Washed up on the beach

In the absence of what the industry called the 8216;top-end international traveller8217;, I hoped my story would 8212; rather than help the proverbial Brechtian shark get fatter 8212; attract young professionals from other parts of India to generate steadier, round-the-year incomes for hundreds of Goa8217;s small entrepreneurs. So we decided against some of the more 8216;8216;affluent8217;8217; North Goa beaches and headed for Anjuna.

A motley crue from all over the world practiced yoga, tai-chi or pranced in the surf. A fortune-telling cow nodded and stamped, a racial medley of children played volleyball and lovers snuggled and gazed at the crimson fireball on its daily descent. Terrorism raged around the world, the Goa administration was working overtime to protect both the visiting prime minister as well as Israeli tourists against a perceived Al Qaeda threat, so I marvelled that it still seemed to come together in Amche Goa.

An expert juggler-friend, also a foreigner, arrived and began to practice. Nitin wanted to shoot 8212; to which he readily agreed 8212; and was about to click, when a scrawny, blonde man in a group smoking a chillum some distance away strode across angrily.

Nitin explained that the group was too far to be in focus and even offered him a look through his viewfinder. He declined, growling that we8217;d 8216;8216;better back off now, or else8217;8217; and went away.

Though both topless bathing and drugs are prohibited, everyone knows 8212; and even police officers admit 8212; that petty corruption is endemic to rural constabularies, not just in Goa but all over India.

And before trashing 8216;8216;secular8217;8217; marijuana-kiffers who live in constant fear of imprisonment, it is crucial to remember that chillum-smoking sadhus never get arrested. But naked, narcotic Nirvana is a worn image, so Nitin moved our juggler closer to a beachshack where our children were seated8212; and farther from the group 8212; to set up again: this time with a wide angle. Juggler in focus, all else in silhouette. The people on the shoreline were now wholly unrecognizable.

Minutes later, the group charged into the shack. The blonde man told Nitin he8217;d 8216;8216;fix him when his picture appeared in the papers8217;8217; and demanded his films. Nitin ignored him. As our children watched wide-eyed and scared, the man flung the cameras off the table in front of them while another waved a large wooden stick over Nitin8217;s head.

Meanwhile, their girlfriends screamed obscenities at me for 8216;8216;allowing him to take pictures of them in bikinis.8217;8217; I retorted that they were fortunate even to be mere, backlit specks in a frame taken by such a well-known photographer and that we did not need their permission to shoot stills at a public place, at least in India.

8216;8216;This is OUR beach, we MADE this place, it belongs to US,8217;8217; shouted one woman. 8216;8216;You guys would be NOTHING without OUR money, so get the hell out of here before we beat you up.8217;8217;

Goans themselves have little respect for skinflints from affluent countries who argue vociferously over a Rs 1.50 hike in the price of masala chai compared to last year. But sadly, those in the tourism business have few choices. Flawed international marketing led to Goa emerging as a dirt-cheap destination. Except for year-end festivities, both big and small hotels run empty, season after season. And all the while, exorbitantly-priced domestic flights to Goa 8212; especially from Delhi, ironically the city with the highest per capita income 8212; keep the increasingly affluent and big-spending 8216;Indian8217; tourist away.

Enraged, I threatened to charge them with assault, 8216;8216;anti-national8217;8217; statements and to have them 8216;busted8217;. At the dreaded B-Word, they vanished.

Suddenly, a Scandinavian photographer resident in Goa, whom I know slightly, appeared to take up the case for our assaulters. I pulled out my PIB accreditation card and asked him if he knew what it meant. And whether he himself had ever bothered to ask permission of the dozens of picturesque female Indian field workers or Tibetan children he had photographed in India, to sell around the world? Also, whether he could please point out any signs on any Goan beach, put up either by the Government of India or Goa, prohibiting photography ?

8216;8216;Are you telling Indians on an Indian beach that we need your permission to take pictures of what is essentially our own?8217;8217; I asked, shaking with rage. 8216;8216;Now listen to me carefully,8217;8217; he emphasized slowly, as if to a brain-damaged person, before sailing off. 8216;8216;This beach was made by French tourists. It belongs to them and now, the Israelis. So only French laws apply here, no Indian laws, no Goan laws.8217;8217;

We didn8217;t file an FIR for several reasons. It was dark, our children were scared and shaking. Another hour-long ordeal in a 8216;cop-shop8217; on their last evening of a magical holiday would have drained them. Importantly, we had no names of our assaulters, only of their verbal defendant.

Later we heard from several restaurateurs that the same photographer and his friends often made public nuisances of themselves. Speaking under strict confidentiality and thereby reflecting real fears, they told me of the existence of a 8216;hippy mafia8217; along the northern beaches, which made its own laws, stopped short at nothing including breaking the legs of dissenters, bribing impoverished local cops, stealing automobiles and motorbikes and terrifying the locals.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is said to be a 8216;8216;hands-on8217;8217; man. As our plane curved in a wide swoop over Anjuna on the flight back to Delhi the next afternoon, I began a letter addressed to him. I hope Parrikar will ensure that never again will Indians 8212; or anyone 8212; have to listen to such unmitigated drivel from riff-raff, who, far from being revenue earners, are creating a menacing underworld in Goa.

We live in dangerous times today, and even my beloved Goa 8212; of all the places 8212; was like a heavily-guarded fortress all through Christmas and New Year. Do we really need another Chotta Shakeel or a Dawood Ibrahim-type scenario in what, thanks to its gentle people and awesome beauty, still remains India8217;s greatest gem ?

The writer is Chief of Southasia Bureau for Der Spiegel