They call them ‘raggytaggys’, with that Goan knack for finding words both onomatopoeic and visual for everything from bhang to crocheted bikinis – the latter being ‘ladee teabags’. There are those who say these raggy-taggys are part of a modern malaise that has hit just about every sun’n’sand strip in south- east Asia. Goa, India’s west coast tourist trap, was perhaps the first to be infected by the hippy crowd. Its palm fringes were hemp heaven in the dog-end of the 1960s for kids rolling their nirvana between Rizlas while John, Paul, George and Ringo were rolling out the mantras with the Maharishi beside the banks of the Ganges in Rishikesh. Read the full article…

Financial Times, Mar 05, 2005