More than just beaches

Does Goa need to be sold as a tourist destination?

No harm in giving people a refresher course, thinks the Government of Goa, India’s favourite holiday spot.

It sent a delegation down to Australia and New Zealand, led by avin ia , O cer on special duty at Goa Tourism and Arvind Khutkar, Undersecretary to Goa’s Minister of Art, Culture and Tribal Welfare.

Speaking on Indian Link radio, Diaz admitted that it has been a challenge in attracting Australians to Goa, given the topography of both places is quite similar.

“Both Australia and Goa have beautiful beaches, but what we want Australians to know is that Goa is more than just beaches. The history of Goa goes back hundreds of years and a tourist can enjoy the Hindu culture of the land as well as the Portuguese experience in the one place. In fact, I believe Goa can be a gateway to the rest of India, where visitors can ease into the Indian way of life and enjoy the wining and dining as they experience the unique blend of all that oa has to offer.

After India gained independence from the British in 1947, India requested that Portuguese who had control over Goa since 1510, to allow it to be ceded to India. Portugal refused to negotiate on the sovereignty of its Indian enclaves. In December 1961, the Indian Army annexed Goa into the Indian union. On 30 May 1987, Goa became India’s twenty-fifth state. Today of course, it is famously known as not a state, but “a state of mind.”

“You will never see a Goan in a hurrythere is always time for tomorrow,” Diaz said about his home state. oa has more than beaches to offer its visitors,” Diaz told Indian Link. “If anyone is visiting, we will urge them to spend at least 5 days in Goa and there will still be a lot of things left over to do after that. In fact you will need to come back to Goa.”

It is this relaxed lifestyle which has earned Goa international fame as a tourist destination. What started as a hippy enclave in the mid-1960s blossomed into a state with luxury resorts and up market lifestyle in the 1980s. Currently, not only is Goa attracting international tourists but also has a growth spurt in local tourism from all parts of India as middle-class Indians venture further afield.

“There are many beautiful and historic churches,” Diaz listed. “The church of St Francis Xavier, a world heritage site, is known around the world. Equally significant to our state are the Hindu temples from the 12th century. For those who want to learn more about spices, Goa has spice plantations the products of which are increasingly being used in medicinal ways. For those interested in nature, not only do we have some of the most beautiful beaches, we also have the nesting grounds of the famed Olive Ridley Turtles that are a huge attraction during egg-laying and hatching seasons.”

Khutkar, who works closely with tribal welfare, also was keen to talk about the traditional arts and crafts which can be explored on the hills of Goa. “Cultural tourism is on the way up in Goa,” he revealed. “Tourists are enjoying learning about the tribal lifestyle and getting involved in local arts. Traditional markets are also very common in Goa which are increasingly becoming popular with the tourists. These markets complement the flea markets where you can pick up bargains.”

For adrenaline junkies, there’s jungle trekking, beach trekking scuba diving, white water rafting in the Mandovi River, camping, ATV biking, parasailing, water-skiing, windsurfing, snorkelling, sports fishing, yachting, harpoon fishing and kayaking.

And of course, Goa is the home to the traditional feni, a local brew much enjoyed across the nation now. “Made out of cashews, feni is the must-have drink for those over 18 visiting Goa.”

With so much to do and enjoy, Goa should be a must-do holiday for anyone going to India.

“What are you waiting for?” asks Diaz.

Pawan Luthra

Karnataka verdict makes Congress’ task harder for 201 elections

The results of Karnataka assembly polls must have come as a disappointment for the Congress party and its ambitions for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but it can take some solace from the fact that it was able to deny the Bhartiya Janata Party an outright victory in the crucial southern state.

The results are likely to boost the present churning to forge an anti-BJP front for the next general elections with opposition parties expected to exert more pressure on the Congress to go for state-specific alliances even in states where it is the main force against the BJP.

The party’s decision to support Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in the government formation in Karnataka to prevent BJP from coming to power has implications for the party’s preparations for the 2019 elections.

While it will be required to share political space with JD-S in Karnataka when a coalition government is formed, there will be demands from other parties for alliances in states such as Madhya Praesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh which will go to the polls later this year.

The Karnataka elections were crucial for the Congress to build momentum for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and for three assembly polls later this year.

It was also significant to raise morale of Congress workers as the party is in power now only in two other states - Punjab and Mizoram, besides the union territory of Puducherry.

