A Goan’s guide to Goa

A Goan’s Guide to The Land of Golden Beaches

Being a Goan inexplicably brings with it a certain degree of uniqueness in a person. The beautiful landscapes, the golden beaches, the lazy weekends of Goa somehow find their way into the lifestyles of the people. And in the process, makes one take life easy and slow. It tends to make a Goan lazy, or ‘Sushegado’. The word is a Portuguese word meaning ‘cool, or slow, or easy’, and runs as much in our veins as blood It is this particular ‘Sushegado’, laidback nature that the Alumni Committee members had to overcome in order to get me to come up with an article for the E-Magazine.

Being away from Goa intermittently for the past five years has brought about a strange sort of attachment for the place. Goa was therefore the natural topic for this article. But, a lot has been written about the place in travel magazines, tourist brochures and what not.

But the real beauty of the land lies in some beaches, forts, temples and restaurants one would never find in any books, brochures or guides. These are known to the locals, but somehow are too good to find their way into publications! I therefore present to you some relatively unknown, exotic locations, and would request you to visit these places to fully capture the essence of the land and its people.

1. Palolem Beach
This beach is in the southern most part of Goa, Canacona. The sand is golden, the water crystal clear, and the ambience is heavenly. But there are a couple of things that make it stand out. The first is that it is less crowded, and the second is that there are these shacks which can be rented on a daily basis. The shacks, although very humbly furnished, are right next to the beach, which makes the experience truly unforgettable.

How to get there: Palolem is about 1½ hours from Panaji. To get there, you have to first go to Margaon (30 km), then to Balli – Cuncolim, and then to Palolem which is west of Chaudi.

2. Vainguinnim Valley:
This is more of a romantic spot, but anybody who romances nature will appreciate it’s beauty. It comprises of a Catholic Cross situated on a cliff, below which there is nearly a 100 feet drop. Below is a beautiful beach. The view is amongst the best I’ve seen in my life. One can see Vasco City, Marmugaon Harbour, the confluence of the two rivers (Mandovi & Zuari). And mind you, while watching all this, you will be standing only 5km from the Panaji bus stand. This place is very close to my heart, as this is where I proposed to my fiancé, and she tells me she accepted because of my choice of the place!

How to get there: This place is just a five minutes drive from Dona Paula, on the outskirts of Panaji. It is on the right hand side of the road connecting Dona Paula to Goa University (About 500 meters after Hotel Cidade de Goa).

3. Star Bar:
This place is known to many Goans as one of the best for sea food. The dishes to watch out for are Pomfret Recheado, Mussels (Masala Fried), and Fried King Prawns.

How to get there: This place is in Old Goa, the place where the Basilica of Bom Jesus is located. Any auto rickshaw driver or local will guide you to the place.

4. Martin’s Beach Corner:
Situated in Panaji, this place is also known for its sea food. Don’t miss out on the Chicken Masala, Fried Squids and the Masala Fried Mussels.

How to get there: This place is on the right hand side of the Miramar – Dona Paula Road, about 500 meters from Miramar.

5. Chapora Fort:
This fort has been made famous by the movie ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. It is right next to Vagator beach, which in itself is a very picturesque beach. It takes about 20 minutes to climb up there, so it would be wise if the ladies wear some shoes. And just in case you keep on searching for ‘The Spot’ where Aamir Khan was sitting, it’s the place which is right opposite to the approach!

How to reach there: Vagator Beach is about 22 km from Panaji, and is on the famous beach belt. The route is Panaji – Porvorim – Saligao – Vagator.

6. Amboli Ghat:
This place is for those who have an extra day on their hands. Technically, it is situated in Maharashtra, but is mostly frequented by Goans, as it is very close to the border. There are about 20 waterfalls of varying sizes on the way, which comprises about 20 km of hilly road.

How to get there: It is about 110 km from Panaji. One has to take the Mumbai – Goa highway, and take a diversion at Sawantwadi, which is the southern most towns in Maharashtra.

