[Goanet-News] When a photo tells us a lot about the times (Text: Camil Parkhe. Photo: Sandeep Naik)

[Goanet Reader]

re surrounded
by ten or twelve policemen on the bank of the Mandvoi.

Behind those frightened young women was the Mandovi River and
in front were police armed with lathis.  There was no other
way for the young women to escape.  There were no female
constables in that police force either.

One person caught my attention in this mess. Sandeep Naik, a
photographer for our Navhind Times, was taking note of the
plight of the beleaguered youth. Sandeep, in his usual attire
of jeans and white Nehru shirt, was capturing the front view
from different angles.

Within minutes of the action, the road in front and the
sidewalk by the river were clear. There were only a few
slippers and sandals left behind.

  By the time I reached Sandeep, he was sweating.
  When we both came face to face, Sandeep was
  flipping his camera over and over again, making
  sure everything was all right.  I could understand
  his shock.  In those pre-digital photography days,
  it would be known only after the roll had been
  developed whether his photos of the police action
  had been clicked properly or not.

When the police had started their lathi-charge, Sandeep and
other photographers and reporters like me were present at
different places. But we had both noticed by now that the
girl-students had been beaten by the police.

When Sandeep came to the office of The Navhind Times at
around 2.30 pm that day, he was very excited. He had come
from the photo studio with five or six black and white prints.

Editor Bikram Vohra spread all those prints on his desk,
while news editor M.M. Mudaliar, we reporters, and all those
present at the desk, gathered at the editor's cabin. The
beating of the college students would make it to the
eight-column story of Page One of the next day's issue of The
Navhind Times and the picture of Sandeep's police action
would go on to say more than the text of the news.

* * *

The next day, the photo printed in six columns in the twin
dailies The Navhind Times and its sister publication, the
Marathi Navprabha, made history!

The Mumbai, Delhi and other editions of The Indian Express
across the country soon used the same photo on Page One with
Sandeep's permission and his byline!  As a result, the Goa
government was embarrassed.

The main result was that there was a nationwide discussion
about the outcry and intense opposition of Goa's students
towards private vocational colleges.  Finally, one day, that
educational institution from Andhra Pradesh simply rolled up
its sleeves and left Goa!

* * *

  A few months after the photo was released
  nationally, Sandeep Naik met the then South Goa MP
  Eduardo Faleiro.  As soon as Sandeep introduced
  himself, the MP shook his hand and said in a
  complaining tone, “Patrao (boss), you have put me
  in trouble!  Those photos of yours spoilt the name
  of Goa."

Faleiro told Sandeep that, after seeing a photo of police
beating girls in Goa, the then Congress general secretary and
MP Rajiv Gandhi had asked him, "What is going on in an
advanced region like Goa!"

In Goa, the Congress government was then headed by the Chief
Minister Pratapsing Rane.  Within three months of the meeting
between Rajiv Gandhi and Falero, Rajiv Gandhi became the
Prime Minister and Falero became the Minister of State for
External Affairs in his cabinet.

A couple of years after the incident, The Navhind Times
editor Bikram Vohra moved on to Dubai to take on a major
assignment at the Gulf News.  Vohra took Sandeep Naik and
five other journalists from The Navhind Times to Dubai.  When
Vohra urged me to come to Dubai too, he and my friends were
very surprised that I declined the offer.  Vohra is still
settled in the Gulf region.

Sandeep Naik returned to Goa two years ago, after working as
a photographer in Dubai for three decades.  He now spends a
few months a year in Goa and the rest of the month with his
wife and daughter in Australia. We haven't had any contact
in the last few decades, but Facebook brought about our
reunion.

However, the identity of Sandeep Naik, a news photographer
who took a photo of the police beating of the girls on the
banks of the Mandovi thirty-eight years ago, is still intact.
Incidentally, Sebastian D'Souza, then working in the Mumbai
Mirror, is known as the photographer of the Pakistani
terrorist Kasab at the Mumbai railway station.

Scoops come so suddenly and so seldom in the life of a
journalist, and that event in their own and society's whole
life becomes an unforgettable thing.

Other English and Marathi articles by Camil Parkhe can be
read on the following blog

https://camilopark.blogspot.com
https://www.aksharnama.com/client/article_detail/4382

* * *
Camil Parkhe was a journalist in the Goa of the 1980s.

Goanet Reader is compiled and translated by Frederick Noronha

[Goanet] On the track to re-discover Orchata, a health drink from Goa (Eunice Lima Fernandes De Sa)

[Goanet Reader]

erial, etc.

--
Eunice Lima Fernandes De Sa can be contacted via WhatsApp +91
99228 53736. Her Orchata and other preparations have been
widely appreciated on the 'Goa Menus' Facebook group and
other networks in Goa.

Goanet Reader is edited and produced by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet-News] On the track to re-discover Orchata, a health drink from Goa (Eunice Lima Fernandes De Sa)

[Goanet Reader]

erial, etc.

--
Eunice Lima Fernandes De Sa can be contacted via WhatsApp +91
99228 53736. Her Orchata and other preparations have been
widely appreciated on the 'Goa Menus' Facebook group and
other networks in Goa.

Goanet Reader is edited and produced by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet-News] Toil and tears on the salty seas... a tribute to the Goan seafarer (Fr Anthony Fernandes)

[Goanet Reader]

(WHO), including India, agreed to the
International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005).  These were
meant to maintain a balance between a proportionate health
response to a global health emergency and to avoid undue
interference in international trade and traffic in such an
event.

  As per those regulations, no international
  travellers (who are citizens or residents) can be
  denied entry at the port-of-entry for health
  reasons.  Nor can they be charged for any health
  related measures such as medical tests, quarantine
  facilities, etc.

  Thus, the mandatory undertaking taken from stranded
  Indians abroad before they board the so-called
  'Repatriation Flights' and the forcible extraction
  of money from their companies, taking advantage of
  their vulnerability, such as from the seafarer
  companies, is a blatant violation of these
  regulations by India, itself a solemn signatory.

Despite their incalculable contribution to the economic and
psycho-social wellbeing of Goa through their families and
communities, we, Goans in general and the State in
particular, failed our diaspora, our non-resident Goans,
especially the seafarers, miserably.

We failed to be sensitive and understand the angst of the
seafarers and their families.  Worse still, we treated them
as outcasts, pariahs, untouchables, criminals.

Barring a few honourable exceptions, both political and
non-political, it was sad that the intelligentsia at large in
Goa failed to speak up for the diaspora and particularly the
seafarer community, when it counted the most.  We utterly
betrayed the ones who proudly call themselves Goenkar (Goans)
and effectively promote Goa and Goenkarponn (Goanity) to the
world in stark contrast to the futile official promotional
tours abroad.

They deserve to be handsomely repaid by the State for being
its ardent and passionate ambassadors to the world.  On the
contrary, the State shamelessly tried to feed off their
misery.  Irrespective of any number of repatriations these
days, after extracting a bounty from them and their
companies, this wound created by the events of last few
months and the chasm of mistrust and betrayal between the
seafarer community (as also the other Goan diaspora) and the
State will take a long time to heal.

What we do in the coming months will prove whether we have
any remorse and grace to make up for the body blow that we
have inflicted on this crucial component of our State and
society.  Fortunately or unfortunately, this section will be
in Goa for a longer period this time than usual, offering a
golden chance for the healing process to complete, if we
desire it.

On the tenth edition of the International Day of the
Seafarer, held this week, I bow to the seafarers -- those
presently working, those retired and those innumerable ones
who have gone by -- for their eternal and priceless
sacrifices, pains and travails that has contributed to making
Goans and Goa what it is today.

May the indomitable seafarer community be blessed infinitely!
--
Fernandes has majored in Pastoral Studies at the Loyola
University, Chicago, and is currently the Executive Secretary
of the Diocesan Pastoral Secretariat, Goa.

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet] Toil and tears on the salty seas... a tribute to the Goan seafarer (Fr Anthony Fernandes)

[Goanet Reader]

(WHO), including India, agreed to the
International Health Regulations 2005 (IHR 2005).  These were
meant to maintain a balance between a proportionate health
response to a global health emergency and to avoid undue
interference in international trade and traffic in such an
event.

  As per those regulations, no international
  travellers (who are citizens or residents) can be
  denied entry at the port-of-entry for health
  reasons.  Nor can they be charged for any health
  related measures such as medical tests, quarantine
  facilities, etc.

  Thus, the mandatory undertaking taken from stranded
  Indians abroad before they board the so-called
  'Repatriation Flights' and the forcible extraction
  of money from their companies, taking advantage of
  their vulnerability, such as from the seafarer
  companies, is a blatant violation of these
  regulations by India, itself a solemn signatory.

Despite their incalculable contribution to the economic and
psycho-social wellbeing of Goa through their families and
communities, we, Goans in general and the State in
particular, failed our diaspora, our non-resident Goans,
especially the seafarers, miserably.

We failed to be sensitive and understand the angst of the
seafarers and their families.  Worse still, we treated them
as outcasts, pariahs, untouchables, criminals.

Barring a few honourable exceptions, both political and
non-political, it was sad that the intelligentsia at large in
Goa failed to speak up for the diaspora and particularly the
seafarer community, when it counted the most.  We utterly
betrayed the ones who proudly call themselves Goenkar (Goans)
and effectively promote Goa and Goenkarponn (Goanity) to the
world in stark contrast to the futile official promotional
tours abroad.

They deserve to be handsomely repaid by the State for being
its ardent and passionate ambassadors to the world.  On the
contrary, the State shamelessly tried to feed off their
misery.  Irrespective of any number of repatriations these
days, after extracting a bounty from them and their
companies, this wound created by the events of last few
months and the chasm of mistrust and betrayal between the
seafarer community (as also the other Goan diaspora) and the
State will take a long time to heal.

What we do in the coming months will prove whether we have
any remorse and grace to make up for the body blow that we
have inflicted on this crucial component of our State and
society.  Fortunately or unfortunately, this section will be
in Goa for a longer period this time than usual, offering a
golden chance for the healing process to complete, if we
desire it.

On the tenth edition of the International Day of the
Seafarer, held this week, I bow to the seafarers -- those
presently working, those retired and those innumerable ones
who have gone by -- for their eternal and priceless
sacrifices, pains and travails that has contributed to making
Goans and Goa what it is today.

May the indomitable seafarer community be blessed infinitely!
--
Fernandes has majored in Pastoral Studies at the Loyola
University, Chicago, and is currently the Executive Secretary
of the Diocesan Pastoral Secretariat, Goa.

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet] From Hubli to Hubballi, from the Portuguese Club to the PGI (Rocque Fernandez)

[Goanet Reader]

.

These were outrightly rejected by a majority of the
committee members.  There still is a hope that sometime,
someday, a future generation of Goans would realize the value
and importance of this initiative, and accordingly take the
initiative of investing and bringing back glory to what it
was once.  In view of this, the property has been protected
from any take-over or external interference.

  During the last decade, the institute’s activities
  have come to a standstill.  It was left to lone
  committee members who shouldered the task of
  administering and looking after the basic
  necessities and requirements to keep it on the map.

To retain it, the premises and hall were given on hire for
weddings, parties, conferences and prayer meetings.  The income
from these hirings took care of maintenance and settling of
monthly water, electricity bills and taxes.  Occasionally
housie was organized as the sole activity for members.

Several attempts were thereafter made for a revival, but have
failed.  The city of Hubballi has grown enormously in size
during the past century with its borders extended far beyond.

>From once having a single parish, five parishes are now
functioning. Many Goans have been scattered far and away
from the vicinity of the Goan Institute at Keshwapur, thus
making it difficult for regular participation or involvement
increasing the challenges it faces.

Presently the Goan Institute has an elected managing
committee which is facing the urgent need of funds to get the
roofing restored, costing approximately Rs150,000 to 200,000.

  Once restored and repaired, the institute can plan
  activities and make efforts to relive the
  activities of the past as envisaged by our
  ancestors.  But time is running out and so is the
  enthusiasm to get going.

One could rightly suggest a bank loan, but who is going to
bell the cat?  Perhaps Goans from abroad who have their links
in Hubli can step forward.  The President, Dexter Braganza
can be contacted on +919611101324 for further details.

One has every reason to believe that with a readymade prime
property available, the Goans of Hubballi will one day see
reason and get to seriously utilising the Goan Institute in
the future.  I have -- fortunately or unfortunately -- been a
managing committee member for almost four decades with
nothing much to boast about, and in fact partly responsible
for the present state of affairs.

--
Rocque Fernandez recently resettled in Nachinola, Bardez,
after being in Hubli for a generation and more. He is married
to Sharbelle (nee Aguiar) who is currently working on a book
on her late father, the radio-announcer in Goa, Roderigo
(Roddy) Aguiar.

Goanet Reader is editor and compiled by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet-News] From Hubli to Hubballi, from the Portuguese Club to the PGI (Rocque Fernandez)

[Goanet Reader]

.

These were outrightly rejected by a majority of the
committee members.  There still is a hope that sometime,
someday, a future generation of Goans would realize the value
and importance of this initiative, and accordingly take the
initiative of investing and bringing back glory to what it
was once.  In view of this, the property has been protected
from any take-over or external interference.

  During the last decade, the institute’s activities
  have come to a standstill.  It was left to lone
  committee members who shouldered the task of
  administering and looking after the basic
  necessities and requirements to keep it on the map.

To retain it, the premises and hall were given on hire for
weddings, parties, conferences and prayer meetings.  The income
from these hirings took care of maintenance and settling of
monthly water, electricity bills and taxes.  Occasionally
housie was organized as the sole activity for members.

Several attempts were thereafter made for a revival, but have
failed.  The city of Hubballi has grown enormously in size
during the past century with its borders extended far beyond.

>From once having a single parish, five parishes are now
functioning. Many Goans have been scattered far and away
from the vicinity of the Goan Institute at Keshwapur, thus
making it difficult for regular participation or involvement
increasing the challenges it faces.

Presently the Goan Institute has an elected managing
committee which is facing the urgent need of funds to get the
roofing restored, costing approximately Rs150,000 to 200,000.

  Once restored and repaired, the institute can plan
  activities and make efforts to relive the
  activities of the past as envisaged by our
  ancestors.  But time is running out and so is the
  enthusiasm to get going.

One could rightly suggest a bank loan, but who is going to
bell the cat?  Perhaps Goans from abroad who have their links
in Hubli can step forward.  The President, Dexter Braganza
can be contacted on +919611101324 for further details.

One has every reason to believe that with a readymade prime
property available, the Goans of Hubballi will one day see
reason and get to seriously utilising the Goan Institute in
the future.  I have -- fortunately or unfortunately -- been a
managing committee member for almost four decades with
nothing much to boast about, and in fact partly responsible
for the present state of affairs.

--
Rocque Fernandez recently resettled in Nachinola, Bardez,
after being in Hubli for a generation and more. He is married
to Sharbelle (nee Aguiar) who is currently working on a book
on her late father, the radio-announcer in Goa, Roderigo
(Roddy) Aguiar.

Goanet Reader is editor and compiled by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet-News] Wise tales from Moira (FN)

[Goanet Reader]

Wise tales from Moira

Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

This has been called the village of eccentrics; its residents
have been dismissed as the Mad Moidekars, or, a bit more
diplomatically, termed the 'Wise Fools of Moira'.  Prominent
writer Jerry Pinto makes this point in his essay here.  But
then, are the villagers of Moira just the subject of so much
envy?

Quite possibly. This is something one has long suspected,
even if smarter people can indeed be more complicated to deal
with anywhere. Take your pick, after reading a new
publication, perhaps the first of its kind on this talented village,
that came out recently in the form of a colourful souvenir.

Most from these parts, meaning Bardez especially, has grown
up listening to 'Moidekar' stories (related to the denizens
of Moira) and jokes.  There's the tale of local villagers
trying to feed fertilizer to their church, to make it grow in
size.  Or another one about them trying to re-align the
church by pushing it, collectively.  Or even funny errors
over Latin words once used at Mass, like O'Salutaris
and Allelujah (which can be easily confused with Goan
names and Konkani words, to comical effect!)

  Or take the tale of a man planting rice in a field while
  seated on a bed, carried by four persons, so that
  his own feet didn't trample on the seed!  And the
  story of the Moidekkars sending a gift of choice
  mangoes to the 'Rajah of Goa', but only after
  tasting each one -- to ensure quality.  All these,
  originally recounted by Prof Lucio Rodrigues (who
  was part of the Dhempe College around the 1960s),
  are well illustrated by probably the world's only
  air vice marshal-cartoonist, Giles Gomes.

'Moira', as this publication is simply called, is an Rs300
priced, well-illustrated (with many classy colour photos)
souvenir.  It has been brought out to mark the centenary of
the oldest village club in Goa, located prominently along the
main road connecting Mapusa with Aldona.  More than just
being a souvenir, it also attempts to be a slender book on a
village which should have had more than one devoted to it.

So, the formula here has been to weave in memories about the
century-old Assoçiação Académica de Moira.  Getting access
to these can always be a tough task, due to the lack of
written records.  Added on are photographs of senior
citizens who are a decade or two younger than the village
club (centurions were unavailable); and a few articles
of relevance to the village.

The attempt to build a record of the hundred-year-old
institution over the decades is challenging.  For one, minus
our former colonial rulers, we in Goa mostly don't believe in
careful record-keeping.  Secondly, some of the points made could
lead to misunderstandings.

The name of the institution  -- Assoçiação Académica de Moira
-- stresses on its academic orientation.  It could perhaps be
translated as the Academic Association of Moira (though the
editor suggests it means "Academy").

In the souvenir, some pieces stand out.  Glenis Maria
Mendonça and Jeffrey D'Souza have a detailed and useful
feature on the musicians of Moira.  Lots of colourful
details, from an outline of the noted Micky Correa (1913-2011),
to lesser-known but significant contributors to the musical
versatility of Moira.

It includes ace trumpeters (such as Inacio Caridade
Fernandes), church 'mestris' (Issac Mendes), music teachers
(Philomena D'Cruz), those who ran music schools (Salazar De
Sa), drummers (Xavier 'Paclo' Fernandes, Xisto Pais, Romi
Tavares and Cosme Fernandes), band players across India and
the globe (Jason Quadros), state-level choir participants,
parish choir leaders, gifted musical families (the Lopes
Lobos, the Lobos), self-taught violinists and more. Even
keyboardists and some young music students.

For instance, did you know that an all-girls band, Poison
Ivy, with almost all its players from Moira, was a rage in
the Goa of the 1990s?

Could Moira then be called the Curtorim of Bardez; maybe, if its
denizens don't feel offended by a comparison with the richly
talented musical village of Salcete.

Mendonca and D'Souza regret that some musicians have gone
forgotten.

Some articles here are reproductions from earlier
publications, which suggests hurry at getting the job done,
or a lack of time.  Which is understandable, of course,
because anniversaries happen when everyone is busy leading
life.  But surely, the next generation of writers, including
young ones still in school, has to be built early.  Else, our
local histories will be little more than a distant memory.

  Dr Teotonio R de Souza, the late Indo-Portuguese
  historian, has written an article on Moira way back
  in 1986.  It has aged well, but certainly more
  needs to be written about unique areas of Goa like
  these, and get continually updated.  The article on
  Peter Nazareth, by R. 

[Goanet] Wise tales from Moira (FN)

[Goanet Reader]

Wise tales from Moira

Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

This has been called the village of eccentrics; its residents
have been dismissed as the Mad Moidekars, or, a bit more
diplomatically, termed the 'Wise Fools of Moira'.  Prominent
writer Jerry Pinto makes this point in his essay here.  But
then, are the villagers of Moira just the subject of so much
envy?

Quite possibly. This is something one has long suspected,
even if smarter people can indeed be more complicated to deal
with anywhere. Take your pick, after reading a new
publication, perhaps the first of its kind on this talented village,
that came out recently in the form of a colourful souvenir.

Most from these parts, meaning Bardez especially, has grown
up listening to 'Moidekar' stories (related to the denizens
of Moira) and jokes.  There's the tale of local villagers
trying to feed fertilizer to their church, to make it grow in
size.  Or another one about them trying to re-align the
church by pushing it, collectively.  Or even funny errors
over Latin words once used at Mass, like O'Salutaris
and Allelujah (which can be easily confused with Goan
names and Konkani words, to comical effect!)

  Or take the tale of a man planting rice in a field while
  seated on a bed, carried by four persons, so that
  his own feet didn't trample on the seed!  And the
  story of the Moidekkars sending a gift of choice
  mangoes to the 'Rajah of Goa', but only after
  tasting each one -- to ensure quality.  All these,
  originally recounted by Prof Lucio Rodrigues (who
  was part of the Dhempe College around the 1960s),
  are well illustrated by probably the world's only
  air vice marshal-cartoonist, Giles Gomes.

'Moira', as this publication is simply called, is an Rs300
priced, well-illustrated (with many classy colour photos)
souvenir.  It has been brought out to mark the centenary of
the oldest village club in Goa, located prominently along the
main road connecting Mapusa with Aldona.  More than just
being a souvenir, it also attempts to be a slender book on a
village which should have had more than one devoted to it.

So, the formula here has been to weave in memories about the
century-old Assoçiação Académica de Moira.  Getting access
to these can always be a tough task, due to the lack of
written records.  Added on are photographs of senior
citizens who are a decade or two younger than the village
club (centurions were unavailable); and a few articles
of relevance to the village.

The attempt to build a record of the hundred-year-old
institution over the decades is challenging.  For one, minus
our former colonial rulers, we in Goa mostly don't believe in
careful record-keeping.  Secondly, some of the points made could
lead to misunderstandings.