The results were also seen as crucial to boost Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s image as an effective campaigner against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in view of their likely run-in in the 2019 polls.

The Congress put its heart and soul in the campaign, with Gandhi campaigning in a large number of constituencies but the results showed the party’s vulnerability to BJP’s skills at executing social coalitions, micromanagement and giving intensity to campaign.

Gandhi had spearheaded the party’s campaign in Karnataka with frontal attacks on Prime Minister Modi but it apparently did not have the kind of impact the party was hoping for.

Gandhi repeatedly hammered the issues of jobs, atrocities against Dalits and women and the multi-crore banking frauds. During the campaign, he also expressed his willingness to become the prime minister if the Congress or a coalition led by the party wins next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

he ongress suffered a sharp drop in its numbers in Karnataka despite favourable factors such as apparent lack of anti-incumbency and the party having a strong state leader in Siddaramaiah whose government was seen to have delivered on pro-poor schemes in the last five years.

But it was successful in garnering more votes than the BJP, while getting 26 less number of seats at 78. Also, had it fought jointly with JD(S) in a pre-poll alliance, the total tally of the two parties, at over 54 per cent of votes, would have overshot BJP’s by a large number. This shows a lack of planning or political vision.

It was cold comfort for the party that its vote share had risen compared to 2013 elections when it had won 122 seats. The party had polled 36.79 per cent votes in 2013 and 38 per cent this time round.

Like in Gujarat where Congress had also put up a spirited fight, Prime Minister Narendra Modi energised the BJP’s campaign in Karnataka in the last phases holding 21 rallies in a span of nine days.

The Congress will continue to face challenge of meeting BJP’s formidable election machine in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh with Modi expected to help the BJP governments beat anti-incumbency with his oratorical skills.

The Congress also apparently miscalculated that the Dalit community, which has a sizeable presence in Karnataka, was quite upset with Modi government on a range of issues including the “delay” in filing review petition in the Supreme Court over “dilution” of the SC/ ST Act.

The Congress decision to recommend minority status to the numerically strong Lingayat community and spur subnationalism in the form a separate state flag also apparently did not work in the desired way for the party.

Gandhi has largely been unable to come up with an answer to Modi’s oratorial and Amit Shah’s managerial skills. He will get three more opportunities this year where he can at least show political acumen of bringing together the right coalitions - before polls - to challenge the main weapon that the BJP has. If he cannot, then 2019 would turn out to be a bigger disappointment for him and his party.

Taj Heritage Corridor being resurrected in new avatar, but questions remain

The controversial Taj Heritage Corridor which brought down the Mayawati government in 2003 is being resurrected in a new avatar - but disturbing questions remain, environmentalists say.

The Uttar Pradesh horticulture department, in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India, has started greening the vast wasteland sandwiched between two world heritage monuments, the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort, after the local MP and the chairman of the SC/ST Commission Ram Shankar Katheria laid the foundation stone of the new Taj View Garden a few days ago.

The Supreme Court, some 10 years ago, had asked the Archaeological Survey of India to clean up the debris from the corridor site and develop the 80 acres of reclaimed land as a green buffer to insulate the Taj Mahal from air pollution. But for want of resources, it took more than a decade for the work to start.

“We have laid a new lush green lawn and lined up ornamental plants. Come rainy season and the whole area would be a green delight and attract tourists,” UP horticulture department’s garden superintendent Mukesh Kumar said.

Agra Mayor Navin Jain has promised that the municipal corporation would extend the green frontiers and maintain the

A pair of egrets prepare to build their nest in Panbazar area on the banks of the Brahmaputra river in Guwahati, India, 11 May 2018. This is the season of the year when hundreds of egrets build their nests on trees in the thickly populated Panbazar area oto A newly-developed park.

Once completed, the green stretch will be a new attraction for tourists.

Till recently the land was being used not only as a dumping ground for garbage but also as a place to bury bodies of children and aborted foetuses. The sprawling 80acre platform, recovered through dredging of the river bed and refilling of the open space, was left unfinished after corruption charges were levelled against Mayawati. The charges eventually brought down her government.

The corridor was to begin from Khan-eAlam, close to the Taj Mahal, and extend two kilometres towards the city behind the Agra Fort. It was to be extended later to allow tourists to reach Etmaddaula and Ram Bagh on the other side of the river.

