By Rajan Narayan

AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when Goa was in the grip of a heatwave with temperatures going up to 37 degrees Fahrenheit. For a Saturday following the week with the disclosure that the Panaji Smart City project has sunk Rs1,051 crore down in the drains of Goa’s capital city. For a Saturday following the week when we learned about the huge scam of undervaluation of large properties bought by real estate sharks from outside for mega building projects. For a Saturday following the week when tensions are rising, particularly in Uttar Pradesh on the eve of Holi. For a Saturday following the week when the Artificial Intelligence-generated images of Indian Cricket and Bollywood celebrities at the Championship trophy finals in Dubai entertained us.

GOA HEATWAVE
AND a few stray thoughts on Goa being in the grip of a heatwave with temperatures going up to 37 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s hot not only during the day but even in the late evenings. Avoid open-air parties on lawns, even by the seaside. Which may be difficult given that most Goan and non-Goan weddings and parties are held in open air venues.
Last Saturday, on March 8, when I was at a mega party by the beach side at a five-star hotel in Benaulim, it was so hot on the lawns that everyone was sweating. Never mind that the venue was adjacent to the beach. Normally, there are cool breezes blowing that offer relief from the day’s heat. But not this year in 2025 when even the breeze was hot if it was there.
The situation was made worse by the fact that there are no fans on open-air lawns, even in five-star hotels. The bright lights almost at eye-level aggravated the night heat. The MET department, which kept reporting the cold wave in February, has started issuing alerts for the heatwaves. Even going for a swim in the sea does not help as when you come out the sand on the beaches in hot, hotter and hottest making you do a dance.
The heat is very dehydrating and is not kind to the Zomato and Swiggy delivery boys who have to work in the scorching heat. Which is why it makes no sense to prepone the opening of schools to April instead of June as it has always been not only in Goa but in all parts in the country. The logic behind reopening schools in June is that the months of March, April and May are much hotter in India.
It’s only in June with the arrival of the monsoons that the temperature falls dramatically. This is the reason why schools enjoy a long vacation and reopen only in June. Never mind that this involves additional expenditure towards raincoats and protection for the kids. But Indian kids including kids in Goa love to play in the rain and jump around in the puddles, coming home wet and dirty much to the horror of their mothers.
Kids seems to have natural immunity. Don’t shout at kids. Let them have their fun when they can. It’s time to worry when they become adults with kids of their own. Not surprisingly parents after protesting with the Educational department have filed a public interest litigation demanding that schools should not be ask to open during the hot months.
When the British ruled India they even shifted the capital from Delhi to the Shimla hill station to escape the heat of the plains. Offices functioned from 7am to 2pm to escape the heat. In Portuguese Goa we had the system of the afternoon siesta which helped people to stay indoors and escape the heat.

PANAJI SMART CITY
AND a few stray thoughts on the disclosure of the Panaji Smart City project which has sunk Rs1,051 crore down the drains of capital city. It has been recently revealed that the Central government had granted funds of more than Rs1,500 crore for the Smart City Panaji project, of which over Rs1,000 crore have already been spent.
The money for Smart City project was supposed to provide world class infrastructure to Panaji. It was part of a Central government project covering a dozen cities all over the country including Indore in Madhya Pradesh which is considered the smartest, cleanest Indian city. A senior IAS officer, who was the first commissioner of the Corporation of the City of Goa, Sanjit Rodrigues, was brought from Delhi to supervise the project. All that the Smart City project did was to destroy Panaji city.
Every major road is being repeatedly dug up for drainage and utility pipes and footpaths and restoration of the roads. Even now most of the roads are in a terrible state including the commercial hub of Panaji and 18 June road. The biggest scandal perhaps are the new bus stops put up by the Smart City project. The only saving grace has been the electric buses which have been welcomed by all the citizens.
Let the good god spare us from any more smart city projects. Panaji was better off when it was a dumb city with its old roads and ancient but functional drainage network comprising of septic soak pits. In any case, most residences of Panaji have refused to connect to the underground drainage network.

REAL ESTATE SHARKS
AND a few stray thoughts on the huge scam of undervaluation of large properties bought by real estate sharks from outside Goa for mega new building projects. One of the biggest beneficiaries has been the mega projects in Bicholim by a Delhi builder, with an investment of over Rs10,000 crore offering luxury farmhouses.
It has now become known that the Town & Country Planning minister himself is a partner in this mega real estate project in Bicholim. The huge parcel of land estimated to be over a 100 hectares has been reportedly sold by Kharapur Estates to the Delhi builder Abhinandan Lodha. The huge land parcel was allowed to be converted by the TCP at a price much lower than the prevailing market price in that area. Kharapur Estates is a partner in the project and has given the land to Lodha on a profit-sharing basis. Kharapur Estates is a subsidiary of Kharapur Agrochemical, which is owned by Divya and Vishwajit Rane.
The Town & Country Planning Department has admitted before the high court that there was cross undervaluation in as many as 46 cases of land conversion. This was admitted in HC in Goa by the TCP department in response to a public interest petition filed by Swapnesh Sherlekar.
The state government has lost several crore rupees due to the undervaluation of the converted land for housing and commercial purposes. The huge parcels of land were assessed at the old rate of 200 per sq meter as against Rs1,000 per sq mt stipulated in the new notification issued on March 28, 2024.

HOLI BLUES IN UP
AND a few stray thoughts on rising tensions, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, on the eve of Holi. The problem rises from the fact that Holi this year is on Friday, March 14 when traditionally, Muslims offers namaz even in the normal course. This being the month of Ramzan a much larger number of Muslims go to the mosque to offer namaz.
The district collector in some areas in north Goa have directed Muslims to offer namaz after the end of the Holi celebration at 2.30pm. The argument of the Hindutva brigade is that Holi comes once a year while Muslims offer namaz every Friday. In many of the saffron residential areas Muslims have been asked to stay at home on Holi to prevent any clashes between the majority and the minority communities.
There is a funny twist to the Ramzan story in Jammu & Kashmir; there is backlash over YouTube videos of fashion models strutting around in the ski resort of Gulmarg in Kashmir. The chief maulana of Jammu & Kashmir, Mirwaiz Umar Farooqi, has lashed out against the outrageous and obscene display of attire that hurts the sentiment of Muslims at the start of the Ramzan fasting.
The target of the anger of the maulana is designer duo couple, Shivan and Narresh, who held a fashion show to mark the 15th anniversary of their fashion label in Gulmarg. The former vice-chancellor of the Jammu University, Professor Siddique Wahid, has described the show as “a naked conspiracy and a veiled threat by the uncivilised in the country.”

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AND a few stray thoughts on the Artificial Intelligence-generated images of Indian Cricket and Bollywood celebrities at the Championship trophy finals in Dubai. Suddenly I found a flood of images of Sara Tendulkar, the daughter of Sachin Tendulkar, with Shubham Gill who she is supposed to be dating. The videos shows not only Sarah celebrating the World Cup victory but also enjoying a holiday in a bikini on a Dubai beach. This seems to be fake as I doubt bikinis are allowed on the beaches in Dubai. There are also so called images of Hardik Pandya with his new girlfriend Jasmin and Virat Kohli with his wife Anushka Sharma. There is also a charming image of Capt Rohit Sharma with his daughter. There are also images of Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar along with Sachin Tendulkar arriving at the stadium for the champions trophy finals.