7. Arambol (Harmal) Beach:
One more of those exotic, less frequented and quite beaches. It is for those of you who want to relax, free your mind, or have a lovely time with someone special! It has a sweet water pond right next to the sea! So, it’s your choice of water. It’s my personal favorite. I would suggest you take food, an umbrella and mats along with you, as you would surely want to spend the entire day here.

How to get there: Harmal is about 50 km from Panaji, on the northern side. You have to go via Pernem, and the road is as beautiful as the beach at its end!

Apart from these, some other places to check out are Casa Florentine (Saligaon the Chicken Cafreal is considered the best in Goa), Mum’s Kitchen (Panaji), Betul Beach, Siridao Beach (don’t miss the ‘Sea View’ Bar for sea food) or the Morjim Beach (of the Harmal, Palolem kinds). These places might not be much frequented, as many tourists won’t know about them. But I’m sure there is nothing to worry about, Goans are very friendly people, and a smile is what does the trick!

Some things to be kept in mind are:

Try to keep the place as clean as possible. I know how our country works, but try being different, for a change.
The best way to go around the place is on bikes, which can be hired on a per day basis. But be careful when you ride, because the cops are VERY strict out in Goa.
Don’t get into trouble with liquor. I know Goa is the ‘land of booze’ and all that, but we Goans are very particular about ‘Right Drinking’, and don’t tolerate drunken misbehavior.
By and large, Goa is ‘The’ place to be. I’m still exploring the place, and I find there are a lot more places to see!

So, hope you make a trip to Goa as soon as possible, and enjoy every bit of it.

A useful site: http://goatourism.nic.in

Author:- Manesh Mahatme
PGP1 –2002-04

Management across the ocean !!

My Trans-cultural experiences …

A culture so different from ours, lifestyles so unique. A language so alien and the work culture more a benchmark than an aberration. For a minute one wonders, is this a foreign land or a different planet. Those were my first few impressions of Japan, a country popularly known for its high quality products, dedicated, disciplined workforce, extremely polite and courteous people, high standards of living and of course their very famous style of greeting.

After having lived and worked with them for a year, I felt that their basic philosophy in life was to “keep things simple and make them work”. To elaborate, if two points A and B can be met using a single straight line, then why join them by those innumerable, infinite curves and create more confusion and chaos. This straight line forms the base, the foundation and the maximum effort and resources are used to make this base strong and concrete and only when the quality of this foundation is up to their satisfaction (aren’t we all aware of the Japanese levels of satisfaction!) the structure is built around it.

To relate one of the incidents, inspite of having developed a flexible “loan processing” software system, that could accept any repayment date and accrual basis, the Japanese testing team always took the first repayment date for all the loans as the 26th of a month and the accrual basis for interest calculation as 30/360. (i.e. taking 30 days in each month for interest calculation).On a lighter note ,probably the testing team was apprehensive of the erratic behavior of February in the leap year.

The business development team wanted to be sure that the software system was delivering perfect outputs in this specific case, perfect being the operative word.

(Its is said that in Japan…even if a single screw is defective, the car undergoes 100 laps of another test drive!!!)

Only when they were confident that this was working fine as per their standards, did they finally incorporate and use this loan processing system. Till date, the bank disburses loans with repayment dates as the 26th of a month and the accrual basis as 30/360.

Strange??!! well this is Japan for you. Keeping things simple and making it work,and this being just one of my several experiences there.

Is this the reason for Japan’s prosperity - post world war II or is it the reason for the their state today? I don’t want to be judgmental on this, what ever may be the reason, the experience of being there, and working with the Japanese was truly brilliant. There is so much to learn, so much to teach, so much to share. Today, the Japanese economy may not be in the lime light for the right reasons, but overlooking their achievements and their core strengths would be a grave blunder and it would deprive the world of precious insights.

Author:- Siddharth Joshi
PGP1 –2002-04