1.01 Villages, Ferries, Rivers! Experience Goa the way Goans do with Varun Hegde of Soul Traveling

Goa is not just a destination, it’s a lifestyle. Varun Hegde started his offbeat tours company, Soul Traveling, in 2017 to change the way people travel and to help them experience the REAL GOA by interacting with the local communities. 

Varun reveals his favorite village, beach, dish, building and some lesser known facts about Goa that will blow your mind. Why did he go from being an engineer to a travel expert? Why do Goa’s popular tourist destinations have so many ghost stories? How can you be a responsible tourist? And is the afternoon nap Goa’s best kept secret? Tune in to discover a brand new side of Goa!

Travel tip: On your next trip to Goa, you could pluck cashews with the villagers, shuck oysters with the local fishermen, relax on a ferry across the river or cycle along the village roads. Maybe you could visit the ‘ghost church’ and find out it’s not haunted after all. 

Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.

Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor. 

Produced by Tara Khandelwal and Aishwarya Javalgekar

Editing and soundtrack by Aditya Arya

Artwork by Artisto Designz

Brought to you by Bound, a company that helps you grow through stories. Follow us @boundindia on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts.

Hosted by Clyde D’Souza. He is a creative director who has worked in TV, print, and digital. His book Susegad: The Goan Art Of Contentment captures Goa through conversations, memories, stories, recipes and much more. He lives between Mumbai and Goa and lives the Susegad lifestyle every day! Follow him on Instagram @clydedsouzaauthor.

Transcript

Clyde D'Souza  00:23

Hello and welcome to Susegad Stories From Goa. I'm your host Clyde de Souza. I'm a three time published author, media professional, and a go on who loves everything about Guam. My latest book is called to say God, the golden out of contentment. In my podcast I chat with some famous and some of my favorite goals. And together we explore go beyond the speeches from Fany to follow Casa to cashews, come discover go like you've never done before. Veronique de is the founder of soul traveling, a company that specializes in offbeat and experiential community tourism from ferry crossings to mud bots, home cooked food and Fanny tasting. Varun and his team are single handedly helping people fall in love with not just the God that we see in brochures or on beaches or on beach shacks. But with the lovely Govan lifestyle. One can experience when one literally mingles with locals in Guam. So Varun, welcome to the sociedade stories podcast.

Varun Hegde  01:42

Thank you so much for having me client. It's a pleasure to be here. And congratulations on your book as well. It's lovely, great Varun.

Clyde D'Souza  01:49

So generally, when I started the podcast, I always asked my guests where GWA they're talking to me from where's home for you and go and describe your surroundings.

01:58

So currently, I stay in a place called muda or Marga, which is more of a city in Goa, but it still has all the correct characteristics of go, you have the sushi nightlife, you have the, you know, the neighbors coming in talking in mixing around so that part of it is still there. And, yeah, so that's where I'm right now in Marga.

Clyde D'Souza  02:22

So, you know, Varun, now my earliest memories of go or, you know, was being dragged to my ancestral village, which was, by the way, in coal Valley, every summer holidays, we'd go there. And this was like, early 80s. So the only trouble we had was they were walking by on foot, getting into one of those jam pack kadamba tourist buses, right. And we go to relatives places from one relative to the other walking through fields through taking a boat across the Chaparral River, sometimes shortcuts through backroads filled with trees. And but I didn't know that what I was doing was an aspect of Experiential tourism, you know, in that sense, but yeah, tell us a little bit of your your story, what made you start solo traveling,

03:01

solo traveling was quite a journey by I was born in Benedum, then raised up came to Marga, and did what most adults do after finishing their colleges engineering. And then I went on to work for a few years ago, I was in Bangalore and in Frankfurt for for almost four years in it. And that's when I kind of realized that travel is much more than just leisure or sightseeing that was very popular. And travel can bring much more to life than just, you know, visiting a place when you have time to do it. And I also realized that gua being such, you would call it a well marketed place in that sense. It's on the globe, people know Goa, but I still felt that there was so much more in Goa that could be, you know, shown across and communicate it to people. So that's when I came back and sold traveling happened.

