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The joyous Feast of St Francis Xavier was celebrated this morning at the Bom Jesus Basilica at Old Goa. St Francis Xavier was born on 7th April 1506 at Navarre in Spain and came to Goa in May 1542. This mass was dedicated to his 500 th birth anniversay next year on 7th April 2006. He died on December 3rd, 1552, and ironically it is the day of his death that is celebrated as the Feast day owing to his attaining sainthood. Next year 3rd December, 2005 being a Sunday the Feast will be celebrated on 4th December, 2006 (Monday) But the celebrations this year were dampened owing to traffic snarls which kept the devotees away from the celebrations. It all started with mismanagement of traffic, first from the Old Goa via Ela and Pilar side where traffic was blocked for over an hour in the early hours of the morning i.e. 0605 a.m. The Masses commenced from 0400 a.m. and those that stayed over night were in a strange dilema on their onward journey home.There were two vehicles which caused the traffic snarl. Later the traffic Police at Pilar diverted the traffic at 0900 hrs from the NH 17 along the newly constructed 9 km bye pass of NH 4A. On covering 5.8 kms on this bye pass the traffic was paralysed both ways and devoutees could not make it to the Eucharistic Feast Mass at 1030 hrs. So grave was the commotion that several devoutees women children young and old several foreigners and the news and TV crew were stranded and some had to travese the three km route on foot. It was ridiculous that the SP Traffic Mr Deshpande could not co-ordinate the traffic movement. The Mass was postponed by 15 minutes to cope up with the situation and eventually started at 1045 a.m. according to the voulunteers. It was Archbishop of Goa & Daman His Grace Filipe Neri Ferrao who took note of the grave inconvenience caused to the devoutees and changed the schedule, but not beyond 15 minutes as others who had come from afar and were seated would be put to more inconvenience. The main celebrant was Bishop Allwyn Baretto of Sindhdurg Maharashtra along with Archbishop of Goa & Daman Filipe Neri Rodrigues and others. Later there was a special Mass held at 1300 hrs for the benefit of those devoutees who were stranded. Incidentally one does not know the exact reason for such a mess up and it would need investigations at the highest level. It is expected that the authorities at the Paco Patriacal will lodge a formal protest with the Chief Minister over this dilema and demand an enquiry into the episode. In fact the Minister for Transport Mr Pandurang Madkaikar who resides behind the Basilica in a structure that is illegal by all counts as it is within the 100 metres of the ASI notified heritage area ought to have seen that things were in an orderly manner. Even the Home Minister Mr Pratapasing Rane should pull up the Director General of Police and perhaps sack the SP traffic for gross dereliction of duties. Last year the year of the Exposition every thing went smoothly and with the new bye pass on NH4A there was easy flow of traffic which was welcomed by everyone critical otherwise of the ex CM Mr Manohar Parrikar's government. What was the cause for the snarl this year then? Incidentally fingers point out to an incident which took place earlier when a sweet meat " kadio bodi" from nearby village of Chodan was asked to remove his shop from the corner of the pavement just opposite the Gandhi statue where a police is positioned atop a "look out" security structure. It is believed that the last minute encroachment by the vendor had the "blessings of the powers to be" and the local outpost PI Mr V P Karpe manhandled the Church volunteers who forced the exit of the vendor from the unauthorised place. The young PI however did not take kindly to the acts of the Church volunteers and is believed to have preferred the vendor to continue in the same place. But following intervention by other Ministers it is believed that the PI was pulled up and hence it is alleged that the fiasco today could have been his creation though this needs to be investigated. When this writer spoke to several of the traffic police they were unnerved at the situation but placed the blame on some road blockade but clearly they were telling an outright lie. Some two years ago a similar incident took place when the water supply failed putting devoues in a tight spot, many had to use packaged mineral water bottles and sodas prices for which were hiked owing to the strange dilema. There were several cases of pick pockets to such an extent that a seniro superannuated priest at the Basilica Fr Joao Pedro Fernandes ex Parish Priest Our Lady of Grace Church Margao had to make an announcement after each Mass to ask devoutees to take care of ones possessions as such cases of a light fingered gentry had been reported in the Basilica and surroundings. However the entire Novenas went off peacefully and this had an impact on reduced crowds as many avoid the congestion on Feast Day. The buses who normally overcharge the devoutees on this day Rs 25/- one way fare as they are required to obtain special permission and pay a commission to both the traffic Police and Directorate of Transport officials (the reported figure is Rs 5000/-) could not make more trips due to the traffic snarl but wowed to overcrowd the buses in the evening session to "make good the loss" this is what a conductor told this write oblivious of the fact that it was the Feast of the Patron Saint of Goa and the East Indies. There were several devoutees from Sri Lanka Maputo and Karachi that this writer encountered but they were displeased by the transport mess up. In fact they suggested to this writer that the Basilica could provide a special entry door to such devoutees come from different countries alongwith the news media. At one stage this writer had to plead with a volunteer in the Basilica to permit the Sahara TV crew into the Basilica which he finally did after this writer threatened him with dire consequences, much to the relief of the husband wife and child team. >From the Bom Jesus Basilica Old Goa end Godfrey J I Gonsalves Borda Margao Goa [EMAIL PROTECTED] 9822158584 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
