d-defined Goa was notorious
for.

But then, implementing this vision was a problem. For
one, Rajan himself didn't consistently follow up on it.
Secondly, he didn't seem to believe in having competent
persons around him and preferred to work with someone
who was less likely to pose a challege in the years to
come. In addition, a considerable time was spent in
politcking, both within the organisation and beyond.

Working under Rajan meant coping with the unpredictable.

In many cases, Rajan didn't quite give other
journalists the impression that they were welcome to
contribute to the Herald. (As an aside, one of those
asked to contribute a chapter in this book, a senior
Goan journalist who has written for a number of
national and international publications, misunderstood
that the invite was to write for the Herald. The journo
simply wrote back a two-liner to declining saying that
apart from the lack of time, "Rajan won't accept my
name in his paper.")

In one of my freelance stints there, a curious case
pertained to a curious firm selling matresses at the
price of Rs 60,000 to a 100,000 and more. They claimed
all kinds of near-miraculous properties went along with
the matresses. Concerned citizens drew one's attention
to this issue, and after researching the issue, one
wrote one's report on the issue. Rajan was furious. He
accused this journalist of "not checking the other side
of the story". In reality, the firm refused to let
anyone come to their demos, unless they were duly
introduced by someone already caught in the
costly-matress trap. It later turned out that the
persons running the operations in Goa were linked to
the family of the publisher that brought out a magazine
Rajan had earlier worked for! When this issue was
raised during a recent journalist debate, Rajan
side-stepped it by raising the issue of whether one was
a staffer or freelancer while writing for the paper. He
generally confused the issue in some barely-relevant
detail, ignoring the questions of there was a clash of
interest in his role as editor here, as in many other
issues he has faced questions over.

Perhaps the most curious experience for this writer was
the one related to "Raul Gonsalves".

Sometime in the late 'nineties, a number of prominent
editors in Goa decided to impose a private 'ban' on the
writings of that abrasive but persistent letter-writer M.K.Jos
. Jos had the style of targetting editors and
journalists, which wa