'Once Upon a Time in Aparanta' captures the churn of present-day Goa, its charms and follies, its greed and grouses, its colourful characters and peerless natural beauty, and its seamy side that can rival any banana republic

’BUT THIS must be more than Eden. Eden had only one serpent, one Adam, one soon-to-be-busy Eve. Did Eden ever sell its soul? Did it sell all hope? ’Goa is Aparanta of old -- the land at the horizon. The tale of Dino Dantas, protester and self-appointed guardian of Aparanta, and his innkeeper cousin Antonio begins here, in the sleepy village of Socorro Do Mundo by the Sea, where time holds little meaning and the haze of nostalgia is as binding a force as faith in the benevolence of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, ’Perpet’ to familiars.

For some time now, the world and some of Aparanta’s own have been engaged in a feeding frenzy on the natural treasures of this land of plenty. Chief among the poison-mongers is Winston Almeida, supreme thug, land shark and political aspirant, who will stop at nothing to appropriate all that this creaky, corrupt paradise has to offer. For this he has allied with Sergei, a Russian druglord; the Princess, a tantalising Brazillian transsexual go-between; and Fernandes, her Goan policeman lover-and their alliance is blessed by Number One, the political overlord of Aparanta.

In the face of their collective greed stands Dino, determined as ever to preserve what he can of his homeland. But can one man’s courage and fervour alone save Aparanta from being betrayed by its own? In prose that is part lyrical, part brutal satire, yet always passionate, Sudeep Chakravarti evokes the essence of a paradise on the verge of losing its soul. This is a story of our time.

Sudeep Chakravarti, the author of ’Tin Fish’, a critically acclaimed novel published by Penguin in 2005, and Red Sun. ’Once Upon a Time in Aparanta’ is Chakravarti’s second novel.

A columnist, media consultant and analyst, Chakravarti has earlier worked with major international and Indian media organisations, including ’The Asian Wall Street Journal’; the ’India Today Group’ as executive editor; and HT Media, the publishers of Hindustan Times, as consultant editor.
In the past years, as an editor-at-large, he helped in bringing Rolling Stone magazine to India. Chakravarti was captivated by Goa from his first visit in the middle of 1980s. In 2004, he finally moved there, and among many other things, he began to write ’Once Upon a Time in Aparanta’.


Goa, one of the most beautiful places in the world has been in the news in recent years for several reasons such as wayward politics and land-grabbing issues. It is also labelled as a destination for paedophiles and merchants of narcotics. Fierce debates are also going on between a colonial past and post-colonial future.


’Once Upon a Time in Aparanta’ captures this churn of present day Goa, its charms and follies, its greed and grouses, its colourful characters and peerless natural beauty, and its seamy side that can rival any banana republic. But tiny Goa, self-proclaimed party-zone to the world, is a lot more than all these.


’Goa’ and ’Once Upon a Time in Aparanta’ present a leitmotif for similar places in Asia and around the world, which set out to seduce the world on its terms, but are often trapped and ravaged by it.
The book will be launched in Mumbai on Friday, September 26 at 7.00 pm at Crossword Bookstore, Kemps Corner, Mumbai.