The Hindu Business Line : A pitch for Goan-style cricket

KERALA is God's Own Country. Goa is the finest creative doing of humans. Everyone who lands in Goa becomes a Goan. After four years one went to Paul's Goa to turn an easy, laughing human being. Mumbai became a memory.

Before starting for Goa, Kurup and oneself had a drink at the Press Club. Long ago, Kurup started as a journalist in a Goan paper while our friend, Krishna Kumar, of The Week, grew up there. "I want to go back to my dancing, smiling Goa. You are lucky," Kurup confessed. Krishna Kumar wears a Goan skin even if his roots are somewhere in Cochin. The April air of cashew, mango and jackfruits does it to everyone. A rather pungent but heady aroma of cashew fruits descends on the traveller, with Goan men busy crushing them standing atop stones to get the first extract called urrack, which for Paul is something of a drop from the heavens. "Come on, I will take you to where urrack is made," said Paul and we walked up and down Lotolim village past a 50-year-old mango tree to the distillation point.

Paul's friend was standing on a stone placed above a thick layer of cashew fruits, with the juice trickling into a stone basin. Sometimes a woman or a kid taps the flow in bottles. Paul and the man got talking of the delicacy in Konkani while one looked around not being able to take the smell. That day Herald Insight had a cover piece, screaming: "Feni makes new friends." The writer explained the process: "Traditionally, the cashew juice is allowed to ferment by itself without any fermentation agent. The first distillation produces urrack and the second distillation produces cashew feni. Very rarely, it is distilled for a third time to produce a very potent cashew feni. Most cashew feni producers in Goa still use the traditional pot-still method in which the extracted juice, after fermentation, is distilled in large clay or copper pots (bahann). This process is what makes cashew feni what it is."

Somehow this writer could never make it to cashew or coconut feni. For me it has always been Old Monk rum. At Pascoal's tiled village home at Lotolim we sat in the afternoon for a drink to watch a one-dayer between India and Pakistan. Paul and Pascoal lived on urrack while one stuck to a bit of beer before shifting to Old Monk rum. The match was not going India's way but that did not bother my friends. "Do you want to see boring cricket or listen to some music," Pascoal asked me and we listened to some music though one has to confess to being tone deaf; still Old Monk rum came to this writer's rescue.

In many ways, tourism has cropped the traditional Goan who has become as smart as a speculator on the NSE. "This way the old Goa will just be a recalled memory," a common friend told us. That could not stop Paul driving one on a scooter to his new apartment some 20 minutes away from his brother Pascoal's place. Mumbai came alive in Paul's apartment. "But at least one day I will start living in Goa and you can come over for a drink and dance," said a proud Paul. In another six months, Paul's home will be ready.

At home in Borivili last Sunday one fell back on one's Goa trip and recalled Pascoal telling me, "Boss, stop watching cricket at your age. Cricket is no fun." Ganesh and oneself settled down to watch the final one-dayer at Kotla at 9 a.m. On Saturday one had a Rs 100 bet with my good friend Veena that India will win. When one placed the bet one thought the Indian team will gift a win to that fine coach and gentleman John Wright. There is something called dying for a win. Wright pulled out India from the pits and he asked only one thing of his team: Please perform. Last Sunday India did not have it. They let down Wright. They were unwilling to play and commentators shied away from naming the seniors. But the fact is Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Laxman and Ganguly have to go. They have an excellent past but no future. It particularly hurts to write of Tendulkar, whose time is over. If he does not know, he has to be told so politely.

Rahul Dravid is in top form but does not have the dash of a captain like Sourav or Pataudi. A new coach and a new team could fail in World Cup 2007 but that is better than failing with the known brand names. A cricket team with a Goan flair is what India needs. Fun on and off the cricket pitch.

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