Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Murder On Beach - Goa, is party over?


A young British girl, Scarlett was raped and murdered on a beach in Goa and murkier side of Incredible India bared its face for all to see. It is a face we all know. It lurks behind all the time, behind those shiny visit India tourism posters and beneath glossed up broachers. One would say…..hold on; one swallow does not make a summer. After all, it is just one silly, drugged girl who died in way that she could have died anywhere in world. If you are a foreigner in a strange land you need to be careful where you go at midnight and what company you keep. The girl paid the price for being indiscriminate, gullible and reckless. Horrible that it might sound, it is akin to playing with fire and hoping that you don’t get burnt.


White Skin fascination: That is only one face of story, especially in context of scene of crime, Goa. Goa is a heady mix of pristine beaches, easily available drugs and accommodating locals. But, The undeniable fact is that this incident only adds an embarrassing chapter in already growing book of what foreigner female tourists are facing in India. Many incidents of sexual harassment of foreigners have been reported in past one year. From backwaters in Kerala, to bazaars of Orissa, foreigner women (mostly white skinned) have been bottom-pinched, squeezed, raped and murdered. The reason being given is that Indian men have a thing or two about white skinned ladies. They have this notion that these women are an "easy lay" and that they have lose morals and hence easily beddable. Most of Indian men , and I mean men in bharat, not just those living in shining India have only one source of their knowledge of western culture , and that is through cheap, pirated C-grade porn movies available in most of India's small towns. And all the foreigners they see in those movies are...well quite obviously sexually busy, promiscuous and "lose". All these white foreigners do is, take drugs and have sex. This becomes their only truth about how they perceive westerners, especially women. So it is not hard to fathom what would happen if Incredible India campaign succeeds in bringing in more tourists to India and opens up those places in hinterland for tourism which were till now undiscovered. In a country like India which is prudish and even balks at couples holding hands in public, influx of westerners would open up murkier sides of Indian society. If most Indians equate westerners with sex and drugs, then most Westerners have the notion that India is all about spiritualism and yoga. When twain shall meet, we shall see.

Chor Sipahi: Coming back to Goa, it seems that Goa is up for a massive cleanup, triggered by recent and some past events. Cleanup of Indian kind. It means that Police would now patrol beaches and harass tourists in name of protection. All bars and those gorgeous shacks would be closed before 11. No music would be allowed to play after 11 again and everybody would be asked to switch off their lights and sleep . Partying would be outlawed and you would be watched. You have to explain to Police your motive of roaming on beach if you are caught after 11. You will be asked to cover your bodies so as not to offend Indian culture and you would be asked to keep short hair. Preferably you would only be allowed in Goa with your mommy in tow. The biggest party place in world would be shut down. And all this would be in pretext of cleaning up Goa. Right. But who is going to do it? Police? Same police which is hand in glove with drug runners, pimps and all those who provide the infrastructure for illegal activities. Everybody in India knows that Police is one helluva corrupt institution. All local drug dealers and mafia are let to operate with full knowledge of local police for a hefty sum of weekly money. If it was not true, then why did Goa Police initially try to suppress the truth about Scarlett's murder as a drowning death!! Because they wanted to protect their own!!

There, You can't have the robbers doing cleanup. All it means is that people who want to enjoy a midnight stroll on beach with couple of beers would be put in jail and all those who want to be little nasty would still do that , behind closed doors under protection for little more money than before. In India cleanups are about shoving dirt beneath the bed.







2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It will surely affect Goa. It will never be same again. Somehing has chnaged forever.
- Sam

Unknown said...

its happening all the time there,police cover ups corruption is rife,the place is gone terrible,i first went there in the early 90s it was happening then