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Goanet joins Noel Rebello to raise money for Daddy's Home (Margao, Goa) Sponsor Noel as he climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro (5,882m or 19,298 ft) Make a donation at www.Goanet.org, click on MAKE A DONATION, state "Daddy's Home" in the Donation comments For more information see: http://bit.ly/SupportDaddysHome --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goan Catholic Greeting Cards Feasts, feasts, feasts, feasts and more feasts By Cecil Pinto Last week I bumped into my entrepreneur friend Michael D'Costa. The previous time we met up his Goa T-shirts firm was going great guns. But knowing Michael I guessed he had moved on to other things. Sure enough. “Greeting Cards for Goan Catholics.” “What?! What’s so special about Goan Catholics? We have the same greeting occasions as everyone else. Christmas, Birthdays, Weddings, Christenings, Anniversaries…” “When was the last time you saw cards for First Communion or Confirmation?” “You get them at St. Paul’s and St. Joseph’s and…” “No Cecil. I’m not talking of those standard holy looking cards. Why can’t we have fun cards for these occasions too?” “Because these are solemn occasions. Receiving a Holy Sacrament is a sober religious experience. It is not a fun event.” “But you do celebrate with a party later don’t you?” “Yes, but…” “And you do have party games don’t you?” “Ok, but…” “And you do serve drinks and crack jokes at the party don’t you?” “Sure, but…” “So there. It is a fun event! And we are printing cards that allow Goan Catholics to greet each other for these events in a fun way. Come with me.” I got into Michael’s car, a huge SUV, expecting him to drive me to his printing press or to his card store. Instead Michael turned on the A/C full blast and then flipped open his equally impressive laptop. “You have a website?” “Yes. But it’s still under construction. I intend to have e-card services where you can e-mail a customized Virtual Card to the receiver for free. Side by side I am also offering customizable cards that will be printed on card paper and delivered to the receiver anywhere in Goa along with other goodies like flowers, cakes, wine and soft toys. For this I am tying up with service providers like Expressions who already have their clientele and infrastructure in place.” “Show me some samples, Michael.” “Let’s start with the Festam or Feasts section by clicking here. Here we are, take your pick. The most popular ones are St. Francis Xavier, Immaculate Conception, St. Anne or Tousachem Fest, Our Lady of Vailinkini, Three Kings, Assumption, Holy Spirit, Fama de Menino Jesus, Santachem Pursaum, Milag Saibin, Milag Khuris, Sao Joao, Sao Ped and the relatively saintless Konsanchem Fest or harvest feast” “Sounds good. Show me Sao Joao.” “Just click here. In the Funny section we have ‘Make a Splash!’, and these generic cards that just say ‘Viva Sao Joao!’ The photos and illustrations, as you can see, show water and wells and diving and fruits and here we have animations where you can fix your headshot to the flash animation of someone jumping in the well.” “What is this Wet Wet Wet section?” “That is for a more mature audience and has wet t-shirt competition photos and skinny dipping and lots of risqué wordplay with jump and hump and wells and what not. Strictly for adults.” “Ok! Ok! What do we have for St. Anne.” “This Cucumber Section pokes gentle fun at fertility rites. ‘Things can’t get wild, when there’s a child’, ‘Just do it!’ etc. We have to be very careful with anything involving Our Lady as Goan Catholics can take jokes about saints and God and even Jesus - but never against Our Lady. Take this card, ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention but who is the Father of Assumption?’ Or this one for the Harvest Feast has a dirty huge mud encrusted pig on the cover. Inside it says ‘Reap what you sow!’” “That’s rather lame” “I know Cecil, but there’s not much I can do without hurting religious sentiments. The Holy Spirit of course provides ample opportunity for double speak. Take this card with a barely visible silhouette of a dove against a dark grey background, ‘The spirit was willing but the flash was weak!’ High spirits, right spirits, spirited enthusiasm… we’ve squeezed out every hackneyed innuendo connected to alcohol. Milag Saibin and Milag Khuris allow us to play the miracle angle to the fullest. Take this one, ‘Open this card on 23rd Feb and find a gift of Rs. 1,00,00,000/-’. So you open the card and there’s ‘You still believe in miracles. Good for you. Happy Milag Khuris!’ The cards in the adult section don’t involve money as gifts, but rather enhancements to body parts." “I can imagine. Let’s not go there. What’s this Feastlike section?” “Basically there we cater to Carnival and Bonderam, the festival of flags only held in Divar. We call them Feastlike because the Church isn’t too keen in associating with these celebrations. In the Bonderam section you can even order cards printed on cloth that can be used as flags and animations of fotass or pea shooting. In the Carnival section we’ve freaked out with colours and also used the license to feature sexy topless Carnival revelers.” “But Michael, I’ve never seen any nudity in the Goan Carnival.” “Of course not. We used photos from the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro! Viva Carnival! Here we have the Non-Feast greeting section. Take this card which has a close up of boiled grams and tiny coconut slivers. You open it to see, ‘Have a nice ladainha!’” “How uniquely Goan.” “Yes. Were also working on a Condolence range. See this one here, ‘Aiz Tuka, Falea Mhaka’. We’re also working on a special type of tailor-made card that the family can give out to people who drop in. It will have the answers to the standard questions asked at such occasion. How he died? When? When is the funeral? Who are you waiting for? ” “This section is only for Inaugurations?” “Yes. Mostly for New House Inaugurations. ‘Not just any roof over your head - a RCC roof!’. This is for small businesses, ‘After years of putting in and putting out… finally – Own Ghatlem!’ This card is to be sent to a friend who has not communicated with you in along time. It shows an elephant’s backside, ‘Become big or what?’ This card has a picture of a pot being cracked. “Govinda?” “No! No! Congratulations on Cracking the Matka!” “Many of these cards can easily be used by the Hindu Goan community.” “Sure Cecil, but we are working on a specific range of cards for Goan Hindus. It will feature all the major Zatras along with Shigmo, Chovoth, Haldi-Kukum, Nagpanchami, Shravana, Zagor, Saptah and Sangodd. And typical Hindu Goan phrases.” ---------- The column above appeared in Gomantak Times dated 16th September 2010 =====