The name of the institution  -- Assoçiação Académica de Moira
-- stresses on its academic orientation.  It could perhaps be
translated as the Academic Association of Moira (though the
editor suggests it means "Academy").

In the souvenir, some pieces stand out.  Glenis Maria
Mendonça and Jeffrey D'Souza have a detailed and useful
feature on the musicians of Moira.  Lots of colourful
details, from an outline of the noted Micky Correa (1913-2011),
to lesser-known but significant contributors to the musical
versatility of Moira.

It includes ace trumpeters (such as Inacio Caridade
Fernandes), church 'mestris' (Issac Mendes), music teachers
(Philomena D'Cruz), those who ran music schools (Salazar De
Sa), drummers (Xavier 'Paclo' Fernandes, Xisto Pais, Romi
Tavares and Cosme Fernandes), band players across India and
the globe (Jason Quadros), state-level choir participants,
parish choir leaders, gifted musical families (the Lopes
Lobos, the Lobos), self-taught violinists and more. Even
keyboardists and some young music students.

For instance, did you know that an all-girls band, Poison
Ivy, with almost all its players from Moira, was a rage in
the Goa of the 1990s?

Could Moira then be called the Curtorim of Bardez; maybe, if its
denizens don't feel offended by a comparison with the richly
talented musical village of Salcete.

Mendonca and D'Souza regret that some musicians have gone
forgotten.

Some articles here are reproductions from earlier
publications, which suggests hurry at getting the job done,
or a lack of time.  Which is understandable, of course,
because anniversaries happen when everyone is busy leading
life.  But surely, the next generation of writers, including
young ones still in school, has to be built early.  Else, our
local histories will be little more than a distant memory.

  Dr Teotonio R de Souza, the late Indo-Portuguese
  historian, has written an article on Moira way back
  in 1986.  It has aged well, but certainly more
  needs to be written about unique areas of Goa like
  these, and get continually updated.  The article on
  Peter Nazareth, by R. 

[Goanet-News] Choosing the Better Fish to Make Goa's Sour Spicy Fish Curry (Aaron Savio Lobo, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

Aaron Savio Lobo
aaronlob...@gmail.com
+91 83089 39019

I happened to attend the IUCN Species Survival Commission
Leaders' meeting in October last year. This event is held
once every four years and is attended by conservation
scientists and specialists from around the world.

Many of these scientists have made it their lives' missions
to better understand and conserve the species or ecosystem in
their specific fields. One responsibility of the members of
the Species Survival Commission are the 'Red List
Assessments', which evaluate the extinction risk of a species
using a range of criteria, based on which they are assigned
to various threat categories.

  While I bounced around between sessions during this
  mega-event, hearing mostly dismal tales of various
  species threatened with extinction, one theme
  became extremely apparent: humans have a flawed
  food production system that poses a
  disproportionate threat to the planet's ecosystems.

The oceans are our biggest providers of wild food and
protein, in the form of seafood.  This is one of the reasons
most people tend to view the oceans solely as 'food
providers', with an unending supply of fish.

While most of our land is managed for different purposes, and
we are quick to notice any form of mismanagement here, events
concerning the ocean usually escapes our attention.  Most of
our ocean spaces are still largely "open-access" resources when
it comes to fisheries extraction.  As a result, many
important ocean habitats are destroyed beyond repair, and
many species have declined to precarious numbers or are
locally extinct.

This said, fish is an important and often the sole source of
protein for millions of poor coastal communities in India and
the rest of the world.  And today, a large proportion of our
seafood is being directed for other purposes, including
feeding other industries such as poultry, fish farming and
livestock.

  This not only poses a long-term threat to
  sustainability but is also a major livelihood and
  food security threat.  There are many solutions
  being touted to the various crises our oceans face,
  including setting up marine protected areas, ending
  destructive fisheries, incentivising good fishing
  practices, etc.  But the fish we choose to eat, and
  how it is sourced and processed, also has major
  implications for the environment.

PHOTO: A trawler along the Goan coast. Photo: Aaron Savio Lobo

We've just been through (on June 18) Sustainable Gastronomy
Day, so let's explore this aspect using a delicious Goan fish
curry called ambot tik koddi, or sour spicy curry.

  Traditionally, ambot tik was considered a poor
  man's curry.  The 'ambot' generally comes from the
  sour solã -- kokum shells -- while the 'tik' comes
  from chillies and other spices.  It lacks coconut,
  which was considered relatively expensive although
  typical to most Goan curries.

Goans have a few chosen fish that pair well with an ambot tik
preparation. These include mori (shark), waghole (ray),
sangta (sea catfish), tigur (walking catfish), lepo (tongue
sole) and tambde bhalem (burrowing eel gobies).  Today, a
typical Goan ambot tik is mainly prepared with mori, which is
considered to have good meat and to a lesser extent with some
other species. And among mori, it's generally the smaller
species, such as the spade-nose shark, which is used.

Sharks are threatened globally because of overfishing and
their numbers have seriously declined in most parts of their
range. Several species are being driven to extinction
because of the demand for their fins, particularly in the
East and Southeast Asian markets.

  In 2016, India was the second-largest shark fishing
  nation in the world.  While targeted shark
  fisheries do exist in India, most sharks are
  incidentally captured in fisheries that target
  other species.  For example, the bottom-dwelling
  shark is captured in non-selective fishing gear
  such as trawl nets, which actually try to capture
  small crustaceans like shrimp.  Many oceanic
  species are captured in drift gillnets and long
  lines that are actually designed for high-value
  species like tuna and king mackerel.

Sharks are long-lived creatures. They grow slow and sexually
mature late. They also tend to give birth to a few pups at a
time, as opposed to many other species that can lay thousands
of eggs. In a pristine sea with few anthropogenic pressures,
sharks are the top predators and play a vital role in shaping
the ecosystem. But they have trouble withstanding sustained
fishing pressure. Their populations can take years to
recover and in many cases, they may never do so, as we've seen
with species such as the Gangetic shark.

In India, there are five species of shark 

[Goanet] Choosing the Better Fish to Make Goa's Sour Spicy Fish Curry (Aaron Savio Lobo, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

Aaron Savio Lobo
aaronlob...@gmail.com
+91 83089 39019

I happened to attend the IUCN Species Survival Commission
Leaders' meeting in October last year. This event is held
once every four years and is attended by conservation
scientists and specialists from around the world.

Many of these scientists have made it their lives' missions
to better understand and conserve the species or ecosystem in
their specific fields. One responsibility of the members of
the Species Survival Commission are the 'Red List
Assessments', which evaluate the extinction risk of a species
using a range of criteria, based on which they are assigned
to various threat categories.

  While I bounced around between sessions during this
  mega-event, hearing mostly dismal tales of various
  species threatened with extinction, one theme
  became extremely apparent: humans have a flawed
  food production system that poses a
  disproportionate threat to the planet's ecosystems.

The oceans are our biggest providers of wild food and
protein, in the form of seafood.  This is one of the reasons
most people tend to view the oceans solely as 'food
providers', with an unending supply of fish.

While most of our land is managed for different purposes, and
we are quick to notice any form of mismanagement here, events
concerning the ocean usually escapes our attention.  Most of
our ocean spaces are still largely "open-access" resources when
it comes to fisheries extraction.  As a result, many
important ocean habitats are destroyed beyond repair, and
many species have declined to precarious numbers or are
locally extinct.

This said, fish is an important and often the sole source of
protein for millions of poor coastal communities in India and
the rest of the world.  And today, a large proportion of our
seafood is being directed for other purposes, including
feeding other industries such as poultry, fish farming and
livestock.

  This not only poses a long-term threat to
  sustainability but is also a major livelihood and
  food security threat.  There are many solutions
  being touted to the various crises our oceans face,
  including setting up marine protected areas, ending
  destructive fisheries, incentivising good fishing
  practices, etc.  But the fish we choose to eat, and
  how it is sourced and processed, also has major
  implications for the environment.

PHOTO: A trawler along the Goan coast. Photo: Aaron Savio Lobo

We've just been through (on June 18) Sustainable Gastronomy
Day, so let's explore this aspect using a delicious Goan fish
curry called ambot tik koddi, or sour spicy curry.

  Traditionally, ambot tik was considered a poor
  man's curry.  The 'ambot' generally comes from the
  sour solã -- kokum shells -- while the 'tik' comes
  from chillies and other spices.  It lacks coconut,
  which was considered relatively expensive although
  typical to most Goan curries.

Goans have a few chosen fish that pair well with an ambot tik
preparation. These include mori (shark), waghole (ray),
sangta (sea catfish), tigur (walking catfish), lepo (tongue
sole) and tambde bhalem (burrowing eel gobies).  Today, a
typical Goan ambot tik is mainly prepared with mori, which is
considered to have good meat and to a lesser extent with some
other species. And among mori, it's generally the smaller
species, such as the spade-nose shark, which is used.

Sharks are threatened globally because of overfishing and
their numbers have seriously declined in most parts of their
range. Several species are being driven to extinction
because of the demand for their fins, particularly in the
East and Southeast Asian markets.

  In 2016, India was the second-largest shark fishing
  nation in the world.  While targeted shark
  fisheries do exist in India, most sharks are
  incidentally captured in fisheries that target
  other species.  For example, the bottom-dwelling
  shark is captured in non-selective fishing gear
  such as trawl nets, which actually try to capture
  small crustaceans like shrimp.  Many oceanic
  species are captured in drift gillnets and long
  lines that are actually designed for high-value
  species like tuna and king mackerel.

Sharks are long-lived creatures. They grow slow and sexually
mature late. They also tend to give birth to a few pups at a
time, as opposed to many other species that can lay thousands
of eggs. In a pristine sea with few anthropogenic pressures,
sharks are the top predators and play a vital role in shaping
the ecosystem. But they have trouble withstanding sustained
fishing pressure. Their populations can take years to
recover and in many cases, they may never do so, as we've seen
with species such as the Gangetic shark.

In India, there are five species of shark 

[Goanet-News] Remembering a doctor, who saved lives with vaccines and dedication, and the wider contribution of Goa and Goans (Valmiki Faleiro)

[Goanet Reader]

ousands -- Catholics, Hindus, Muslims and Parsis -- turned
out and lined the roads to bid Dr Pinto do Rosario a tearful
adieu.  Through his vaccines and his hard work, he had saved
millions of lives from viral epidemic and cholera, both
within and outside India.

  Canossian nuns draped the coffin in black and white
  and adorned it with flowers plucked from the
  sprawling gardens around his official residence in
  Belgaum.  His funeral cortege, of cars and buses
  almost a mile long, crawled two miles to St.
  Anthony's Chapel, where the Vicar General of
  Belgaum celebrated a Requiem Mass, and thereafter a
  few more miles to the European cemetery.

He was laid to rest in a grave alongside his angelic young
son, Gastão, who had died 27 June 1931.

Dr Pinto do Rosario and wife had seven children.  A nephew
was Home Secretary to the Bombay Presidency government.
Three of his sons joined the defence services of India as
Commissioned Officers, each in the Army, the Navy and the Air
Force.  Capt Norman Pinto do Rosario was with the Army Dental
Corps and later was Dental Surgeon to the President of India
and Dental Advisor to the Government of India.  Rear Adm.
DRF Pinto (Faust Pinto do Rosario) was a Surgeon R/Adm, the
first Goan to rise to the rank of Admiral.

  The third brother was Air Vice Marshal Erlich
  Wilmot Pinto, PVSM, M-in-D, India's first Air
  Adviser in London, and best known of the three in
  Goa.  As AOC-in-C of the then unified Operational
  Command of the IAF, tasked with air operations
  throughout India, he directed the air ops during
  Op.  Vijay-1961 that freed Goa from the colonial
  yoke.  The road from Dabolim airport to Chicalim
  junction is named after him.

His PVSM Citation, in part, said, "During the ops in Goa ...
the risk of casualties to the civil population in air ops was
inherent. As a result of meticulous planning by Air V/Mshl
Pinto and efficient coordination, the air ops in the three
enclaves were carried out most successfully."

  An exceptionally brilliant officer of the right
  age, Air V/Mshl EW Pinto was in a surefire line of
  succession as India's air force chief, when he
  unfortunately died -- together with top brass army
  commanders like Lt Gen Daulat Singh, Lt Gen Bikram
  Singh and Lt Gen Rustom Nanavati -- in a helicopter
  crash in Jammu & Kashmir in 1963.

A daughter of Dr  Pinto do Rosario, Marie Louise, married
Brig  Noel Edwin Barretto.

Brig  Barretto is one of the famous four 'Barretto Brothers'
-- sons of Mahatma Gandhi's personal dentist at the Wardha
Ashram, Dr Cristovam Filipe Eusebio Francisco Jose Ubaldino
da Gama Barretto, 1889-1972, a native of Raia-Salcete but
settled and practising in Nagpur.

The famous four are: Brig Terence Barretto, the youngest
Brigadier until then in the history of the Indian Army who
was due to be the first Indian Chief of the Corps of Signals
but quit when he was bypassed and plunged fulltime into
helping Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Nagpur,
his younger brother Wing Commander Cecil Barretto, VSM,
initially with the Army Dental Corps but later seconded to
the Indian Air Force, Brig Noel Edwin Barretto an air defence
gunner with the Regiment of Artillery, and Lt Gen Christopher
Anthony Barretto, PVSM, AVSM, better known as 'Gen Bobby
Barretto' who was with the Corps of Engineers having risen
from the Madras Engineer Group.

  Do similarities -- nay, a pattern -- emerge?  The
  two families, Pinto do Rosario and Barretto,
  reflect the disproportionate to population Goan
  contribution to the world of medicine and the armed
  forces of the nation.
-
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Writer-author Valmiki Faleiro is a former
journalist who worked, out of Goa, for local and national
mastheads in the 1970s and 1980s.  One of Goa's homegrown
prolific writers, Faleiro's writings found in the Current,
The Navhind Times, The West CoastT Times, and other
publications still offer insights into the Goa of the 1970s
and thereabouts.

Part of the information here has been excerpted from his
well-received and now out-of-print book *Patriotism In
Action: Goans in India's Defence Services*, Goa,1556, 2010
(ISBN: 978-93-80739-06-9)

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha.

- *"Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a
violent psychopath who knows where you live." - Rick Osborne*

[Goanet] Remembering a doctor, who saved lives with vaccines and dedication, and the wider contribution of Goa and Goans (Valmiki Faleiro)

[Goanet Reader]

ousands -- Catholics, Hindus, Muslims and Parsis -- turned
out and lined the roads to bid Dr Pinto do Rosario a tearful
adieu.  Through his vaccines and his hard work, he had saved
millions of lives from viral epidemic and cholera, both
within and outside India.

  Canossian nuns draped the coffin in black and white
  and adorned it with flowers plucked from the
  sprawling gardens around his official residence in
  Belgaum.  His funeral cortege, of cars and buses
  almost a mile long, crawled two miles to St.
  Anthony's Chapel, where the Vicar General of
  Belgaum celebrated a Requiem Mass, and thereafter a
  few more miles to the European cemetery.

He was laid to rest in a grave alongside his angelic young
son, Gastão, who had died 27 June 1931.

Dr Pinto do Rosario and wife had seven children.  A nephew
was Home Secretary to the Bombay Presidency government.
Three of his sons joined the defence services of India as
Commissioned Officers, each in the Army, the Navy and the Air
Force.  Capt Norman Pinto do Rosario was with the Army Dental
Corps and later was Dental Surgeon to the President of India
and Dental Advisor to the Government of India.  Rear Adm.
DRF Pinto (Faust Pinto do Rosario) was a Surgeon R/Adm, the
first Goan to rise to the rank of Admiral.

  The third brother was Air Vice Marshal Erlich
  Wilmot Pinto, PVSM, M-in-D, India's first Air
  Adviser in London, and best known of the three in
  Goa.  As AOC-in-C of the then unified Operational
  Command of the IAF, tasked with air operations
  throughout India, he directed the air ops during
  Op.  Vijay-1961 that freed Goa from the colonial
  yoke.  The road from Dabolim airport to Chicalim
  junction is named after him.

His PVSM Citation, in part, said, "During the ops in Goa ...
the risk of casualties to the civil population in air ops was
inherent. As a result of meticulous planning by Air V/Mshl
Pinto and efficient coordination, the air ops in the three
enclaves were carried out most successfully."

  An exceptionally brilliant officer of the right
  age, Air V/Mshl EW Pinto was in a surefire line of
  succession as India's air force chief, when he
  unfortunately died -- together with top brass army
  commanders like Lt Gen Daulat Singh, Lt Gen Bikram
  Singh and Lt Gen Rustom Nanavati -- in a helicopter
  crash in Jammu & Kashmir in 1963.

A daughter of Dr  Pinto do Rosario, Marie Louise, married
Brig  Noel Edwin Barretto.

Brig  Barretto is one of the famous four 'Barretto Brothers'
-- sons of Mahatma Gandhi's personal dentist at the Wardha
Ashram, Dr Cristovam Filipe Eusebio Francisco Jose Ubaldino
da Gama Barretto, 1889-1972, a native of Raia-Salcete but
settled and practising in Nagpur.

The famous four are: Brig Terence Barretto, the youngest
Brigadier until then in the history of the Indian Army who
was due to be the first Indian Chief of the Corps of Signals
but quit when he was bypassed and plunged fulltime into
helping Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Nagpur,
his younger brother Wing Commander Cecil Barretto, VSM,
initially with the Army Dental Corps but later seconded to
the Indian Air Force, Brig Noel Edwin Barretto an air defence
gunner with the Regiment of Artillery, and Lt Gen Christopher
Anthony Barretto, PVSM, AVSM, better known as 'Gen Bobby
Barretto' who was with the Corps of Engineers having risen
from the Madras Engineer Group.

  Do similarities -- nay, a pattern -- emerge?  The
  two families, Pinto do Rosario and Barretto,
  reflect the disproportionate to population Goan
  contribution to the world of medicine and the armed
  forces of the nation.
-
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Writer-author Valmiki Faleiro is a former
journalist who worked, out of Goa, for local and national
mastheads in the 1970s and 1980s.  One of Goa's homegrown
prolific writers, Faleiro's writings found in the Current,
The Navhind Times, The West CoastT Times, and other
publications still offer insights into the Goa of the 1970s
and thereabouts.

Part of the information here has been excerpted from his
well-received and now out-of-print book *Patriotism In
Action: Goans in India's Defence Services*, Goa,1556, 2010
(ISBN: 978-93-80739-06-9)

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha.

- *"Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a
violent psychopath who knows where you live." - Rick Osborne*

[Goanet] [Goanet-News] Riddles: same language, another land (FN)

[Goanet Reader]

Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

One-third of this book is impossible for me to understand, it
comes from perhaps 400 kilometres away, and was written
almost forty years back.  So, why should one be bothered at
all with it?

Contrary to what it might seem to be, this partly
Kannada-script book is rather relevant to Goa too.  It comes
hard-covered, bound with what looks like old sari cloth in a
manner which suggests lack of resources. This is nonetheless
a book indeed worth taking a look at.

'Konkany Riddles -- Konknni Huminnyom', by CCA Pai SJ, was
published in 1981.  I too would have missed noticing it, if a
friend (Leroy) had not known of my bias for collecting old,
Goa-related books, and had generously gifted it to me.

  Published in Bengaluru, printed in Hubli and
  written by a Mangalorean Jesuit priest, the book
  reminds us of how close (if forgotten) our links
  with our neighbours can be.

  Alan Machado Prabhu, the Mangalorean-origin and
  Bengaluru-based author of another book, makes an
  interesting point.  He has often pointed out that
  Goans talk repeatedly about their diasporas (or
  emigrant populations), but even more often forget
  about their "oldest, largest and among the
  earliest" diasporas.

Which one?  Those who left Goa and went to Mangalore (now
also Mangaluru), and other areas on the South Indian
coast.  They did so for a range of complex reasons --
possibly including food insecurity, regional conflict and
wars, and the skills they could use elsewhere, even though
Portuguese religious intolerance is often blamed for this.

Today, both Goans and Mangaloreans mostly don't acknowledge
their connections with each other.  They highlight the fact
that their shared language is now often incomprehensible to
one another.  In migration-oriented centres, like Mumbai,
where both communities have flocked to, they seem to be in
rivalry with one another.  Yet, the age-old connections
nonetheless remain.

That's where this book turns relevant.  It's a serious and
a lengthy study of Konkani riddles.  The author credits his
"boyhood friends" and "own relatives living in rural parts of
South Kanara district" for this significant collection of
riddles.

This study spans 406 plus 340 pages, in two separate parts.
Of its two parts, the first offers an introduction to
"Konkany" (the preferred spelling of the language's name
here), and the "historico-geographic situation" of the
Mangalorean Christian community.

  It might be worth pointing out briefly that the
  Mangaloreans mostly trace their roots to Goa, and
  after migrating, had a tough and hoary history.
  This included the "captivity" of a large part of
  that community by Tipu Sultan.  They were taken
  some distance away, to his capital of
  Srirangapattana, and kept imprisoned for years.
  Obviously, this has strongly shaped the community,
  its determination to survive, and the tenacity with
  which it clings to identity and language.

The second part of the book looks at the Konkani riddles of
the Mangalore Catholics, others from Goa, yet more in the
Konkani variant of Kerala too.  Finally, the book ends with a
listing of various definitions of riddles.  Fr Pai credits
R.V.  Pandit and Shohsma Pandit for the collection of the
riddles from Goa.

