Everybody must have heard of Goa’s beaches, its churches, its greenery, cleanliness but what you would have not heard about would be its inner beauty. Having beautiful beaches is not the only claim to fame for Goa. Tucked away from the hustle and bustle of hectic lifestyle which clutches the rest of India, this sun drenched Goa not only offers exceptional outer beauty to the tourists in the form of its beaches but also reminds us the real meaning of life which we city people have forgot as we become modern in terms of technology.
Only after being through with all the specialties of Goa, I started wondering what is here that give a refreshing feeling to my soul, is it only goa’s greenery, beaches and its pollution free breeze? After a month long vacation I finally unraveled the mystery of unknown serenity and beauty of the city. Its goa’s lifestyle, its culture and most importantly its people who make goa different from the rest of India. Goa is much more modern than any other state in India. WHY? It does not have metro, luxurious airports, sky touching buildings, then how could it be more developed and modern? It is modern due to the thoughts of people, here is no discrimination on the basis of one’s caste, religion, gender and unlike rest of Indian cities women are not bound by the rude fences of customs. My driver, a Goan who was lively and contented like his other fellow goans, never hesitated to give his inputs about his birthplace. ”90% of people are literate in Goa,” he told me with his head held high. Whether this proclamation is true or not I do not know, but what I can claim is that around 99% of people are nature loving as while walking down the streets of goa, hardly any scrap of paper or wrappers could be found.
Nowadays, in the world of social networking, when people all over the world are always glued to either their smart phones or PC screens and do not have time for their families, Goans are social in real life, spending valuable time with their families . They are easy going, happy, friendly, loving and slow paced people in this fast paced world, who love their culture, food and of course their birthplace-Goa . They are not running a never ending rat race. These people will tell you that that they work so that they can earn a decent livelihood and can feed their families. They do not aspire to be billionaires as for them life is a vacation which has to be enjoyed not competed.
These people do not live in big apartments or houses, in a well-developed society with water, LPG facilities; they live in small self-built European style huts in the lap of nature as their houses are surrounded with long wild shrubs and trees. This ensures that at the end of the day nobody here can suffer from headache problem as the sea breeze which comes through the lush greenery refreshes and revive everybody’s soul and give a much needed peace to mind after whole day’s work. Though goan houses are foreign influenced, their Indian roots are quite evident through their lifestyle as like in Indian villages, Goans travel long distances to fetch water and firewood, students either travel on foot or on bicycles to reach their schools rather than travelling in school buses. This exhibits perfect blend of modernism with countryside.
After living in Goa the rat race of whole world seemed in vain to me. Since being a Delhite, I never pondered on the motive of life as everybody around me lives the same hectic life as if we are facing the brunt of all the problems in the world. But Goa taught me the actual motive of life which is to be happy. These people teach that only people with money and fame are not given the gift of happiness, but it’s a right of everyone, provided we accept it. A question which continuously plays on my mind after witnessing goa’s lifestyle is that If life could be lived in this simple way, then why we people are unnecessarily complicating it, and are just running every day in an unknown competition to earn money, why can’t we also attach ourselves to the nature, leave social networking sites and be social in real so that at the end of the day we can have a peaceful sleep with our family. After all when happiness is a choice, why can’t we choose it?
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