Goa is routinely captured, framed and preserved as a static artifact. In tourist brochures, it is a timeless paradise of golden sands and colonial architecture. In political rhetoric, it is an idealized, frozen cultural landscape that must either be fiercely guarded from change or systematically mined for capital. Both perspectives treat Goa as an isolated object, a passive backdrop...
When Goa Becomes the Political
What can Goans hope for from the opposition? On one hand, our attention is drawn to what is happening within the opposition rather than what is happening within the ruling party. And yet, things are not rosy in the ruling dispensation either. One of its own MLAs has publicly stated that he will have to think whether he will...
Daring to Dream in Goa
The condition of Goa raises the anxiety of Goans to higher decimals. The future of Goa and Goans seems to be closed. Goa seems to have become a land of lost dreams for Goans at several levels. To understand this condition, one may have to use the notion of hauntology developed by Jacques Derrida. Haunting gives intensity to ideas....
Examined Thought
Thought comes to us. It interpellates us. We also come to thought. What exactly do we mean when we say ‘I think’? Is there a thinking self generating thought solely from within us? Are we simply Descartes’ cogito? Thought is emergent. It springs forth, and we do not fully understand nor have full control over its coming. We have...
Between Goa-side and Goa-cide
Some of us may have to live to the end of Goa. We worry that Goa’s expiry date is approaching. But it may be more accurate to say that Goa is going through a living death. Some of us may have to live to see the disappearance of Goa and tell the story of Goa and Goans. Or maybe...
How We Begin Again Counting As One
There are things in Goa that are too large to be seen in one place and too sticky to be left in one place. Timothy Morton calls such things hyperobjects. A hyperobject is an object that is massively distributed in time and space, that sticks to you wherever you go, that you cannot put at a distance remember coronavirus....
Ethical and Epistemic Disobedience against Reductive Histories of Goa
The contemporary political discourse on the history of Goa frequently depends on rigid binary frameworks. One prominent example is the recurring claim that temples in Goa would have remained intact if the Portuguese had never arrived. This idea was recently advanced by the Chief Minister, who presented the era of the Kadamba dynasty as a golden age marked chiefly...
Sawaikar’s Termite Prophecy: Will Goan Youth Devour the BJP’s Wooden Throne?
The political landscape of Goa, where coconut palms sway like indifferent spectators to the drama unfolding below, Goa BJP Vice President Narendra Sawaikar has achieved something remarkable. Amidst the usual cacophony of accusations and counter-accusations, he has uttered a profound truth wrapped in a derogatory insult. By branding protesting Goan youth as “termites” those silent, relentless wood-munchers , he...
The Unworked Goan-ness and Susegad Life: Dwelling in Perpetual Becoming
In the philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy, existence unfolds not as a finished project but as an ongoing exposure, a sharing that resists closure. His notion of the “unworked” or inoperative community challenges any attempt to mould collective life into a predetermined script. There is no grand blueprint, no singular narrative that life must perform. This idea resonates deeply when...
Susegad Life as Abundance
In the verdant folds of Goa, where time dilates under the weight of humid air and the sea murmurs endless invitations, susegad emerges not merely as a relaxed lifestyle but as a profound philosophy of abundance. Far from scarcity-driven striving, Susegad embodies excess, an overflowing of being that celebrates life’s plenitude while gently resisting the frantic speeds and semiotic...