Given Konkani's rich traditions as a language of the soil,
the field and agricultural communities, the riddles of this
lingo can sometimes be puzzling.  Take this one: "Yeka dudiak
bara xiro, xire kannkanni tis biyo".  You're probably
thinking of a pumpkin which has twelve pods, and each of
which had 30 seeds.  The actual answer?  A year, which has 12
months and 30 days (roughly) in each!

But then, you asked for it!  By definition (page 337, part
II), a riddle refers to a puzzling question or “ambiguous
proposition” which is meant to be solved by conjecture.
Another of the many definitions tell us a “true riddle or the
riddle in the strict sense compares an object to another
entirely different object”.

Interestingly, the text of the book, which came before Goa’s
Official Language Act (1987), is partly written in three
scripts – Kannada, Devanagari, and Romi.  For a
geographically-divided linguistic group, this could have
widened its readership.  If, that is, it had been more widely
noticed in Goa, and we ourselves here were more serious about
reading.

Pai does an interesting job of understanding riddles from
across the globe.  For the Mangaloreans, riddles played the
function “of passing time in a pleasant manner” (page 241,
part I).  And “it was mainly the children and the younger
people who indulged in riddling”.  Children took to riddles
while helping with the household work, such as guarding over
the coconut kernels put out to dry in September and December.

Riddles are connected with the human person.  The 

[Goanet-News] Riddles: same language, another land (FN)

[Goanet Reader]

Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

One-third of this book is impossible for me to understand, it
comes from perhaps 400 kilometres away, and was written
almost forty years back.  So, why should one be bothered at
all with it?

Contrary to what it might seem to be, this partly
Kannada-script book is rather relevant to Goa too.  It comes
hard-covered, bound with what looks like old sari cloth in a
manner which suggests lack of resources. This is nonetheless
a book indeed worth taking a look at.

'Konkany Riddles -- Konknni Huminnyom', by CCA Pai SJ, was
published in 1981.  I too would have missed noticing it, if a
friend (Leroy) had not known of my bias for collecting old,
Goa-related books, and had generously gifted it to me.

  Published in Bengaluru, printed in Hubli and
  written by a Mangalorean Jesuit priest, the book
  reminds us of how close (if forgotten) our links
  with our neighbours can be.

  Alan Machado Prabhu, the Mangalorean-origin and
  Bengaluru-based author of another book, makes an
  interesting point.  He has often pointed out that
  Goans talk repeatedly about their diasporas (or
  emigrant populations), but even more often forget
  about their "oldest, largest and among the
  earliest" diasporas.

Which one?  Those who left Goa and went to Mangalore (now
also Mangaluru), and other areas on the South Indian
coast.  They did so for a range of complex reasons --
possibly including food insecurity, regional conflict and
wars, and the skills they could use elsewhere, even though
Portuguese religious intolerance is often blamed for this.

Today, both Goans and Mangaloreans mostly don't acknowledge
their connections with each other.  They highlight the fact
that their shared language is now often incomprehensible to
one another.  In migration-oriented centres, like Mumbai,
where both communities have flocked to, they seem to be in
rivalry with one another.  Yet, the age-old connections
nonetheless remain.

That's where this book turns relevant.  It's a serious and
a lengthy study of Konkani riddles.  The author credits his
"boyhood friends" and "own relatives living in rural parts of
South Kanara district" for this significant collection of
riddles.

This study spans 406 plus 340 pages, in two separate parts.
Of its two parts, the first offers an introduction to
"Konkany" (the preferred spelling of the language's name
here), and the "historico-geographic situation" of the
Mangalorean Christian community.

  It might be worth pointing out briefly that the
  Mangaloreans mostly trace their roots to Goa, and
  after migrating, had a tough and hoary history.
  This included the "captivity" of a large part of
  that community by Tipu Sultan.  They were taken
  some distance away, to his capital of
  Srirangapattana, and kept imprisoned for years.
  Obviously, this has strongly shaped the community,
  its determination to survive, and the tenacity with
  which it clings to identity and language.

The second part of the book looks at the Konkani riddles of
the Mangalore Catholics, others from Goa, yet more in the
Konkani variant of Kerala too.  Finally, the book ends with a
listing of various definitions of riddles.  Fr Pai credits
R.V.  Pandit and Shohsma Pandit for the collection of the
riddles from Goa.

Given Konkani's rich traditions as a language of the soil,
the field and agricultural communities, the riddles of this
lingo can sometimes be puzzling.  Take this one: "Yeka dudiak
bara xiro, xire kannkanni tis biyo".  You're probably
thinking of a pumpkin which has twelve pods, and each of
which had 30 seeds.  The actual answer?  A year, which has 12
months and 30 days (roughly) in each!

But then, you asked for it!  By definition (page 337, part
II), a riddle refers to a puzzling question or “ambiguous
proposition” which is meant to be solved by conjecture.
Another of the many definitions tell us a “true riddle or the
riddle in the strict sense compares an object to another
entirely different object”.

Interestingly, the text of the book, which came before Goa’s
Official Language Act (1987), is partly written in three
scripts – Kannada, Devanagari, and Romi.  For a
geographically-divided linguistic group, this could have
widened its readership.  If, that is, it had been more widely
noticed in Goa, and we ourselves here were more serious about
reading.

Pai does an interesting job of understanding riddles from
across the globe.  For the Mangaloreans, riddles played the
function “of passing time in a pleasant manner” (page 241,
part I).  And “it was mainly the children and the younger
people who indulged in riddling”.  Children took to riddles
while helping with the household work, such as guarding over
the coconut kernels put out to dry in September and December.

Riddles are connected with the human person.  The 

[Goanet] Riddles: same language, another land (FN)

[Goanet Reader]

Riddles: same language, another land

Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

One-third of this book is impossible for me to understand, it
comes from perhaps 400 kilometres away, and was written
almost forty years back.  So, why should one be bothered at
all with it?

Contrary to what it might seem to be, this partly
Kannada-script book is rather relevant to Goa too.  It comes
hard-covered, bound with what looks like old sari cloth in a
manner which suggests lack of resources. This is nonetheless
a book indeed worth taking a look at.

'Konkany Riddles -- Konknni Huminnyom', by CCA Pai SJ, was
published in 1981.  I too would have missed noticing it, if a
friend (Leroy) had not known of my bias for collecting old,
Goa-related books, and had generously gifted it to me.

  Published in Bengaluru, printed in Hubli and
  written by a Mangalorean Jesuit priest, the book
  reminds us of how close (if forgotten) our links
  with our neighbours can be.

  Alan Machado Prabhu, the Mangalorean-origin and
  Bengaluru-based author of another book, makes an
  interesting point.  He has often pointed out that
  Goans talk repeatedly about their diasporas (or
  emigrant populations), but even more often forget
  about their "oldest, largest and among the
  earliest" diasporas.

Which one?  Those who left Goa and went to Mangalore (now
also Mangaluru), and other areas on the South Indian
coast.  They did so for a range of complex reasons --
possibly including food insecurity, regional conflict and
wars, and the skills they could use elsewhere, even though
Portuguese religious intolerance is often blamed for this.

Today, both Goans and Mangaloreans mostly don't acknowledge
their connections with each other.  They highlight the fact
that their shared language is now often incomprehensible to
one another.  In migration-oriented centres, like Mumbai,
where both communities have flocked to, they seem to be in
rivalry with one another.  Yet, the age-old connections
nonetheless remain.

That's where this book turns relevant.  It's a serious and
a lengthy study of Konkani riddles.  The author credits his
"boyhood friends" and "own relatives living in rural parts of
South Kanara district" for this significant collection of
riddles.

This study spans 406 plus 340 pages, in two separate parts.
Of its two parts, the first offers an introduction to
"Konkany" (the preferred spelling of the language's name
here), and the "historico-geographic situation" of the
Mangalorean Christian community.

  It might be worth pointing out briefly that the
  Mangaloreans mostly trace their roots to Goa, and
  after migrating, had a tough and hoary history.
  This included the "captivity" of a large part of
  that community by Tipu Sultan.  They were taken
  some distance away, to his capital of
  Srirangapattana, and kept imprisoned for years.
  Obviously, this has strongly shaped the community,
  its determination to survive, and the tenacity with
  which it clings to identity and language.

The second part of the book looks at the Konkani riddles of
the Mangalore Catholics, others from Goa, yet more in the
Konkani variant of Kerala too.  Finally, the book ends with a
listing of various definitions of riddles.  Fr Pai credits
R.V.  Pandit and Shohsma Pandit for the collection of the
riddles from Goa.

Given Konkani's rich traditions as a language of the soil,
the field and agricultural communities, the riddles of this
lingo can sometimes be puzzling.  Take this one: "Yeka dudiak
bara xiro, xire kannkanni tis biyo".  You're probably
thinking of a pumpkin which has twelve pods, and each of
which had 30 seeds.  The actual answer?  A year, which has 12
months and 30 days (roughly) in each!

But then, you asked for it!  By definition (page 337, part
II), a riddle refers to a puzzling question or “ambiguous
proposition” which is meant to be solved by conjecture.
Another of the many definitions tell us a “true riddle or the
riddle in the strict sense compares an object to another
entirely different object”.

Interestingly, the text of the book, which came before Goa’s
Official Language Act (1987), is partly written in three
scripts – Kannada, Devanagari, and Romi.  For a
geographically-divided linguistic group, this could have
widened its readership.  If, that is, it had been more widely
noticed in Goa, and we ourselves here were more serious about
reading.

Pai does an interesting job of understanding riddles from
across the globe.  For the Mangaloreans, riddles played the
function “of passing time in a pleasant manner” (page 241,
part I).  And “it was mainly the children and the younger
people who indulged in riddling”.  Children took to riddles
while helping with the household work, such as guarding over
the coconut kernels put out to dry in September and December.

Riddles are 

[Goanet-News] Crisis in the Pune and Goa newspaper industries (Camil Parkhe)

[Goanet Reader]

ar Wage Award.  Till then, most
newspaper managements in Aurangabad had not implemented the
Working Journalist Act 1956 or the Palekar Wage Award
recommendations.  Wage Boards have been periodically set up
to govern the salaries of journalist and non-journalist
newspaper employees in India.

My letter to the Lokmat management turned out to be a
bombshell.  It prompted the management to call a workers'
meeting on a Saturday in October 1988 to announce that the
Palekar Award would be implemented in the establishment.

  The same evening, I was relieved of my duties with
  total payments including gratuity for one year.
  Gratuity payment, in fact, is mandatory only if the
  worker serves at least for five years.  I had
  absolutely no regret about the prompt relieving.
  In fact, I had already been selected as a reporter
  in the Indian Express, Pune.

As I signed the relieving papers and collected the dues, I
remember our News Editor Subhash Abooj, pleading to me to
file a report on a minister's function which I had covered in
the afternoon.  Grudgingly, I obliged.  A few months later,
Abooj Sir too came to Pune and was my boss for over a decade
both in the Indian Express Pune and the Sakal Times.

Journalists in Lokmat often stared me at me in disbelief
whenever I mentioned that I was instrumental in implementing
the Wage Award in the Lokmat establishment.

Till the early 1990s, trade unionism and the labour movement
were very strong in India and elsewhere.  As the GUJ general
secretary, I had led an over 15-member delegation of Goa
journalists to the Indian Federation of Working Journalists
(IFWJ) in Puri in Odisha 1986 and later to Jammu and Kashmir
in 1987.  The International Organisation of Journalists (IOJ)
in those years, in association with the IFWJ used to arrange
diploma courses for Indian journalists in Eastern Europe
(read: Communist) countries.  I myself completed a diploma
course in journalism in Bulgaria and also visited Russia in 1987.

Just imagine we journalists and newspaper employees used to
refer to each other in the fraternity as Comrades!

After the fall of the USSR, trade unionism in India and all
over the world almost became marginalised, if not
nonexistent. That reflected in the newspaper industry as well.

As a result, all national and small newspaper organisations
later ignored the wage awards, Working Journalists and Other
Newspaper Employees Act and other regulations with connivance
of the government authorities.

The Sakal Media Group has now stopped  publications of two of
its English-language dailies, the Pune-based Sakal Times and
the Goa-based Gomantak Times.

Labour unions of newspaper employees have turned totally
ineffective.  The Pune Union of Working of Journalists and
other organisations have, as expected, shrugged off their
responsibilities in the present labour crisis.

###

Camil Parkhe came to join the Jesuits in Goa but ended up as
a newspaper reporter and media trade unionist in the 1980s.
He subsequently returned to his home state, and worked in the
media there, as described above.

Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet] Crisis in the Pune and Goa newspaper industries (Camil Parkhe)

[Goanet Reader]

ar Wage Award.  Till then, most
newspaper managements in Aurangabad had not implemented the
Working Journalist Act 1956 or the Palekar Wage Award
recommendations.  Wage Boards have been periodically set up
to govern the salaries of journalist and non-journalist
newspaper employees in India.

My letter to the Lokmat management turned out to be a
bombshell.  It prompted the management to call a workers'
meeting on a Saturday in October 1988 to announce that the
Palekar Award would be implemented in the establishment.

  The same evening, I was relieved of my duties with
  total payments including gratuity for one year.
  Gratuity payment, in fact, is mandatory only if the
  worker serves at least for five years.  I had
  absolutely no regret about the prompt relieving.
  In fact, I had already been selected as a reporter
  in the Indian Express, Pune.

As I signed the relieving papers and collected the dues, I
remember our News Editor Subhash Abooj, pleading to me to
file a report on a minister's function which I had covered in
the afternoon.  Grudgingly, I obliged.  A few months later,
Abooj Sir too came to Pune and was my boss for over a decade
both in the Indian Express Pune and the Sakal Times.

Journalists in Lokmat often stared me at me in disbelief
whenever I mentioned that I was instrumental in implementing
the Wage Award in the Lokmat establishment.

Till the early 1990s, trade unionism and the labour movement
were very strong in India and elsewhere.  As the GUJ general
secretary, I had led an over 15-member delegation of Goa
journalists to the Indian Federation of Working Journalists
(IFWJ) in Puri in Odisha 1986 and later to Jammu and Kashmir
in 1987.  The International Organisation of Journalists (IOJ)
in those years, in association with the IFWJ used to arrange
diploma courses for Indian journalists in Eastern Europe
(read: Communist) countries.  I myself completed a diploma
course in journalism in Bulgaria and also visited Russia in 1987.

Just imagine we journalists and newspaper employees used to
refer to each other in the fraternity as Comrades!

After the fall of the USSR, trade unionism in India and all
over the world almost became marginalised, if not
nonexistent. That reflected in the newspaper industry as well.

As a result, all national and small newspaper organisations
later ignored the wage awards, Working Journalists and Other
Newspaper Employees Act and other regulations with connivance
of the government authorities.

The Sakal Media Group has now stopped  publications of two of
its English-language dailies, the Pune-based Sakal Times and
the Goa-based Gomantak Times.

Labour unions of newspaper employees have turned totally
ineffective.  The Pune Union of Working of Journalists and
other organisations have, as expected, shrugged off their
responsibilities in the present labour crisis.

###

Camil Parkhe came to join the Jesuits in Goa but ended up as
a newspaper reporter and media trade unionist in the 1980s.
He subsequently returned to his home state, and worked in the
media there, as described above.

Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet] The Unwritten Rules of Oyster Fishing (Aaron Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

 mangrove exposed at
low tide in Pallolem

However, it would be unfair to attribute the decline of the
bay and the demise of oyster fisheries to over-harvesting
alone.  Unused iron ore barges are anchored at various parts
along this river stretch.  Exposed to the forces of nature,
they lie in a state of decay, leaching pollutants into the
estuary.

The degradation of these bays will not only affect bivalve
habitats, but also species that use these sheltered areas as
feeding grounds and nurseries. Destruction of these
important estuarine habitats can ultimately translate to the
decline in quantity and quality of some of Goa's favourite
seafood.

  The brackish water oysters can live for several
  years, and both the live oysters and their shells
  are extremely important to the creek's health.  The
  high densities of molluscs found here perform a
  massively undervalued service to Goa, which is
  filtering the estuary of its pollutants and toxic
  algal blooms (which happens when there are high
  levels of domestic sewage in the water).  These
  blooms deplete the oxygen in the waters, and can
  cause massive fish die-offs, threatening local
  fisheries.

The villagers of Chicalim and Sancoale have taken it upon
themselves to save their bay. For the first time this May,
several locals concerned about their bay's future went about
planting Calvam haddes. To stabilise these mother shells,
they covered them with nets, and monitor them regularly.  We
still have a long way to go, but the current pandemic has
opened our eyes to the need to strengthen local food systems.
Much like the local shellfish food-chain, all local
production of foods needs to be analysed in a similar manner
to increase the resilience of supplies.

So what is my alternative to Goa's oyster bhaaji?

I reserve a batch of handpicked Nerul oysters, and use a
straightforward, delicious Thai recipe I learnt from my
uncle, Peter Estibeiro, who loves Thailand (and its oysters)
as much as I do.  First, make sure your oven grill is hot (or
you can use a pan if you don't have a grill).  For sauce,
chop up a few birds' eye chillies, onions and coriander, to
which you then add fish sauce and lime juice in equal parts.
Bake or lightly pan-fry the oysters for under five minutes,
to prevent them from turning chewy.  Drizzle with sauce, and
serve.  Peter recommends having a batch crispy-fried burnt
garlic on hand, to sprinkle on just before eating.
---
Aaron Savio Lobo is a marine conservation scientist,  and a
member of the IUCN SSC Marine Conservation Committee.  You
can follow his work at the link below.

All photographs by Aaron Savio Lobo
See images at
https://www.goyajournal.in/blog/the-unwritten-rules-of-oyster-fishing-goa
--
Goanet Reader is edited and compiled by Frederick Noronha.

Your writer has contributed this work gratis, in public
interest. Repay him with your comments, feedback and appreciation
(if deserved).  Share your comments with him (address on top)
with a cc to goa...@goanet.org

[Goanet-News] The Unwritten Rules of Oyster Fishing (Aaron Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

 mangrove exposed at
low tide in Pallolem

However, it would be unfair to attribute the decline of the
bay and the demise of oyster fisheries to over-harvesting
alone.  Unused iron ore barges are anchored at various parts
along this river stretch.  Exposed to the forces of nature,
they lie in a state of decay, leaching pollutants into the
estuary.

The degradation of these bays will not only affect bivalve
habitats, but also species that use these sheltered areas as
feeding grounds and nurseries. Destruction of these
important estuarine habitats can ultimately translate to the
decline in quantity and quality of some of Goa's favourite
seafood.

  The brackish water oysters can live for several
  years, and both the live oysters and their shells
  are extremely important to the creek's health.  The
  high densities of molluscs found here perform a
  massively undervalued service to Goa, which is
  filtering the estuary of its pollutants and toxic
  algal blooms (which happens when there are high
  levels of domestic sewage in the water).  These
  blooms deplete the oxygen in the waters, and can
  cause massive fish die-offs, threatening local
  fisheries.

The villagers of Chicalim and Sancoale have taken it upon
themselves to save their bay. For the first time this May,
several locals concerned about their bay's future went about
planting Calvam haddes. To stabilise these mother shells,
they covered them with nets, and monitor them regularly.  We
still have a long way to go, but the current pandemic has
opened our eyes to the need to strengthen local food systems.
Much like the local shellfish food-chain, all local
production of foods needs to be analysed in a similar manner
to increase the resilience of supplies.

So what is my alternative to Goa's oyster bhaaji?

I reserve a batch of handpicked Nerul oysters, and use a
straightforward, delicious Thai recipe I learnt from my
uncle, Peter Estibeiro, who loves Thailand (and its oysters)
as much as I do.  First, make sure your oven grill is hot (or
you can use a pan if you don't have a grill).  For sauce,
chop up a few birds' eye chillies, onions and coriander, to
which you then add fish sauce and lime juice in equal parts.
Bake or lightly pan-fry the oysters for under five minutes,
to prevent them from turning chewy.  Drizzle with sauce, and
serve.  Peter recommends having a batch crispy-fried burnt
garlic on hand, to sprinkle on just before eating.
---
Aaron Savio Lobo is a marine conservation scientist,  and a
member of the IUCN SSC Marine Conservation Committee.  You
can follow his work at the link below.

All photographs by Aaron Savio Lobo
See images at
https://www.goyajournal.in/blog/the-unwritten-rules-of-oyster-fishing-goa
--
Goanet Reader is edited and compiled by Frederick Noronha.

Your writer has contributed this work gratis, in public
interest. Repay him with your comments, feedback and appreciation
(if deserved).  Share your comments with him (address on top)
with a cc to goa...@goanet.org

[Goanet-News] The Goa Inquisition: when FACT creates Fiction (Alan Machado)

[Goanet Reader]

The Goa Inquisition: when FACT creates Fiction

Alan Machado
alan.macha...@gmail.com

The subject of the Goa Inquisition appears to rise like a
bubble from murky waters every few years. Being in the
process of writing a book on the subject, I have accessed a
vast amount of primary and secondary sources. Also, I have
found a lot of misinformation unsupported by verifiable
historical content being propagated as historical fact for a
variety of reasons. This sadly is the case with an
'exhibition' about the Goa Inquisition entitled Goa
Inquisition -- The Epitome of Christian Missionary Violence
floated recently on the internet by a group with the acronym
FACT (Foundation for Advancement of Cultural Ties).

  From the point of view of serious historical
  research, I found this 'exhibition' disturbing for
  its numerous factual gaffes, misconceptions, and
  distortions.  However, these can mislead people who
  do not have any background reading about the Goa
  Inquisition.  Those who seek and take the trouble
  to learn more, like you, deserve better.

Readers may access FACT for fiction; here I intend to
highlight some facts, with citations for those who wish to
pursue the subject further.  For clarity, I have used
quotation marks for statements made by FACT.