For months, hundreds of tractors, earthmovers and machines worked round the clock to dig out silt and deposit it on the river bank to create a new platform, which was laid with Rajasthani stones.

The space was to be used to erect tall buildings, amusement parks, shopping malls and the like.

But, after a hue and cry from conservationists that the corridor would endanger the monument and allegations of large-scale corruption in the project, the Central government suspended the work in 2003. The alleged scandal reportedly involved government allotment of large tracts of land along the proposed corridor to a private builder for a song.

As the case against Mayawati dragged for years, the corridor remained an eyesore between two world heritage monuments. Scores of foreign tourists visit the site daily.

Environmentalists have on several occasions expressed concern at the alarming pollution level in the Yamuna after hundreds of truck-loads of waste, including carcasses of animals and bodies of children, was dumped into the river.

When tourists looked at the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort, what they saw was a disturbing sight - heaps of stinking garbage, carcasses and graves of children dotting the structure and mounds of rubble that invite mosquitoes, dogs, snakes, crows and vultures.

Rajiv Gupta, former president of the National Chamber of Industries and Commerce, thought that “a positive beginning has now been made and soon Agra will have a new tourist attraction”.

But local environmentalists point out that the so-called heritage corridor was, legally speaking, an encroachment on the Yamuna river bed. “That was the reason why work was stopped. Now instead of dismantling and removing the debris, they are seeking to legitimise an encroachment of public land,” said Shravan Kumar Singh of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society.

Eminent historian Prof R. Nath, who had first drawn attention to this controversial corridor back in 2002, told IANS: “This corridor should be cleared and the

Several parts of northern India have suffered thunderstorms and heavy rain this month, leaving 110 people dead and 300 injured. Seen here is a monster dust storm building up over Bikaner, India, 07 May 2018. oto A

Yamuna allowed to breathe free. Also, the artificial park created just behind the Taj Mahal on a mound of debris should be immediately cleared as it has distanced the river Yamuna which should flow touching the base of the monument. The powers that be should stop playing with monuments.”

Cabbie who could not save sister builds hospital to treat the poor

With no cutting-edge medical equipment, air-conditioning or critical care unit in place, the under-construction building in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district hardly matches the popular notion of a modern medical care facility. Yet, the hospital has become a national landmark as it tells the story of a brother turning his grief into determination that helped establish it.

Taxi driver Saidul Lashkar set out on what then seemed a near impossible journey in 2004 after his sister Marufa died of chest infection as he did not have the means to get her treated in a hospital. Marufa was only 17.

Though shattered and inconsolable, Saidul took a pledge not to let anyone else in his neighbourhood die without treatment.

“I felt I needed to do something so that no impoverished person dies like she did, without getting treatment. I wish no brother loses his sister like I did,” Saidul said, leaning quietly on a wall of the newly constructed patients’ waiting hall of Marufa Smriti Welfare Foundation in Punri village near Baruipur, about 55 km from Kolkata.

Twelve years were spent chasing the dream, as the cabbie criss-crossed the streets of Kolkata, never veering for a moment from his single-minded pursuit to make the project happen. It was not at all a walk in the park, he recalled.

Saidul would talk at length about his mission to the passengers while driving and show them the documents and receipts of the donations he had received so far. But a majority refused to lend him a helping hand.

However, some did oblige, particularly a young girl, Srishti Ghosh from south Kolkata, who was so moved by his story that she decided to donate her entire first month’s salary to the hospital fund.

“I found my lost sister in Srishti. When she and her mother heard my story, they took down my number and promised to call back. I was not sure if they really would, but when she really came along and donated her first salary, I was overwhelmed,” he said.

As strangers came in ones and twos, helping him gradually raise the funds for the hospital, back home, Saidul’s wife Shamima stood by her husband like a rock.

“None of this would have been possible without my wife. When I started, a lot of people in my close circle distanced themselves from me thinking I am crazy, but my wife was there all along. She even gave me all her ornaments to collect the funds for the land,” he said.

Finally, Saidul’s dream came true in February this year as the hospital started functioning, albeit partially, by opening its outdoor unit to patients.

In a touching gesture, Saidul got his new-found “sister” Srishti to inaugurate the hospital.

The response from the locals has been overwhelming, as the nearest hospital in the area is almost 11 km away.