Clyde D'Souza  03:59

Amazing. Yeah, I mean, I'm really glad you're doing it. Because again, you know, all of us when we were growing up, or even when we do these package tourism that we take, you know that we get on to it just takes you from one spot to the other one spot to the other. And before you know it, you're back. And you've just like taking photographs with some backdrop. That's all you do. So I mean, it's exciting what you're doing. And a lot of people don't know this and even when I was writing my books to say God, I myself stumbled on so many facts about God that it's such an ancient civilization. There are rock carvings by the cushy river right that go back some 10,000 years old. It has been of course home to dynasties like the Colombia's the Mughals and of course the very famous tourists, Vasco de Gama. Right now you're there's so much so many layers of go right. So how do you kind of unravel these layers and different aspects of it to the various tourists that you know come to you?

04:52

Okay, I still wouldn't consider myself as an expert in that domain. But what was the as easy or what was, you know, most easiest in this whole journey was getting out the stories and sharing them and creating, you know, the content part of it. Because if you go to a village, if you talk to the people, people really want to talk about their villages. And then we started connecting with a lot of people who are from different fields. And they have this feeling of belonging to that place, they want to share the stories of their ancestors. And the whole thing here was building a curated trailer experience around it, and then putting it out to the people. So for research, we went to different villages, we spoke to people who really haven't, especially the old people from the village, they really love sharing their stories, from their childhood, from what they have been doing what has changed over a period of time. And then getting it verified was a process again, we also work on different concepts. So something like nature related experiences, something like the cultural one, something around food, something around the houses. And that is how then, you know, it gets people excited to see what is their inborn.

Clyde D'Souza  06:02

Yeah, I think two things that you said were very important one is that you know how much the people the local people love gua. And the other thing that you mentioned, was the villages of Goa, this whole village aspect of guava is such a strong part of it. And now we are seeing a lot of people trying to experience that as well. So for you, as someone who does this now for a living, what is one village experience that you think just blew your mind away? And what's your favorite village in Goa?

06:28

That's a very tough question. I mean, there's so many of them, I'll go with Ben on them, because that's where I was born. That's where I've kind of, you know, wandered in the lanes and actually seen, you know, things being done like going to the beach and seeing the the record being pulled in with all the fish going into the fields and you know, getting dipping into water. So all those memories, make Benalla my favorite village. An experience that blew my mind away was we recently did this festival called intrudes and now into the celebrated at quite few places as carnival. But this village called Dongri, where they celebrated like she'd mind she'd might something very local government, which is more of a lot of local folklore, dancing, and all those things come together. And this is celebrated by both the Catholics, the Hindus, they get together and do it. And if you look around, there are always instances of communal harmony across the places. I mean, you have something called a surely saga that happens where the Catholic and Hindu communities come and perform it. There is a village called Sula, where just next to the boarding point that are that you call there is a mosque and every Shigmo procession that is taken by the villagers, the Hindus, they could do a mosque and kind of take the blessings and then go for the they're nice songs around it. So these are the things that we have grown up with and we have experienced ourselves. Yeah,

Clyde D'Souza  07:53

no, the absolute great thing about Goa is that there's so many layers in terms of culture and habits and traditions. And there are Hindus that are going on, there are Catholics and all of them kind of you know, live like you mentioned, the, the in truth festival is actually something that happens before Lent. And the Hindus who are at that time under Portuguese rule, they wanted to celebrate the Shigmo festival, right, but then they couldn't because of course the Portuguese wanted the Catholic traditions to be followed. So therefore they came up with the truth right. So and therefore a lot of Hindus as well as Catholics celebrate in throughs. Before what is happening now, right, which is the carnival, which happens before Lent Season Of course. Yeah, that's an amazing thing that you mentioned and I hope that you know, people can take part in some of these things. So in terms of local food for you what what is your favorite rarely really, like, you know, that makes you you know, like smack your lips and eat with your hands? What's what's that going local food for you.

