Goa is not just limited to tourists, it is evolving with time. There was a time when locals had to go all the way to some metropolitan city to eat McDonald’s or just to buy branded stuff but now look at Goa, it is a business and entertainment hub. We have McD, new clothing outlets like Shopper’s Stop, Vero Moda, FBB and so on. I am not saying that it is completely developed but slowly and steadily it definitely is.
I have listed 4 small and drastic changes that have occurred in Goa over time.
Standup comedy
Gone are those days when we used to watch our favourite comedians on TV or YouTube. Last year, comedy shows became popular. These shows allowed us to watch all our favourites live and be part of real-time comedy. One such show -“The Goan Comedy Club” owned by Kaif Shaikh. When asked about his inspiration behind this initiative he said, “We started our journey back in September 2015, when the comedy scene was vague in Goa. It all started when I used to end my days working at the hotel owned by my family by relaxing and enjoying an episode on ‘The Rising Stars of Comedy ‘on NDTV. The laughter was definitely a stress buster in my day and soon became the highlight of my day. It was then I realized that I wanted to share this laughter with more people. From then we witnessed a growth in the audience that came for our shows.“
Illusionist live shows
Magic shows are put up by the best of magicians. But an Illusionist live show is basically performed in front of live audiences wherein the illusionist interacts with the crowd and performs his tricks. In order to make it more interesting, the performer uses people from the crowd as volunteers. The latest show was held at Ignia, Verna (South Goa).
Fashion shows
Goa and fashion never went hand in hand as it would get overshadowed by the rich culture of Goa. But with time, Goa has become a host to popular Fashion shows. Fashion shows are held annually in Goa and get good ratings from the Indian press as well. For instance, The India beach fashion week and festival which brings together big names in the fashion industry and celebrates upcoming talents has been a huge success.
Hub for startups
You will see many startups coming up every year. We can proudly say that Goa is not just about sun and sand, it’s more!! In an interview with Economic Times, DS Prashant, General Manager at the Centre for Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) of Goa said, “While Goa has the advantage of availability of a large number of engineering graduates from the colleges here, there are other unconventional areas such as food processing, clean technologies, and solid waste management that are focus areas for the state government and are attracting young entrepreneurs to the state.”
By: Priyanka Shetty
