To Goanet - Mervyn-bab,
Thank you for Cc'ing me. I would have missed your comments since my reading of Goanet tends to be sporadic these days. What I did not say on my blog is that every time I go to Sodiem/Maniem, I am overcome with a feeling of dread. It is one of the countably few, and fast diminishing, settings in Goa still left unmolested. It is a miracle that these vistas haven't yet been crapped on by some builder. But I fear that it is only a matter of time. Allow me one disagreement. Pace your observation below, the reason for these scenes being lost won't be Goa's movement into the 21st C. These scenes were lost in 1961 when India moved into Goa. r ________________________________ From: Mervyn Lobo <mervynal...@yahoo.ca> To: Rajan P.Parrikar <parri...@yahoo.com>; "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <goanet@lists.goanet.org> Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2013 5:32 PM Subject: Re: [Goanet] [Photo Blog by Rajan Parrikar] Sodiem Rajan P. Parrikar wrote: > One scene, many moods. > Sodiem is a tiny ward in the village of Siolim in north Goa. I explored this > luscious setting over a period of many months, photographing it in varied > conditions. > You may view the latest post at > http://www.parrikar.com/blog/2013/03/30/sodiem/ ------------------------------------------------------ Folks, My congrats to Rajan. His pictures are usually close to perfection. A talented eye, combined with expensive technology can produce wonders. I have several pictures and video's of the same subjects in this set of pictures. More importantly, I have fond memories of the patto where these pictures were taken from. My fondest memories are sitting by the cross on the patto when I was eight years old, listening to my parents singing songs with their friends in the late evening while eating freshly made bhajias. The frogs sang the chorus in those days. The final and most important sound was that of the fully loaded with straw bullock cart slowing approaching with the rings of the bells that were hanging from the cow/bulls neck. The most adventurous part though, was walking home in the dark with a kerosene ponti or even with a candle lit in a half coconut shell. Other than that light, the night was perfectly black. Last year around this time, the patto crossing was in constant use by cars and buses throughout the evening and night. Apart from the noise, the vehicles also raised a lot of dust. The final straw, to me, came when a combined harvester from Kerela entered the fields to harvest the rice. As Goa moves into the 21st century, these scenes will be lost. Thankfully, someone is capturing them for our grandchildren. Mervyn