08:48

I think for everyone, it's the fish curry rice, depending on what kind of fish it is because people just think fish is one thing but every day you have a different kind of fish coming in and the way that is prepared. So we are setting up a new experience that we had this elaborate more of a go and Catholic meal and the way the preparation work, it was brilliant. It was like all this authentic recipes that have been lost over a period of time that we are trying to get back in that there was a very very interesting preparation of the bar chart that was made and I really loved the way it was made. I think to go along with when you have your meal and freshly cooked bibingka there's nothing like that, I would say so that would be the priority fish curry rice and then the rest of the things coming

Clyde D'Souza  09:31

in. Yeah, I mean, food you know, it's just the binding thing which brings us all together and suddenly enemies can become friends. So in terms of beaches, I mean go has like beautiful long coastlines. So what's your favorite beach and what experiences do you like you know, when it comes to to the beach,

09:49

I would still prefer the beaches in South Goa compared to you know, not probably because they are a little I would like to call them a little more peaceful, peaceful in that sense. Um Yeah, so I will say if you want me to pick on probably, I think the partner which is quite interesting or collaborator, Colin as we call it, that's also quite interesting on that coastline.

Clyde D'Souza  10:10

Yeah, I've heard about the partner which it's it's it seems to be catching on with a lot of people for now for tourists. It's like a touristy thing to do. But for guns to see the rivers are just part of everyday life. Like for example, my granny again to go back to a childhood memory in the summers go one's local guns flocked to the beaches, right? And the reason they do that is because they believe that it eases their aches and pains. I'm sure you know, I think you also must have done it, your grandparents did it, you know. So for guns, the seas are completely different aspect on your flight,

10:42

and you just feel at home next to see I mean, I would do that probably anywhere when I travel. When you are close to sea, you find I used to do that I used to connect back home and it was it would just feel nice that you know, you're there. The other

Clyde D'Souza  10:55

thing that is happening, there are actually more tourists in Goa than there are locals. I mean, I was amazed to know that there are like 20 lakh people locals and go approximately, and there are about 60 to 70 lakh tourists, right. Part of them are domestic there are foreign there are Britishers who come with chartered planes, there are Israelis who make Arambol their home and morjim their home, right Russians who also make signboards now only in Russian, so, and in spite of all of that guns are known to be very hospitable. Right. Now, I want to ask you, as someone who's been now doing this for some time, where do you think that hospitality of you know of guns comes from?

11:36

Okay, that's, that's a very tricky questions. Question. I will say, Where does it come from, from being brought up in a environment which is very, very unique, very different from the rest of? I mean, I would say India and rest of the world for that matter, because you have a co op. I mean, I will, if you speak from a religious angle, it was ruled by all people from all religious, you had the Portuguese before that you had the other Shah and monopolies coming in. Before that you had the Colombia's and Bucha has come warriors. Yeah. Yeah. So you had people being ruled, you know, people from all religions willing go, ah, and that's why you would have different communities. So while growing up, you'd have an exposure to all of these communities. Secondly, the Portuguese when they came in and conquered go, I mean, it became like a gateway between Europe and Asia, because this was like one of their only bases in in the country and in Asia, for that matter. So whatever used to come from Europe used to be go out with the first place you get exposed to that, and then the rest of the rest of Asia, I would say, so that, you know, you have that kind of exposure also coming in, you have concepts of families, friends, that has always been there. From the childhood you have this festivities being celebrated. Your traditions for that matter are still strong. And I mean, at some point, we realize that, you know, you need to live life the way you want. I mean, you cannot just be a Bombay or Bangalore, for that matter. Like, it just goes on and keeps running. You need your afternoon nap. You need your siesta time. Because you not because you're lazy, because you work better probably in the rest of the time that you get, you're more productive. So maybe that's the secret afternoon nap is the secret to secret to go and hospitality because they are kind of, you know, calm and peaceful after that. So maybe

Clyde D'Souza  13:33

siesta is the real secret. Yeah, but but I'm glad you said all of those things, because there was so much over there that you said, and a lot of it made sense. Because, yes, of course, there was 400 years of Portuguese and then before that there was other Shah. And then there was so many Hindu dynasties that that ruled. And then of course, during the Portuguese phase, I think a lot of goons also went to various other colonies, whether it was Mozambique or you know, Macau. So I think this entire, you know, moving back and forth seeing so many different kinds of people coming there has given GWA this very hospitable nature. But now the other thing that I want to ask you is how do you think all of this is impacting the current local scene that you think it's for the better for the worse, what's your broad take on like, you know, the entire dark side of tourism maybe or the entire this platform of you know, drugs, booze, just promotion of Monday culture? What do you think? How do you think that's impacting locals? Or do you do you are you seeing a mix of both types of people coming together?

