How to write a thriller

submitted by the author to TGF on June 19, 2003

( This letter is written to Mr. Manohar Parrikar, the Chief Minister of Goa )

Dear Mr Parrikar,

I hope the monsoon hasn’t clogged your pathways and drives as its doing to other parts of the State. Monies have been washed down the drains this time too. But I think this note is long overdue, in all good faith, so here it comes.

The electricity supply has been most erratic in my building (it has already claimed my computer and seriously threatening to defuse my refrigerator yet again). And I’m contemplating water harvesting, since everybody’s talking about it without a clue of what it’s all about. My daughter insists that hosting the International Film Festival in Goa will get her favourite Shah Rukh Khan often to our sunny State (and I don’t like him one bit. But come to think of it, Harrison Ford will never survive the long journey this far), so let’s get down to brass tacks here, shall we?

A girlfriend, a film producer, and me got into animated conversation over coffee on a rainy day, over what the international film festival would mean to her, like-minded professionals and me. She was on a high having read the headlines, first thing in the morning. She argued it would give us a platform to build a network of people who would finally have an umbrella to work under and hence encourage more serious talent to come to the fore. More importantly, it would mean a shot in the arm for women in the film industry, struggling to make their work known amidst chauvinistic branding – you know, men think women who make women related movies, or are even remotely feminists in their opinions, are loud mouths. And don’t I just love taking the mickey off these kinda blokes.

Now, I’m a good listener – especially when someone makes sense (I’m not going to mention the hare-brained I meet often, who can’t speak to save their lives, but know everything about everybody else) -- so I decided not to interrupt. She continued between many sips of the cup, that since the government was looking forward, wouldn’t they be interested in letting the fruits of this development percolate down to the villages where women could tell their stories in a structured 70mm format. She volunteered we were going to do it (I love her spirit and we are going to take this momentum forward, come hell or hailstorm), and Goa would lead the way in being the first to boast a women manned film production company, run by women, doing movies about women. Having worked hard to start her own film company, now recognised by the United Nations (she leaves for Los Angeles soon to garner more support), she was enthusiasm personified. So was I, till the sunset later that day and I began feeling the pulse around.

A senior politician, who I met at a party, feels otherwise. A good writer always gets both sides to the story, right? A little show of empathy is all that he needed to come spilling the beans. He scoffed, pulled a chair close, accusing this was your government’s ploy at making an `organised’ fast buck, while ensuring your next ticket to the electoral poll. Corruption in Goa has gone hi-tech, he argued, from the political to bureaucratic hierarchies, the stakes having gone super high with a show of superficial development to molly-coddle the public. The old problems are still there (flooding, digging, garbage and let’s look beyond Panjim please), he ranted, but the hype has camouflaged it all. The Film City, because it seems this is what the entire move has been targeted towards, will bring organised crime into play, he suggested. Does the government know how it plans to woo Hollywood to Goa – and indeed re-package Goa to the West -- when all we’ve been flying down are the grave-diggers, plumbers and now cheap Russian tourists, despite the grand tours to Cannes and where not, he countered. This is another smart saffron move, he concluded.

Now I worry easily. Fortunately, I find comfort in a few nagging questions that people in the know have begun to pose, including veterans who’ve seen it all, and parrot the same doubts.

I’m worried this may be another political ploy indeed targeted at the vote bank. I remember your visions for fly-overs in the capital, in pure Venice style, complete with gondolas in the `garbage’ creek at Mala, which has taken a back seat. I worry, especially having seen the IT dream backfiring (and Goa had so much potential to make it as an IT haven and failed precisely because of infrastructural problems), after many a tall promise. The rest of the country has made its displeasure known too, so there’s definitely more than meets the eye. It can’t be Goa’s pristine beaches (without lifeguards and boating licenses, may I add) that has the Centre’s hots directed at us. So, what is it?

The mood gets gloomier, I’m sorry to say.

I want to make sure this dream doesn’t fizzle out, like an Utopian bubble waiting to meet its nemesis, after the necessary money has been pumped in and we are left with another white elephant, like the Goa University, which can’t seem to get its act or priorities together. There are too many `ifs’ in this plot and that’s not a very good situation to be in.

I’m optimistic though. But my needs as a lay citizen are basic (I care less about the sophisticates who can always take off to the Bahamas when the heat gets unpleasant here). We need infrastructure that can successfully meet the demands of quality education (and a variety that allows for choice of vocation given the rising population), transportation (without buses toppling off roads and cities that don’t go dead at 7.00pm), health care systems (with 24 hour ambulances and a team of qualified doctors in our villages to save lives) and security (to ensure free movement and police that jump to the rescue) to ensure a raised standard of living without burning holes into the pocket. You will agree that inflation levels have shot up beyond comfort levels, with no relief from taxes. I know I have to go along with the momentum, but I can’t help applying the brakes for a re-think. Not all of us are jolly good fellows, happy with a good laugh, many drinks and a twist. I need to know whether the common man will be forced to bear the brunt paying the price of lop-sided development to see a few celebrity backsides?

Maybe, this could be the premise of a good woman-backed thriller? It has the right ingredients – a sassy woman, a crooked politician, a goon in disguise trying to come across as suave, intrigue, deceit and an anti-climax. You will agree great ideas do come from simplistic thinking! Cheers.

In good faith,

Me

PS: I struggled for two whole days to make this column to print, because the internet quit and just wouldn’t resuscitate. I had to resort to the good ol’ rudimentary method of hand delivery. Welcome to Goa!.




Ethel da Costa
June 19, 2003
 

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