Rich as a Goan fish curry

One of the things that struck me when I first moved in here was not only that even the humblest villager owns property. But that each of these little red-tiled cottages has wooden window frames and shutters. This might sound like no big deal, but the fact is that wood is fantastically expensive and even middle-class flats in cities nowadays prefer to use aluminum.

How, I wondered, could these simple villagers afford wood - often teak wood - windows and doors?

I asked a young woman whose family have traditionally been fisherfolk.

Oh, we got the wood from the jungle, she told me.

And the beams for the tiled roof?

From the jungle and from their own coconut trees.

What jungle, I asked.

And she explained how till 15 years ago, this entire area was practically jungle. When people wanted wood for furniture or for a roof, they simply cut down a matoo or teak tree. When they needed bamboo to erect cow sheds and sun porches they cut down a bamboo tree.

And she grumbled how it had all become so difficult now, what with less trees and a vigilant forest department.

And she grumbled about how these days they had to buy fish. When I was small, she said, the sea used to be full of fish and prawns. We didn't even have to go far to catch them.

The old days she described sounded like some primitive paradise where people lived off the bounty offered by nature.

In many ways it is still like this. Villagers here are still used to the easy life. Most families have a cow which gives them some milk. They have fruit trees. They get coconuts from their own trees for cooking. Those who still work the fields grow their own rice. And every family (almost without exception in this district in the southern tip of Goa) owns property with a house and a small garden, apart from the field (all this the result of tenancy laws in their favour).

These simple villagers here are rich. Goa, according to a recent study, is the richest state in India with the highest per capita income.

Doesn't it make you want to be a villager?