14:34

So for one thing, we cannot deny as tourism is a major source of income or livelihood to Cohen's. However, what has happened with GWA I feel is we have not really been able to brand GWA as something very unique or different. We kind of went with the flow like there was There were parties, there was alcohol cheaply available. We just went along with that and that sort of, you know, places like Barga Collinwood started just crowding out And that is not really tourism, I would say that is more of a distraction, you have mass scale tourism, and you know, something, which kind of is not a long term thing, it will work for you in the short term, but long term, you need to work towards something more sustainable, something more intimate, you know, and something more with something which the locals will also get involved in more. So, I would say it's, it's okay, it's good in a way, because it provides people with livelihoods, but it needs to be done right? A little better, it cannot be just left on its own. Otherwise, we will just destroy what is remaining of Guam. So somewhere, you need to have more holistic approach to tourism, you need to involve the locals, because there are times and there are instances where the locals in a village would say, Okay, we are not getting anything out of it. Why do we need tourists? You know, so that is that needs to be addressed in a very good way. And that is how tourism will develop in the long run is what I feel.

Clyde D'Souza  16:00

So you know, I'm glad that you mentioned everything that you did. But on the positive front, I think it's people like you who are really changing and bringing this wave of what you're calling community tourism and involving the locals. So remember, I mentioned that the in in the beginning of the podcast that when when I go to my, my grandmother's place in commonly, okay, they live on this nice small house, which is on top of a hill and opposite that there is a shrub of like these trees and these carbon dark trees, right. Which, which is the carbon that is the berry, I don't know if you've ever eaten it, right. But it grows in a very, very thorny bush and all of us as cousins, we kind of just enter into that. And if we make an afternoon out of it, right, it becomes our little adventure when we go in through that and get get, you know, bitten by red ants and thorns walking us. But we can. Yeah, absolutely battle scars. And when we plug those Carmen does and we bring it and then we have our drink and our food. And then at the end we have for our dessert as champions who have just, you know, brought that down, we eat those carbon does. So that's our experiential, you know, thing, which I mean, I've been growing up doing that. So are you also now offering things like that, like maybe maybe plucking cashews, maybe having a bath in the way as well, because that's also something that a lot of guns do. Not now too much, of course, because there's water inside the house. But now that becomes thicker. That's something to experience, you know, so are you are you giving people also these kind of different experiences that you're thinking of? Anything that you can name me?

17:25

Absolutely. So the whole thing of plucking flowers, blah, blah, packing, you know, something that grows locally, we call it foraging now. It's like a fancy term for the state that we use all our childhood. But yes, so we have this kind of experiences already lined up already there and happening where you get involved. So for the tribal footed experience in Cancun, you visit a house of, you know, a person from the tribal community, and you go along with them, you pick up something, you get back and then you start, you know, cooking with that. We also do it in Asana. So Asana is in South Goa, very close to where the river meets the sea in Bengal. And what we do here is along with the fishing community, we get in the river on a boat, and then you get down and I don't know if you did it in your childhood, but you collect this Rio or clams. Yeah, yes. And there's a specific way to do it. So you get down on you with your feet, you kind of have this dance, which is that and then you kind of you know, can get this

Clyde D'Souza  18:27

on your toes, you wiggle your toes, and then you kind of feel

18:30

Yeah, and then we get you come back on the show. And they show you all the things that they do as fishing community, you see how often the shucking of oyster that goes on the crab catching with Copley's, and you know, the others, the things like PowerGear, and all those things, and then you get back and you kind of you get involved in the cooking process, and then you enjoy them, you have your meal along with so well, yeah, something like that something along the lines of fishing, or going into the mangroves, with birding and stuff coming in trying to pick up something local on the way you know. So all those experiences are is something we already have out there for the people to experience lovely. And we hope to have more of this as well. And we are trying to connect with a lot of locals from different fields of life and walks of life. So I would say yeah, who are interested in you know, creating this kind of things for Goa and creating that sustainable kind of tourism and at the same time making the making sure the whole model is sustainable, so that the locals are benefited. And more and more youngsters take this as a field of interest. They should look at offbeat and experience based travel as a way of making a living.

