Dear fellow goanet readers Thanks to Gabe for uploading on Goanet Vol 7, Issue 643 an informative article contributed by Niz Goenkar titled "Goan Festival held successfully at Cranford, Hounslow". At least this article as well as other independent articles and videos that have appeared on Goan Voice UK, have made our worldwide goanet readers aware that this festival had actually taken place in Cranford, London, United Kingdom on 22 July 2012.
It was a delight to see Reita Faria Powell's photograph in colour on Goan Voice UK as it brought back memories of me as a teenage fella playing hockey and football on the grounds of the Goan Institute in Nairobi and along with other players when collecting a refreshing lemonade used to walk to the lounge past the rock garden; there to greet you was a black and white portrait of Reita Faria hanging on the doorway with her Miss World sash, wonder if this picture is still there? In this age of instant communication, having left it for a number of days now, apart from the above, there were very few uploaded pictures of this festival, especially as we are told it was such a big event, were the organisers at the gate camera shy? Five Pounds sterling is the smallest sterling note and will have been light to carry in suitcases to the Bank (approximately 45,000 Pounds Sterling that is 9,000 x 5 Pounds Sterling plus car parking charges of 5 Pounds Sterling). However, banking incurs cash handling and tax costs, so who knows, the management might be looking at innovative and creative ways of seeking the best deal to keep these costs to a minimum. Our community have been accountants and cooks long before the excel spreadsheet was conceived. As advised previously, I had no intention to feed into greed hence did not attend. A preview indicated that those attending were to be given the opportunity of free career guidance, a documentary depicting the lives of our community that lived in East Africa, open air mass, raffle prizes, etc. The chief organiser used the words "estimated 9,000" when speaking on visitor numbers to the festival, understandably he was not able to verify this figure on the day. If you look at the reviews, there were six coaches from Swindon and one from Southampton and taking approximately 60 people per full coach with no standing room, this works out at 7 x 60 = 420 people. One then has to assume that the rest of the 9,000 of our community travelled either by car or tested the London public transport system in advance of the Olympics! This on-going 9,000 chant reminds me of the fairy tale "The Piped Piper of Hamelin" with everyone following the piper as he plays on his flute the tune of "Undir Mhojea Mama" leading customers to the fat cats in the market place. Our tastes indicate that the chorizo on sale at a glance reflected excellent value for money at a little over Fifteen Pounds Sterling per kilo (approximately 1,200 rupees per kilo) being sold out. This has started the latest craze in receipes on how to best use these chorizo to make them last. The suggestion I have received so far is to add a 10mm slice of proper chorizo (like a maggie cube) to budget beef mince as this can give the whole dish our regional flavour or three pieces of chorizo if the contents of the intestine was flavoured pork mince with colouring in the first place! A must have dish at World Goa Day celebrations on 19 August together with dodol and feni to share with family and friends. It is traditional to have a raffle or tombola/house house after speeches at most events to at least cover costs. Prize winners of the raffle at the festival have until 31 August 2012 to redeem their prizes from the organisers and I am sure we are all looking forward to seeing the names and delighted faces of the prize winners especially the top prize of Air India tickets. The raffle numbers with collection instructions are on GOAUK.COM I found it amusing that folks had prepaid but left bags of rice behind, they are more likely to leave their close ones behind. Niz Goenkar has attracted comments from some who attended the festival as well as some who did not and you may be interested in reading these comments on the link http://www.nizgoenkar.net/newsDetails.php?id=4507. I fully agree with what Rose has written, if you look at the entrance cost to the festival of Five Pounds Sterling and what we are told there were 9,000 estimated visitors, this works out at less than 1pence per handshake and excellent value for money and revenue to the Goan Association UK. No doubt this will be reflected in their unaudited accounts of revenue together with car parking charges, stall holders charges and Holy Mass collections. Those of our community that are now hoping that the entrance cost of Five Pounds Sterling needs to be reviewed in order to be reduced need to "get real" because next year if the organisers have estimated that 12,000 of our community will be enjoying this festival, they will be fully justified in an entrance fee of at least Ten Pounds Sterling. (The next convenient currency note available with no change). The importance of knowing nothing can make you a very important person (VIP) - ready for the next predator's game. Melvyn Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 2 August 2012 melvynfernan...@virginmedia.com