Fiction: "Most Indians believe that Goa was settled by
Portuguese. This is what the history textbooks have taught
them."

Fact: This statement undermines the intelligence of Indians.
History books state that Goa, rather Tiswadi, a small part of
present-day Goa, was captured by the Portuguese in 1510,
obviously from people who had already settled Goa.

Fiction: Albuquerque encouraged mixed marriages which "formed
the race that has become known as Luso-Indians and later as
Goans."

  Fact: The policy was abandoned on the king's orders
  almost immediately after it was initiated.  Goa has
  a complex population structure composed of Gaudes,
  Kunbis and Velips, Bandaris, Sudras, Chardos, and
  Bamons, all of whom descend from people who had
  settled Goa long, long before the arrival of the
  Portuguese.

Fiction: The Inquisition was "basically a holocaust inflicted
on the Indian people."

  Fact: Eighty years after the people of Goa had been
  exposed to the activities of the Inquisition, in
  1642, the ganvkars of Salcete petitioned the king
  to use the Inquisition to investigate and punish
  corrupt officials as there was no one else who
  could do it without fearing reprisals (deSouza, T.
  Medeival Goa, 2009:196).  Clearly they saw the
  Inquisition as a powerful and fearless corrective
  engine of justice.  This opinion, coming from
  perhaps Salcete's most influential community,
  speaks volumes on how contemporary Goans viewed the
  Inquisition.

Fiction: The Goa Inquisition reported to the Pope in Rome

Fact: It reported to the King of Portugal.  Inquisitors were
appointed by the king.  The viceroy and State officials, all
appointed by the king, were present at the public auto da fe.

These were ceremonies primarily devoted to the reconciliation
of convicted persons through the process of abjuration, and
the relaxation of the very few who were condemned as
obstinate, dogmatic, and irreconcilable heretics to the
secular arm.

Each offender was given into the care of a familiar, a member
of Goa's Portuguese elite.  The tolling of church bells urged
people to witness the ceremony conducted in churches or the
Terreiro da Sabayo, the great square enclosed by the Palace
of the Inquisition, the Se Cathedral, the Senate House, and
the Rua Direita.  The Inquisition carried out the
investigation and passed sentence; civil authority executed
the sentence.

Fiction: Francis Xavier laid the foundation of the Goa
Inquisition

  Fact: The Goa Inquisition was established in 1560,
  eight years after Xavier's death.  Xavier arrived
  in Goa in 1542.  He stayed there for just a few
  months before moving to the Tamil Nadu coast and
  then further east into Asia.  From the Moluccas, he
  wrote to the king in 1546 asking him to establish
  the Inquisition as a means of containing the
  growing influence of Jews, New Christians (Iberian
  Christians of Jewish ancestry), and Muslims in
  Portugal's fortresses in Asia, all perceived as a
  security threat to both State and Christianity.
  The decision to send the Goa Inquisition was not
  taken lightly, but took years of debate and a long
  tussle between pro- and anti-Inquisition policy
  makers in Lisbon.

Fiction: The Inquisition used the terms "Hindu" and "Muslim"
for non-Christians

Fact: These terms never appear in an Inquisition document.
They are of later origin.  The Inquisition used the 

[Goanet] The Goa Inquisition: when FACT creates Fiction (Alan Machado)

[Goanet Reader]

The Goa Inquisition: when FACT creates Fiction

Alan Machado
alan.macha...@gmail.com

The subject of the Goa Inquisition appears to rise like a
bubble from murky waters every few years. Being in the
process of writing a book on the subject, I have accessed a
vast amount of primary and secondary sources. Also, I have
found a lot of misinformation unsupported by verifiable
historical content being propagated as historical fact for a
variety of reasons. This sadly is the case with an
'exhibition' about the Goa Inquisition entitled Goa
Inquisition -- The Epitome of Christian Missionary Violence
floated recently on the internet by a group with the acronym
FACT (Foundation for Advancement of Cultural Ties).

  From the point of view of serious historical
  research, I found this 'exhibition' disturbing for
  its numerous factual gaffes, misconceptions, and
  distortions.  However, these can mislead people who
  do not have any background reading about the Goa
  Inquisition.  Those who seek and take the trouble
  to learn more, like you, deserve better.

Readers may access FACT for fiction; here I intend to
highlight some facts, with citations for those who wish to
pursue the subject further.  For clarity, I have used
quotation marks for statements made by FACT.

Fiction: "Most Indians believe that Goa was settled by
Portuguese. This is what the history textbooks have taught
them."

Fact: This statement undermines the intelligence of Indians.
History books state that Goa, rather Tiswadi, a small part of
present-day Goa, was captured by the Portuguese in 1510,
obviously from people who had already settled Goa.

Fiction: Albuquerque encouraged mixed marriages which "formed
the race that has become known as Luso-Indians and later as
Goans."

  Fact: The policy was abandoned on the king's orders
  almost immediately after it was initiated.  Goa has
  a complex population structure composed of Gaudes,
  Kunbis and Velips, Bandaris, Sudras, Chardos, and
  Bamons, all of whom descend from people who had
  settled Goa long, long before the arrival of the
  Portuguese.

Fiction: The Inquisition was "basically a holocaust inflicted
on the Indian people."

  Fact: Eighty years after the people of Goa had been
  exposed to the activities of the Inquisition, in
  1642, the ganvkars of Salcete petitioned the king
  to use the Inquisition to investigate and punish
  corrupt officials as there was no one else who
  could do it without fearing reprisals (deSouza, T.
  Medeival Goa, 2009:196).  Clearly they saw the
  Inquisition as a powerful and fearless corrective
  engine of justice.  This opinion, coming from
  perhaps Salcete's most influential community,
  speaks volumes on how contemporary Goans viewed the
  Inquisition.

Fiction: The Goa Inquisition reported to the Pope in Rome

Fact: It reported to the King of Portugal.  Inquisitors were
appointed by the king.  The viceroy and State officials, all
appointed by the king, were present at the public auto da fe.

These were ceremonies primarily devoted to the reconciliation
of convicted persons through the process of abjuration, and
the relaxation of the very few who were condemned as
obstinate, dogmatic, and irreconcilable heretics to the
secular arm.

Each offender was given into the care of a familiar, a member
of Goa's Portuguese elite.  The tolling of church bells urged
people to witness the ceremony conducted in churches or the
Terreiro da Sabayo, the great square enclosed by the Palace
of the Inquisition, the Se Cathedral, the Senate House, and
the Rua Direita.  The Inquisition carried out the
investigation and passed sentence; civil authority executed
the sentence.

Fiction: Francis Xavier laid the foundation of the Goa
Inquisition

  Fact: The Goa Inquisition was established in 1560,
  eight years after Xavier's death.  Xavier arrived
  in Goa in 1542.  He stayed there for just a few
  months before moving to the Tamil Nadu coast and
  then further east into Asia.  From the Moluccas, he
  wrote to the king in 1546 asking him to establish
  the Inquisition as a means of containing the
  growing influence of Jews, New Christians (Iberian
  Christians of Jewish ancestry), and Muslims in
  Portugal's fortresses in Asia, all perceived as a
  security threat to both State and Christianity.
  The decision to send the Goa Inquisition was not
  taken lightly, but took years of debate and a long
  tussle between pro- and anti-Inquisition policy
  makers in Lisbon.

Fiction: The Inquisition used the terms "Hindu" and "Muslim"
for non-Christians

Fact: These terms never appear in an Inquisition document.
They are of later origin.  The Inquisition used the 

[Goanet-News] Kessó vistid gaillá ghô tuvem? Saibini mhojea, hó kazravistidu? (Sonia Gomes)

[Goanet Reader]

 the
trick.

  Santana was instructed to make a mini tent-like
  dress of buckram, the very itchy cheap fabric, Then
  the patient tailor who had never seen such a
  repulsive article of clothing, sewed zillions of
  frills fashioned out of the yellow tulle got from
  the taken-apart yellow ball gown, to the mini
  buckram tent-like structure.

It resembled a tent with a great many yellow frills to it.

These were the much awaited flower-girl dresses. They were
hideous; no tailor would ever sew such a dress again.  For
years afterwards the little girls called those dresses
panjirim (enclosures for chickens).

Even a simple dress with a bow would have done the trick.

The day of the wedding dawned full of promise, there was such
excitement, such a buzz, cooks at their task of laying out a
spectacular lunch.

  Johnson and his Jolly Boys, the best band, tuning
  their instruments in preparation for the merriment
  to come.

All of a sudden, relatives, the Mascarenhas, descend, without
any preamble.  They are to be served and given a room to
change their clothes.

The grandmother murmuring with disgust...

'Porque é que estes primos não podiam vestir na sua própria
casa?  (Why couldn't these relatives have dressed at their
own house?')

Be it a wedding, or even a funeral, there always is an after-
the-occasion post mortem of the event among the relatives or
for that matter everyone who has been invited for the
Wedding.

It is to be understood that a Wedding is a rare event, a once
in a while occasion with few guests and the dissection
continues for quite some time...

What they said about the MC...

'Aquele tio do noivo, pomposo, não sabe como animar uma
festa...' (The groom's uncle, pompous as he is, does not know
how to get a wedding going.)

'Ele é velho, homem, somente porque é tio...' (He is old,
just because he is an uncle.)

'Desastre, parecia um funeral' (Disaster, it resembled a
funeral.)

'Funeral!  e aqueles drinks misturados com agua do poço?'
(Funeral!  And those drinks prepared with well water?)

'O José você conhece esta familia de sovinas...' (Oh Jose you
know this family of misers...)

'O mercado de Mapuça é mais animado.' (The Mapsa market is
more fun)

Laughter fills the bar where the guests are drinking...

'Eslinda porque é que o Guido levou aquele Nevgi e o Machado
para o sobrado?' (Eslinda, why did Guido take Nevgi and
Machado to that room upstairs?)

'O Judith e pra dar-lhes 'Foreign Whisky' (Oh Judith it is to
serve them foreign whisky.)

 'Foreign whisky'?

'That was extremely crass, aren't the other guests important
enough?'

'And the family is very rich, what with some connection they
have to mines...  '

'Ha, ha, but you know them, everybody knows how very
tight-fisted they are...  '

'I think they took more pains with their Hindu guests, you
know all those mine owners...  '

It was Simone's and Fatima's first wedding ever, they were
little girls of ten with cousins the same age, they had never
seen a wedding nor heard a band before, so they planned: 'Let
us enjoy to our hearts content', forget the food, although
the caramel custard and the jellies look enticing, something
to look forward to...'

They would dance, dance till their little feet dropped off,
panjirim be damned, and their mean witch of an aunt could go
to hell...

They would dance and that is what they did, they danced,
clung to each other, pushed people, squashed people's toes,
got scolded, couples glared at them, but did they care, not a
whit, they just danced...

Just as the toast had been raised, an older cousin advised
them wisely: 'Vocês viram que o brinde já terminou?  Vão,
tragam as taças de champanhe, suas estúpidas.' (Have you guys
seen that the Toast has just ended?  Go; get the champagne
flutes, you stupid ones.)

'Sabem, não é?  Os Portugueses já saíram de Goa?'(You guys
are aware aren't you that the Portuguese are now gone?)

'Não se sabe nada desses indianos, se sabem algo do
champanhe' (We know hardly anything about these Indians, if
they know anything at all about champagne.)

And this is what the band of little girls did...

They had glasses of champagne, allowed the fizzy bubbles to
go up their noses, giggled and laughed some more and they
danced...

Who says you cannot enjoy a Wedding even if you have a dress
that is the ugliest of all?

* * *
First published on the Zorot Morot Goes My Village Blog:
https://zorotmorotgoesmyvillage.blogspot.com/2020/05/kesso-vistid-gailla-gho-tuvem-saibini.html

Send your feedback to the author (address above), with a copy
to goa...@goanet.org

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha @fn (on Twitter)

[Goanet] Kessó vistid gaillá ghô tuvem? Saibini mhojea, hó kazravistidu? (Sonia Gomes)

[Goanet Reader]

 the
trick.

  Santana was instructed to make a mini tent-like
  dress of buckram, the very itchy cheap fabric, Then
  the patient tailor who had never seen such a
  repulsive article of clothing, sewed zillions of
  frills fashioned out of the yellow tulle got from
  the taken-apart yellow ball gown, to the mini
  buckram tent-like structure.

It resembled a tent with a great many yellow frills to it.

These were the much awaited flower-girl dresses. They were
hideous; no tailor would ever sew such a dress again.  For
years afterwards the little girls called those dresses
panjirim (enclosures for chickens).

Even a simple dress with a bow would have done the trick.

The day of the wedding dawned full of promise, there was such
excitement, such a buzz, cooks at their task of laying out a
spectacular lunch.

  Johnson and his Jolly Boys, the best band, tuning
  their instruments in preparation for the merriment
  to come.

All of a sudden, relatives, the Mascarenhas, descend, without
any preamble.  They are to be served and given a room to
change their clothes.

The grandmother murmuring with disgust...

'Porque é que estes primos não podiam vestir na sua própria
casa?  (Why couldn't these relatives have dressed at their
own house?')

Be it a wedding, or even a funeral, there always is an after-
the-occasion post mortem of the event among the relatives or
for that matter everyone who has been invited for the
Wedding.

It is to be understood that a Wedding is a rare event, a once
in a while occasion with few guests and the dissection
continues for quite some time...

What they said about the MC...

'Aquele tio do noivo, pomposo, não sabe como animar uma
festa...' (The groom's uncle, pompous as he is, does not know
how to get a wedding going.)

'Ele é velho, homem, somente porque é tio...' (He is old,
just because he is an uncle.)

'Desastre, parecia um funeral' (Disaster, it resembled a
funeral.)

'Funeral!  e aqueles drinks misturados com agua do poço?'
(Funeral!  And those drinks prepared with well water?)

'O José você conhece esta familia de sovinas...' (Oh Jose you
know this family of misers...)

'O mercado de Mapuça é mais animado.' (The Mapsa market is
more fun)

Laughter fills the bar where the guests are drinking...

'Eslinda porque é que o Guido levou aquele Nevgi e o Machado
para o sobrado?' (Eslinda, why did Guido take Nevgi and
Machado to that room upstairs?)

'O Judith e pra dar-lhes 'Foreign Whisky' (Oh Judith it is to
serve them foreign whisky.)

 'Foreign whisky'?

'That was extremely crass, aren't the other guests important
enough?'

'And the family is very rich, what with some connection they
have to mines...  '

'Ha, ha, but you know them, everybody knows how very
tight-fisted they are...  '

'I think they took more pains with their Hindu guests, you
know all those mine owners...  '

It was Simone's and Fatima's first wedding ever, they were
little girls of ten with cousins the same age, they had never
seen a wedding nor heard a band before, so they planned: 'Let
us enjoy to our hearts content', forget the food, although
the caramel custard and the jellies look enticing, something
to look forward to...'

They would dance, dance till their little feet dropped off,
panjirim be damned, and their mean witch of an aunt could go
to hell...

They would dance and that is what they did, they danced,
clung to each other, pushed people, squashed people's toes,
got scolded, couples glared at them, but did they care, not a
whit, they just danced...

Just as the toast had been raised, an older cousin advised
them wisely: 'Vocês viram que o brinde já terminou?  Vão,
tragam as taças de champanhe, suas estúpidas.' (Have you guys
seen that the Toast has just ended?  Go; get the champagne
flutes, you stupid ones.)

'Sabem, não é?  Os Portugueses já saíram de Goa?'(You guys
are aware aren't you that the Portuguese are now gone?)

'Não se sabe nada desses indianos, se sabem algo do
champanhe' (We know hardly anything about these Indians, if
they know anything at all about champagne.)

And this is what the band of little girls did...

They had glasses of champagne, allowed the fizzy bubbles to
go up their noses, giggled and laughed some more and they
danced...

Who says you cannot enjoy a Wedding even if you have a dress
that is the ugliest of all?

* * *
First published on the Zorot Morot Goes My Village Blog:
https://zorotmorotgoesmyvillage.blogspot.com/2020/05/kesso-vistid-gailla-gho-tuvem-saibini.html

Send your feedback to the author (address above), with a copy
to goa...@goanet.org

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha @fn (on Twitter)

[Goanet-News] Sarto -- Skilled Mentor, Dedicated Architect, and Husband for Five-Plus Decades.... (Therese Almeida)

[Goanet Reader]

 persons such as Leenaben, Ruth Kohn
from Harvard, and The B.M. Institute of Child Development
who were keen to bring about new thinking in the schools in
the city.

  In December 1963, Sarto decided we should visit
  Goa. He had cousins who he had not met since long
  and his friend Lucio Da Costa was practising in
  Margao. Sarto was enchanted with Goa. He saw it
  as fresh and beautiful, well organised with
  tremendous possibilities. He needed a new
  beginning and so we moved to Goa in May 1964.

As the children needed schooling, he got me to think about
introducing what I had learned from my mentors in Ahmedabad.
So we sat down and put down the basic approach to setting up
Manovikas and, with the support of friends, set up a Trust in
1968.  His mentoring skills, interest in sports, deep respect
for freedom and complete support and involvement put the
school on its feet!

  When Sarto set up his practice in Goa many young
  students from the Schools in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh
  and Baroda applied to apprentice with him.  Later
  there were students from Pune, Nashik, Bangalore
  and Goa who were part of his office team.  Sarto
  was never a taskmaster.  He wanted the students to
  grow, to appreciate living well and widen their
  horizons.  He was much loved by those who worked
  with him and they continued to keep in touch and
  would arrive to celebrate his birthday until last year!

His close friends remember Sarto as a person who not only
enjoyed life but prompted them to reach out to the needs of
others.  Christmas meant treats for the charitable homes for
children in Margao, collecting contributions at a party for
the Bihar Famine relief fund and, in 1971, raising funds
toward a Vijayanta Tank for the Indo-Pak war!

Although Sarto's practice was never monetarily successful, it
was always looking for the best solutions for his buildings.
He brought complete dedication, sensitivity and skill to even
the smallest project and his sense of the sacred led him to
design temple precincts, chapels, monasteries and schools
with extreme care.  He did not adhere to any religion but was
deeply dedicated to a sense of Humanity that endeared him to
monasteries, mathas, chapels, temples and institutions of
learning.

-- 
Theresa Almeida is a prominent Margao-based educationist, and
wrote this tribute to Sarto -- who completed his long and
meaningful innings on May 26, 2020 -- on an invitation from
Goanet Reader.

Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet] Sarto -- Skilled Mentor, Dedicated Architect, and Husband for Five-Plus Decades.... (Therese Almeida)

[Goanet Reader]

 persons such as Leenaben, Ruth Kohn
from Harvard, and The B.M. Institute of Child Development
who were keen to bring about new thinking in the schools in
the city.

  In December 1963, Sarto decided we should visit
  Goa. He had cousins who he had not met since long
  and his friend Lucio Da Costa was practising in
  Margao. Sarto was enchanted with Goa. He saw it
  as fresh and beautiful, well organised with
  tremendous possibilities. He needed a new
  beginning and so we moved to Goa in May 1964.

As the children needed schooling, he got me to think about
introducing what I had learned from my mentors in Ahmedabad.
So we sat down and put down the basic approach to setting up
Manovikas and, with the support of friends, set up a Trust in
1968.  His mentoring skills, interest in sports, deep respect
for freedom and complete support and involvement put the
school on its feet!

  When Sarto set up his practice in Goa many young
  students from the Schools in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh
  and Baroda applied to apprentice with him.  Later
  there were students from Pune, Nashik, Bangalore
  and Goa who were part of his office team.  Sarto
  was never a taskmaster.  He wanted the students to
  grow, to appreciate living well and widen their
  horizons.  He was much loved by those who worked
  with him and they continued to keep in touch and
  would arrive to celebrate his birthday until last year!

His close friends remember Sarto as a person who not only
enjoyed life but prompted them to reach out to the needs of
others.  Christmas meant treats for the charitable homes for
children in Margao, collecting contributions at a party for
the Bihar Famine relief fund and, in 1971, raising funds
toward a Vijayanta Tank for the Indo-Pak war!

Although Sarto's practice was never monetarily successful, it
was always looking for the best solutions for his buildings.
He brought complete dedication, sensitivity and skill to even
the smallest project and his sense of the sacred led him to
design temple precincts, chapels, monasteries and schools
with extreme care.  He did not adhere to any religion but was
deeply dedicated to a sense of Humanity that endeared him to
monasteries, mathas, chapels, temples and institutions of
learning.

-- 
Theresa Almeida is a prominent Margao-based educationist, and
wrote this tribute to Sarto -- who completed his long and
meaningful innings on May 26, 2020 -- on an invitation from
Goanet Reader.

Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha.

[Goanet-News] Race, medicine and the late Portuguese empire: the role of Goan colonial physicians

[Goanet Reader]

Cristiana Bastos has written this chapter [in the Institute of Germanic &
Romance Studies Volume 5 Number 1 2005 ISSN 1473–3536]

  This article discusses the production and diffusion
  of racialist theories within the Portuguese empire
  by focusing on a particular group of colonial
  subjects: the Indo-Portuguese physicians trained at
  Medical School of Goa.  Not fitting into the
  colonizers/colonized duality, those physicians held
  important roles in the health services of the
  Portuguese colonies but were excluded from
  leadership.  Their contribution to the production
  and reproduction of the racialized views of the
  world needed to run the empire adds complexity and
  substance to the arguments against the
  lusotropicalist ideas about race relations in the
  Portuguese empire.

