Gujarat is an urban as well as rural mess. In other words, the human habitat has been destroyed. Apart from Baroda, I saw Surat, Valsad, Ankleshwar and Rajpipla. They are all disasters. I saw poverty-stricken villages made up of rickety hutments, and I saw lots and lots of messed up small towns.
The taxi ride to Bombay took me through wide open spaces with low hills. Greenery. For hundreds of miles on end. Quite pretty. Totally "unowned." Of course, no land is really unowned in India. All such land is by default State Property. My point is that all this State Property is out of bounds for the citizens. It is thus sheer waste. We need to be free to "homestead" unowned lands like these.
I finally arrived in Virar, a far-flung suburb in northern Bombay - and it was a mess. I trained it to Bandra - and that was a mess too. I then took a taxi to Colaba - and on this ride I passed some well laid out areas, surely dating back to British times. I was driven through Marine Drive - built because then there were no environmentalists who preferred mangroves. In Colaba, I saw many splendid old buildings, now in disrepair, surely because of rent control. This legislation violates both Property as well as Free Contract - and destroys buildings because, with rents frozen, landlords can no longer maintain them. For the tenants, it is "legal plunder" - as with all such "socialist" legislation.
I then took the bus to Goa. The bus left at 5:30 pm - and it was quite dark by the time we were finally out of the city! All along, the city stretched on and on, endlessly - and all through everything seemed an almighty mess. Old, dilapidated houses, shops, shops, and more shops, dirt and filth, a uniform greyness, crowds bustling around. Commerce, yes; but civilisation, no.
Finally, when we were out of city limits, I saw a sign saying Panjim, the capital of Goa, was 560 km away. I was awake right through the night, much of the time in the cabin upfront, alongside the driver, smoking and looking out. One observation: There wasn't a single urban settlement of any size or quality the entire 560 km distance between Bombay and Goa. Except for Sawantwadi, which we reached at dawn. But Sawantwadi is not an "Indian city"; rather, it is another of those Princely States that Sardar Patel and Lord Mountbatten took over for IAS administrators. Sawantwadi borders Goa from the north.
Goa stretches 150 km from north to south - and there are three big cities: Mapusa, Panjim and Margao. These are all Portuguese-built, but today all face overcrowding and over-building. Then, there are lots and lots of little towns. Of course, they too are quite unkempt today.
All visual observations, however, strongly suggest that life in Goa is much, much better than anywhere in Maharshtra or Gujarat - including Bombay. The chief reasons for this are: far greater urbanisation and also a far greater degree of economic freedom.
There are bars in Goa everywhere, including in the villages, and even for the poor - and I mean the very poor. There are casinos. Gambling on numbers is an open business - for poorer people. The economy is also diversified, especially because of tourism. But this tourism occurred after the Portuguese had been chucked out in 1962 - and then the hippies came. Tourism ought to have urbanised the coast, but this has not transpired under IAS administrators who love panchayati raj. The beaches may be great, yet the settlements on the beaches are but overgrown, overcrowded villages. The Coastal Zone Regulations legislated by Nude Elly are only worsening things for human beings. Long live the mangroves, eh!
It is in the area of housing that Goa really stands out as compared to both Gujarat and Maharashtra. Here, everyone owns a small cottage, quite pretty. Tiled roof. Property is secure. Titles, at least to newer properties, are clear. But then, urban overcrowding is leading to a Bombay-like situation - and ugly apartment blocks have mushroomed. With so much free land around, and with better roads, Goa could urbanise in a far better fashion, spreading itself out. There could be little cottages everywhere. Towns everywhere.
Maharashtra and Gujarat - and, I daresay, the rest of India - have a lot to learn from tiny Goa. What I discovered, to my delight, is that you also get GOOD ganja here.
Boom Shankar!
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