Visiting Panaji, Goa, India

John and I have been visiting Panaji,
Goa, on India’s west coast for a few days. Yesterday, we took a taxi to
Old Goa to see the
Basilica of Bom Jesus (where St. Francis
Xavier lies in his glass-sided casket above the altar), and the Se
Cathedral. Goa was a Portugese colony for about 450 years and still has
a strong Catholic presence – unusual in India where less than 3% of the
population is Christian. Both the basilica and the cathedral were being
restored and had areas blocked off where work was being done.

John and I also walked on the beach, and watched the boats on the Mandovi River.
Our hotel is on the delta of the river and the Arabian Sea so there are working
ships as well as pleasure boats. Red basalt is a very common rock here (there
are red stone walls everywhere).
Much of the river traffic consists of rusty long scows rumbling up river
empty and down river filled with piles of red iron ore. There are also
party boats blaring loud music, draped in rope lights starting at sunset.
Goa attracts tourists. Our hotel pool and cafe is full of sunburned
Europeans (both young party people and senior citizens) as well as Indian
visitors. I am writing late at night and I can still hear the scows going
up river and the low beat of the party boat music broadcasts.

The highlight of this Goan weekend was accidentally being here at the
time of the Rangapanchami celebration and parade. From what I understand, the
Holi celebration (or festival
of colors) honors the goddess (demoness?)
Holika and is the
ceremonial start of summer (as Memorial Day is in the USA). We were in
Bangalore for the actual day of Holi last week (there were fireworks and a
colored water balloon fight at Sun), but here in Goa, the 5 day celebration
includes a big parade. I read that the big parade is unique to Goa.
(If so, might it partly be the Goan Hindu community’s answer to the
Catholic community’s Mardi Gras or Carnival?)

Last night, after waiting for an hour, John and I stood through the first
1-1/2 hours of the parade. Most of the crowd seemed to be families with
little kids, or couples. There was a strong police presence (both women and
men in khaki uniforms with black berets standing every ten feet or so inside
the parade barriers) who carried sticks but were mostly
helping people, answering questions, or watching the parade. The police were
very amiable about moving over if they were blocking some child’s view. There
has also been a very strong security presence here at our hotel. Each car is
checked with a rolling mirror underneath, everyone has to walk through a
security arch to enter the lobby, and even hotel guest’s purses are searched
regularly. We asked the Concierge about all of the security precautions and
she basically said there might be trouble because it was part of an American
hotel chain and “better safe than sorry”.

The Rangapanchami parade was slow but happy. It had none of the hyper-organized
media-conscious flavor of Pasadena’s Rose Parade. It seemed more like Goa
showing off to itself. The crowd stood or sat on chairs and quietly enjoyed
the show. Sometimes a costumed character would see someone taking their photo
and hold up the parade briefly to pose until the photographer signaled that
they had a good shot. After seeing the first forty or so bands, school dance groups,
and community clubs in costume, our feet hurt and we took an autorickshaw back
to the hotel. The parade went on for at least an hour after we left.

John and I did see the first big float go by. It had girls in costume riding
beside a big rotating globe. The float’s back end was adorned with a huge lighted
swastika symbol and a girl
in costume standing in front. The swastika was used in a number of the
parade decoratons – surprising to us even though we know that it was a sacred
symbol long before it came to mean something else in Germany. Our autorickshaw
drove along the back end of the parade so we got to see the rest of the floats
lined up (mostly huge lighted scenes and figures acting out Hindu stories).
The parade was fun and very interesting – I am very glad I got to see it.

Tonight, we had dinner at the excellent Riorico restaurant in downtown Panaji.
We walked by a lighted and
decorated square where there was a big crowd sitting in plastic chairs
listening to a singer (part of the celebrations of which the parade was just
one event). We fly back to Bangalore tomorrow afternoon
so we will go downtown for some shopping in the morning. I will post some of
our Goa photos soon.