Goa's Image - Good & Bad

The "image of Goa" is a big issue here these days, what with a Bollywood film on the "drug scene" being shot here. The majority opinion seems to be that Goa's image is being dented by this film.

My own opinion is that if Amsterdam can proudly declare itself the "Marijuana Capital of the World," why cannot Goa be proud to be such a place too? After all, it is the hippies who first put Goa on the global tourist map. If there were hash cafes here, would that dent Goa's image or improve it? Would it not attract tourists in bigger numbers - just as Amsterdam does.

To the politicians and busybodies who are bothered about Goa's image, I would like to point out that what really sucks here are the roads. Goa is a big place, stretching 150 km from end to end. The "notional highway" is of an age before the automobile explosion. Tourists can scarcely travel safely from north to south. I read the statistics of foreign tourists killed on the road - over a hundred - and this is truly bad for Goa's image.

The Konkan Railway offers NO means of travel within Goa. There are also no tramways. If internal railways and tramways were built (by entrepreneurs, of course) Goa's image would surely improve. Even the Goans would be better off. Let Switzerland, another tourist haven, be the guide here, for the transport system in this mountainous country is astounding.

Further, the internal roads by the beachside "villages" are terrible, too narrow, too unsafe, no footpaths, no signage at all. I call them "Goa Constrictors."

The beachfront settlements are also not very attractive. Every one of them seems like an overgrown village - and not a pretty town. And the old towns built by the Portuguese are facing imminent collapse. All these deserve the serious attention of the government - and the citizenry.

Indeed, Goa's politicians themselves give Goa a bad image. The State Police also have a very bad image - especially over corruption related to the drug trade.

As for this Bollywood film: It is titled Dum Maro Dum after a line in a famous song of some decades ago, and it refers to the chillum in which ganja and charas are smoked. The original song, and that film, in my opinion, gave a very bad image to all smokers of this Holy Herb. The songline went:

Dum maro dum,
Mit jaye gam...

Which means:

Smoke, Smoke, Smoke,
And your sorrows will be wiped out...

While there are many who "drown their sorrows" in alcohol, ganja-charas have the effect of opening the mind, and they are used for this purpose. Cannabliss is truly the philosopher's drug - which is why sadhus use it. The medical texts say that it delivers a mild euphoria, colours seem brighter, music resounds better, there is an effect of seeming to float, and observations are more acute. Dev Anand gave this Holy Herb and its smokers a bad image. We need to correct it.