By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the spirit of Christmas was spoiled by a lunatic Hindutva fringe targeting beef shops across Goa. For a Saturday following the week when I discovered how to eat my cake and have it too. For a Saturday following the week with the death of the creator of parallel art Shyam Benegal. For a Saturday following the week there was a tragic incident on Christmas Eve in Germany.
AND a few stray thoughts on the spirit of Christmas being spoiled by a lunatic Hindutva fringe targeting beef shops across Goa. The 75 stores selling beef across Goa and the 200 vendors shut down shops in the wake of attacks by so-called cow protection groups. This is the first time that beef traders have been targeted by the hard-line saffron group at Christmas time. Beef is part of the regular diet of both Catholic and Muslim communities in Goa and particularly during Christmas time. Bakeries in Goa offer beef cutlets on their Christmas menu.
It all began on Monday, December 23 with a clash at the South Goa Planning & Development Authority market in Margao when a group of cow rakshak disrupted beef vendors’ operations and tried to stop and attack a vehicle transporting beef. So much that with just 48 hours to go before Christmas the beef vendors and suppliers went on strike. It created depressive clouds over Christmas celebrations in Goa.
Interestingly, beef is the cheapest red meat available in Goa and prized as top quality protein. With the absence of beef many Catholic families were forced to prepare their traditional Christmas mince pies and other recipes with lamb or chicken only. The price of goat meat is Rs850 per kg and lamb is Rs900 per kg.
Though all Goans eat fish all the year around them they look forward to some prime meat dishes come the Christmas season and Christmas day. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has warned of strict action against the gau rakshak elements. The bitter truth is that on the ground suppliers and vendors of beef do not get any protection. Several opposition MLAs like Yuri Alemao have warned the government against turning a blind eye to those creating communal tension. For some reason these clashes occur only during festivals.
Traditionally Goans from all communities celebrate Christmas in a spirit of happy togetherness. This year sad to say this was spoiled by targeting attacks on beef vendors.
In the West of course the traditional meat is from turkey with almost everyone feasting on turkey meat with gusto. The standard fare on Christmas day is roast turkey with cranberry sauce. I recall my old friend Bond (Braganza of the Luizinha Stores in the Mapusa market offering to send me turkey every Christmas).
Never mind that the turkey never arrived though I used to get a hamper of traditional Goan sweets like kalkal and dodol and to mention the darkly aromatic bebinca. The Magsons outlet at the Caculo Mall has been offering ready-to-eat turkey and other meat and pork dishes for more than a decade now. All this of course comes with a very hefty price tag. Christmas for five-star hotels starts with the cake-mixing ceremony which is held more than a month in advance. Tara and I have participated in many cake-mixing ceremonies at the Marriott at Miramar beach where all the items that go into a plum cake are kept on a table and guests are invited to participate in mixing all the dry and not so dry fruit with the liquors and liqueurs to go into the cake.
The plum cake and pudding of course will need a lot of rum and maybe brandy and wine to flavour and preserved them. This is why when you buy plum pudding on Christmas day you will get the strong flavour of the liquor in it, it hasn’t flown away yet. The main attraction on Christmas day is Christmas pudding and not Christmas cake.
The wife who always pretends she is not interested in cakes has her favourite the German stollen bread which she introduced me to, it’s like a sweet rich bread which I have grown to look forward to as she is always looking around for a decent stollen. Many folk order it from their German friends who may be making it in the Dona Paula residences.
I like to spend Christmas in a 5-star hotel because of the ambiance. I remember that during one Christmas Marriott had a life-size gingerbread house filled with Christmas goodies that kids got excited over and of course wanted a piece. For a few evenings come Christmas the streets of old Panaji resound with the singing of carol singers going from home to home to say hello to young and old, who doesn’t have a favourite Christmas carol, mine is to do with baby Jesus being born in a Bethleham shepherd’s hut.

CAKE AND ALCOHOL
AND a few stray thoughts on how to eat your cake and have it too. The festive season of Christmas slipping into New Year are occasions for heavy partying with everyone inviting everyone over. Which inevitably means drinking too much. The result is those who party hard all through the night wake up with pounding headache and nausea the next morning, the aftershock of having imbibed too much darru, darru is darru no matter how refined it may be. The symptoms of hangover or dehydration, body aches, and even fever, after a wild night of drinking and dancing can be quite a spoilsport come the new year.
The traditional antidotes for a hangover have been aspirin, avocado and hot baths and even table or teaspoons of olive oil. But the latest fashion is to get yourself an IV drip to help you to recover from a hangover.
The fashion which started in New York quickly spread to other party zones like Mumbai and Bengaluru. The instant IV drip to get over a hangover has not yet come to Goa. These are not just saline IV drips. The objective is to replace the minerals and other body fluids lost due to heavy partying. In the custom-made drips vitamins like B-complex, vitamin C, magnesium, and anti-inflammatory drugs are added to the drip. In Mumbai and Bengaluru there are even mobile van happy clinics offering coming and giving you an instant fix. They are administered under medical supervision by a trained pathologist. Normally it is a one-hour drip based on body weight, height and symptoms of the person seeking the drip. There are home services for those who can afford it this expensive liberation from a hangover post-New Year.
The price of the drip starts at Rs6,000 going up to Rs35,000 depending on the cocktail which goes into the drip. Apparently, there are drip stations even at high society weddings to enable the bridal couple and guests to get through the back-to-back sessions of mehendi and sangeet, the actual wedding and reception. In our fast-moving world there are no quick-fix solutions to enable you to recover from any orgy of drinking and dancing. Not all doctors are happy with the IV drips prescribed for hangovers. Senior doctors are scandalized and point out that people have been dealing with hangovers for decades. All that you need is sleep and some rest and maybe some oral rehydration tablets.

