Apart from the loot they garner every time they play Defection Roulette, Goa's politicians are also hitting it big time in the State's casinos. A legislator from the ruling Congress is a regular at the slot machines of five-star hotels, where he wagers sums as huge as Rs 10,000 a throw. On days when he is too sloshed to punch the buttons, the portly politician gets his flunkeys to do so while he waits at the bar.

Of course, the party only gets merrier if he hits pay dirt and the hotel management begins praying for divine intervention to get him out of the establishment. Getting the bouncers to do the needful is unthinkable since the politician is known to send every one of his rivals packing before even the first vote is cast in an election.

Elections as junkets

Thanks to former chief election commissioner, T N Seshan, the bureaucrats in other parts of India fall over each other to get posted as observers in Goa.

The job, which takes the better part of an entire month,entitles the two observers in each constituency plush accomodation in the Government Circuit House, personal staff, cars with a klaxon and enough excuses to explore the state at length.

And to show that they are preoccupied with weighty matters like free and fair polls some constituencies are termed `sensitive' and para-military personnel posted there. So where do bureaucrats from Goa go? Bihar, or is it Uttar Pradesh!

Pre-historic Goans

Goans like to believe that Lord Parasurama threw an axe into the sea and reclaimed land to settle the people who were originally refugees from the banks of the mythical Saraswati. But recently, archaelogists discovered rock bruisings in certain parts of Goa which indicate that the place was inhabited by hunter-gatherers some 4,000 years ago.

What's more, the primitive art forms are similar to those found in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. So, do the findings support the myth or do they puncture some holes into the old beliefs? The jury is stillout on that one.

Tailpiece

A small brewer in Goa, Madame Rosa, has decided to take the Duke of Edinburg, Prince Philip, head-on. The British Queen's royal consort, who believes that all the shoddily made goods in the world are Indian, was recently sent a bottle of almond liqueur produced by the brewery just to show what the former jewel in the colonial crown was capable of. What's more, the brewery urged manufacturers of other quality goods to follow its example. Cheers!