On the last day of 2024, instead of looking back, let’s move forward because what has happened has happened.
Children, in a village, were asked to pen down their wishes and these were placed on a Christmas tree. The tree was full of wishes, and on one such wish paper, a child wrote: ‘Nothing’.
The year 2025 can be better than 2024 if we end the year by looking positively at the next, thinking of all, instead of just ourselves, because the self is good when there is goodness all around.
Tourism, in 2025, can have a great beginning if we realise that the good of all percolates into every individual when all of us are able to understand that sharing forms the essence of caring.
The year 2025 can be better than 2024 if we end the year by looking positively at the next, thinking of all, instead of just ourselves.
Tourism, in Goa, started with all sharing the spoils of good times and all rising up to clean the mess. If one neighbour was happy, that happiness would be shared by all in the ward.
If A did something, Z was encouraged to do another, with the common line being that from A to Z, everyone did something to get the best out of everyone and for everyone.
That was the unity in diversity that thrived when the first tourists set foot on our land.
Things have changed now, and instead of sharing, A has decided to do everything himself, thus leaving the others to search for something else, and greed has ended up creating a divide that has left the industry slipping into potholes.
If on the wrong track, good returns, therefore finding the right way forward is not a difficult task and hence, expecting tourism to pick up its old pace is not an untenable task.
Tourism, in Goa, started with all sharing the spoils of good times and all rising up to clean the mess. If one neighbour was happy, that happiness would be shared by all in the ward.
Same with greed. To err is human, someone, once said; and to err constantly, someone else said, is not divine. But trying to remedy is not impossible and something attainable if the will is constant.
Happiness cannot be bought though many believe, the more money they have, the happier they will be. All an individual needs is a mirror to see whether he is happy or not. Bank balances do not reflect the truth. It is so simple.
The tourism footfalls this year have not been good, however much we may try to prove otherwise; but that is definitely not the end of the tunnel because if people came it was because we were good, and they will start coming again if we open up the good in us, again.
It’s that simple because Goa has always been inherently good. The world knows we are good, and that is why they still keep coming because like many, they too are aware that no one can rub the goodness off us. It is the question of us deciding to opt back to the good ways.
When there is a lot of good around, the bad disappears naturally, and hence the need to struggle does not arise, but consistency needs to steady.
Perhaps the little child’s wish that was pegged on that Christmas tree expressed it all in that one word – nothing.
