starting to shake that one too.
Cloves were also grown there and they grew cashew nuts, both for the nut itself and also for the fruit of the tree which is made into feni. The fruit or "apple" of the cashew is sort of bell shaped and the cashew nut protrudes from it.
After the tour we had lunch, which was made with many of the spices we had seen. And also a glass of feni, made from their own cashew nuts and distilled on the plantation.
I walked down along the DB Marg esplanade to the Miramar Beach (Gaspar Dias Beach). This was a very pleasant walk of about four kilometres. The pavement was very good and you could walk at a brisk pace without fear of falling - though, of course, you had to take care at road junctiions
both because of the traffic and also the gutters. Most of the route is alongside the Mandovi River and there is a pleasant park further down. On the river I saw the Casino ship which is the only place in India where you can legally gamble against other people, as opposed to gambling against a machine.
The Miramar Beach itself was a pleasant place though swimming there was not permitted. I wandered across the sandy beach - it was a long walk as the sand extends about a quarter of a mile - and paddled for a while.
The Goa State Museum was very interesting. The table used by the Inquisition to question suspects is housed there. St Francis Xavier, whose formerly incorrupt body I had glimpsed at Old Goa, first called for this to be held in Goa. As was the case with Jews, both in Europe and here, many Hindus nominally converted but actually maintained their original faith. So the inquisition was marshalled against them and many were tortured and burned to death. The wooden crucifix of the Inquisition which bore a Christ with open eyes who looked searchingly at the suspects was supposed to be
at St Sebastian's Chapel (very near my hotel) but I could not see it there.
There were many other things of interest at the museum, apart from the standard fare of Hindu statues. A gallery showing the history of printing in Goa (first printing press in Asia, apparently) - presumably you have to discount the Chinese who first invented moveable type!
They had lots of black and white photos taken of Panji before independence and it could be seen that it had not really changed all that much.
I also went to Candolim Beach but it was practically deserted and most of the shops and restaurants were shut because it wasn't the season. I think that nearly all the visitors to Candolim and the adjacent beaches of Sinquerim and Calangute and Baga are on package tours and these are not arranged during the monsoon, so the place closes mosre or less. Surprisingly enough, though, the bus I got back to Panjim on was crowded - I hadn't seen so many people in Candolim Village as I saw on the bus out of it.
My time there was not at all wasted, though, because I visited the
very interestig Calizz Museum - www.alizz.com
The museum's name means "heart" in the local Konkani language (which is written both in Roman and Devangari writing). The main part of the Museum is an old mansion that belonged to a Portuguese lady, Dona Bertha. She had three sons and one daughter and, according to the tradition of those days, gave one son to god, one to the devil and one to the people. Her daughter she gave to a husband.
The son given to god became a catholic priest, the son given to the people became a doctor and the son given to the devil became a lawyer.
The museum now displays the living quarters of all these people restored to how it would have looked while they lived.
Also they have erected example Hindu houses, one in which Brahmins would have lived and one set up as the home of wealthy merchants. In all the rooms of each house there was much to see. I was given a guided tour around the whole place. I was the only visitor! It was raining hard when I left the museum and walked to the bus stand.
Panjim
is a lovely town to wander about in and there is always much to see. There seems to be somthing about the place that makes you happy.
My last day in Goa coincided with the start of the Ganesh festival and of Ramadan (Ramazan) and there were lots of fireworks. However, most of the shops were closed as it was Sunday.
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