Deconstructing the Goan facade

My earliest impressions of Goa are etched with images of colourful caricatures personifying life there by the famous Mario Miranda, who belonged to the coastal state.

- NEHA KIRPAL

The country's quintessential Sunshine State, Goa has over a period of time become a kind of escape from reality for millions of Indians. With idyllic palm-fringed beaches, exotic casinos and tropical climate, it's the hedonistic paradise, particularly for those residing in congested metropolitan cities. When we first took our (then) five-year-old daughter for a vacation to Goa, she fell head over heels in love with it. As we jumped the waves and ate delectable meals at beachside shacks every day, she incredulously asked us why we did not live in Goa. No wonder that so many people permanently moved to Goa during the pandemic, and continued living there long after it was over. And the fact that it has become de rigueur for the rich and upper middle-class to own luxurious second homes in Goa comes as no surprise.

Renowned Goan writer and cultural critic Maria Aurora Couto's posthumously published book, At Home in Two Worlds: Essays on Goa, attempts to deconstruct the myth about Goa. By tracing its complex history, unique culture, language, religion, and social change over the decades, the book offers a comprehensive set of writings on the state's evolution – "its glorious yet turbulent past, its vexed present, its precarious future." Both as an objective outsider and passionate insider, Couto began writing the book in 2017 and completed it just before she died in 2022.