"New Year's in Goa" - alternatively titled, "A Lamentation on the Sexual Repression of the Indian Male"

In India, they say, everything is "same, same, but different." And so it is with us as we headed back to Goa, again - this time to celebrate New Year's Eve. In contrast to the last time we were there, just a few weeks ago, Goa is packed. Rooms are hard to find and prices have been doubled and even tripled.

On New Year's, Charlie and I went out with our friends Kate and Steve to Nine Bar. It is a techno club ringed with palm trees and perched on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It has to be one of the best 'club' venues in the world. On this night, it was jam-packed almost entirely with Indian men. Now I have been at a 'sausage fest' or two in my time, but never have I seen the male to female ratio as out-of-whack as this. I'd estimate it at 100 to 1. Despite a hefty 1,500 rupee ($30-ish US) ticket price, another club, Hilltop, suffered from the same unbalance. As Kate so rightly observed, this most certainly is a reflection of Indian society, which values chastity so highly in women. The display of a female shoulder or knee seems to be a terrible scandal; just imagine if a woman actually appeared in a night club on New Year's, without a chaperone, no less. She would be unmarry-able.

The only way in which Indian men appear to be able to display and receive affection openly is between one another; it is a perfectly acceptable and widespread practice for apparently-straight Indian men to hold hands and/or put their arms around each others' shoulders. But I have heard that Western-style dating does not really exist in India as a widespread practice; many brides and grooms meet shortly before their wedding, if not literally at the alter. That being said, you put hundreds of men - Indian or not - in a space with only a few women, and what do you think will happen? Poor Kate, in her short, tight black dress was groped more times than I am sure she cares to remember. Thankfully, I was wearing a rather billowy dress and so some guys grabbed nothing but cloth. However, I also am pretty sure that some of the guys who surrounded us were after Charlie and Steve.