“There is a buzz all around. Everybody in the area is talking about the hospital,” said Sojol Das, while driving this correspondent in his e-rickshaw to the hospital premises.

Work is now on to make it a fullfledged 50-bed hospital with other necessary facilities like X-Ray and Electrocardiography (ECG).

“This is currently a two-storied building but we have plans to make it four-storied. On the opening day, our doctors could treat 286 patients while so many others were left out due to shortage of time and resources. I am sure once it becomes fully functional, people of nearly 100 villages would be benefited,” Saidul said.

Saidul’s courage to dream big indeed impressed lots of people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who praised his efforts in his radio address to the nation, “Mann ki Baat”.

Modi talking about the hospital project, the 40-something taxi driver said, has certainly given him more courage and assured him that he is headed in the right direction.

“Since his speech, a lot of people got in touch with me. any have offered help. Some local contractors have helped me out by supplying sand, bricks and cement needed for the construction work, while a doctor from Chennai has expressed his wish to join my hospital and treat patients.”

Eight doctors are at present associated with the hospital where they would be providing free service for now. However, Saidul said, they have plans to provide healthcare in exchange of a bare minimum fee, necessary for the hospital’s maintenance.

Dhiresh Chowdhury, in charge of the orthopaedic department, was all praise for Saidul.

“Building a hospital is a mammoth task. For Saidul to do it with such a meagre income is unthinkable. We all are with him,” added the doctor, whose NGO Banchory is providing the medical equipment.

But the dreamer in Saidul now refuses to stop with only one hospital.

“Now that I have so many people with me, I feel I can go even further to fulfil my dream. Maybe I won’t limit myself to constructing one hospital. Maybe I’ll go further in search of new dreams.”

How Bollywood movies helped Rohingyas settle in India

After Mohammad Haroon turned 15, he began watching Bollywood movies, walking four kilometres to a theatre near his village in Myanmar.

Little did he know that the Hindi he learnt watching these films would one day help him settle down in a foreign country to which he and his family had to flee to escape brutal persecution by the armed forces.

Haroon, a Rohingya, came to India, the country he had known from its movies, after fleeing to Bangladesh in a small hand-rowed fishing boat. That was after his cousin was raped and their huts were torched.

“I had watched about 100-150 Hindi films back home and I could understand Hindi by the time I came here (India). Speaking Hindi was a problem though,” Haroon, now 48, told IANS at a Rohingya settlement in Kanchan Kunj of south Delhi.

More than two dozen Rohingyas IANS interviewed in Delhi, Jammu and Hyderabad said they used to watch Bollywood movies in Myanmar that helped them to learn Hindi and made it easier for them to find jobs and make friends in India.

Rohingyas, mostly Muslims, are an ethnic minority, denied citizenship and have been “facing human rights violations and violence” at the hands of the military in the Buddhist majority Myanmar.

More than 800,000 Rohingya refugees have fled Myanmar in the last five years as a result of violence, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and there are around 21,500 Rohingyas in India.

Perched on a plastic chair, Haroon, a father of four, said the love for Bollywood was strong in Myanmar. He named his favourite stars - Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakrabortyand quickly added Hema Malini to the list.

Harooon’s favourite movies include Mithun starrers Jagir (1984), Boxer (1984) and Disco Dancer (1982) and Amitabh and Dharmendra starrer Ram Balram (1980).

Leaving Myanmar in 2005, Haroon reached India after a couple of months in Bangladesh and worked at a chicken farm in Sonipat, where his Hindi improved further. “After one year, my Hindi was fine,” he said.

But for Rohingya women watching a movie in a theatre was a strict no-no.

Tasleema, 21, stayed behind a tattered, shabby curtain with her one-year-old son in her arms.

Asked whether she used to watch Hindi movies, Tasleema told her husband Adbul Kalam in her native Rohingya language: “I can almost understand what he is asking, but I can’t reply.”

“Our women were never allowed to go out that much. My wife and other women never watched movies,” Kalam said in Hindi. “Now they have started going out a bit after coming here.”

At Channi Rama in south Jammu, Saitera Begum, 20, shakes her head when asked whether she used to watch Hindi movies. “Muslim women do not go to watch movies in Burma,” she said, according to a relative who translated her words in Hindi.

Suhail Khan 21, agreed. “Girls would be thrown out if they came to the theatres,” he said.

Ians