A Loyola school boy's Vision of Goa of tomorrow by Luke DMello
Leo D'Mello
Envisioning the Goa of Tomorrow
By Luke A P D’Mello
Goa, my home state has received accolades from the world over for being “Rome of the East”, “paradise on earth”, “land of beauty”, “blessed with peace loving people, whose middle name is always “hospitality”, etc.
But by and by, Goa has been culturally, politically, socially going through a sea change (pun intended) but yes, the coastline and sea are also changing !!
God has blessed us with an unique ecology, unique social and cultural values, and a mindset to live in harmony despite plurality of religions, cultures and ethnicity.
Talking of God reminds me of an ancient legend that Parashurama set seven arrows flying from the Sahyadris to push back the sea and create a land which was called Goa or Parashuram Kshetra.
Before I envison how we can create my dream Goa of tomorrow, may I take a moment to look at the 7 deadly arrows that are destroying our golden Goa?
The first deadly arrow is the corruption that is eating our entire society and degrading our thinking and polluting our minds. It has become a norm to pay money under the table and call it ‘speed money’ or ‘tips to get things done fast’.
The second deadly arrow is Speed. If the first – speed money – was bad, this Speed is dangerous. I am not talking about movie Speed but the driving speed !! Why are people so much in a hurry to go underground, I don’t know. If its England I can understand because Underground is the train station but not here!!
The third deadly arrow is Language. I always thought language unifies people and my father always says, learn more languages its good for your brain – and when he talks about brain, he knows what he is talking about. But people are stopping us from using this or that language, force us to adopt a particular language. I know my mother tongue and father tongue and grandmother tongue also. They speak the language of love. Sad to see people fighting with their mothers and their tongues. !
The fourth arrow is Colours. Again I am not talking about the movie or TV channel Colours. In fact I love colours, all the colours and my favourite colour is green – but please don’t give me a green shirt for my birthday next month. I like the green colour in nature and lots of it. But I find the powers that be today changing the green colour to brown and black and white. Sometimes overnight green trees are butchered with heavy bouncers standing guard.
Following from the fourth arrow is the fifth arrow of Beauty. No this is not a Cupid’s arrow I’m talking about. I’m still a bit young to be hit by that arrow though I get “Friends requests from girls!” But I am talking about Goa. What attracts tourists to Goa is its beauty, its loving people, the greenery, the cultures, the harmony among religions, the socio-religious fervours in celebrating festivals and indeed life itself. The susegad lifestyle, the inter-religious embraces and the intellectual pursuits. This is being attacked by the arrow of short term selfishness, greed and short sightedness.
The second last arrow I see attacking Goa is our politicians. Election time, they come running with promise on their lips and close-up on their teeth. Once elected its only the song, “Fevicol se with their chair” that matters and not the betterment of the people.
And finally the last arrow is from all of us, who talk, criticize but fail to act. We need to say mia culpa because we are too susegad and don’t come together to be the change that we want to see, as Mahatma Gandhi said.
So the Vision for Goa is to unpluck those arrows and instead plant the following –
Create awareness among the student community to have a strong desire to make Goa safe, beautiful and developed. We students are the pillars of tomorrow’s society. Once we understand and work together, nothing can stop us from building a Goa of our dreams.
I would like to end with the words of Tagore, “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my Goa awake”
Diamond Publications
Gr8 stuff my shining star friend Luke! Well done & keep it up!!
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"You have one life, live it to the full" Leo D'Mello.
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