GOODBYE SHYAM BENEGAL
AND a few stray thoughts on the death of filmmaker extraordinary of parallel art cinema, Shyam Benegal. Benegal is incidentally a Goan Gaud Saraswat Brahmin and nephew of film star Guru Dutt. He started with the film “Ankur” (Seed) starring Shabana Azmi in the leading role and went on to the classics of “Manthan,” “Bhoomika,” “Junoon,” “Kalyug.’ His film “Trikaal” was about a Goan family of Portuguese descent and shot in the ancestral mansion of cartoonist Mario de Miranda. Leela Naidu acted in the film. Benegal also made the grand epic “Bharat ek Khoj” based on Jawaharlal Nehru’s book “Discovery of India.”
I’ve had the privilege of being invited by Shyam Benegal to witness the shooting of “Manthan,” a film produced by the co-operative milk farmers of Gujarat who collectively created the Amul brand. The leading actors in the film were Smita Patel and Naseeruddin Shah besides many other versatile actors like Mohan Agashe and Urmila Matondkar. We all stayed at the farmhouse of the local Maharaja of Jamnagar in Gujarat. The climax of the film was people opposed to the milk cooperative, burning down the house of a farmer who had joined the society.
I recall going for a walk with Urmila Matonde on a brightly starlit night when she sang (“Starry, starry night”) which is a song about the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh. It was my first ride on a plane to and fro although it was an old Dakota that went up and down in the clouds and gave me the fright of my life. Benagal became a good friend but that is partly because I knew him from his advertising days when he made films on Rexona and Lux soap before he became a filmmaker.
And so my dear friend Shyam Benegal passed away in Mumbai after a brief illness at the age of 90. He lived a low-key life and will be missed by many.

SEASON OF PARTIES
AND a few stray thoughts on how so many like to spend the New Year in Goa. Unlike Christmas when there are few parties, since most Catholics go for midnight mass and like to meet up with family at home, New Year is when all Goa shakes a leg at a party. Along course with tourists from every part of the world.
The most enjoyable parties have always been the formal public parties at the popular dance venues of Emerald Lawns at Parra or somewhere else in south Goa. There is the other place for traditional Goan parties and that is Kesarwal at Verna and Church Square at Navelim. These traditional Goan parties are formal occasions where you may not turn up without a jacket. The most happening New Year party for young people used to be as far as we remember at Titos down the northern beach belt. An affordable party is organised by the International Centre Goa which spells out a retro dress code.
The best New Year’s eve parties we have attended are the ones at the Marriott at Miramar beach in Panaji and the Taj Exotica in Benaulim. The Cidade de Goa which has now been taken over by the Taj Group also offers great New Year parties. But the five-star resort parties come heavily priced at Rs10,000 to Rs20,000 per head. But they include unlimited good alcohol and a mindboggling lavish dinner buffet. Highlights include a fireworks display and other entertainment till midnight ship horns blow and church bells ring.
At one time I recall getting passes for my staff to attend the New Year event at the offshore casinos. All of them from my marketing manager Sanjeev Naik to my graphic designer Bindiya Vaval used to visit the casino for New Year to try their luck at the gaming tables. Bindiya was the lucky one who used to enviably win at the slot machines, I don’t know if they still have slot machines.
The biggest shows on New Year’s eve are packaged by the offshore casinos which are a good place to entertain yourself even if you don’t gamble. To really enjoy the New Year you must go in a group to a traditional Goan event with great live music. For the thousands if not lakhs of migrants New Year’s eve means welcoming it on the beaches of Goa.
Last New Year I spent at the Geriatric ward 115 at the Goa Medical College. I recall my attendant Amit telling me that he spent New Year’s eve on Miramar beach. I asked him what he did on the beach. His reply was, “just to enjoy.” For those who cannot afford fancy New Year bashes I presume the music of the waves and sand underfoot gives them the great joy. Alas, many migrants and domestic tourists who rush to the beaches on New Year’s eve take their booze bottles with them and leave them lying around in the sand, some bottles as broken glass to injure someone. It’s a serious issue.

TRAGIC INCIDENT
AND a last stray thought on a tragic incident happening on the eve of Christmas in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on December 20, 2024. A car driven by a Saudi Arabian doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old, rammed into a crowded German Christmas market, killing five and injuring 200 and 41 critically injured.
This incident is bound to intensify the growing anger against migrants who are mostly Muslims in Europe. Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slammed the targeting of Christians on Christmas eve. Christmas seems to have filled even Narendra Modi’s heart with love and charity. Attending a conference of Catholic bishops Modi declared that the teachings of Lord Jesus Christ inspired the strengthening of the bonds of love, harmony and brotherhood.