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RANES DON’T WANT TIGER RESERVE
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RANES DON’T WANT TIGER RESERVE

Stray Thoughts October 24, 2025 , by

AND a few stray thoughts and a few observations for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when a lot of niz Goenkars were upset over the noise pollution caused by the burning of Narkasur effigies and celebrations. It would appear almost as though younger working people in Goa look upon Diwali as their own Sunburn festival. The highlight or lowlight are young people dancing to their own version of electronic dance music or trance.
The loud monotonous heart-thumping beat of the music started around 6pm on Saturday evening and went on long after dawn on Sunday. Historically, the burning of the Narsakur effigies on the roads is over with before sunrise. There were clashes between upper class citizens and the Narkarsur working class youth in Mala. Senior citizens too who were affected by all the noise complained and they were targeted by the noisy, boisterous revelers.
The police who tried to seize the noisemaking equipment had to beat a retreat in the face of strong resistance from the frenzied mob high on feni. Drinking seems to have become part of Narkasur ritual. There was a bizarre twist this Diwali. Some of the Narkasur effigies, at least in Panjim, were garlanded by fake Rs2,000 notes and these were littered all over the place at some places in St Inez. It may be recalled that during his first term as prime minister, Narendra Modi had demonetized the rupee and taken the Rs2,000 rupee notes out of circulation. It looks like some of the political godfathers printed large quantities of the fake Rs2,000 notes. The Narkasur effigy burning event may have become an occasion for political flexing with the patrons acknowledging their patronage with huge posters at every Narkasur burning site.
Interestingly, the largest Narkasur effigy competitions took place in Porvorim and Fatorda. The Fatorda Narkasur contest brought together the entire Opposition. Vijay Sardessai joined hands with Manoj Parab of the Goa Revolutionary Party and Yuri Alemao of the Congress. There are renewed demands for cracking down on noise pollution during the Narkarsar effigy burning. It is amusing that the bold and the beautiful pay big bucks to attend EDM concerts like Sunburn which are only a superior version of the Narkasur noise-makingl, perhaps it is a class prejudice which makes us look down on the seemingly working class lumpen elements who can only afford street dancing and cheap alcohol during the burning of the Narkasur effigy events.

TIGER, TIGER BURNING BRIGHT
AND a few stray thoughts on the tribals linking Diwali season to rituals honoring the tiger. According to environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar the Kunbi and Velip “dhanger” (forest village shepherd) communities honor tigers as protectors of the forest. These tribal communities maintain sacred groves and shrines dedicated to the tiger. The Velip community in Sanguem maintains a sacred grove called the “vaghrya”– recognized as the tiger’s natural habitat. The Velips perform rituals during Diwali time at a shrine with the tiger represented in stone sculpture. In Quepem, Velip women perform the “dhillo” folk dance at the sacred grove as they invoke “vaghro” through folk songs, believing that the deity resides in a natural cave. The village of Gaodongri in Canacona has a shrine dedicated to Vaghdev near the Shri Mallikarjuna temple; in Sanguem also villagers worship the tiger on new moon “amavasya” darkest night, the prayers ask for the sparing of their cattle.
Interestingly, four BJP MLAs led by Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane told the Wildlife Committee visiting Goa, that over a lakh people would be displaced if a tiger reserve is notified. As against this the Goa Foundation has submitted evidence that there were only 150 families living in the area proposed to be declared as a tiger reserve.

IT INDUSTRY COLLAPSE
AND a few thoughts on the virtual collapse of the IT industry. The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has let go over 20,000 employees in the last year alone. The claim is that these employees have become redundant because of the changing technology. The company claims that these employees at the top and middle level have not up skilled themselves to the required levels. All the employees compulsorily retired have been given two to five years salaries as compensation.
The ground reality is that Artificial Intelligence or IT technology is completely changing the work place. The largest jobs were in coding which was programming the specific requirements of clients. AI has virtually made coding redundant. So that thousands of engineers have become redundant or displaced.
It is not only TCS but other companies like Infosys and Wipro who have also stopped taking in new employees. Till recently, the IT companies used to recruit on an average 20,000 fresh engineers from university campus every year. There has been no incremental recruitment for many years now. But Indian IT companies continue to be popular though they have been affected by the denial of visas by USA’s President Donald Trump. IT professionals can no longer take their families with them to the US. Trump is forcing major American and Indian companies to recruit US nationals for jobs. Unfortunately, there are not enough qualified US nationals. Indian IT companies are still in great demand in the UK and in Europe. Recently Infosys won the contract for handling the national health services in the UK.

KILLING RETAIL TRADE
AND a few stray thoughts on how the E- commerce giants like Amazon and Flip Card, not to mention Blink It and InstaMart have killed retail trade. The friendly neighborhood grocer has virtually been undermined. Companies now do not need a huge marketing and sales team. All that they need is a huge warehouse, staff for packaging and delivery boys. Amazon is entirely based on E-commerce as it does not have a single outlet anywhere. Things have become much worse for the neighborhood grocery store because of the quick commerce platforms like InstaMart and BlinkIt. On social media you are bombarded by messages telling you that you can pick up your daily essentials and have them delivered to you in minutes. So if you run out of machine powder for your washing machine or do not have eggs or bread or milk, you can get them instantly through InstaMart. But never make the mistake of ordering perishables like chocolates or even milk and eggs on Instamart. For here you have no opportunity to feel, taste and test the product’s quality before it arrives at your door as fait accompli and all paid for.
Besides think of how much you will benefit if you take the exercise of walking across to the neighborhood grocer or retail outlet. Some human contact will make your day more interesting. Our advice is do not patronize E-commerce unless you have to absolutely do so. Do not distance yourself from other human beings around you and virtually live in your own home space.

MEDIA CHANGES
AND a last stray thought on how the world of media has completely changed during my lifetime. I belong to a generation of media people who began with the linotype machine; these were huge typesetting machines with a cylinder of liquid metal. The alphabetical letters and words were typed cast into metal forms and these were then tied together and put on a page-maker, an impression taken and loaded on to the printing machine. Media people will recall “ludites” as lead was the medium for composing matter in the days gone by when there were no computers. We all started with typewriters. When we wanted a large number of copies we used the cyclostyling machine. There were no printers or other electronic devices. However, now everything has become hands free. News copy comes not over clickety clack teleprinter but online. Copy is sent online, edited online, and sent to the printer online. Fortunately, digital has no yet replaced print media as can be seen from the fact that print still attracts maximum advertising.

POLITICIANS LIKE GOA
AND a last stray thoughts on how even our politicians from the neighboring states choose to spend holidays and festivals in Goa. Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi himself was celebrating Diwali with the naval warriors just off the Goa coast this last week, and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Phadnavis and his merchant banker wife with family were here in Goa to enjoy Diwali. So were many filmstars who have homes in Goa. Although for many Diwali is no longer a time for family get-togethers but running away from the smoke and noise of the streets.
Unfortunately, Goa is also filling up with smoke and noise and is no longer the peaceful retreat it was once upon a time. The extent to which firecrackers can pollute the air is dramatized in the national capital Delhi where smog is so thick that visibility is almost zero and everybody is down with breathing problems. It is high time we go back to the festival of lights instead of the festival of noise.
The Supreme Court directive to switch to green crackers has had no effect. Only the new governor of Goa and his wife were obeying the green crackers directive it seems and were out on the Raj Bhavan lawns with sparklers in hand as social media posts informed us. The green crackers directive is to use only fireworks which create light but not noise.

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