Topic: Goa Life

For settlers who arrived before the latest wave, watching the transformation unfold has been disorienting. 'Suddenly, Goa is a rich person’s place.'

A little over a year into operation, after opening in early 2024, Grumps has become one of Goa’s most coveted dining destinations.

The more we get to know about Birch, the more it becomes clear that it was operating in the gaps between jurisdictions.

The real acrimony in Goa is against tourists and wealthy land buyers from Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Yet, the fury gets channelled downward against the poorest workers from the cowbelt.

Remote workers who arrived in Goa after 2020 are now leaving their sunshine dreams behind. They are questioning whether the infrastructure ever existed to sustain them in the first place.

Asking Goa to give up 4% of a river’s flow to help parched districts seems reasonable, moral. But it masks a deeper ethical problem: who bears the burden of the ‘greater common good’?

Critics see the two Bills as a means to reorder Goa’s centuries-old land ownership patterns under the guise of efficiency.

In a state where hotel ownership, restaurant businesses, and even beach shack operations have increasingly moved to outside investors, the taxi sector represents one of the few industries still predominantly controlled by residents.

In Bahishkrut Gomantak, Dadu Mandrekar shows a Goa that exists far away from the dive bars, heritage tours, and laid back beach shacks.

The myth that casino development represented some organic evolution of Goa’s character has been demolished. Now, Panjim stands alienated from itself, where even basic institutions carry the branding of private gambling operators.