Keywords: Portuguese colonialism; Goa; medicine;
race; empire; lusotropicalism; colonial physicians

See the paper at:
*https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cristiana_Bastos/publication/320480593_Race_medicine_and_the_late_Portuguese_Empire_the_role_of_Goan_colonial_physicians/links/5b0c1366aca2725783eb2bbc/Race-medicine-and-the-late-Portuguese-Empire-the-role-of-Goan-colonial-physicians.pdf
*

She writes: "I will discuss two examples: Arthur Gama, a Goan
physician who served in nineteenth-century colonial
Mozambique, and Germano Correia, also a physician and a
physical anthropologist who, in the first half of the
twentieth-century, published a number of works on race and
adaptation to the tropics.  Their manuscript and printed
works show a racialized society where hierarchies were
naturalized on the basis of physical differences."

As the author explains: "At first glance, the Goa Medical
School could be interpreted as an 'instrument' of
colonialism, and Goan doctors as the colonial handmaidens of
a system emanating from Lisbon with branches throughout
Africa and Asia.

"Only when the Portuguese administration developed an active
Africanist colonial policy, in the aftermath of the Berlin
Conference (1884-85) and the European 'scramble for Africa',
did the Goan doctors acquire visibility on the map and in the
ideological project of Portuguese colonialism.  From then on,
service in the colonial health apparatus became the raison
d’être and legitimization of the Medical School's existence."

She gives some interesting facts and figures:

Table 1: Place of Birth of Graduates of the Goa Medical
School, 1846=1956

Salcete (Velhas Conquistas), Goa)  442
Ilhas (Velhas Conquistas), Goa)202
Bardez (Velhas Conquistas), Goa)   268
Novas Conquistas, Goa   98
Daman and Diu8
Others in India 17
Africa  22
Macau3
Others in Asia   1
Portugal 2

See more details at the above link.

[Goanet] Race, medicine and the late Portuguese empire: the role of Goan colonial physicians

[Goanet Reader]

Cristiana Bastos has written this chapter [in the Institute of Germanic &
Romance Studies Volume 5 Number 1 2005 ISSN 1473–3536]

  This article discusses the production and diffusion
  of racialist theories within the Portuguese empire
  by focusing on a particular group of colonial
  subjects: the Indo-Portuguese physicians trained at
  Medical School of Goa.  Not fitting into the
  colonizers/colonized duality, those physicians held
  important roles in the health services of the
  Portuguese colonies but were excluded from
  leadership.  Their contribution to the production
  and reproduction of the racialized views of the
  world needed to run the empire adds complexity and
  substance to the arguments against the
  lusotropicalist ideas about race relations in the
  Portuguese empire.

Keywords: Portuguese colonialism; Goa; medicine;
race; empire; lusotropicalism; colonial physicians

See the paper at:
*https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cristiana_Bastos/publication/320480593_Race_medicine_and_the_late_Portuguese_Empire_the_role_of_Goan_colonial_physicians/links/5b0c1366aca2725783eb2bbc/Race-medicine-and-the-late-Portuguese-Empire-the-role-of-Goan-colonial-physicians.pdf
*

She writes: "I will discuss two examples: Arthur Gama, a Goan
physician who served in nineteenth-century colonial
Mozambique, and Germano Correia, also a physician and a
physical anthropologist who, in the first half of the
twentieth-century, published a number of works on race and
adaptation to the tropics.  Their manuscript and printed
works show a racialized society where hierarchies were
naturalized on the basis of physical differences."

As the author explains: "At first glance, the Goa Medical
School could be interpreted as an 'instrument' of
colonialism, and Goan doctors as the colonial handmaidens of
a system emanating from Lisbon with branches throughout
Africa and Asia.

"Only when the Portuguese administration developed an active
Africanist colonial policy, in the aftermath of the Berlin
Conference (1884-85) and the European 'scramble for Africa',
did the Goan doctors acquire visibility on the map and in the
ideological project of Portuguese colonialism.  From then on,
service in the colonial health apparatus became the raison
d’être and legitimization of the Medical School's existence."

She gives some interesting facts and figures:

Table 1: Place of Birth of Graduates of the Goa Medical
School, 1846=1956

Salcete (Velhas Conquistas), Goa)  442
Ilhas (Velhas Conquistas), Goa)202
Bardez (Velhas Conquistas), Goa)   268
Novas Conquistas, Goa   98
Daman and Diu8
Others in India 17
Africa  22
Macau3
Others in Asia   1
Portugal 2

See more details at the above link.

[Goanet-News] Red Flags Over Goa's COVID-19 Testing as State Itches to Reopen Economy (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

Throwing caution to the wind,
Goa welcomes honeymoon couples,
well-heeled with second homes
and sees a sudden spike in“
cases surge.

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

Panaji: Last week, the Goa government suspended the COVID-19
testing licence of SRL Diagnostics, the only private lab that
had been allowed to test for the coronavirus in Goa.  All
tests are currently carried out only in the government-run
laboratory at the Goa Medical College.  The state government
said the decision was taken after three industrial workers
who had been reported positive by SRL Diagnostics turned out
to be negative in two subsequent tests at the government
hospital.

  SRL, however, said it stood by its test results.
  In a statement to The Wire, the diagnostics
  company's Goa laboratory head Eugene D'Souza said:
  "We at SRL understand that the testing for COVID 19
  is an extremely critical process and hence we
  strictly follow elaborate processes, guidelines and
  protocols laid down by ICMR, including running all
  the controls and calibrations.  And we are only
  using ICMR approved kits and testing techniques,
  i.e.  RT PCR. Hence, we stand by our reports."

The company said "given the gravity of the situation", it has
sent the same samples for re-testing in a government lab.

Calling SRL's suspension a "well-considered decision", Goa's
health secretary Nila Mohanan told The Wire that the fact
that the laboratory had erred in three cases could not be
ignored. "The matter was put up on file to the medical team
and a decision was taken to temporarily suspend permission to
SRL Diagnostics." Mohanan said the situation would have been
much worse if the laboratory's tests returned false
negatives.

She claimed the three "false positive" cases involved one
pharma and two industrial workers, implying they had all come
into the state from "outside", when the units were reopened
after the partial lifting of the lockdown.

However, a senior cabinet member told The Wire that all three
were pharma workers (no pharma unit was shut down in Goa all
through the lockdown).  He questioned Sawant's decision to
suspend permission to SRL without following the required
protocols, when the company holds an ICMR licence for testing
at its reference labs in Gurgaon and Mumbai (where the Goa
tests were done).

Mohanan said the state's vigilance at the border -- "we've
been catching all the cases at source" -- coupled with its
4.5 lakh household survey, showed its containment strategy
had worked to prevent community transmission.

  Reports filed in national and local dailies have
  questioned the effectiveness of these measures,
  which have been described as highly porous and
  leaky by reporters on the ground.

PHOTO: A Goa policeman chides a foreign tourist for violating
the lockdown at Vagator beach last month.  Photo Vincent
Braganza

Largest single-day spike

On Sunday, Goa saw the largest single-day spike of 11 new
cases (all of whom arrived by train), taking the state's
count to 50 cases currently.  It had no active cases for
weeks, until May 13.

  Yet riding on the propaganda of a "Covid-free Goa",
  the state's gung-ho leaders have been itching to
  re-open this tourist destination for business and
  for iron ore extraction, its two biggest economic
  activities.  Governor Satya Pal Malik too joined in
  the chant: "Everyone knows that Goa is corona-free,
  so domestic tourists will come here," he said to
  ANI, in what sounded like an open invitation for
  tourists to head to Goa.

In an interview to NDTV last week, Goa chief minister Pramod
Sawant stressed several times that Goa is "covid-free" except
for the "imported cases".  Once the lockdown 4.0 ends on May
31, Goa would consider opening up to tourism, he said.

As more people began to return from big cities, where the
situation has become worse, there are more ‘imported cases'
being recorded.  Eleven patients were identified on the train
from Mumbai on Sunday; another 50 passengers who could have
been infected have also been quarantined in hotels by the
government.

  It was mainly people with second homes in Goa who
  were headed here, Sawant claimed on Sunday,
  sweating from the criticism of his flip-flops that
  are now stretching the state's health
  infrastructure. "We're not fools to just invite
  tourists to Goa," he told the media briefing.

However, this does not seem to be true.  A senior government
official said five couples with no connections in the state
had breezily chugged into Goa last week for their honeymoon.
They tested negative and even managed a hotel stay, courtesy
the government of Goa, waiting for their test results.

Quarantine measures watered down

  Yet bracing for an avalanche of 4,000 new arrivals
  

[Goanet] Red Flags Over Goa's COVID-19 Testing as State Itches to Reopen Economy (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

Throwing caution to the wind,
Goa welcomes honeymoon couples,
well-heeled with second homes
and sees a sudden spike in“
cases surge.

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

Panaji: Last week, the Goa government suspended the COVID-19
testing licence of SRL Diagnostics, the only private lab that
had been allowed to test for the coronavirus in Goa.  All
tests are currently carried out only in the government-run
laboratory at the Goa Medical College.  The state government
said the decision was taken after three industrial workers
who had been reported positive by SRL Diagnostics turned out
to be negative in two subsequent tests at the government
hospital.

  SRL, however, said it stood by its test results.
  In a statement to The Wire, the diagnostics
  company's Goa laboratory head Eugene D'Souza said:
  "We at SRL understand that the testing for COVID 19
  is an extremely critical process and hence we
  strictly follow elaborate processes, guidelines and
  protocols laid down by ICMR, including running all
  the controls and calibrations.  And we are only
  using ICMR approved kits and testing techniques,
  i.e.  RT PCR. Hence, we stand by our reports."

The company said "given the gravity of the situation", it has
sent the same samples for re-testing in a government lab.

Calling SRL's suspension a "well-considered decision", Goa's
health secretary Nila Mohanan told The Wire that the fact
that the laboratory had erred in three cases could not be
ignored. "The matter was put up on file to the medical team
and a decision was taken to temporarily suspend permission to
SRL Diagnostics." Mohanan said the situation would have been
much worse if the laboratory's tests returned false
negatives.

She claimed the three "false positive" cases involved one
pharma and two industrial workers, implying they had all come
into the state from "outside", when the units were reopened
after the partial lifting of the lockdown.

However, a senior cabinet member told The Wire that all three
were pharma workers (no pharma unit was shut down in Goa all
through the lockdown).  He questioned Sawant's decision to
suspend permission to SRL without following the required
protocols, when the company holds an ICMR licence for testing
at its reference labs in Gurgaon and Mumbai (where the Goa
tests were done).

Mohanan said the state's vigilance at the border -- "we've
been catching all the cases at source" -- coupled with its
4.5 lakh household survey, showed its containment strategy
had worked to prevent community transmission.

  Reports filed in national and local dailies have
  questioned the effectiveness of these measures,
  which have been described as highly porous and
  leaky by reporters on the ground.

PHOTO: A Goa policeman chides a foreign tourist for violating
the lockdown at Vagator beach last month.  Photo Vincent
Braganza

Largest single-day spike

On Sunday, Goa saw the largest single-day spike of 11 new
cases (all of whom arrived by train), taking the state's
count to 50 cases currently.  It had no active cases for
weeks, until May 13.

  Yet riding on the propaganda of a "Covid-free Goa",
  the state's gung-ho leaders have been itching to
  re-open this tourist destination for business and
  for iron ore extraction, its two biggest economic
  activities.  Governor Satya Pal Malik too joined in
  the chant: "Everyone knows that Goa is corona-free,
  so domestic tourists will come here," he said to
  ANI, in what sounded like an open invitation for
  tourists to head to Goa.

In an interview to NDTV last week, Goa chief minister Pramod
Sawant stressed several times that Goa is "covid-free" except
for the "imported cases".  Once the lockdown 4.0 ends on May
31, Goa would consider opening up to tourism, he said.

As more people began to return from big cities, where the
situation has become worse, there are more ‘imported cases'
being recorded.  Eleven patients were identified on the train
from Mumbai on Sunday; another 50 passengers who could have
been infected have also been quarantined in hotels by the
government.

  It was mainly people with second homes in Goa who
  were headed here, Sawant claimed on Sunday,
  sweating from the criticism of his flip-flops that
  are now stretching the state's health
  infrastructure. "We're not fools to just invite
  tourists to Goa," he told the media briefing.

However, this does not seem to be true.  A senior government
official said five couples with no connections in the state
had breezily chugged into Goa last week for their honeymoon.
They tested negative and even managed a hotel stay, courtesy
the government of Goa, waiting for their test results.

Quarantine measures watered down

  Yet bracing for an avalanche of 4,000 new arrivals
  

[Goanet] The Last Prabhu: Tracing ancestors through a mind-boggling journey and a multidisciplinary approach (Dr Sandra Fonseca)

[Goanet Reader]

   as Goa of the past and will not be the Goa of the
  future." (p.175).  He states that the fast pace and
  rate of change with emigration to Goa is inevitable
  unless living conditions in other places also
  improve.  This sentiment is echoed in the reasons
  for migration around the world as people are forced
  to leave their homes seeking refuge, stability and
  better lives.

To persevere in the writing of this book despite so much of
the evidence being lost and fragmented is a commendable feat
by the author.

In the search for his descendants and in tracing his
ancestral roots that lead de Sousa to his identity as a
descendant of Ramu Prabhu and to "The Last Prabhu", he
provides a glimpse of a rich history of the peopling of Goa
that is a story of a people with a strong intellect and
tremendous resilience who survived oppression and fought for
self-preservation against great odds. It is a great gift
that future generations of Goans can add and build upon.

I would encourage the reader to reach out to the author at
his blog http://thelastprabhu.blogspot.com with any questions
or to leave a comment.

[The ebook version is available at amazon.com]
--
Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha
WhatsApp +91-9822122436.

[Goanet-News] The Last Prabhu: Tracing ancestors through a mind-boggling journey and a multidisciplinary approach (Dr Sandra Fonseca)

[Goanet Reader]

   as Goa of the past and will not be the Goa of the
  future." (p.175).  He states that the fast pace and
  rate of change with emigration to Goa is inevitable
  unless living conditions in other places also
  improve.  This sentiment is echoed in the reasons
  for migration around the world as people are forced
  to leave their homes seeking refuge, stability and
  better lives.

To persevere in the writing of this book despite so much of
the evidence being lost and fragmented is a commendable feat
by the author.

In the search for his descendants and in tracing his
ancestral roots that lead de Sousa to his identity as a
descendant of Ramu Prabhu and to "The Last Prabhu", he
provides a glimpse of a rich history of the peopling of Goa
that is a story of a people with a strong intellect and
tremendous resilience who survived oppression and fought for
self-preservation against great odds. It is a great gift
that future generations of Goans can add and build upon.

I would encourage the reader to reach out to the author at
his blog http://thelastprabhu.blogspot.com with any questions
or to leave a comment.

[The ebook version is available at amazon.com]
--
Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha
WhatsApp +91-9822122436.

[Goanet-News] BOOKS: A novel that gives a fine description of the Goa we knew (by late Engr. Agnelo Gomes)

[Goanet Reader]

n the process, Linda lost complete touch with Carlos,
although he had left his forwarding address.  Linda never got
Carlos' letters, as her best friend Heidi took away letters
from Carlos and did not pass them on to Linda.

Poor Linda was now pregnant, without Carlos by her side.  She
was only sixteen and pregnant and still in school.  As a
single mother, she couldn't raise the baby and go to school.
Her mother suggested to her that after the delivery of the
baby, she should hand over the infant for adoption to nuns at
Provedoria de Assistencia Publica.  Poor Linda delivers the
baby and hesitantly hands the baby to the nuns.  She loved
her baby very much.  She has second thoughts, but finally did
what was best for both of them.  She was devastated about
this deal, she felt like nursing the baby but the baby was
not in her bed with her.  Heidi eventually marries Carlos in
Germany, as the story progresses months later.

It's not over yet.  Baby Lucinda Carlos, Linda and Carlos
Soares -- all three -- are nowhere together for about 17
years, widely apart from each other.  The Sottie Ratri
Goddess is however still working to get them together.
You've to read this novel to see how.  It's getting more and
more exciting, you will not give the book a rest, lot of
tears will roll down your eyes if you're soft-hearted.

Senhor Siviano Barbosa created this novel with a beautiful
touch.  You will learn from this novel about many aspects of
the charming Goan culture with its rich traditions.  Author
Barbosa was very fair to all people whom he portrays, and
careful not to touch the hard feelings of people.  I would
rate this novel a "10" on a scale of one to 10, an excellent
presentation.  I congratulate him for his work and recommend
all my Goan brethren to support this Goan cause and order
this novel and read its 314 pages or give it as a lasting
gift to your friends.  You will never miss Goa from any part
of the world that you live in.

The hard cover book costs only
$20 dollars plus delivery.  You
can order from Goa RAJ Books,
Toronto, Canada Or email to
place an order to: goarajbooks
at yahoo.com Or goaraj at
rogers.com Or check out
website:
http://ca.oocities.com/goa...@rogers.com/
[The author's current email
appears to be goa...@hotmai.com
or WhatsApp +91-90756 80937]

https://www.oocities.org/goa...@rogers.com/reviews/bookreviewbyagnelogomes.htm

###

Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

[Goanet] BOOKS: A novel that gives a fine description of the Goa we knew (by late Engr. Agnelo Gomes)

[Goanet Reader]

n the process, Linda lost complete touch with Carlos,
although he had left his forwarding address.  Linda never got
Carlos' letters, as her best friend Heidi took away letters
from Carlos and did not pass them on to Linda.

Poor Linda was now pregnant, without Carlos by her side.  She
was only sixteen and pregnant and still in school.  As a
single mother, she couldn't raise the baby and go to school.
Her mother suggested to her that after the delivery of the
baby, she should hand over the infant for adoption to nuns at
Provedoria de Assistencia Publica.  Poor Linda delivers the
baby and hesitantly hands the baby to the nuns.  She loved
her baby very much.  She has second thoughts, but finally did
what was best for both of them.  She was devastated about
this deal, she felt like nursing the baby but the baby was
not in her bed with her.  Heidi eventually marries Carlos in
Germany, as the story progresses months later.

It's not over yet.  Baby Lucinda Carlos, Linda and Carlos
Soares -- all three -- are nowhere together for about 17
years, widely apart from each other.  The Sottie Ratri
Goddess is however still working to get them together.
You've to read this novel to see how.  It's getting more and
more exciting, you will not give the book a rest, lot of
tears will roll down your eyes if you're soft-hearted.

Senhor Siviano Barbosa created this novel with a beautiful
touch.  You will learn from this novel about many aspects of
the charming Goan culture with its rich traditions.  Author
Barbosa was very fair to all people whom he portrays, and
careful not to touch the hard feelings of people.  I would
rate this novel a "10" on a scale of one to 10, an excellent
presentation.  I congratulate him for his work and recommend
all my Goan brethren to support this Goan cause and order
this novel and read its 314 pages or give it as a lasting
gift to your friends.  You will never miss Goa from any part
of the world that you live in.

The hard cover book costs only
$20 dollars plus delivery.  You
can order from Goa RAJ Books,
Toronto, Canada Or email to
place an order to: goarajbooks
at yahoo.com Or goaraj at
rogers.com Or check out
website:
http://ca.oocities.com/goa...@rogers.com/
[The author's current email
appears to be goa...@hotmai.com
or WhatsApp +91-90756 80937]

https://www.oocities.org/goa...@rogers.com/reviews/bookreviewbyagnelogomes.htm

###

Goanet Reader is edited by Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

[Goanet] Goa's Migrant Workers Tried To Hold On, But Are Now Desperate To Go Home (Pamela D'Mello, Huffingtonpost.in)

[Goanet Reader]

As the state’s tourism industry
counts its losses, anxious
workers are thronging railway
stations and even walking home
to north Indian states.

By Pamela D'Mello

PHOTO: Migrant workers from
Madhya Pradesh outside a
government shelter in South Goa.

On Wednesday morning, 25-year-old Santanu Samanta was camped
outside the Calangute office of local MLA and BJP minister
Michael Lobo, completing his third round of paperwork in the
hope of getting a ticket for a train ride back home to East
Midnapore in West Bengal.

Over the past few weeks, Samanta had submitted papers to the
panchayat authorities of Calangute -- the beach village
normally teeming with tourists who frequented the area's
now-shuttered hotels, restaurants and shacks -- and done the
rounds of the mamlatdar offices in nearby Mapusa town.

"The hotel I work in has been closed since March 20.  There's
no work anymore and we are desperate to get back.  Earlier,
Goa was safer and in the green zone, but now the virus has
come to Goa, so we need to get out of here before the
situation gets worse," he said.

At the beginning of May, Goa had been declared a green zone
by the central government after not reporting any cases for
21 days.  While chief minister Pramod Sawant had warned at
the time that the fight was not over, the news was
undoubtedly a relief after an ill-planned state lockdown left
people struggling to access basic necessities.

  However, the state has now lost its 'Covid-free
  zone' status as it has reported 45 active cases
  after the restarting of train services.

As the tourism industry counts its losses, Samanta, who had
been working at Neelam's The Grand hotel near Calangute beach
since 2018, along with 20 others from his district, now just
wants to be back home with his parents.

But even if he manages to get a ticket finally, the
devastation from Cyclone Amphan in his home state may delay
his plans again.

Many of these workers tried to stay back for as long as they
could, but are now looking for any mode of transport back
home, even attempting to walk thousands of kilometres to
north Indian states.  They are desperate due to lack of
money, have lost trust in the administration and fear they
will be forced to stay back under pressure from the
construction and industrial lobby.

No money for food

The workers milling around the minister's office didn't want
to dwell too much on their unpaid or underpaid wages.  Some
have not received any money in the past month, but most said
they were allowed to stay on in the accommodation provided by
hotels for outstation staff.

