Europeans on a shoestring budget come to Goa to live here temporarily, as once the English and Americans went to Europe.
In the first half of the twentieth century, people who were broke could live in Paris cheap. George Orwell was famously down and out in Paris (and London). A broke Ernest Hemingway lived in Paris, as did James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and others. Many also spent time in Italy, Spain, Germany. D H Lawrence lived in the Tuscany region of Italy.
Since Europe got expensive, even for its own citizens, those of modest means come to south Goa and live here for six months or so in a year. They’re not really tourists, more like people who like to holiday here and who supplement their finances by running shops and restaurants around the beaches of Palolem and Agonda. South Goa is much cheaper than north Goa. (Though I’m told the beaches of Gokarna in Karnataka are even cheaper.)
But now a certain section of environmentalists and Save Goa campaigners from the north are crying foul. Foreigners are overstaying, they allege. And they’re running restaurants illegally: sixty percent of all restaurant shacks along the beach are run by foreigners.
They’re demanding that cops take action.
What if they succeed?
How on earth, I want to cry, will I ever get a chance in this little village to eat a chicken escalope or a chicken schnitzel if they go? Where will I find a beef steak with blue cheese sauce, or the delicious wood-oven-baked pizza which an authentic Italian makes? Where will I get Hungarian Goulash and Spaghetti Carbonara and homemade liver pâté on toast, and the best bruschetta ever with olives and lots of herbs? Where else will I pay half of what I would in any up-market restaurant in an Indian metro?
And I want to cry: But what will happen if the nice cheese lady has to go? Where will I get my smoked Mozzarella and feta cheese, which she makes right here?
And what will happen to the locals who buy licences to run shacks from the Municipality, and then are only too happy to hand over the running of these shacks to the foreigners?
It’ll be as it always is when the tourist season is over. Making do with the bare necessities. And being thankful that I can at least buy Amul cheese and Amul butter while the season is on. When the foreigners go, even these little luxuries vanish from shops.
Village life murdabad.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
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4 comments:
Well if the nice cheese lady goes away, dont worry there is always Kama Artisanal Cheese Products in Vagator that is open through out the year making fresh Mozzarella, Bocconcini, Mascarpone, Ricotta, Smoked Mozzarella and Feta etc. Call 9604801194 or 9226415992. Bon apetit!
Thanks, anon. Will keep it in mind. But Vagator is like the other end of the world for me.
Vagator might be the other end, but if cheese is what you please, Kama Artisanal Cheese Products at Vagator will seem like a hop, skip and jump away.
i personally think its good that people who are running illegitamate business are and should be kicked out, therefore the people that go through all the heart ache of doing things properly will prosper better! and if you want cheese, everyone knows by now that Maia Cheese makes the best cheese in the whole of Goa! I personally know the heart ache that she has been through to get to where she is!
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