AT MIRAMAR BEACH: Refurbished water fountain and a brand new playground for children. Tourists take to posing against the old model of a fish which continues to be a big hit with children and adults alike. There are swings, there are slides and workout stations and ample sitting space around.
By Tara Narayan
Eating is Fun / Eating is Yuck! – A variety food column
SOME mixed for thought this week, okay. There is a feeling of Christmas in the air with the cold creeping in and catching one unawares if one steps out of at dawn and dusk in search of whatever. But I’m missing the usual Christmas fizz this year, it’s been two years of sad stories filling my ears and I’m in no mood to celebrate too much, excuse me.
What do Ponjekars in capital city Panaji have by way of timeless rest and recreation? A handful of some indifferent public-unfriendly pocket gardens and there is the timeless beachside of Miramar which is much sort after for an evening out by stressed out locals and tourists alike. Go alone or go with family and friends! I was visiting Miramar beachside after a long time after the tin wraps came down and noticed how the old Rotary Club of Mumbai garden has been garnered for the reportedly Rs10 crore Manohar Parrikar memorial which is still coming up. But the old Miramar beach playground has undergone some refurbishing and I spent a late afternoon turning into evening out here last week.
CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND
I AM so happy the children’s playground set amidst the leafy Malabar almond and casuarina trees (next to the caged up Dayanand Bandodkar memorial) has retained the rainbow-colored whale model in whose voluminous mouth children like to run in and out and seniors from outside Goa like to pose against. There’s a collection of slides, swings and other play stations with neat parapet seating arrangements which nobody can pick up and walk away with…an eatery of old is still ensconced here; and mercifully the Safe Drinking Water (donated by House of Caculo’s and House of Dempo’s) has been retained but it looked like it is dispensing chilled bottled water and other snacks – isn’t it supposed to dispense only cool potable drinking water for free to a thirsty public?
One of the innumerable X’mas sales of the season was on here and shoppers were busy looking at pretty hand-made Christmas decorations including exquisite hand-made Jesus crib and stable artefacts, lamps and lights, scarves, colourful costume jewellery from around the world, hair ornaments, lots of clothes, Tupperware, glamorous masks (costing Rs600 plus, plus), an eye-catching sale of cacti and potted plants…odds and ends which may or may not catch one’s fancy. A variegated jade plant appealed but at Rs250 I was in no mood to buy it! In any case mine is a story of na ghar ki na ghat ki… an eternal wanderer! Where will I carry plants with me!
HEY, there’s enough built up spacing out here now to rent out regular shopping plaza and food court here at the Miramar beach courtyard makeover and the Corporation of the City of Panaji can mint money. Some workers with a supervisor in tow were toing and froing, picking up litter junked by careless shoppers and those patronising the food fair here – Rs200 for a samosa chaat and I thought inflation has hit the chaat array of popular pani-puri, sev-puri, aloo patice chaat and the rest of it, but pani-puri by itself was Rs50.
There were the ubiquitous Manchurian balls and steamed corn which always seem to do well and I enjoyed my cup of steamed, buttered, mildly spiced and lemon-ed but slightly chewy corn (Rs80 per cup full), it was Rs100 per Manchurian balls plate. Some were retailing high end stuff like chicken xacuti and sorpotel stuffed in poie to go with home wines of grape, pineapple, loveapple, jackfruit, starfruit and ginger (Rs450 to Rs500 bottle, terribly pricy I thought).
WELL, what’s not pricy these days? At the early morning Panaji pavement market this morning a vendor wanted to give me four Goan lemons for Rs50 and I had to sigh and let them go. I’m not going to pay more than Rs10 for a lemon no matter how thin-skinned, fragrant, many-seeded and Goan it is…Belgavi lemons will do me fine!