No.4 No.4
Rants De Goa
The The One One with with The The Masquerade Masquerade
We enter Goa holding a million ideas.
The heady mix of excitement and anticipation slowly mingles with a dropping of inhibitions. We don our annual Straw Hats, our flimsy white block-printed muslin shirts and spanking new flip-flops, even chug a beer at the departure gate. We’re raucous on the flight, even clapping when we touch down.
We then begin aggressively letting loose and end up having a fairly hazy memory of the entire trip.
The entire experience is not unlike attending a Masquerade Ball - strangely mirrored in Goa's Carnival, that traces it's roots back to the introduction of Roman Catholicism, occurring before the abstinence of Lent.
The carnival is presided over by King Momo, who on the opening day orders his subjects to party. And that’s just February. A year-long Masquerade plays out everyday at the beaches, the high-energy bars and clubs, the glitzy casinos and the streets of otherwise quiet village by-lanes.
The Masquerade mask introduces us to our own split personality, offering us a vacation from ourselves. Historically, a Masquerade allowed for deviant behaviour, the mask almost becoming an aphrodisiac. The mask freed you from your daily constraints. Since the mask provided detachment from identity, it provided a sort of detachment from traditional morality. The Masquerade became a symbiotic construct of Voyeurism and Self-Display. Wearing the mask we channel powerful neuroscience. We are now a new person, cloaked in anonymity.
The Masquerade fetishises the Oriental, the Foreign and the Variant. Masquerades remove restraints on Eating, Drinking and Gambling. The atmosphere is made decidedly Carnivalesque. Music and lavish drinks further relax inhibitions, and sensual pleasure is celebrated to it’s extreme.
Sounds familiar ?
Masks for this Masquerade come in different shapes and sizes. A constant state of inebriation, or Beer Goggles. Dark sunglasses at the Beach beds. A group or flock of friends, all egging you on, providing you encouragement to ‘do it’, this is Goa! Maybe even a white muslin shirt and a straw hat. A rented Jeep with everyone hanging out of it.
The Mask is less obvious now, but the behaviour it enables is extremely distinct.
The Daily Goan Masquerade has resulted in a weaponised Masculinity, with surges in lewd behaviour, voyeurism, entitled behaviour and Thar Jeep rentals. The mask remains on through nights of revelry, littering and generally unacceptable behaviour. With Casinos that offer special guests accommodation in surrounding villas and apartments, we mix the weaponised masculinity with ordinary families and children, creating a volatile toxic mix.
When the mask is finally taken off, it’s the last flight out at the Departure Gate, with a final drink of warm beer, and a slurred promise to do it all again, next December.