We spent a weekend in Goa not too long ago.
Goa is marked by beautiful beaches, cool
breezes off the Arabian Sea, and a beautiful
architecture that originally stems from
its Portuguese heritage. The locals speak
a mix of Hindi and Portuguese. The break was
wonderful - I had forgotten what it was like to
drive on roads without potholes along lanes
devoid of rubbish. We did not see desperate
poverty everywhere we went.

As I sat on the beach a young lady came up to
sell her wares. She was very chatty, very kind,
and exceptionally good at getting me to look at her
beautiful things. I picked out what I wanted and
we started to haggle over the price. After a bit of
jousting, she said,
"Ma'am, do not think of the money you are spending,
think of poor Nicki and her 2 boys."
And she was absolutely right --- what an excellent
piece of emotional blackmail that really worked!
There I was, a well off tourist staying in a beautiful
hotel with time to sit on the beach whereas she
was living on the beach with her 2 sons, struggling
to survive. So that comment ended our negotiations
and I paid her the price she asked.

That night we ate in a shack by the beach. A rough bamboo
frame supported a roof of braided palm fronds. Seafood
was fresh, so if you ordered seafood from the menu
you walked to the display area and chose which critter
you wanted to eat. My husband chose 2 jumbo shrimp ---
the two shrimp alone weighed over a pound. As we ate
our meal 2 cats wandered through the restaurant looking
for scraps. They curled around table legs and customer
legs waiting for a morsel to drop.

Goa really was a perfect break from city life. I like
Mumbai, but so many people crammed into one city
has definite disadvantages.