Lobo and the local village panchayat had overseen provision
of food twice a day during the first phase of the lockdown,
which ended on 14 April, but the hardship during that time
and since has made the workers anxious.

  49-year-old Syed Khan, who used to be a cook at a
  now-shut local restaurant since 2014, had fatigue
  writ large on his face.  Anxious to get back to his
  family in Lucknow, he was waiting outside Lobo's
  house with his friend Rangilal Kaulik (55),
  formerly employed as a dishwasher.  Both had no
  idea that two Shramik Special trains had departed
  on Wednesday from Goa to Lucknow and Rae Bareli.

  "Don't even ask how we managed these last two
  months.  Some days we've eaten, some days we've
  not.  We’ve run out of money now.  We've been
  waiting two months to return home," said a
  despondent Khan.

  A day earlier, police lathi-charged the crowds of
  workers milling outside the minister's office, too
  anxious about the interminable wait for a
  home-bound train to consider social distancing.

Waiting for trains and buses

Ever since restrictions eased on train travel, daily crowds
of anxious migrants have gathered outside the collector's
offices in Panjim and other centres in the state.

On Tuesday, Nurjahan Mulla (27), Jannat Bi (20) and Mabukbi
Jakati (45) travelled by bus from the suburban Chimbel
village, where they worked as domestic helps before the
lockdown.  Now, all they want is to go home.

"There was a bus that was to take us to our hometown Hubballi
(in Karnataka), but that's been cancelled.  We are here to
find out when the buses will start," said Nurjahan.  Both
Jannatbi and Nurjahan have worked in Goa for the past six
years, but lost their jobs during the lockdown.  Mabukbi who
has worked in Goa for 20 years, also prefers to return to
Hubballi.

"It's not possible to survive here without work," she said.

Migrant workers from Karnataka were the first to try to
return home in early May, some by hiring buses on their own
with support from contractors.  But many were turned away at
the Karnataka border because they didn't possess an exit and
entry pass or a vehicle to take them to their end destination.

PHOTO: Single mother Narbhadia
Bhanwasi waits outside the

[Goanet-News] Goa's Migrant Workers Tried To Hold On, But Are Now Desperate To Go Home (Pamela D'Mello, Huffingtonpost.in)

[Goanet Reader]

As the state’s tourism industry
counts its losses, anxious
workers are thronging railway
stations and even walking home
to north Indian states.

By Pamela D'Mello

PHOTO: Migrant workers from
Madhya Pradesh outside a
government shelter in South Goa.

On Wednesday morning, 25-year-old Santanu Samanta was camped
outside the Calangute office of local MLA and BJP minister
Michael Lobo, completing his third round of paperwork in the
hope of getting a ticket for a train ride back home to East
Midnapore in West Bengal.

Over the past few weeks, Samanta had submitted papers to the
panchayat authorities of Calangute -- the beach village
normally teeming with tourists who frequented the area's
now-shuttered hotels, restaurants and shacks -- and done the
rounds of the mamlatdar offices in nearby Mapusa town.

"The hotel I work in has been closed since March 20.  There's
no work anymore and we are desperate to get back.  Earlier,
Goa was safer and in the green zone, but now the virus has
come to Goa, so we need to get out of here before the
situation gets worse," he said.

At the beginning of May, Goa had been declared a green zone
by the central government after not reporting any cases for
21 days.  While chief minister Pramod Sawant had warned at
the time that the fight was not over, the news was
undoubtedly a relief after an ill-planned state lockdown left
people struggling to access basic necessities.

  However, the state has now lost its 'Covid-free
  zone' status as it has reported 45 active cases
  after the restarting of train services.

As the tourism industry counts its losses, Samanta, who had
been working at Neelam's The Grand hotel near Calangute beach
since 2018, along with 20 others from his district, now just
wants to be back home with his parents.

But even if he manages to get a ticket finally, the
devastation from Cyclone Amphan in his home state may delay
his plans again.

Many of these workers tried to stay back for as long as they
could, but are now looking for any mode of transport back
home, even attempting to walk thousands of kilometres to
north Indian states.  They are desperate due to lack of
money, have lost trust in the administration and fear they
will be forced to stay back under pressure from the
construction and industrial lobby.

No money for food

The workers milling around the minister's office didn't want
to dwell too much on their unpaid or underpaid wages.  Some
have not received any money in the past month, but most said
they were allowed to stay on in the accommodation provided by
hotels for outstation staff.

Lobo and the local village panchayat had overseen provision
of food twice a day during the first phase of the lockdown,
which ended on 14 April, but the hardship during that time
and since has made the workers anxious.

  49-year-old Syed Khan, who used to be a cook at a
  now-shut local restaurant since 2014, had fatigue
  writ large on his face.  Anxious to get back to his
  family in Lucknow, he was waiting outside Lobo's
  house with his friend Rangilal Kaulik (55),
  formerly employed as a dishwasher.  Both had no
  idea that two Shramik Special trains had departed
  on Wednesday from Goa to Lucknow and Rae Bareli.

  "Don't even ask how we managed these last two
  months.  Some days we've eaten, some days we've
  not.  We’ve run out of money now.  We've been
  waiting two months to return home," said a
  despondent Khan.

  A day earlier, police lathi-charged the crowds of
  workers milling outside the minister's office, too
  anxious about the interminable wait for a
  home-bound train to consider social distancing.

Waiting for trains and buses

Ever since restrictions eased on train travel, daily crowds
of anxious migrants have gathered outside the collector's
offices in Panjim and other centres in the state.

On Tuesday, Nurjahan Mulla (27), Jannat Bi (20) and Mabukbi
Jakati (45) travelled by bus from the suburban Chimbel
village, where they worked as domestic helps before the
lockdown.  Now, all they want is to go home.

"There was a bus that was to take us to our hometown Hubballi
(in Karnataka), but that's been cancelled.  We are here to
find out when the buses will start," said Nurjahan.  Both
Jannatbi and Nurjahan have worked in Goa for the past six
years, but lost their jobs during the lockdown.  Mabukbi who
has worked in Goa for 20 years, also prefers to return to
Hubballi.

"It's not possible to survive here without work," she said.

Migrant workers from Karnataka were the first to try to
return home in early May, some by hiring buses on their own
with support from contractors.  But many were turned away at
the Karnataka border because they didn't possess an exit and
entry pass or a vehicle to take them to their end destination.

PHOTO: Single mother Narbhadia
Bhanwasi waits outside the

[Goanet-News] Thoughts on turning fifty: Goan Overseas Association (Toronto) [Armand Rodrigues]

[Goanet Reader]

oan club on the
  continent, and the most active.  Credit for
  managing the club and catering admirably to
  members' needs, goes to the hardworking men and
  women who over the years have given selflessly of
  their time and energy in fostering the aims of the club.

PEAK, AND AN EBB (SOMEWHAT) IN MEMBERSHIP

That was then and this is now. Over the years, like clubs
everywhere, a membership that peaked some years back has
started to ebb somewhat.  Population growth has not
translated into a corresponding increase in membership.

  Societal factors such as fragmentation, diminishing
  community allegiance, inter-marriages and
  insularity, in our second generation Goans, are
  changing our physiognomy, and our clubs are
  gradually lapsing into a terminal mode.  Seniors'
  clubs, spawned by the mother-house, have picked up
  the slack and have been doing a commendable job, at
  both ends of the city of Toronto.

When all is said and done, it must be noted that a younger
set with nostalgic traits has taken over the G.O.A.
(Toronto) from the old guard, for some years now.  Selwyn
Collaco has been the president for the last few years now and
has used his managerial and business acumen to keep the club
abreast of developments in this digital age.  He has done
more than any other president of the club, to bring Goans
from different camps to the G.O.A.(T) tent.

He is ably assisted by like-minded committee members.  And,
Greta Dias keeps tending to the social needs of retirees,
with unprecedented zeal.  These volunteers keep the flame
alive and pulsate to the rhythms of the times.  To celebrate
the jubilee, an elegant bash, with sit-down dinner and
appropriate libation, and the accompaniment of two bands is
slated for August 1, 2020.  [This was written before the
lockdown.] A hearty toast to the club is in order!

[PHOTO: A picture of five of the six that spearheaded the
formation of the club, is seen.  Left to Rt.: Armand
Rodrigues/Tony Fernandes/Roque Barreto/Aloysius Vaz/
TonyD’Souza.  Missing: Willy Monteiro.  All are still alive.
See https://ibb.co/JsBB1Ys ]

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com WhatsApp: +91-9822122436

[Goanet] Thoughts on turning fifty: Goan Overseas Association (Toronto) [Armand Rodrigues]

[Goanet Reader]

oan club on the
  continent, and the most active.  Credit for
  managing the club and catering admirably to
  members' needs, goes to the hardworking men and
  women who over the years have given selflessly of
  their time and energy in fostering the aims of the club.

PEAK, AND AN EBB (SOMEWHAT) IN MEMBERSHIP

That was then and this is now. Over the years, like clubs
everywhere, a membership that peaked some years back has
started to ebb somewhat.  Population growth has not
translated into a corresponding increase in membership.

  Societal factors such as fragmentation, diminishing
  community allegiance, inter-marriages and
  insularity, in our second generation Goans, are
  changing our physiognomy, and our clubs are
  gradually lapsing into a terminal mode.  Seniors'
  clubs, spawned by the mother-house, have picked up
  the slack and have been doing a commendable job, at
  both ends of the city of Toronto.

When all is said and done, it must be noted that a younger
set with nostalgic traits has taken over the G.O.A.
(Toronto) from the old guard, for some years now.  Selwyn
Collaco has been the president for the last few years now and
has used his managerial and business acumen to keep the club
abreast of developments in this digital age.  He has done
more than any other president of the club, to bring Goans
from different camps to the G.O.A.(T) tent.

He is ably assisted by like-minded committee members.  And,
Greta Dias keeps tending to the social needs of retirees,
with unprecedented zeal.  These volunteers keep the flame
alive and pulsate to the rhythms of the times.  To celebrate
the jubilee, an elegant bash, with sit-down dinner and
appropriate libation, and the accompaniment of two bands is
slated for August 1, 2020.  [This was written before the
lockdown.] A hearty toast to the club is in order!

[PHOTO: A picture of five of the six that spearheaded the
formation of the club, is seen.  Left to Rt.: Armand
Rodrigues/Tony Fernandes/Roque Barreto/Aloysius Vaz/
TonyD’Souza.  Missing: Willy Monteiro.  All are still alive.
See https://ibb.co/JsBB1Ys ]

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com WhatsApp: +91-9822122436

[Goanet-News] Charles Correa's dream: Using Goa's waterways for mobility of its people (CCF)

[Goanet Reader]

LOCAL DEMAND: High (Chorao islanders to the mainland)
TOURIST DEMAND: Low

FERRY POINT: Chorao
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Small vendors, bus stop
LOCAL DEMAND: High (Chorao islanders to the mainland)
TOURIST DEMAND: Medium (bird sanctuary)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (St Monica)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Cruise terminal, vendors
LOCAL DEMAND: Low/medium
TOURIST DEMAND: High (river cruises)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (Mandovi)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Vendors with carts
LOCAL DEMAND: High (employed in the city/market)
TOURIST DEMAND: Very high (Panaji city, Fontainhas)

FERRY POINT: Betim
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Small vending stores and places of worship
LOCAL DEMAND: High (fishing jetty/employed in tourism belt)
TOURIST DEMAND: Very high (fFort Aguada, Reis Magos, nightlife)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (Kala Academy)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Art centre, cafe
LOCAL DEMAND: Low (Panaji market, St Inez)
TOURIST DEMAND: Medium (Kala Academy)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (Dona Paula Jetty)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Jetty, vendors, stores
LOCAL DEMAND: Medium (Taleigao residents, Goa
University students, and Mormugao connection)
TOURIST DEMAND: High (Dona Paula tourist site and Mormugao
connection)

FERRY POINT: Mormugao (Khariawadda)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Mormugao port, fishing jetty
LOCAL DEMAND: Medium (airport, seaport and railway)
TOURIST DEMAND: Very high (airport, seaport and railway)

  An idea that has been germinating since then, has
  been, to use the river as a Rapid Transit line
  (comparable to the metro in a bigger city, or a
  BRT) thereby tying together a more intricate system
  of public transport services.

Using the water also addresses a major conundrum that has
been troubling planners working in Panaji for a while.  Most
of the cities suburbs -- Taleigao, Dona Paula, Bambolim,
Merces, St.  Cruz, Old Goa -- all fall into the same
administrative area, Tiswadi.  These areas, together, are
understood as the Panaji Urban Agglomeration (PUA).  The
biggest issue with the PUA is it does not "look across the
river" at the four villages that make up the Porvorim region.

  Porvorim is incredibly important, not just as a
  major residential suburb, where close to 50,000
  people live5 (a large number of whom, work in
  Panaji) but also because there are more than ten
  major government institutions located in this area,
  including the state Legislative Assembly,
  Secretariat and a still-under-construction High
  Court.

Through Betim, the river-bus can finally connect Porvorim to
Panaji, not just making the transit quicker for residents,
but hopefully by linking the two areas together, potentially
adding Porovirm to the PUA.

Goa has over 255km of navigable waterways.  Making optimal
use of these waterways for navigation can make commuting more
convenient, faster, low-cost and most importantly --
environment friendly

PHOTO: An illustration where PHASE-1 of the river bus plan,
has been overlayed on top of the transportation network
resolved in the "Decongestion Model".

PHOTO: The resultant system not only connects suburbs like
Old Goa, Betim and Dona Paula to the city, but additionally,
creates "points of interaction or transfer" that are
identified as multi-nodal transport points in this diagram.

* * *

SEE THIS FULL ARTICLE, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PLUS OTHERS AT THE
FOLLOWING SITE
https://ccfgoa.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/2005074_newsletter_compiled.pdf

This article is reproduced from the CCF (Charles Correa
Foundation) Newsletter * Volume 1 * April to July 2020.

All work undertaken by CCF is on a not-for-profit basis.  The
Charles Correa Foundation is constituted as a duly registered
not-for-profit public charitable trust and has been exempted
u/s 80G of the Income Tax Act.

The CCF Newsletter will be distributed quarterly, issued to
all our subscribers.  To subscribe for future issues, please
click here http://eepurl.com/dllma9

Charles Correa Foundation
Education, Research & Development on Human Settlements

169, St.  Sebastian Chapel Road, Fontainhas Panaji, Goa
403001 India http://www.charlescorreafoundation.org
+91 832 2220058
conn...@charlescorreafoundation.org

Visiting Hours: 10:00 am - 01:00 pm or by appointment.

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha
(fredericknoron...@gmail.com) and interesting, Goa-related
articles may be posted there for consideration.

[Goanet] Charles Correa's dream: Using Goa's waterways for mobility of its people (CCF)

[Goanet Reader]

LOCAL DEMAND: High (Chorao islanders to the mainland)
TOURIST DEMAND: Low

FERRY POINT: Chorao
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Small vendors, bus stop
LOCAL DEMAND: High (Chorao islanders to the mainland)
TOURIST DEMAND: Medium (bird sanctuary)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (St Monica)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Cruise terminal, vendors
LOCAL DEMAND: Low/medium
TOURIST DEMAND: High (river cruises)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (Mandovi)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Vendors with carts
LOCAL DEMAND: High (employed in the city/market)
TOURIST DEMAND: Very high (Panaji city, Fontainhas)

FERRY POINT: Betim
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Small vending stores and places of worship
LOCAL DEMAND: High (fishing jetty/employed in tourism belt)
TOURIST DEMAND: Very high (fFort Aguada, Reis Magos, nightlife)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (Kala Academy)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Art centre, cafe
LOCAL DEMAND: Low (Panaji market, St Inez)
TOURIST DEMAND: Medium (Kala Academy)

FERRY POINT: Panaji (Dona Paula Jetty)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Jetty, vendors, stores
LOCAL DEMAND: Medium (Taleigao residents, Goa
University students, and Mormugao connection)
TOURIST DEMAND: High (Dona Paula tourist site and Mormugao
connection)

FERRY POINT: Mormugao (Khariawadda)
EXISTING LAND FACILITIES: Mormugao port, fishing jetty
LOCAL DEMAND: Medium (airport, seaport and railway)
TOURIST DEMAND: Very high (airport, seaport and railway)

  An idea that has been germinating since then, has
  been, to use the river as a Rapid Transit line
  (comparable to the metro in a bigger city, or a
  BRT) thereby tying together a more intricate system
  of public transport services.

Using the water also addresses a major conundrum that has
been troubling planners working in Panaji for a while.  Most
of the cities suburbs -- Taleigao, Dona Paula, Bambolim,
Merces, St.  Cruz, Old Goa -- all fall into the same
administrative area, Tiswadi.  These areas, together, are
understood as the Panaji Urban Agglomeration (PUA).  The
biggest issue with the PUA is it does not "look across the
river" at the four villages that make up the Porvorim region.

  Porvorim is incredibly important, not just as a
  major residential suburb, where close to 50,000
  people live5 (a large number of whom, work in
  Panaji) but also because there are more than ten
  major government institutions located in this area,
  including the state Legislative Assembly,
  Secretariat and a still-under-construction High
  Court.

Through Betim, the river-bus can finally connect Porvorim to
Panaji, not just making the transit quicker for residents,
but hopefully by linking the two areas together, potentially
adding Porovirm to the PUA.

Goa has over 255km of navigable waterways.  Making optimal
use of these waterways for navigation can make commuting more
convenient, faster, low-cost and most importantly --
environment friendly

PHOTO: An illustration where PHASE-1 of the river bus plan,
has been overlayed on top of the transportation network
resolved in the "Decongestion Model".

PHOTO: The resultant system not only connects suburbs like
Old Goa, Betim and Dona Paula to the city, but additionally,
creates "points of interaction or transfer" that are
identified as multi-nodal transport points in this diagram.

* * *

SEE THIS FULL ARTICLE, WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PLUS OTHERS AT THE
FOLLOWING SITE
https://ccfgoa.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/2005074_newsletter_compiled.pdf

This article is reproduced from the CCF (Charles Correa
Foundation) Newsletter * Volume 1 * April to July 2020.

All work undertaken by CCF is on a not-for-profit basis.  The
Charles Correa Foundation is constituted as a duly registered
not-for-profit public charitable trust and has been exempted
u/s 80G of the Income Tax Act.

The CCF Newsletter will be distributed quarterly, issued to
all our subscribers.  To subscribe for future issues, please
click here http://eepurl.com/dllma9

Charles Correa Foundation
Education, Research & Development on Human Settlements

169, St.  Sebastian Chapel Road, Fontainhas Panaji, Goa
403001 India http://www.charlescorreafoundation.org
+91 832 2220058
conn...@charlescorreafoundation.org

Visiting Hours: 10:00 am - 01:00 pm or by appointment.

Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha
(fredericknoron...@gmail.com) and interesting, Goa-related
articles may be posted there for consideration.

[Goanet] When the shopkeeper's son becomes a priest... (Sonia Gomes)

[Goanet Reader]

ARRÊ POSORKARAGHELLO CHEDDÓ PADRI ZAT MURHÊ...SAIBÁ BHOGHOSH...

Sonia Gomes
rgso...@gmail.com

'Sr. Lucas, Sr. Lucas, o Senhor tem uma garrafa de
Genebra?'
(Mr. Lucas, Mr. Lucas do you happen to have a bottle of Gin)

'Genebra, D. Teresa?  Sim tenho, Clotild, arrê Clotild, uma
garrafa de Genebra hâr murhê.' (Gin, D. Teresa? Yes I have,
Clotild, Clotild, bring a bottle of Gin)

'Kit munlam rhê tuvem? Genebra?'
(What did you say? Gin?)

'Arrê Lucas, mak mennam murhê thi garraf.'
(Lucas, I cannot find the bottle.)

'Mennam? Armarin choi rhê, ting ass murhê, soglé vinhos
tinga assai, tummi soglim kuddim zalleaim mista?' (Cannot
find it? Look in the cupboard; it is there, all the wines
are there, have you all gone blind?)

'Babá, ek batli petrol mettoli?'
(Sir, can you give a bottle of kerosene?)

'Oi, oi mettoli, matxo rab rhê.'
(Yes, yes, you will get it, wait a minute.)

'Borem, rabottam Baba.'
(Ok. I will wait)

'Melli rhê, Clotild?'
(Did you find it Clotild?)

'Oi, oi melli, matxem pusshitam.'
(Yes, yes found it, am wiping it clean.)

'Mais alguma coisa, D. Teresa?'
(Anything else D. Teresa?)

'Baba xizlollem udok payancher pollam, pomad mettolem?'
(Sir, boiling water has fallen on someone's legs; can you
give me an ointment?)

  'Saibá bhoghosh, matxem rab ghê, tem pomadack ughôt
  lagota. Teka misturar korpak poddta!  Como essa
  gente me persegue.' (My God, can you wait a moment?
  That ointment requires time, you have to mix it.
  How these people harass me.)

'Sim uma lata de sardinhas e será possível uma lata de
azeitonas?' (Yes a tin of sardines and if possible a tin of
olives too)

'Com certeza D. Teresa, hospedes?'
(Of course D. Teresa, guests?)

'Sim o sogro da minha filha, o Doutor Policarpo da Costa
Menezes' (Yes, the father-in-law of my daughter, Doctor
Policarpo da Costa Menezes.)

