Goa- Banana Cigarettes- Riding a Lori-Get Me To Delhi On Time

One of the many beautiful beaches of Goa
Anjuna, Calangute, Dauna Paula, Colva were ones I visited.

        GOA--  [Go- uh]----- Is India’s smallest state.  It’s beaches are on the Arabian Sea.  It was under Portuguese rule for around 450 years until annexed by India in 1961.  It is known for its beaches & architecture.   It’s  capital, Panji, [Pawn-Jeye] has a European flavor, rural villages are very Indian in nature.  It’’s very tropical. The main crops are coconuts, cashews, rice, sugarcane, pineapples, mangos, bananas & tobacco.  It’s soil is rich in mineral and humus.         

    Lois  [from Mo.] & I were scheduled to go to West Bengal.  There was great political unrest in West Bengal so at the last minute they decided to send us to Goa.  Lois had been in Kerala a neighboring state to Tamil Nadu.  
              When I went to Kerala to meet Lois, so we could travel to Goa together. I met a girl & her  Father with whom Lois had made friends, her name was Mani. {Mawn-knee}  She & Krishna were the two people I corresponded with the longest after coming home.  I received a picture of her, her husband & their first child several years after getting back home.  They moved & I lost their new address, I always hoped she would write again so I would have the address but it didn’t happen.  I eventually lost contact with Krishna. 
        Riding the boat to Goa was an experience, it was very old & rickety looking.  There was a sump pump pumping out water that leaked into the boat.   The motor sounded like it would quit any minute.  Fortunately we were always close to shore.  I assured myself I could swim ashore, if I had too!
    In Goa we would go to an area and if the Ag Agents hadn't found a home for us yet so we might spend a night in a hotel while they found a family for us. We were so unexpected that we stayed at the same home  a couple, maybe 3 times.  It is very hard to remember the families I had in Goa.  Some were for only a week .  I had about as many city families as I had village families.  The village families were much like the families in Gujarat or Tamil Nadu however their crops were more of a tropical nature.  The city families were almost european  in nature.             
      Goa had been under Portuguese Rule  & there was a strong Catholic influence.  They had many celebrations that looked very much like a Hindu celebration except that a statue of Mary took the place of the statue of a Hindu god. The large cities in Goa like Panji were much like western cities but 5 miles away in a smaller village it was much like the rest of India.

      

Food often found in an India Meal

A GOA FAMILY--- I can’t remember their name but they were the closest I had to the usual stay with a  family in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.  I stayed with them maybe 3 weeks.  I ate off the banana leaf there more than anywhere.   Although I ate off of leaves in most of my families, some were several smaller leaves sewn together to make something big enough to hold food.  Some were bigger leaves that only took a 2-3, but one piece of banana leaf made a good plate. 
      They were a great family & they felt strongly about their religious teaching of sharing their wealth with the poor, but also realized that many beggars were exploited by someone who would take away  money.  So they took extra food with them to give beggars knowing if there were those manipulating them they were only interested in money and would let the beggars keep the food to take home.  In this way they were following their religious teaching.  This family was landowners that lived close to a big city so they took me many times to visit parks, historic sites & flower gardens where we would picnic. We took food with us in the multi- layer aluminum canisters whenever we went to the city in case they encountered beggars, which we rarely did. With them I only saw 1-2 very poorly dressed women approach us while eating in a park & they gave them large helping of the food. 


AMERICAN HIPPIES---- Lois and I were taken to or visited on our own several beautiful beaches, which were often filled with American Hippies.  They smoked  pot and many swam nude in the ocean. They were also good at littering the beaches.  Even clothed & reasonably sober you could see they weren’t all that welcome.  Actually detested was probably a better way to describe it.  Like tourists they were all about themselves & gave little thought to the people or country of India.

    Ice  Cream Place --- I don't remember exactly how many times, but Lois and I  visited an Ice Cream Parlor we discovered on the City Square in Panji.  It seems we must have had at least 2 families in Panji & had the opportunity to go about the city by ourselves.  Lois & I would stop by the ice cream place when we went to the post office or maybe shopping.  We were once leaving the Ice Cream place and walking down the street back to our hosts when Lois turned quickly and sharply said,  ''No Hippy''.  There had been two young men walking behind us, apparently discussing whether we were Hippies or not, apparently in English, but being hard of hearing I hadn’t hear them.  I guess one thought so but the other didn't.  Lois's actions surprised me.  She was very inclined to be easy going, courteous & very polite. 

