This is a sample chapter for the book Puck and Thousand and One Midsummer Dreams: A Magical History of Goa

1. NATARAJA
Of Dance
When Gitana went out into the garden,
wrapped in a huge towel that Isa, who
had just gone back to Sweden, had given
her, with tears in her eyes, as a farewell
present, Jay’s new lunghi shone beneath
the special “black light” in the patio,
ready to be transported to the scene of
the rave. Those who lived in the house
of Maria Vallès donated their belongings with a proverbial
generosity, but the art products they produced could only be
bought, with a tacit agreement, or exchanged for valuable goods.
Jay’s lunghis, cloths painted with mandalas, Hindu or alien mo-
tifs in fluorescent colours that shone under the black lights, were
180

2. NATARAJA Of Dance 181
immensely successful, especially among the Israelis. They had
reached an agreement with the proprietor of the Primrose, the
bar where people got together to find out where the raves would
be each night, by which they could display their materials there
in exchange for giving him a percentage of what they sold.
This new lunghi of Jay’s showed. . . me! Nataraja, the cosmic
dancer, is a representation of the universal deity of which we
are all a part, a characteristic of Tamil Nadu, the Indian state
where the town of Madras is located, today known as Chennai.
Nataraja is a rare mixture of art, poetry and science, forming a
unitary synthesis. It symbolises the five sacred acts: creation,
protection, dissolution, illusion and benediction.
Nothing has been created that cannot dance. Each one of us has
his own dance, his own existential steps that no-one can copy.
The whole cosmos is God dancing, and everything that takes
place is part of that dance, even the most terrible things, because
in everything, in a massacre as in harvesting, in all energy, how-
ever sinister, teasing, destructive, cynical, blasphemous, the di-
vine semblance of universal movement is present.
Jay had granted me a face that represented to perfection this
duality: curved eyebrows that appeared to be laughing and a
closed mouth that appeared to hide a thousand secrets, while
the eyes, orange in colour, faded in the distance. My dark skin
shone with a yellow tinge that evoked the fire that burned on
palm of one of my left hands, and above my head religious sym-
bols danced in harmony, a star of David, a yin-yang, a cross, a

3. NATARAJA Of Dance 182
half moon with a star and an ohm, the faces of deity as parts of
a prism that shone in all the colours of the rainbow.
“Our metaphors have divided us, and sharing them means danc-
ing together to create a new reality where we all fit”, reflected
Gitana standing still in front of the lunghi.
Once in her room, all clean and fresh and full of joy thinking of
the rave which was to take place, Gitana started to get ready. She
chose a mauve swimsuit, hand-made by one of her friends from
the Anjuna market, with strips of colours forming the triangles
of the bikini, to wear under her dress, because in the morning
when the sun came out it was stifling hot and a swim was the
perfect solution.
Then she put on a dress with straps with a fluorescent coil at the
back; she had made it herself by knotting the material and then
dyeing it.
What was vital for the raves was the hip bag where you could
put the sunglasses, even more important than the swimsuit once
the strong sun was out in the morning, and the torch required at
night, apart from candles and matchsticks.
After the practical things were covered, her own decoration of
herself had to be selected. This was one of the most tribal as-
pects of the cyber-hippie culture, where classical Hindu influ-
ences combined with the most modern elements of the urban
techno tendency.

4. NATARAJA Of Dance 183
Gitana chose a bindi in the form of a serpent that sparkled in
the dark. The bindi, which one stuck in the centre of the fore-
head, proceeded from the religious Hindu tradition of painting
a black or red spot on the forehead on leaving the temple as a
sign of devotion.
Once bindis had started being made of fluorescent colours, with
celtic, geometric or Maya motifs, it had transcended its culture
of origin and become a multicultural link.
Tell me, Mother, when a symbol experiences a universal meta-
morphosis, does it lose its magical power? I don’t think so, I
think that a fluorescent bindi on the Gitana’s beautiful forehead
carries both the depth of the ancient Indian culture and the lumi-
nous impulse of modern technology. I don’t believe in looking
back and thinking that the past was better – the mixture of cul-
tures is a dynamic and beautiful part of the universal dance.
Opening a packet different from that which contained the ser-
pent bindi, Gitana took out a pair of pearls, fluorescent as well,
and stuck them on her temples, near the corners of her eyes. This
new use of bindis in the corner of her eyes was an invention of
the cyber-hippie culture, ever innovative.
She did not, however, wear any kind of make-up; the stick-on
bindis were a much more practical decoration for a party on
the beach where there were no toilets with mirrors to touch up
make-up and lipstick.
Finally, Gitana opened her jewellery box. The stones she was

