Hi,
If you are from Goa, if you’ve lived in Goa, know of stories of Goa, understand the quirks that moves people there, I want to talk to you.
Why do I want to talk to you?
I am an author and I am working on my next book. My first one, The Nidhi Kapoor Story, is here.
And since I am the author, I can play God and decide how, where, when do things happen in the book. On a whim, I have decided that I want an important part of the book to happen in Goa.
And since I am an outsider at best, I want to know about the place from people who know it. The ideal way to do it would be to live in Goa for a few weeks, talk to the locals, capture their stories et al. But since I dont have the luxury of an unlimited bank balance, I can do the next best thing – talk over the phone, email, Skype, etc.
What would I want to know?
I dont know. I want a freewheeling conversation to start with. In it, you can talk about one of the following (or more, or less, or anything else altogether)…
- How was it to grow up in Goa? How was school? What did you do outside of it? What were you most fascinated about? What were you most scared of? What did you want to do after school hours? How did you kill time?
- How is it to live there? How has it changed over the years? What are your earliest memories of Goa?
- What are a few cliches about Goa? What do most people get wrong about Goa? What myths do you want to dispel about it?
- What are a few best kept secrets about Goa? And what are a few open secrets?
- If someone were to read a book on Goa, what must it include? What are other books, films etc that do great justice to the story of Goa?
- What makes Goa unique? What are a few things that are peculiar to Goa?
- What are the famous folklores of Goa that you’ve heard from your grandparents? Who are some notorious characters of Goa?
- What is that one story that is quintessentially Goa?
- What incidents have made Goa Goa?
- If there’s something that you could change about Goa, what would it be?
I can go on and on with this.
This is just a small list that I put together in about 5 minutes. Once I have had enough discussions with people, done enough desk research, read enough, I will followup with specific questions.
What do you get in return?
Not money for sure.
But I can offer gratitude and send some good karma your way.
Oh, I will also give you credits in the book and send a copy of the book when it comes out (it WILL come out – my first one did and there is no reason why this one will not. Hope you like reading it 🙂
What else?
I dont know. I am very open minded and welcome all suggestions. Please please please help me. I promise I will not waste your time.
Thanks for reading this!
SG
P.S.: The best way to reach me is on twitter (@saurabh) and the second best is to email me.