Fragmented Memories of Goa:

Soft Sand

Disappearing Beaches

Triumphant Sunsets

Thriving Drug Dealers

Spicy Food and Cold Beer

Five Star Hotels Drying Up Wells

Being a Tourist

Having Animosity Toward Tourists

People Resisting

Corporations Dominating

Sardines in the Covenant

Dry, Repetitive Lectures

Spreading Information

Smell of Burning Garbage

Thunderous Waves

Creepy Gawking Men

Eating Squid

Seeing Bottom Trawlers

Fenni

Ten O' Clock Curfew

A Long Ride There

A Long Ride Back

Identity, Resistance, and Liberation

We are in the last days of wrapping up our first course on “Identity, Resistance, and Liberation.” During this course we have met with leaders of women’s movements, the dalit movement, child rights advocates, bonded labor opponents, sexual minorities, religious minorities, adivasis (indigenous peoples), and farmers. We have visited NGO projects that help the disenfranchised reclaim their identities, fight for their rights, and seek justice. Most striking for me were the SWATE women in the villages near Karur, Tamil Nadu who rallied against illegal sand mining to the point of over 300 of them being arrested, the women of Mahila Samakhya Karnataka who left forced arranged child marriages to return for an education, and the women and children of the short stay home in Koppal, Karnataka who escaped abusive spouses, in-laws, or parents to seek education, freedom, and dignity.