'A minha filha  Eslinda enviou um telegrama, "O Pai vem passar
um dia,tem uma Reunião em Margão.  Sr.  Lucas estes homens de
importância são sempre, tão kit, kit" (My daughter Eslinda
sent me a telegram, Father is coming to spend a day, he has a
meeting in Margão.  Mr. Lucas, these important people are
always full of peculiarities.)

'Sim são.  Lucas e qual é a sua ementa D.  Teresa...' (Yes,
they are and what are you planning to cook...?)

  D. Teresa was in a flurry of excitement and worry,
  a visit from Doutor Policarpo, her daughter's
  father-in-law, although rare, was a matter of
  concern, an event to be planned carefully.  Doutor
  Policarpo was not a man to be trifled with; he was
  terribly kit, kit.

D. Teresa and her husband Sr. Cosme had worked tirelessly
to get their daughter married to his son Rui, an advocate.
The marriage had been a prestigious one. Rui's mother D.
Rosa was a quiet mild person who was in awe and to some
extent afraid of her husband.

Truth be told, D. Rosa just could not manage a house of such
repute, her cooking skills were abysmal, her management of
the servants pathetic, she just couldn't get any work done
and to add to her long list of distresses, her handsome sons
had roving eyes, when the sons were sent to the market, on
their return, the maid would say...

'Baba, mak kit allam rhê?' This accompanied by a coy smile.
(Sir what have you brought for me?)

And the son would smile and say, 'Tuk, ghô banxirea, choi
bolach...' (For you, a local term of endearment, literary
meaning a sooty kitchen rag, see biscuits)

'Baba, mak fokott lasanchi bolach bori lagota' (Sir, I only
like those biscuits with a twist in the middle).

At this moment, any other Baddkan would have interjected and
would have said sternly, 'Tum inghá kit kortghô Inacin?  Kam
nhá ghô tuka?' (What are doing here Inacin?  Don't you have
any work?)

But D. Rosa never having had to confront such situations
would say in a mild tone 'why am I subjected to such
indignities?' 'Toninho porque é que trazes bolacha para as
criadas?' (Toninho, why do you buy biscuits for the
servants?)

The reply would be some banality ...  All Toninho knew was
here was a woman and his hormones were raging...  D.  Rosa
knew immediately, that whenever a maid servant acted
'abusada' (rude) to her one of her sons must have already
made a pass at her.

So for cooking there was the old Coinsão, half blind but
eager to work. Coinsão's cooking was completely basic.

Cleaning of the house had been relegated to Pedru who each
day swept the house.  D. Rosa was, what is termed as
'delicad' (brought up in great comfort), she came from an
extremely opulent family and had studied in prestigious
convents, for her housework was an impossible chore, she just
did not know how to go about it.

On the other hand, Eslinda came from an austere household
where house work was an art to be practiced with a great deal
of elegance. One glance and she knew all was not well in
Rui's house. Oh what deep relief, what a deep sense of
gratitude D. Rosa felt for Eslinda, she just 

[Goanet-News] When the shopkeeper's son becomes a priest... (Sonia Gomes)

[Goanet Reader]

ARRÊ POSORKARAGHELLO CHEDDÓ PADRI ZAT MURHÊ...SAIBÁ BHOGHOSH...

Sonia Gomes
rgso...@gmail.com

'Sr. Lucas, Sr. Lucas, o Senhor tem uma garrafa de
Genebra?'
(Mr. Lucas, Mr. Lucas do you happen to have a bottle of Gin)

'Genebra, D. Teresa?  Sim tenho, Clotild, arrê Clotild, uma
garrafa de Genebra hâr murhê.' (Gin, D. Teresa? Yes I have,
Clotild, Clotild, bring a bottle of Gin)

'Kit munlam rhê tuvem? Genebra?'
(What did you say? Gin?)

'Arrê Lucas, mak mennam murhê thi garraf.'
(Lucas, I cannot find the bottle.)

'Mennam? Armarin choi rhê, ting ass murhê, soglé vinhos
tinga assai, tummi soglim kuddim zalleaim mista?' (Cannot
find it? Look in the cupboard; it is there, all the wines
are there, have you all gone blind?)

'Babá, ek batli petrol mettoli?'
(Sir, can you give a bottle of kerosene?)

'Oi, oi mettoli, matxo rab rhê.'
(Yes, yes, you will get it, wait a minute.)

'Borem, rabottam Baba.'
(Ok. I will wait)

'Melli rhê, Clotild?'
(Did you find it Clotild?)

'Oi, oi melli, matxem pusshitam.'
(Yes, yes found it, am wiping it clean.)

'Mais alguma coisa, D. Teresa?'
(Anything else D. Teresa?)

'Baba xizlollem udok payancher pollam, pomad mettolem?'
(Sir, boiling water has fallen on someone's legs; can you
give me an ointment?)

  'Saibá bhoghosh, matxem rab ghê, tem pomadack ughôt
  lagota. Teka misturar korpak poddta!  Como essa
  gente me persegue.' (My God, can you wait a moment?
  That ointment requires time, you have to mix it.
  How these people harass me.)

'Sim uma lata de sardinhas e será possível uma lata de
azeitonas?' (Yes a tin of sardines and if possible a tin of
olives too)

'Com certeza D. Teresa, hospedes?'
(Of course D. Teresa, guests?)

'Sim o sogro da minha filha, o Doutor Policarpo da Costa
Menezes' (Yes, the father-in-law of my daughter, Doctor
Policarpo da Costa Menezes.)

'A minha filha  Eslinda enviou um telegrama, "O Pai vem passar
um dia,tem uma Reunião em Margão.  Sr.  Lucas estes homens de
importância são sempre, tão kit, kit" (My daughter Eslinda
sent me a telegram, Father is coming to spend a day, he has a
meeting in Margão.  Mr. Lucas, these important people are
always full of peculiarities.)

'Sim são.  Lucas e qual é a sua ementa D.  Teresa...' (Yes,
they are and what are you planning to cook...?)

  D. Teresa was in a flurry of excitement and worry,
  a visit from Doutor Policarpo, her daughter's
  father-in-law, although rare, was a matter of
  concern, an event to be planned carefully.  Doutor
  Policarpo was not a man to be trifled with; he was
  terribly kit, kit.

D. Teresa and her husband Sr. Cosme had worked tirelessly
to get their daughter married to his son Rui, an advocate.
The marriage had been a prestigious one. Rui's mother D.
Rosa was a quiet mild person who was in awe and to some
extent afraid of her husband.

Truth be told, D. Rosa just could not manage a house of such
repute, her cooking skills were abysmal, her management of
the servants pathetic, she just couldn't get any work done
and to add to her long list of distresses, her handsome sons
had roving eyes, when the sons were sent to the market, on
their return, the maid would say...

'Baba, mak kit allam rhê?' This accompanied by a coy smile.
(Sir what have you brought for me?)

And the son would smile and say, 'Tuk, ghô banxirea, choi
bolach...' (For you, a local term of endearment, literary
meaning a sooty kitchen rag, see biscuits)

'Baba, mak fokott lasanchi bolach bori lagota' (Sir, I only
like those biscuits with a twist in the middle).

At this moment, any other Baddkan would have interjected and
would have said sternly, 'Tum inghá kit kortghô Inacin?  Kam
nhá ghô tuka?' (What are doing here Inacin?  Don't you have
any work?)

But D. Rosa never having had to confront such situations
would say in a mild tone 'why am I subjected to such
indignities?' 'Toninho porque é que trazes bolacha para as
criadas?' (Toninho, why do you buy biscuits for the
servants?)

The reply would be some banality ...  All Toninho knew was
here was a woman and his hormones were raging...  D.  Rosa
knew immediately, that whenever a maid servant acted
'abusada' (rude) to her one of her sons must have already
made a pass at her.

So for cooking there was the old Coinsão, half blind but
eager to work. Coinsão's cooking was completely basic.

Cleaning of the house had been relegated to Pedru who each
day swept the house.  D. Rosa was, what is termed as
'delicad' (brought up in great comfort), she came from an
extremely opulent family and had studied in prestigious
convents, for her housework was an impossible chore, she just
did not know how to go about it.

On the other hand, Eslinda came from an austere household
where house work was an art to be practiced with a great deal
of elegance. One glance and she knew all was not well in
Rui's house. Oh what deep relief, what a deep sense of
gratitude D. Rosa felt for Eslinda, she just 

[Goanet-News] Teflachem Humón: The Story of a Fish and A Berry (Aaron Savio Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

Teflachem Humón: The Story of a Fish and A Berry

By Aaron Savio Lobo
aaronlob...@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +91 83089 39019

Aaron Savio Lobo writes about
the relationship between the
tefflan berry (a close cousin
of the Sichuan peppercorn), the
spawning season for several
Indian oily fish, and the
wonderful dish made with the two.

There are several ways to prepare a good Goan fish curry, but
one of my favourites is teflachem humón, a delicious Goan
Hindu-style preparation.

Humón or koddi is the Konkani word for curry, and tefflan
(also known as tirphal, teppal; chiphal in Marathi; and
tejphal in Hindi) are peppercorn-like berries, from the
Indian Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum rhetsa), a forest tree common
in Goa's Western Ghats as well as many other parts of the
Indian sub-continent.  The tree is easily recognisable by its
white corky bark studded with large conical thorns.  It has a
beautiful shiny green crown of leaves, which it begins to
shed as the weather begins to warm up.

Reminiscent of the Pac-Man video game, the berry's husk
imparts a unique citrusy zing to the curry, which marries
well with other spices including chillies, turmeric,
tamarind, kokum and coconut milk, both wild or locally
cultivated.

The species belongs to the citrus family that also includes
lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges etc.  Biting into a fresh
husk can leave the tongue and lips tingling and numb.  The
tingly-numbing sensation is attributed to compounds called
sanshools present in the husks.  In fact, the well-known 'ma
la' flavour (In Cantonese, 'ma' is to numb, and 'la' means
spicy), signature to Chinese Sichuan cuisine, is actually
attributed to the Sichuan pepper Zanthoxylum simulans, a
close cousin of the tefflan.

  This spice is best paired with oily fish like the
  Indian mackerel, oil sardine and the smaller tuna
  species, as the acids in the berry, along with
  those along with those of the tamarind and kokum
  significantly cut through the fishy flavours
  typical to some of these fish.  However, it is best
  not paired with larger, less 'fishy' varieties such
  as Silver Pomfret or freshwater fish, as the berry
  quickly overpowers their more delicate flavours.

NEW FLUSH OF LEAVES ON A NAKED TREE

In Goa, and along other parts of the Konkan, the naked
(leafless) tree begins to sprout a shiny new flush of leaves
by the end of April. This is followed quickly by the
blooming of flowers, and then fruits.

The berries, borne in bunches, are collected and dried.  The
dried dark olive green berries are then used year-round.

They are, however, at their most flavourful when bright green
and fresh, as the sanshools begin to decompose when exposed
to moisture and the sun's UV rays.  It is interesting that
this time of year also coincides with the ripening of other
fruits and spices that are essential for teflachem humón
curry.  For example, the kokam fruit also begins to ripen in
late April.

And it isn't just the berry and the spices, the spawning
season for oily fish like the Indian mackerel and sardine in
the Arabian Sea, also peak around the same time (mid-April
onwards).  Although these fish lay their eggs in the open
ocean, the South West monsoon winds and the corresponding
oceanic currents transport them to the more sheltered coastal
waters, which increase their chances of survival.

The upwelling currents typical to this season churn up
nutrients from the depths of the ocean, bringing them to the
surface and allowing phytoplankton (microscopic marine
algae), the major food of these species, to bloom while the
resulting fish populations flourish.

  The end of summer marks the end of the fishing
  season along the west coast, as the winds pick up
  and churn the seas.  In the decades before
  industrial fishing in Goa (1970s), large schools of
  these surface-swimming fish would venture into
  nearshore waters, and mouth of the Mandovi and
  Zuari rivers during this time of the year.  Here,
  they were caught, using traditional fishing methods
  such as the rampon (shore seines) and maag, the
  floating gill nets used to catch surface shoaling
  species.

The use of the tefflan berry goes beyond its culinary value.
It is known that plants evolved a range of aromatic compounds
as a strategy to keep predators and pests at bay.  The same
is probably true for the Zanthoxylums.

Tefflan berries are known to have a range of alkaloids and
essential oils capable of hindering bacteria, parasitic worms
and fungal infections, which probably helped earlier
generations store curries longer without refrigeration.

  In Goa, the berries are added to stored paddy
  (rice) as they are known to keep away weevils, a
  common pest in these parts.  The chemical extracts
  are also known to have antioxidants and pain
  alleviating compounds, 

[Goanet] Teflachem Humón: The Story of a Fish and A Berry (Aaron Savio Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

Teflachem Humón: The Story of a Fish and A Berry

By Aaron Savio Lobo
aaronlob...@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +91 83089 39019

Aaron Savio Lobo writes about
the relationship between the
tefflan berry (a close cousin
of the Sichuan peppercorn), the
spawning season for several
Indian oily fish, and the
wonderful dish made with the two.

There are several ways to prepare a good Goan fish curry, but
one of my favourites is teflachem humón, a delicious Goan
Hindu-style preparation.

Humón or koddi is the Konkani word for curry, and tefflan
(also known as tirphal, teppal; chiphal in Marathi; and
tejphal in Hindi) are peppercorn-like berries, from the
Indian Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum rhetsa), a forest tree common
in Goa's Western Ghats as well as many other parts of the
Indian sub-continent.  The tree is easily recognisable by its
white corky bark studded with large conical thorns.  It has a
beautiful shiny green crown of leaves, which it begins to
shed as the weather begins to warm up.

Reminiscent of the Pac-Man video game, the berry's husk
imparts a unique citrusy zing to the curry, which marries
well with other spices including chillies, turmeric,
tamarind, kokum and coconut milk, both wild or locally
cultivated.

The species belongs to the citrus family that also includes
lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges etc.  Biting into a fresh
husk can leave the tongue and lips tingling and numb.  The
tingly-numbing sensation is attributed to compounds called
sanshools present in the husks.  In fact, the well-known 'ma
la' flavour (In Cantonese, 'ma' is to numb, and 'la' means
spicy), signature to Chinese Sichuan cuisine, is actually
attributed to the Sichuan pepper Zanthoxylum simulans, a
close cousin of the tefflan.

  This spice is best paired with oily fish like the
  Indian mackerel, oil sardine and the smaller tuna
  species, as the acids in the berry, along with
  those along with those of the tamarind and kokum
  significantly cut through the fishy flavours
  typical to some of these fish.  However, it is best
  not paired with larger, less 'fishy' varieties such
  as Silver Pomfret or freshwater fish, as the berry
  quickly overpowers their more delicate flavours.

NEW FLUSH OF LEAVES ON A NAKED TREE

In Goa, and along other parts of the Konkan, the naked
(leafless) tree begins to sprout a shiny new flush of leaves
by the end of April. This is followed quickly by the
blooming of flowers, and then fruits.

The berries, borne in bunches, are collected and dried.  The
dried dark olive green berries are then used year-round.

They are, however, at their most flavourful when bright green
and fresh, as the sanshools begin to decompose when exposed
to moisture and the sun's UV rays.  It is interesting that
this time of year also coincides with the ripening of other
fruits and spices that are essential for teflachem humón
curry.  For example, the kokam fruit also begins to ripen in
late April.

And it isn't just the berry and the spices, the spawning
season for oily fish like the Indian mackerel and sardine in
the Arabian Sea, also peak around the same time (mid-April
onwards).  Although these fish lay their eggs in the open
ocean, the South West monsoon winds and the corresponding
oceanic currents transport them to the more sheltered coastal
waters, which increase their chances of survival.

The upwelling currents typical to this season churn up
nutrients from the depths of the ocean, bringing them to the
surface and allowing phytoplankton (microscopic marine
algae), the major food of these species, to bloom while the
resulting fish populations flourish.

  The end of summer marks the end of the fishing
  season along the west coast, as the winds pick up
  and churn the seas.  In the decades before
  industrial fishing in Goa (1970s), large schools of
  these surface-swimming fish would venture into
  nearshore waters, and mouth of the Mandovi and
  Zuari rivers during this time of the year.  Here,
  they were caught, using traditional fishing methods
  such as the rampon (shore seines) and maag, the
  floating gill nets used to catch surface shoaling
  species.

The use of the tefflan berry goes beyond its culinary value.
It is known that plants evolved a range of aromatic compounds
as a strategy to keep predators and pests at bay.  The same
is probably true for the Zanthoxylums.

Tefflan berries are known to have a range of alkaloids and
essential oils capable of hindering bacteria, parasitic worms
and fungal infections, which probably helped earlier
generations store curries longer without refrigeration.

  In Goa, the berries are added to stored paddy
  (rice) as they are known to keep away weevils, a
  common pest in these parts.  The chemical extracts
  are also known to have antioxidants and pain
  alleviating compounds, 

[Goanet] Shevtto: The Story of Goa's Unlikely State Fish (Aaron Savio Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

Shevtto: The Story of Goa's Unlikely State Fish

By Aaron Savio Lobo
aaronlob...@gmail.com | https://www.goyaj+91 83089 39019ournal.in/ | +91
83089 39019


The grey mullet is small and
unremarkable in many ways.
However, it is a quiet
favourite among fish-eating
communities the world over,
writes Aaron Savio Lobo.

Simon, now in his late 30s, has been fishing since he was 9.
He belongs to a Ramponkar family, the generic term for
traditional fishers in Goa, a state along the west coast of
India.

  The term 'Ramponkar' actually comes from the use of
  a particular fishing net -- the Rampon, which is a
  beach seine; and 'kar' refers to the person who
  uses it.  In Goa, the Rampons are set in sheltered
  areas, either near river mouths or along bays and
  coves, protected from the forces that offer refuge
  to a diversity of species who use these areas to
  breed and feed.

These rampons, along with other traditional fishing methods,
form the mainstay during the monsoon, when the rains are
relentless across the state.  This also happens to be a time
when larger industrial fishing vessels, including the
trawlers and purse seiners observe a two-month fishing ban --
a bid by the government to protect the rights of the less
industrious traditional fishers, and to ensure that the ocean
and the fish are given a break from aggressive fisheries.

While the Rampon can bag an entire potpourri of species
depending on the season and what visits the bays at the time,
one that seems to be present (often dominating it) is the
grey mullet.

  In 2016, Goa's State Directorate of Fisheries
  decided to host a competition to choose a State
  Fish -- a fish which was relevant, and +91 83089 39019would bring
  pride in some way to the people of Goa.  The
  grey/flathead mullet (Mugil cepahlus) locally known
  (in Konkani) as Shevtto was voted the State fish of
  Goa from a long list of contenders.  This came as a
  pleasant surprise.

In India, species declared as state or national animals tend
to have something iconic about them.  They are either
extravagant, like the country's national bird, the Indian
Peafowl; or exude power, like the Royal Bengal Tiger; or are
rare and endangered like the Sangai, the Brow-antlered deer,
a species known to occur on a single lake in Manipur.  The
mullet is none of these.

Living up to its name, the mullet is coloured a drab grey
above and silver below, something that characterises most
'typical' fish.  There are in fact, several species of mullet
in Goa, and they are all similar in build and colour, making
it difficult to tell them apart from the grey mullet.  There
are also other fish that have the name mullet, but are
actually not -- the Red mullet is actually a species of
Goatfish.  So what makes the grey mullet so special?

A Fish That You Can Rely On

The mullet is one of the few 'state animals' that you can
actually eat.  And because it occurs from the river to the sea, it is
accessible to a range of communities -- enjoyed equally by
'sweet-water' fish-loving Bengalis, where it is called parse,
and the 'sea-fish' loving Goans, for the very same reason
that you cannot assign the mullet to a specific ecosystem.

The mullet is caught year-round using a diversity of fishing
craft and gear.  The grey mullet has many local names
depending on which part of the coastline you visit.

Called madava in Tamil, thirutha or kanambu in Malayalam,
khainga in Odia, farsa in the Andamans, the mullet is
savoured pretty much throughout the Indian coastline, with
each coastal state replete with its own variety of recipes to
prep and cook this fish.  The fish also has specific names
based on its size, and whether the locals believe it is male
or female.  In Goa, while shevtto generally refers to the
large mullets, shevttali refers to smaller specimens.

  A friend from a coastal village in Maharashtra, who
  is a fisher, told me that although the grey mullet
  is known by the generic Marathi name boitt, they
  have different names as they grow into larger
  specimens -- sherwa is used to describe what are
  believed to be large males, while large females
  with roe are called badwi.  After all, a lot of
  folk taxonomy is based on the functionality of the
  species, as well as whether you can eat it or not.
  Its relative abundance and fairly low price make
  the grey mullet accessible to everyone.

Being a fish of the surface waters, the mullet is commonly
caught using cast nets.  This technique requires both
stealth, speed and a knack to cast the net!  While fishing
for mullet, there exists an 'arms race' between the fisher
and this keen-eyed fish, which generally swim in small shoals
of five or six, and is able to spot the slightest of
movements. This wily fish will not readily take to the 

[Goanet-News] Shevtto: The Story of Goa's Unlikely State Fish (Aaron Savio Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

Shevtto: The Story of Goa's Unlikely State Fish

By Aaron Savio Lobo
aaronlob...@gmail.com | https://www.goyaj+91 83089 39019ournal.in/ | +91
83089 39019


The grey mullet is small and
unremarkable in many ways.
However, it is a quiet
favourite among fish-eating
communities the world over,
writes Aaron Savio Lobo.

Simon, now in his late 30s, has been fishing since he was 9.
He belongs to a Ramponkar family, the generic term for
traditional fishers in Goa, a state along the west coast of
India.

