Just yesterday it was Mr. Manohar Parrikar's 50th birthday. I join fellow Mhapsekars and other Goenkars in wishing him well. Fifty years is an epoch like any half-century. May he live to be ....a hundred and three. that is what we wish anyone for whom we sing the birthday song...although life expectancy in India is 70 years .The 61st birthday is celebrated in India as "Sahashta-purthi" [ the completion of 60 years of life], because not everyone gets there. Parrikar has less than a dozen years[ ek tupp] to reach there. I hope he lives it with grace as he did with zeal thus far. Naughtiness does not seem as nice in the elderly as it does in toddlers and teenagers.
Only the NAVHIND TIMES can one find a front page headline that reads "BJP to fight next polls on a morality plank: Parrikar" for a report on a birthday of a former Chief Minister turned Opposition Leader. that is as far as English newspapers go. We have one each in Marathi and Konkani that may follow suit. Afterall, the reason why Parrikar celebrated his 50th birthday[with the ever obliging "Babush" Francis D'Souza, who had unwittingly but willingly led the BJP vandals to Hotel Mandarin earlier, as a 'front'] was to make a political statement. Even when he was in power as the CM of Goa he did not celebrate his birthday. If he had celebrated his 49th birthday after successfully[infrastructually for the state; financially for him and his cronies] conducting the IFFI, it would have been nice. Perhaps he considered the party on the Khorjuem bridge as a celebration enough then. In any case, Babush is not famous for funding someone else's event. the money must have come from somewhere else. Perhaps, the account of the dudh-peda or soft drink supplier or pendal contractor will show....if they have been paid at all! I am told that the SAANJ MANOHARI was pay back time for artists from Maharashtra who were funded earlier by the Parrikar-led Government for the infamous VCD and the equally controversial potrayal of Goa's history and culture in the "Gomant darshan" from a vantage point in Maharashtra! Funny how Mr. Manohar Parrkar was never actually in the Maharatrawadi Gomantak Party. Many of the persons at his birthday party were Maharashtrians. How can the Mhapsekar MLA of Panaji not have a celebration in Panaji, specially with a friendly CM and Chairman of Kala Academy in place? Had not Parrikar retained [pun unintended] him in that post when the BJP-led Government was ruling the former Estado da India Portuguesa. The Rane's have a legacy of collaboration with despots. This was just another of the same type. The Portuguese brought in Siddis; Parrikar brought safronites. Babi, Shabi poca differenca! " Addressing a massive gathering of his supporters and well wishers at the Dinanath Mangeshkar Kala Mandir, today evening, in commemoration of his 50th birthday celebrations, Mr. Manohar Parrikar said that Bharatiya Janata Party would approach the Goa electorate during the next assembly election with the "Bihar Formula" which saw the fight of money and muscle against the strength of morality and character." is what only one Reporter of the Navhindtimes is capable of writing. No prizes for guessing it right. Chew on this: *The "massive" capacity of air-conditioned DMKM auditorium of Kala Academy is 987 seats after renovation for IFFI 2004 by Parrkar-led Govt. *The "supporters and wellwishers" had actually come to see and listen to a battery of stage artistes who had come to perform[no pun] for the "Saanj Manohari" [pun obviously intended by the promoters of the " Beautiful Evening" otherwise they might have called it "Manoranjan", incidentally the name of the hindi remake of "Irma la Duce."]. Some of them were congressmen. Others do not have any known party affiliations. Had it only been speeches, the less-than-a-thousand seater hall might have been half empty. * Tomazinho Cardoz had his first English play "The Verdict" to a packed audience in the same hall earlier this month. He has renounced active politics. * Tickets were not available for Dinyar Contractor's play on 11 November in the same auditorium. they were sold out in advance for a pretty penny. Ditto for Kasturba Gandi Trust's fund-raiser, " A funny thing called Love." *The "Bihar Formula" does not necessarily work in Goa. Ask Mr. Arun Sinha ['officially' the Editor of Navhind Times till today] of what happened about his 'Bihar Formula' with a Bihari minor-aged girl in Panaji-Goa. Arun is a Bihari himself. Parrikar is not. May be the BJP should consult the law books and and the Goa Police first. Adv. Vilas Thali is not good enough. At one point of time, he was my family's lawyer in a land acquisition case [which he had conveniently walked away with from Adv.M.S.Usgaocar's office, where he worked earlier as a 'juniour'] and Parrikar's lawyer in a Power scam case-1. The verdict had been passed in our case. Two years later, I had to find out and tell him that! His junior, now a Mamlatdar, helped me get the money from the High Court.Adv. Thali only collected his fees. *The BJP machinery must have generated quite some money during its rule . The money is there. *Fontainhas vandalism and Mandarin vandalism are known BJP-influenced activities for the lazy "muscles".Parrikar did some flexing via the phone while Subhash Velingkar spewed vitriol in the SUNAPARANT every Thursday and had the DP [Datta Palekar's Desh Premi] brigade marching impotently through Fontainhas [ Mala's Mala-D....oops!....malady]. What "freedom fighter" is Subhash before a casteist comrade Flaviano Dias of VCD fame? Datta Palekar, incidentally, is reported to run a gym in a government property near Pharmacy College and is said to have applied for a Portuguese passport, too. So much for "muscle power". If it is a " fight of money and muscle against the strength of morality and character."....the BJP will lose, pants down!! The "khaki cheddi"seems to me more as a relic of the 'Mocidade Portuguesa' [ the colonial NCC] rather than some "pre-Portuguese" attire. Perhaps, Wendel can design some 'Langoti ' or 'Khasti' based attire for the pseudo Desh Premi punks who want to deface history. Mog asundi. Viva Goa. Miguel Braganza -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 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 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------