          
    ADULT EDUCATION CLASS----I remember Lois and I being taken to an adult  night education class. We were taken by someone familiar to the program who explained things to us.  It was in a small, poorly lighted, not to well constructed building.  There was one woman in the class with several men, she was attending although her husband and both his and her family was very much opposed.  Lois told her the story of the Tortoise and the Hare to encourage her to  persist in her endeavor to get an education.  The room was dimly light but I saw what looked like an energy wave passing between Lois and the lady.  It was present for several minutes, always while Lois was talking directly to the lady.  It was really strange & eerie but there was obviously something there.  Lois would talk to the men & the image would not be present, but when she again talked to the lady the image would appear again.  This happened several times.  I could hear the passion in Lois's voice when she spoke to her.  It was as if there was some other type of spiritual communication beside verbal taking place.

       
     BANANA CIGARETTES---I smile when I think of the long talking too I got when we were going to visit a Banana Plantation Lois had previously visited.  She knew I would be offered a cigarette made of banana leaves.  She knew I didn't smoke and had turned down many previous offers, but she wanted me to be sure and accept the cigarette and smoke it so as not to risk the chance of offending the owner of the plantation. We toured the plantation, sat with the owner in a garden spot, had tea and were both offered cigarettes.  I accepted mine, thanked my host politely and smoked the banana cigarette, which was very mild.  The cheapest cigs in India were called ‘Beedies’ & were simply a raw tobacco leaf rolled into a small round shape.   Some were hand rolled, like back it the 50's, with paper & tobacco, a lot of manufactured one looked like the ones smoked by relatives back in the 50's,  I don't remember seeing filter tips.

          

An Indian Lorry similar to the one Lois and I
hitched a ride on.

     RIDING THE LORRY-----Lois was  much more adventurous than I.  We had been somewhere & was  returning to our host, I assume. It was one of those times they had put us in the same family.   I would have taken a bus but Lois suggested we hitch a ride on a Lorry.  I don't know if it was Hindi or what, but trucks were called that all over India.  They are quite beautifully painted with flowers; pictures and scroll work in a native language. With maybe a business name in English. Lots of names ended in, Ltd. {Limited}   I often smiled as it also looked like a good description of the businesses abilities too. They were large dual wheel trucks that carried many things and types of materials, often bags of all kinds of grains.  There were always men riding on the backs of them.  Some were workers with the truck and others were hitchhikers saving bus or train fare.  So, Lois and I flagged down a truck, one with sacks of grain, I apparently pointed in the direction the truck was headed and said the name of the village or city we were headed to and the driver indicated, yes, he was going there.  Lois and I climbed up on the back of the truck and found a seat on the sacks along with 4-5 young men that were already there. I looked like some were workers with the truck & other like they were just hitching a ride like Lois and I.   I remember that some or all spoke English, as we talked with them as we rode.

         
      MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE--Sometime, in our stay in Goa, in Panji, Lois and I attended a dance.  It was at a College, I believe.  There were some college age young ladies  and also a large number of young men.  Lois being the only American young lady became a very popular dance partner.  I was constantly being approached by guys asking permission to dance with Lois.  I don't know if they thought Lois and I were a couple or what, I  remember dancing with Lois some.  I tried to tell them they didn't need my permission to dance with Lois, they only needed to ask her, but they continued to come to me, so I just  started responding with,  “Yes”.  Being the fun loving person she was Lois had a great time. I seem to remember the only girl from India I danced with was the cousin of a Catholic Priest {probably late 20’s} who was my host for a week.  She must have been going to the College.  She had often stopped by his house.

       
    GET ME TO DELHI ON TIME   As it came time to go back to New Delhi I was concerned about the Indian Govt. sending my ticket, it was getting close, Lois had received her ticket but I hadn’t. I contacted Mom Wilcox asking her to send me a $10 money order,  All of us IFYES had left money with them, so that I could buy my own ticket if necessary.  Well the ticket from the Govt. arrived, but not the money order.   Lois & I to traveled together to Bombay/Maumbi by boat again only this one was a little better than our first one. 

      Lois and I rode the train back to New Delhi from Bombay.  We took the top two births, one on each side, of the compartment since it was going to be a long ride mostly during the night.  We  slept off and on.  When we would wake up we would look down below and there was always someone new, some times several people sitting there. So we would kinda look at each other, shrug, make a little facial gesture and go back to sleep.