A Carnival of Carnivals……..

Merry making, singing and dancing are all an integral part of the Goan Life. There is a renewed vigor and excitement in doing it when you know that you will have to socially abstain from it for the next 40 days. The end result a Carnival which is celebrated world over in Catholic dominated countries just before Lent leading to Good Friday and then Easter. In India we celebrate the similar concept in another form called “Gattari” just before the Holy month of Shravan.

In the past people used to come together drink, sing, dance and have fun on the Mandovi promenade depicting various social and mythical characters followed by masquerade and ending with lovely Goan food and fenny.

Over the years tourists have relished and enjoyed all of what Goa has to offer. The increasing footfalls in certain pockets of the state attracted various brands. Initially they came in the form of hoardings and then the creative and the most competitive of them found more ways of attracting the eye balls and that was the end of a very simple form of cultural and social get together.

LG, Vodafone, Kingfisher and many others have taken over this celebration of the locals with all their money power. Carnival is now just another form of buying our attention to achieve their targets. The entire emotion of the festivities is gone. No longer do you see the old meeting up and the young rejoicing and dancing, they are replaced by the various event management companies that pay you for dancing and performing on their floats.

We have made a Carnival out of the Carnival. I think it is the same with all social celebrations where people of different walks of life come to gather just to enjoy, look at the Ganesh Mandals in Mumbai, all you see is the smiling face of local politicians.

One day we will be able to see the carnival celebrations depicted in various forms at some museum but what is it that we can do…

The price tourism has to pay………………………

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