Clyde D'Souza  19:44

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I hope that people do that. I think once they listen to you, and then they see what you're doing. I'm sure a lot of people will be inspired to do the same thing. The other thing that I want to ask you is you know, growing up, I mean, we had a lot of homes that were kind of just abandoned and everybody called them home haunted houses? Right? What had happened is obviously the Portuguese had left. And most probably some of them just abandon their homes. So what we thought were haunted houses were actually people who are just left their homes like that. Right. So there were a lot of ghost stories, right and go at that time growing up. So, I mean, is that something that you're also going to offer? I mean, I don't know. I was just thinking, you know, there's some Destiny, maybe many, many homes, which are just dilapidated, they would make some fascinating stories of some old timers who can, you know, take us through some of these homes?

20:28

Sure. I mean, there are quite a few of them. I mean, you would see them in all the villages in Goa? Yes, more. So apart from the reasons of course, after the Portuguese left, there are a couple of other reasons because for goobers, it's very easy to have a Portuguese passport and a lot of people travel to Europe and other places. And secondly, there are a lot of property dispute also in Goa. That is why you have you know, houses happened. And so there have been a lot of requests for this kind of trail, something around haunted houses and all for our trails, we point out to them, we tell the stories about them, but we try to keep it a little as real as possible. Because like in a village like consoling, you have these three camps, right? But it's not necessary that the locals get really excited enjoy that for that matter. Because it can only be found that the locals are really, you know, angry at a point where people projected as a haunted church, they ask the haunted church sky and they get they get very strange answers from the locals that and it's true. I mean, you have weird stories, which are not even there. I mean, they say that they call it three King's Chapel because there was a three kings who kind of fought and you know, killed each other and stuff like that. I tried to do my research, and I have not found this story anywhere apart from Wikipedia. Oh, no,

Clyde D'Souza  21:45

no, it's not at all true. Yeah. My friend, Ashley Rodricks. He's from Consoli. And he has a nice house over there as well. And he was also annoyed that no, everybody just comes and says, Where's the ghost church? And, and of course, it's not the ghost church at all. It's a beautiful, nice Church on the top of the welcome Hill, right? So you're gonna keep your ghost stories very real. Basically, that's what you're saying.

22:05

That's the goal. But then here and there have been for one toe, you might hear a story where there are three brothers who are two brothers who fought and things like that something called local legends. Yes, like if you go to Chandler, and you ask the locals there, they would say that the village has been cursed and cursed by a queen from Columbus. So now the story goes that there was an invasion on that village. And the locals did not support the king who had who, who then died and the Queen was awakened in her father's village. And when she came back, she saw all this destruction. So firstly, she kind of took out all the gold and threw it away in the fields of Shang also, I mean, you may feel good today, people say that you might find gold in field of childbirth. And secondly, she did something like she stomped her feet on a stone next to the river. And before jumping in the river. She put a curse on the village of Chandler, she said, Chandler Boucher pads down. And she by law runs out. So Ron is basically a widow. Right? And so that curse people believe still stays, because if you see a lot of villagers, you'll find a lot of them have been widowed on a very early age. So true. No, no, no. But we share this as a local legend or a folklore. This is very interesting, because you cannot just share a story all the time. Sometimes the local legends are more interesting, but we share them as local legends, we tell that this is not something which we have, you know, historically documented. Yeah,

Clyde D'Souza  23:29

one thing it may or may not be true, basically. Yeah. Now, the other thing that's happening with Goa, which is very interesting is that it's going beyond tourism. And there are a lot of creative people, whether it's writers, musicians, painters, you know, all of these people who are now looking at shifting base to go and I guess there's, I mean, you know, they are going to become what one now calls as a transplanted, go. And you know, and there are many more of those rising. So what would you say to them? How can they maybe fallen in love with Guillermo, how can they, you know, kind of become go and what would you say to them?

