A trip to the tourism hotspots in coastal North Goa would tell you why-the streets of Candolim and Calangute wear an uncharacteristically gloomy look-most popular beach shacks are shutters down and a few straggling groups of tourists are seen walking around, looking bored. The usually bustling Tito's lane comes as an even bigger shock-on a Friday evening, one of the busiest of the week, the cobble-stoned walkers' lane is quiet and darkened. A formidable team of paramilitary personnel armed with big guns, keeps a hawks eye on the few youngsters who loiter outside the closed discotheques, grumpily patronizing the ice-cream pushcarts.

"It feels like we are in Kashmir, with so many soldiers with rifles at every street corner. We did not come all the way to Goa to eat ice cream and drink coffee," complains a college student from Delhi. Her group of six friends had made bookings to visit Goa a month in advance. "As we had holidays scheduled due to the elections in Delhi, we made bookings through a Goan travel agency. Nobody informed us that Goa's nightlife would be killed a week ahead of their polling day-not the travel agent or even the four-star hotel that we had made bookings at," she says.

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