Welcome to the two Goas

Goa has split. No, there is no MNS in the sunshine state. Goa, as they say, has developed enough critical mass to splinter into North and South Goa.

Legend has it that the Portuguese preferred North Goa  because they first landed nearer its shores. Part-time historians — Goa is full of them — believe that the state’s latter-day demarcation has nothing to do with Portuguese landings.

Indeed, North Goa’s beautiful coastline held the ancient conquistadors in thrall — and a city was quickly born.

Even today’s conquerors, the realty developers, head for the north as soon as their flights land in Goa. They have tried all kinds of architectures — gothic, fusion, inflation-induced cement-saving designs — to woo buyers from all corners of the world. North Goa will become another Florida in five years, says Guilherme, a South Goan. “It will be India’s second home.”

Work in India. Holiday in Goa. That is how North Goa is marketing itself. Well, the north starts off with many competitive advantages. It has exquisite churches, a well-designed town (Goa’s capital Panjim), and a decade-long association with the VW-driving hippies of the ‘60s.

Even today, Portuguese and hippie legacy is visible in the north while the south is still struggling to carve out an identity. North Goa is a lethal cocktail: John Lennon + Kurt Cobain + Lindsay Lohan.

South Goa is a mocktail: O2 + H2O + sand + Bob Marley. The idea of a great lunch in the south is fried mackerel + sardine curry + feni. The idea of a lunch in the north is a dry brunch. Interestingly, fish is an aperitif in North Goa’s psychedelic buffets.

As Guilherme will tell you, the north polevaulted from the 1960s to the 2000s, from Lennon to Lohan, in the last four years. The south is still caught in the ‘80s. On a sunny day, you are sure to hear Abba’s Fernando wafting through South Goa’s verandas. Nowadays, if you listen to Bryan Adams, you are considered hip.

So how does a typical Goan family staying in the south taste life in the north? Some of them spend weekends in the north, in their second homes. They visit North Goa’s exotic restaurants, its controversial flea markets, and make friends with Russians and Israelis. For the rest of Goa, the north is a culture living in the extreme future.

“One summer day in the mid-’80s, our entire English class rushed to a seafront restaurant as soon as they heard that John Fowles, author of The Magus, was holidaying there. Today you will need a Yakuza boss or a Bratva (Russian mafia) ringleader to get an entire class out,” says Guilherme.

Guilherme’s picture of Goa’s north and south may not be exact, but it gives a fairly good idea of the future Goa is go-carting into. “Whenever you tell outsiders you are from South Goa, they say: ‘Wow’. And when you tell them you are from the north, they ask you about Scarlett’s murder and why Goa has become what it has become.”

What Guilherme says is perhaps true. My friend TJ wants to buy a second home in Goa and, unlike the Portuguese and the hippies, prefers to base himself in South Goa. “I will have a cool 10 years to enjoy myself before the south starts looking like the north,” he says.

Like many landlords, Guilherme has lots of ideas to change Goa. He wants to revive the susegadh style of living. “It is one way to motivate our youth and sell the real Goa to the world. Susegadh is not a bad thing after all. We all grew up thinking that susegadh was a lazy, laidback way of living. But it is more that: it is a zero-drug approach to life, where you create you own equilibrium. You live your feni-centric life to the fullest. And when you get bored, you discuss politics at the church square.”

Like the local tiatre (folk theatre), Goa has become a best-selling morality play for the rest of the world. If the north is seen as a rule-breaker, the south is seen as a custodian of morality.

As Guilherme puts it, it all began when the Portuguese starting going north by northwest. The hippies, builders, Russians and housing finance all followed.

Email: vinaykamat@dnaindia.net