24:01

Okay, so I think a lot of this talk has been going on for quite a while and, you know, going by laid off people from outside and stuff like that. So for me, anyone who loves go as a go, and I mean, I don't differentiate between someone who's from wall, someone who's from outside Co Op, anyone who loves CO and wants to contribute is a go. And there are so many examples of people who have done brilliantly. And, you know, they're not from Google, but they've moved to go and done it. And you can see it now that you know, you have some people from different fields actually showing their talent in Goa. So you have those writers, you have the restaurants, I mean, you can see any kind of restaurant opening in Goa and you have some of top chefs and bartenders in the world coming to go and setting up shop and you know, actually creating that kind of magic. You have painters you have writers you name it, and you have it you have cricketers who have moved to go so they will definitely enrich their surroundings. That's that's what I you know, anticipate, however, Do what I fear a little is, you know, go has its own way of life, there are some traditions and cultures, and whoever moves to go kind of needs to understand and learn them a little bit. Otherwise, they will be lost over a period of time, even Cocconi for that matter, I mean, that language that we speak, I mean, otherwise, it would be lost over a period of time because you don't have too many people in the world speaking, it's just a handful of go ones 2020. Like, as you say, Yeah, I

Clyde D'Souza  25:25

guess more called cote in someone's kitchen and more Ghazali on someone's body will help the Virat Kohli's of the world. We're moving to go.

25:34

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, you need to understand that about the place and you know, keep it forward. I mean, when you move to Goa, you become a part of it. And it kind of becomes your, you know, I, if I'm put it strongly a duty to Absolutely.

Clyde D'Souza  25:48

Great. Well, now, we come into our next segment, which is, you know, kind continuation kind of with this, which is that I always ask my guests, you know, that beyond what you're doing, you obviously have a love and a passion for GWA. So what according to you, is your cigar secret?

26:05

Ah, that's a tough one. I will say. So, I don't know. So Guava is something that is that is the thing to, you know, change how you're feeling. I mean, even feeling down if you're feeling out, you just go to a beach and there is something there. So, I mean, it has the best elements of nature, as well, as you know, and it can actually correct all your moods, I would say. So that's what goes for me. And you know, the secret I would say is, it's just natural and existent. Yeah.

Clyde D'Souza  26:40

I think that's a very beautiful answer, which you said. So I think that's right. I've said this before. So when you land in Goa, something changes. You know, it's it's kind of magical. And let's hope that the magic remains. So yeah, I think you answered it beautifully. Yeah. And now my next question, which is also another very important question, which I asked which has got nothing to do with cigar, but it's got to do with love. Because I think that you know, a lot of people do things for love, whether it's in a relationship or whether it's, you know, falling in love with GWA. So, what is the meaning of love to you?

27:11

A sense of belonging, I would say something that you are very comfortable with something that you don't have to stretch too much. To have something that is easy. And something that is you know what fighting Oh, that's what it was would be for me.

Clyde D'Souza  27:29

Wow, great, great answer. Okay, great. Well, now we move on to our next segment, which is called the rapid fire segment in which I asked you these really quick questions and you have like one word answers if you want, you can kind of just explain a little bit about it, but one word answers would be great. Okay, so your goal is your favorite beach and why

27:49

partner I've been there recently. Amazing water close to the sea.

Clyde D'Souza  27:56

Your favorite, go and experience our favorite

27:59

go and experience of going through the mangroves on a boat on a evening with some music and drink which we have actually created recently and I loved it. So yeah, that which which

Clyde D'Souza  28:11

drink any particular one. Now rock of course is the season of

28:15

The Season of rock star again. So yes, that

Clyde D'Souza  28:19

best going home architecture that you have seen.

28:23

Oh best go home architecture. So there is this place it's it's a house in Pune in Bundoora, which is a combination of both the in the Hindu architecture as well as a European thing. So it's a helluva a big home from of the current current memory, and it has a ballroom on top to entertain the European guests as well. So that was quite interesting for me. Apart from that, a lot of local homes with dragons, there's something I like. And something in the tribal June as well. You have mud homes, which are beautiful. So

Clyde D'Souza  29:02

yes, that is amazing. I mean, I'd love to see some of what we just mentioned. That's great. Okay, one historical fact. Bagua that amazed you completely.

29:13

Okay, I'd like to stay to hear if I may. Go ahead. One would be about your village of core wallet called Why and, you know, the father of a legendary person, personally, like a legend in the world. Yes, his father comes from and this guy has created he's done crazy things around the world with the neuro psych psychiatry is actually discovered, he's actually kind of you know, theorized the modern day psychiatry and he does not even get a mention of a footnote and a lot of literature. Yeah, he has proved the theories of mesmerism and so that this is one thing that I think you know, someone who deserves more respect in Goa, India and the world and we should kind of claim him as our own because being from poor And Kandola,

Clyde D'Souza  30:01

Alice's mother, his mother was from Canada.

