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 Convenor of Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) Dr Oscar Rebello has been nominated 
  for CNN-IBN's Indian of the Year Award 2007 in public service category

Vote for him at:

    http://www.cnnibnindianoftheyear.com/publicservice_voting_new.php
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GOAN CATHOLIC MARRIAGES
By Valmiki Faleiro

Times were when Goan Catholics never married during Advent (and Lent.) Times 
have
changed. December through New Year and the Epiphany (Jan 6) – now a busy season
of weddings, birthdays, anniversaries – was, this year, my most hectic in 
living memory.
Twice I had to divide time between three evening weddings in a single day!

One reason for the rush of weddings last December must have also been that 2008 
is a
Leap Year. In olden times, people avoided, if they could help it, marrying in a 
Leap Year.
But, again, times are changing: the wedding of Geovanni, son of Adelino 
Fernandes of
Goa’s well-known Lorenz & Son on Jan 11, would be the fifth wedding I’ve 
attended this
Leap Year – as against none I can recall before.

There are, mercifully, no more weddings lined up until the beginning of Lent. 
This
hustling season of hard partying normally ended Jan 6, with the birthday of one 
who
friends call “one of the three kings” (I’ll leave you guessing who that king 
is.) The season
left one fatigued … but well in time to brace up for Lent, the season of 
abstinence.

When it comes to Catholic marriages, I clearly prefer church nuptials to the 
elaborate
receptions at myriad venues that seem to have increased and multiplied in 
recent times.
For one, you can do a nuptial ceremony in about an hour-and-half. Dancing, loud 
music,
a never-ending toast, and having to stand in queue to get to the buffet table 
(and jostle
with the crowd already there, that refuses to budge from the table even when 
served and
eating – which is generally true in the case of Salcete and particularly true 
in the case of
Margao!) are, honest, not my cup of tea.

I prefer any day a Goan Hindu wedding. One needn’t be dressed formally and you 
can
do a wedding in ten minutes flat – wish the couple, greet the relatives, 
collect your ladoo
or whatever the takeaway, and off you go! My only problem with Hindu weddings 
is that
one must enter barefooted on floors that could be dirtier than the soles of 
one’s feet.

Every wedding has its own charm, but three this season impressed. Michelle, 
daughter
of a dear friend, married London-based fellow-dentist Carl Oliveira. I have 
never seen
the Holy Spirit Church, where the nuptials occurred, more beautifully 
decorated, thanks
to a neighbour of the church, a woman of rare artistic sense. And few weddings 
where
half the sizeable assemblage comprised of Goan expatriates from all over the 
world!

The twin weddings of Bijoy (who married Rima) and of Savitri (who married Pravin
Kumar) – they are son and daughter of my friend and former MLA Herculano 
Dourado –
were truly representative of Indian plurality. Herculano never believes doing 
things in half
measure: Vasco’s St. Andrew’s Church was groomed not with thermocole (Styrofoam)
and other modern stuff, but the way it used to be done an age ago, with 
coloured paper
buntings, handmade lanterns, and paper and fabric flowers. Old world charm!

The wedding of Danette, daughter of the doctor couple Orlando and Vera Antao 
(and
granddaughter of my revered late docent and former MLA, Dr. Alvaro de Loyola 
Furtado)
with Nicholas Wong reflected the world’s human family. Other than the many 
friends on
the bride’s side who came from Wales, there was a planeload of relatives and 
friends on
the groom’s side that descended from the UK, Malaysia and perhaps China. A young
man called Heinz Kohlbauer beautifully rendered the flute at Chinchinim’s Our 
Lady of
Hope Church, which must have never before witnessed such a cosmopolitan crowd!

SIMRAN BOUQUETS: Last week’s tailpiece on the stoic GMC nurse, who declined to
speak to Goa’s Health Minister on phone, evoked much response from internet 
readers
of this column. I’ll weave some responses. Dr. Anil Pinto, Mumbai-based surgeon:
“Great Gal, we need many more like Simran.” Arnold Noronha, USA-based 
accountant:
“This is outrageous. Simran must be commended. The bizarre snafu exposes the 
awful
morass Goa’s politics and medical system are in.” Amita Peres da Silva Lofgren, 
USA-
based executive: “I admire Simran for standing up to the call of duty.” 
Filomena Giese,
USA: “Simran had the backbone to do her duty and preserve the privacy of 
patients.
Who are these nerds to just walk in and demand their way into a hospital labour 
room?”
Martinho de Souza, Australia: “I believe Simran is a girl with courage.” Alice 
d’Sa, Dubai:
“Simran’s was a smart answer to reject the mobile.” (ENDS)

The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:

http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330

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The above article appeared in the January 13, 2008 edition of the Herald, Goa

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