22:43 IST
the blue room
Baina, Goa

Woke up later than I wanted to (story of my life), and headed out with Johnny to take some document the city. We walked over a railway footbridge where Johnny shot a timelapse and I admired a small owl sitting pretty and curious on a tree branch. We took the scooty and zipped around the port, and shot some bizarre graffiti outside the walls of the port. “Make Vasco the Best Town in Goa!” “Don’t Fight Nature, Fight Yourself!” The irony.

We then headed to the market, with an objective to speak to the locals about what they thought about their city and the pollution in it. Now, I am not entirely sure how this process works. Johnny knew his role. He was the camera person, meant to shoot and record. I am meant to do the talking. How do I begin? What do I say? Should I just straight away jump at the crucial questions? “Hello stranger! Can you tell me what you think about this pollution situation in Vasco?” Actually, now that I write about it, it seems legit. That’s exactly how reporters go around interviewing strangers. In my head at the time, everything was a clusterfuck. I wanted to get the person comfortable talking to me. Anyhoo, we walked into the fruit market, admired the variety of fruits – bananas big and small, apples, oranges, custard apples, and glorious massive green avocados. We walked up to a fruit seller, and asked him if he could give us two apples to eat here. He picked up two, cleaned them with water, and handed them over. We began eating, and I started talking to him. General stuff at first, about him, then about his work. He was born and raised in Vasco, and had seen it change over time. He seemed to like the development, but hated the trucks that went through he city. They are the main cause of accidents and pollution here. He said he was glad that the highway was being built near the Baina beach, as the trucks would no longer go through the city, and thus there would be less pollution.

Intrigued by his view, we went around seeking some more. One of the ladies selling vegetables confidently told us that the pollution had gone down, and everything was great with the city. Before taking these interviews, I had been warned by some people that the locals would not be willing to openly speak the truth. I was aware and anxious about that. But these two seemed to be convinced the other way. Maybe its not about being open, maybe it is about being drilled certain “facts”?

With these thoughts, we headed to Margao, for our main interview of the day, with a fascinating person, spearheading this movement. He is an activist, a small, wiry but strong looking man in his 50s, White hair and an open friendly face. He loves nature and the tribal communities and is a full time activist, spending most of his hours filing and fighting cases for the communities. We wanted to speak to him about Goa, about the changes that have taken place over the years, and the current situation.  He explained everything beautifully. I have a lot of transcribing to do. Yay.