30:06

So that's quite an interesting connection there. But yeah, this is one gentleman who never ceases to amaze me. And secondly, how the conquest of God changed the story of the world in that sense, where, you know, you have the, the trade route between Asia and Europe being blocked, you know, with the conquest of Constantinople. And then you just had a person who just traveled around and discovered the sea route to India, and change the whole history. I mean, imagine if it was not the case, the story of the world would have been very different, to go out and have become central, you know, with the sea route, and the Congress, of course, because then you had a base where they could do things from Europeans can do things in India, or Asia, Asians could then, you know, transmit things to Europe, and people would understand different civilizations better. So I mean, what are the pivotal role that that place has played in the history of the world that is amazing, and people don't appreciate it? Enough people see that. Okay, that's just another place which is hyped. Best for parties best for bachelors? Best for getting drunk and, you know, not remembering where you are. So, that is more than that.

Clyde D'Souza  31:14

No, it's great that the Portuguese kind of stumbled upon it. And thank God, there was no Google Maps. Yes. Okay, my next question is your best favorite just home cooked food.

31:25

Ah, so it's after maybe a dip in the sea or something. You just come back and have the fish curry rice, hot fish, curry rice with our plays the parboiled rice and

Clyde D'Souza  31:40

rice with the Husker and

31:43

yes, yes, exactly. And you have a macro curry, along with it a little spicy, a little sour. And then you have you know, good fish, like, do you know, some two or three types of fresh fish being shallow fried, and maybe a part of our research people to go with it? Nothing like that, right? I mean, that is what I would love eating on a bad day or for the rest of my life.

Clyde D'Souza  32:08

This, this made me very hungry. Okay, great. So now the other thing that I want to ask you and you know, like you said, that company is kind of, we need to keep it alive, we need to find ways to keep it alive. So I like to, you know, give our audience a phrase or a term so that maybe even they can learn the language a little bit if not the language, then at least a phrase that they can use. So what's your company phrase which you like, which you use or which you grew up listening to? What does it mean? And then give an example of it to us.

32:39

Okay, so I think I would borrow this from a very, very interesting gentleman. Sunday for the OSI, he said it in a context and it just stuck with me. And it's very true to go as well. So the phrase goes like 100, Assa, cerdo, Minnesota, sagrado,

Clyde D'Souza  32:55

this boy is on your lap, and you're looking for him everywhere. The absolute least

32:59

This means that there is something that you really need is right next to you, and you're searching the whole world for it. And that is so true in context of go, I mean, people go around the world, and people want to exploit people want to kind of, you know, go to Gulf countries, people want to go to the US and do things and you know, create things and your such things happening in Gaza. And I mean, when I when I went to the catacombs in Paris, right, you pay whatever amount for it. 20 euros or more probably, and then you go down, and you see this cars, which are lying down, right, 6 million of them at one place. Amazing experience. But then people are marketed skulls as a tourist attraction and you know, bones and go on has so much more and so many interesting stuff that can be created. So we are looking elsewhere for something that is right in our backyard.

Clyde D'Souza  33:47

Yeah, very well put. And that's a lovely phrase. I hope some people you know, can use it. Yeah. So that was a fascinating talk Varun, and you know, I mean, I'm hoping to soon experience you know, one of your trails when I'm going next. So that was wonderful. And it was great and very exciting. Talking to you. And it really was so visual, everything that you described. So thank you for being on the sociedade stories podcast.

34:14

Thank you for having me. It was so great talking to you. Thank you, you know, for this opportunity to share, talk about GWA and just kind of recollect get refreshed and motivated to do things. So thank you so much for having me client. It's a pleasure being here.

Clyde D'Souza  34:29

Thank you Varun and mortgage on me Yes. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed this episode of say God stories from Goa. Do subscribe if you're a new listener and join a community of people who love and live the golden lifestyle. Again, I'm Clyde de Souza and for more go and content you can follow me on Instagram at Clyde de Souza author. This podcast is brought to you by bound a company that helps you grow through stories, follow them and bound India on all social platforms for updates on this podcast or take a look at their other podcasts Mog Asuni and see you soon.