5. NATARAJA Of Dance 184
going to wear that night constituted in her opinion the most im-
portant element of her fancy dress.
Gitana believed in the influence stones had on her. Labradorite,
for example, controlled her hormonal functions and was defi-
nitely a good stone for women. The one she had was in the form
of an inverted tear and was imbedded in a silver eye.
She hung the Labradorite round her neck and then got out a pair of
earrings from the sandalwood box. She bent over the candle on her
bedside table and very gently blew the flame out.
On the way to Disco Valley the policemen had stopped a couple.
Most of the foreigners rented mopeds and motorbikes without
even having an international driving licence, and it was even
more difficult to find someone with the vehicle insurance papers
in order.
Although the organisers of raves paid the police a substantial
amount to celebrate these raves, these policemen increased their
revenue by organising raids in the paths leading to the party
venue. The baksheesh required to be able to continue on their
way ranged between 300 rupees and one thousand, depending
on the severity of the offense and the agent’s mood.
Gitana flashed her most charming smile at the agents and they
smiled back at her, recognising her. Gitana was one of those
beings that are always smiled upon by luck, a destiny that had a
lot to do with her beauty.

6. NATARAJA Of Dance 185
At Disco Valley the mama chais began spreading their rag rugs
over the two resting areas, while their brothers or children trans-
ported the little portable stoves to warm up the milk with black
tea and spices that was called chai .
Gitana helped Jay hang his cloth from which my image could
watch the dance floor and also be watched, and later approached
Chris, the DJ for the first part of the night.
“You, sweetie, place the flowers for the plates”, said Jaron, an Is-
raeli who was always involved in preparing raves, as he passed
a garland of flowers to her. Gitana smiled, knowing the honour
that meant being responsible for the symbolic gesture.
In India, partly out of superstition and partly as veneration to
the forces of chaos - knowing where one finished and the next
one began was impossible - all machines received flower gar-
lands to encourage their correct functioning. No traveller that
prided himself ever started a journey on his Enfield, the cus-
tom motorbikes made in India since the UK had sold the patent
to the subcontinent, without having had it blessed by a saddhu
and receiving a garland. All buses that jolted through the coun-
try usually flaunted several.
Gitana closed her eyes and placed the flowers in front of the DJ
table, where the minidisk was already playing a slow introduc-
tory rhythm.
Jaron gave her a second garland and pointed with his head to-
wards the generator, which needed to work correctly to ensure

7. NATARAJA Of Dance 186
the party’s success. Gitana placed the flowers over the huge
great thing, that worked on petrol, and then she walked away
to observe the rest of preparations.
The sound of the music rose and fell again, while the technicians
adjusted the power, until they found a volume that was still too
loud for the amount of people present so far, but which would
soon be fine.
Gitana went to sit next to Bhagmati, a young chai vendor (for her
the name mama chai did not seem suitable, since she was a thin
and pretty girl, without the motherly body that had earned most
of them their name) who usually kept her belongings while she
danced. It wasn’t so much friendship that encouraged Bhagmati
to provide this service as the guarantee that, in exchange, Gitana
would come and sit down, along with all her friends, to her rag
rug in each of her pauses.
“Thanks”, Gitana smiled at the girl, who handed her her first
chai glass of the evening. Feeling the vibration that the speakers
transmitted to the floor, Gitana found herself thinking of trance
music.
In some way, it seemed to be an organic fusion between technol-
ogy and nature. The electronically accelerated drums, the flutes
that invaded the rhythm and seemed to play around with the
bass tones, more predictable, reminding her that the human be-
ing lives immersed in the rhythm that You set, Pachamama, with
your spinning that brings night and day, the succession of the
seasons, the course of the tides.

8. NATARAJA Of Dance 187
Gitana put her hand on her heart and felt its beat. Somebody
had told her once, but she couldn’t remember whom, that the
reason why the heart was the main organ in the body was that it
was the only organ that had its own rhythm.
“But women”, she carried on thinking, “have another rhythm
which is equally important for life.” Her eyes fell on her lower
abdomen. “A lunar rhythm.”
“What’s your stomach telling you which seems to interesting?”
Sarjana’s voice brought her out of her trance.
Gitana looked at the entire group of Spaniards walking towards
her, her eyes resting a little longer on Rocco’s.
She stood up and went to meet them.
“We need to try out the dance floor!” she exclaimed. Faced with
the perspective of watching her dance, none of her friends could
say no.
Gitana had a peculiarly Indian way of dancing. She had spent
some weeks in Poona with a friend of hers who was a profes-
sional dancer, and the sinuous movements had seduced her so
that she had incorporated to her repertoire. Rave music, with its
Indian influence, matched her new dance style in particular.
While her and Sarjana let their hands ripple like the statuettes of
an erotic Deccan temple, the music enveloped the dancers, who
were filling up the dance floor. Some closed their eyes, some
had them wide open. Rocco in particular did not miss one of
Gitana’s movements.

9. NATARAJA Of Dance 188
Lev meanwhile observed the crowd and an overwhelming hap-
piness took hold of him. This joint dance was solidarity, eroti-
cism and sensuality, lyrical adoration and narrative, possession
and community. It had something tribal, something primitive
and primordial.