Goa carnival was canceled this year, but apparently everybody did not get the news, although it was mentioned on the front page of the newspaper.
This I tell since yesterday in South Goa, after sunset when it was dim, a tourist family was coming away from the beach with a scooter, and suddenly huge amount of white powder was thrown on them from a motorcycle that drove against them.
This powder gave a powerful blow directly on the woman’s neck who sat in the back of the scooter, blinding her for a while, shaking her and her child’s balance, and hurting her neck. Fortunately the powder did not blind the man who was driving the scooter. Inbetween them was a child sitting, who also survived unharmed, but was totally covered with the white flour, which was burning in the eyes a bit.
If the speed had been faster, the powder thrown on them would have dropped the passengers from the scooter. These wrongdoers, two male persons, the other one wearing a cap, were cowards and run away. One wasn’t able to catch them.
Thus a word of warning is in place, especially for tourists who don’t know the local customs of Goa and who can’t read this from a tourist guidebook, but also for local Goan people as well:
Some boys wish to have their own carnivals in Goa, which can endanger other peoples lives, by throwing powders from a moving vehicle. This carnival day was 21st of February 2012 and it was not Holi.
INDIVUE 