  The term 'Ramponkar' actually comes from the use of
  a particular fishing net -- the Rampon, which is a
  beach seine; and 'kar' refers to the person who
  uses it.  In Goa, the Rampons are set in sheltered
  areas, either near river mouths or along bays and
  coves, protected from the forces that offer refuge
  to a diversity of species who use these areas to
  breed and feed.

These rampons, along with other traditional fishing methods,
form the mainstay during the monsoon, when the rains are
relentless across the state.  This also happens to be a time
when larger industrial fishing vessels, including the
trawlers and purse seiners observe a two-month fishing ban --
a bid by the government to protect the rights of the less
industrious traditional fishers, and to ensure that the ocean
and the fish are given a break from aggressive fisheries.

While the Rampon can bag an entire potpourri of species
depending on the season and what visits the bays at the time,
one that seems to be present (often dominating it) is the
grey mullet.

  In 2016, Goa's State Directorate of Fisheries
  decided to host a competition to choose a State
  Fish -- a fish which was relevant, and +91 83089 39019would bring
  pride in some way to the people of Goa.  The
  grey/flathead mullet (Mugil cepahlus) locally known
  (in Konkani) as Shevtto was voted the State fish of
  Goa from a long list of contenders.  This came as a
  pleasant surprise.

In India, species declared as state or national animals tend
to have something iconic about them.  They are either
extravagant, like the country's national bird, the Indian
Peafowl; or exude power, like the Royal Bengal Tiger; or are
rare and endangered like the Sangai, the Brow-antlered deer,
a species known to occur on a single lake in Manipur.  The
mullet is none of these.

Living up to its name, the mullet is coloured a drab grey
above and silver below, something that characterises most
'typical' fish.  There are in fact, several species of mullet
in Goa, and they are all similar in build and colour, making
it difficult to tell them apart from the grey mullet.  There
are also other fish that have the name mullet, but are
actually not -- the Red mullet is actually a species of
Goatfish.  So what makes the grey mullet so special?

A Fish That You Can Rely On

The mullet is one of the few 'state animals' that you can
actually eat.  And because it occurs from the river to the sea, it is
accessible to a range of communities -- enjoyed equally by
'sweet-water' fish-loving Bengalis, where it is called parse,
and the 'sea-fish' loving Goans, for the very same reason
that you cannot assign the mullet to a specific ecosystem.

The mullet is caught year-round using a diversity of fishing
craft and gear.  The grey mullet has many local names
depending on which part of the coastline you visit.

Called madava in Tamil, thirutha or kanambu in Malayalam,
khainga in Odia, farsa in the Andamans, the mullet is
savoured pretty much throughout the Indian coastline, with
each coastal state replete with its own variety of recipes to
prep and cook this fish.  The fish also has specific names
based on its size, and whether the locals believe it is male
or female.  In Goa, while shevtto generally refers to the
large mullets, shevttali refers to smaller specimens.

  A friend from a coastal village in Maharashtra, who
  is a fisher, told me that although the grey mullet
  is known by the generic Marathi name boitt, they
  have different names as they grow into larger
  specimens -- sherwa is used to describe what are
  believed to be large males, while large females
  with roe are called badwi.  After all, a lot of
  folk taxonomy is based on the functionality of the
  species, as well as whether you can eat it or not.
  Its relative abundance and fairly low price make
  the grey mullet accessible to everyone.

Being a fish of the surface waters, the mullet is commonly
caught using cast nets.  This technique requires both
stealth, speed and a knack to cast the net!  While fishing
for mullet, there exists an 'arms race' between the fisher
and this keen-eyed fish, which generally swim in small shoals
of five or six, and is able to spot the slightest of
movements. This wily fish will not readily take to the 

[Goanet-News] Understanding the Jesuits in Goa

[Goanet Reader]

Understanding the Jesuits in Goa

By Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

  They have been called the "schoolmasters of
  Europe".  For decades, if not centuries, this
  religious Order has played a key role in exchanging
  information, about science and plants, between
  India and Europe.  At times, they were
  conservatives, and at other times, they've been
  almost radical.  The Jesuits -- or Society of Jesus
  -- has also played a crucial, though sometimes
  challenged and critiqued, role in Goa as well.

So, it is not surprising to see a book titled 'Jesuits of the
Goa Province: A Historical Overview (1542-2000)' emerge on
the bookstands.  Even if this title may have not got the
attention it deserves, thanks to what seems to be like low
reading habits currently in Goa.

The book is authored by the veteran Jesuit, Gregory Naik SJ,
and has been published by Cinnamon Teal.  Naik served the
Jesuit Headquarters in Rome, the Jesuit Educational
Association for South Asia in New Delhi, and was also the SJ
(or Society of Jesus) Provincial in Goa itself.  Since 2009,
he established the Goa Jesuit Archives, and has been engaged
with it since despite his age and health.

The Jesuit link with Goa has been rather strong, from very
early times.  They first landed here in 1542.  That is very
early in the history of the Society, which was officially
founded only in 1540 itself, or barely two years earlier.

The Jesuits have played a role in shaping Goa's history,
though today they run only a handful of schools like Britto
in Mapusa and Loyola in Margao.  They lack a single college
in their Goa Jesuit Province (which extends, actually, quite
some way beyond the borders of Goa).  More on that latter

  Depending on how you see it, this can be quite an
  interesting book or an official version.  You may
  or may not be a fan of the Jesuits, but this book
  is packed with colourful information and useful
  facts.  Even if these pages are written by a Jesuit
  himself, it makes for an interesting read
  nonetheless.

How did the Jesuits land in Goa?  What was Goa like in the
1540s?  How did the Jesuit Province of Goa -- sometimes also
called the Province of India -- come about in 1549?  Is it
true that this was the first Jesuit Province outside of
Europe, and only the third after Portugal and Spain?  Or that
its this Goa-based provice's area spread from the southern
tip of Africa to Japan in the east?  Read and find out

The Jesuit story is rich and complex, and at times it is also
bizarre and unbelievable.  The geographical spread of the
Society -- even from their base in tiny Goa itself -- is just
one part of the meandering and often surprising story.  Their
achievements in various fields is another part of the story.

Recently, while working to comprehend the early linguistic
influences of Goa-linked individuals on India, I was
surprised to realise the extent of the role played by Jesuits
in fields such as Tamil (Fenicio, de Nobili), Sanskrit (Henry
Roth, de Nobili, Arnos Padiri or Ernest Hanxleden who
contributed to both Sanskrit and Malayalam); or Tamil
(Enrique Enriquez, Beschi) and of course in Konkani (Thomas
Stephens, who had in the late 20th century a Jesuit institute
named after him at Porvorim), just to name a few.

  They were astronomers (Matteo Ricci), and Claude
  Boudier and John Baptist Pons who helped the
  maharaja of Jaipur set up his famous astronomical
  observatory (jantar mantar), or explorers like
  Brother Bento Goes who travelled overland from
  Lahore to China via Kabul and others like
  Castiglione who was famous for his paintings of
  imperial horses in China.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.  On reading books of
these kind, it becomes clear that tiny Goa has indeed played
a major role in global history, though it might not be
politically correct to say so in these times.

Jesuits shaped the churches of Goa, particularly those of
Ilhas (Tiswadi) and Salcete.  Besides, of course, some
prominent ones at Old Goa, as the scholar Christina Oswald
has pointed out elsewhere.  Page 29 lists all the many Goa
churches, built by the Jesuits -- about 20 in Tiswadi
(Azossim to Vanxim and a dozen and half in between), and 25
more in Salcete (from Assola to Benaulim, Betalbatim,
Cansaulim, to Varca, Vasco, Velsao and Verna, among others).

The rise and decline of the Jesuits in Goa is a complex
story.  Fr Naik does a good job in letting critical
perspectives go through.  He cites other Jesuit work (Dr
Charles Borges') to state how the Society of Jesus in past
centuries "bought lands, received donations and endowments
from pious lay folk, got a flourishing palm-grove business
going, sublet lands, accepted pawned goods and mortgages, and
helped the State with funds whenever the need arose.  In 

[Goanet] Understanding the Jesuits in Goa

[Goanet Reader]

Understanding the Jesuits in Goa

By Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

  They have been called the "schoolmasters of
  Europe".  For decades, if not centuries, this
  religious Order has played a key role in exchanging
  information, about science and plants, between
  India and Europe.  At times, they were
  conservatives, and at other times, they've been
  almost radical.  The Jesuits -- or Society of Jesus
  -- has also played a crucial, though sometimes
  challenged and critiqued, role in Goa as well.

So, it is not surprising to see a book titled 'Jesuits of the
Goa Province: A Historical Overview (1542-2000)' emerge on
the bookstands.  Even if this title may have not got the
attention it deserves, thanks to what seems to be like low
reading habits currently in Goa.

The book is authored by the veteran Jesuit, Gregory Naik SJ,
and has been published by Cinnamon Teal.  Naik served the
Jesuit Headquarters in Rome, the Jesuit Educational
Association for South Asia in New Delhi, and was also the SJ
(or Society of Jesus) Provincial in Goa itself.  Since 2009,
he established the Goa Jesuit Archives, and has been engaged
with it since despite his age and health.

The Jesuit link with Goa has been rather strong, from very
early times.  They first landed here in 1542.  That is very
early in the history of the Society, which was officially
founded only in 1540 itself, or barely two years earlier.

The Jesuits have played a role in shaping Goa's history,
though today they run only a handful of schools like Britto
in Mapusa and Loyola in Margao.  They lack a single college
in their Goa Jesuit Province (which extends, actually, quite
some way beyond the borders of Goa).  More on that latter

  Depending on how you see it, this can be quite an
  interesting book or an official version.  You may
  or may not be a fan of the Jesuits, but this book
  is packed with colourful information and useful
  facts.  Even if these pages are written by a Jesuit
  himself, it makes for an interesting read
  nonetheless.

How did the Jesuits land in Goa?  What was Goa like in the
1540s?  How did the Jesuit Province of Goa -- sometimes also
called the Province of India -- come about in 1549?  Is it
true that this was the first Jesuit Province outside of
Europe, and only the third after Portugal and Spain?  Or that
its this Goa-based provice's area spread from the southern
tip of Africa to Japan in the east?  Read and find out

The Jesuit story is rich and complex, and at times it is also
bizarre and unbelievable.  The geographical spread of the
Society -- even from their base in tiny Goa itself -- is just
one part of the meandering and often surprising story.  Their
achievements in various fields is another part of the story.

Recently, while working to comprehend the early linguistic
influences of Goa-linked individuals on India, I was
surprised to realise the extent of the role played by Jesuits
in fields such as Tamil (Fenicio, de Nobili), Sanskrit (Henry
Roth, de Nobili, Arnos Padiri or Ernest Hanxleden who
contributed to both Sanskrit and Malayalam); or Tamil
(Enrique Enriquez, Beschi) and of course in Konkani (Thomas
Stephens, who had in the late 20th century a Jesuit institute
named after him at Porvorim), just to name a few.

  They were astronomers (Matteo Ricci), and Claude
  Boudier and John Baptist Pons who helped the
  maharaja of Jaipur set up his famous astronomical
  observatory (jantar mantar), or explorers like
  Brother Bento Goes who travelled overland from
  Lahore to China via Kabul and others like
  Castiglione who was famous for his paintings of
  imperial horses in China.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.  On reading books of
these kind, it becomes clear that tiny Goa has indeed played
a major role in global history, though it might not be
politically correct to say so in these times.

Jesuits shaped the churches of Goa, particularly those of
Ilhas (Tiswadi) and Salcete.  Besides, of course, some
prominent ones at Old Goa, as the scholar Christina Oswald
has pointed out elsewhere.  Page 29 lists all the many Goa
churches, built by the Jesuits -- about 20 in Tiswadi
(Azossim to Vanxim and a dozen and half in between), and 25
more in Salcete (from Assola to Benaulim, Betalbatim,
Cansaulim, to Varca, Vasco, Velsao and Verna, among others).

The rise and decline of the Jesuits in Goa is a complex
story.  Fr Naik does a good job in letting critical
perspectives go through.  He cites other Jesuit work (Dr
Charles Borges') to state how the Society of Jesus in past
centuries "bought lands, received donations and endowments
from pious lay folk, got a flourishing palm-grove business
going, sublet lands, accepted pawned goods and mortgages, and
helped the State with funds whenever the need arose.  In 

[Goanet-News] In Tourist Haven Goa, Tourists and ‘Outsiders’ Are No Longer Welcome (Devika Sequeira, The Wire)

[Goanet Reader]

In Tourist Haven Goa, Tourists and ‘Outsiders’ Are No Longer Welcome

Chief minister Pramod Sawant’s flip-flops have left citizens dazed.

CISF jawans and Goa police monitor 'social distancing' on a Panaji street.
Photo: Narayan Pissurlekar

Devika Sequeira
GOVERNMENTHEALTHRIGHTS1 HOUR AGO

Panaji: A British couple holidaying in Goa recently put out a distress
message on Facebook, asking for help in getting food and other essentials.
“The only shop I saw in Arambol was tiny with a huge queue…didn’t look like
they had much left and me and my partner were threatened by a local (not
police) so didn’t want to queue after that anyway!” Corina Bethany Rose
Cronfield’s post said.

AC Milan goalkeeper Asmir Begovic took to Twitter on Sunday to say that the
67-year-old mother of his close friend and agent was stuck in Goa along
with hundreds of other British citizens. “With India in total lockdown, it
is becoming hard for them to source food and water,” he wrote.

Some 1,500 foreigners are currently stranded in Goa during the
coronavirus-induced lockdown, superintendent of police, foreigner regional
registration office (FRRO) Bosco George told The Wire. Those who’ve been
cleared for evacuation by their embassies – 250 French and 40 Czech
nationals among them – will be escorted to the airport, he said.

Also read: COVID-19 Lockdown: 8 Year Old Dies of Hunger as Family Struggles
to Make Ends Meet

With 240 CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnel out on the
streets of Goa since Sunday liberally using their batons on people (a video
of two young men being hit with lathis and forced to hop on their haunches
on a street in Panaji has gone viral), they’ll need all the help they can
get.

Used to a red carpet welcome wherever they went, tourists and ‘outsiders’
have been at the receiving end of a hostile local population that has gone
into self-preservation mode over the coronavirus pandemic. On Divar Island,
villagers forced a guest house owner to evict all foreign tourists over
fears they were carriers of the virus.

The Goa police have been making rounds of beachside homestays and small
resorts, asking owners to corral their foreign guests within the premises
because of the lockdown. “How will they eat and get access to food and
water?” one such hotelier asked. They hadn’t even considered that detail,
the police replied.

An essentials good shop in Goa. Photo: Naryan Pissurlekar

But it isn’t only foreign tourists who are being subjected to an
overbearing level of official stupidity and acute parochial xenophobia that
has gripped Goa since the coronavirus lockdown. There has been utter panic
triggered by the fear mongering set off mostly by BJP bhakts and Goa chief
minister Pramod Sawant himself, who continue to favour an all-out clampdown
for this state of over 1.5 million residents.

Goa is currently treating five COVID-19 positive cases. While four of them
returned from travel abroad, the fifth picked up the infection from his
brother.

In several villages, vigilante groups are putting up physical barricades to
prevent ‘outsiders’ from going in, and those inside from going out to buy
essentials.

In Porvorim, the urban sprawl which houses the government secretariat,
housing colonies are shuttering in residents with padlocks on gates, in the
belief this will keep the infection at bay. “We had to call the cops to
force the president of our society to unlock our gate,” a friend said to me.

Also read: In Madhya Pradesh, Not All Migrant Labourers Walking Back Reach
Home

“A fear psychosis has set in with people in villages insulating themselves
within their panchayats with barricades,” says Goa’s health minister
Vishvajit Rane. Trying to reach supplies to family stranded in Sonal
village within his constituency, the delivery was stopped at a makeshift
wooden barricade manned 24×7 by young vigilantes, Rane discovered.

A senior police official found a similar blockade has been put up by
parishioners in his village Siridao too. “Everyone’s gone into
self-preservation mode over fears that the infection will spread with
outsiders,” he says.

The photograph of the over-enthusiastic Cat Boys of Bastora guarding their
village against the entry of non-residents says it all.

Bastora village, Goa, shuts road to all ‘outsiders, courtesy the ‘Cat
Boys’. Photo: Cat Boys

>From his drastic total lockdown to his daily scolding of the public and
constant flip-flops, Sawant’s dismal handling of the crisis has only made
the pain of the shutdown worse for Goans starved of food supplies.

While the rest of the country was allowed access to provision stores, the
Goa government barred its citizens from stepping out of homes even for
basic supplies like bread, milk and vegetables. Claiming all supplies would
be home delivered – a system that sunk before it took off – Sawant shut
down the state’s excellent local bread supply, blockaded the borders (most
of Goa’s food supplies come from Karnataka) and sat back to tie himself in

[Goanet] In Tourist Haven Goa, Tourists and ‘Outsiders’ Are No Longer Welcome (Devika Sequeira, The Wire)

[Goanet Reader]

In Tourist Haven Goa, Tourists and ‘Outsiders’ Are No Longer Welcome

Chief minister Pramod Sawant’s flip-flops have left citizens dazed.

CISF jawans and Goa police monitor 'social distancing' on a Panaji street.
Photo: Narayan Pissurlekar

Devika Sequeira
GOVERNMENTHEALTHRIGHTS1 HOUR AGO

Panaji: A British couple holidaying in Goa recently put out a distress
message on Facebook, asking for help in getting food and other essentials.
“The only shop I saw in Arambol was tiny with a huge queue…didn’t look like
they had much left and me and my partner were threatened by a local (not
police) so didn’t want to queue after that anyway!” Corina Bethany Rose
Cronfield’s post said.

AC Milan goalkeeper Asmir Begovic took to Twitter on Sunday to say that the
67-year-old mother of his close friend and agent was stuck in Goa along
with hundreds of other British citizens. “With India in total lockdown, it
is becoming hard for them to source food and water,” he wrote.

Some 1,500 foreigners are currently stranded in Goa during the
coronavirus-induced lockdown, superintendent of police, foreigner regional
registration office (FRRO) Bosco George told The Wire. Those who’ve been
cleared for evacuation by their embassies – 250 French and 40 Czech
nationals among them – will be escorted to the airport, he said.

Also read: COVID-19 Lockdown: 8 Year Old Dies of Hunger as Family Struggles
to Make Ends Meet

With 240 CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnel out on the
streets of Goa since Sunday liberally using their batons on people (a video
of two young men being hit with lathis and forced to hop on their haunches
on a street in Panaji has gone viral), they’ll need all the help they can
get.

Used to a red carpet welcome wherever they went, tourists and ‘outsiders’
have been at the receiving end of a hostile local population that has gone
into self-preservation mode over the coronavirus pandemic. On Divar Island,
villagers forced a guest house owner to evict all foreign tourists over
fears they were carriers of the virus.

The Goa police have been making rounds of beachside homestays and small
resorts, asking owners to corral their foreign guests within the premises
because of the lockdown. “How will they eat and get access to food and
water?” one such hotelier asked. They hadn’t even considered that detail,
the police replied.

An essentials good shop in Goa. Photo: Naryan Pissurlekar

But it isn’t only foreign tourists who are being subjected to an
overbearing level of official stupidity and acute parochial xenophobia that
has gripped Goa since the coronavirus lockdown. There has been utter panic
triggered by the fear mongering set off mostly by BJP bhakts and Goa chief
minister Pramod Sawant himself, who continue to favour an all-out clampdown
for this state of over 1.5 million residents.

Goa is currently treating five COVID-19 positive cases. While four of them
returned from travel abroad, the fifth picked up the infection from his
brother.

In several villages, vigilante groups are putting up physical barricades to
prevent ‘outsiders’ from going in, and those inside from going out to buy
essentials.

In Porvorim, the urban sprawl which houses the government secretariat,
housing colonies are shuttering in residents with padlocks on gates, in the
belief this will keep the infection at bay. “We had to call the cops to
force the president of our society to unlock our gate,” a friend said to me.

Also read: In Madhya Pradesh, Not All Migrant Labourers Walking Back Reach
Home

“A fear psychosis has set in with people in villages insulating themselves
within their panchayats with barricades,” says Goa’s health minister
Vishvajit Rane. Trying to reach supplies to family stranded in Sonal
village within his constituency, the delivery was stopped at a makeshift
wooden barricade manned 24×7 by young vigilantes, Rane discovered.

A senior police official found a similar blockade has been put up by
parishioners in his village Siridao too. “Everyone’s gone into
self-preservation mode over fears that the infection will spread with
outsiders,” he says.

The photograph of the over-enthusiastic Cat Boys of Bastora guarding their
village against the entry of non-residents says it all.

Bastora village, Goa, shuts road to all ‘outsiders, courtesy the ‘Cat
Boys’. Photo: Cat Boys

>From his drastic total lockdown to his daily scolding of the public and
constant flip-flops, Sawant’s dismal handling of the crisis has only made
the pain of the shutdown worse for Goans starved of food supplies.

While the rest of the country was allowed access to provision stores, the
Goa government barred its citizens from stepping out of homes even for
basic supplies like bread, milk and vegetables. Claiming all supplies would
be home delivered – a system that sunk before it took off – Sawant shut
down the state’s excellent local bread supply, blockaded the borders (most
of Goa’s food supplies come from Karnataka) and sat back to tie himself in

[Goanet-News] The Colonial Gaze: A researcher looks at the politics of film in pre-1960s Goa

[Goanet Reader]

THE COLONIAL GAZE: A RESEARCHER LOOKS AT THE POLITICS OF FILM IN PRE-1960s
GOA

By Pamela D'Mello
dmello.pam...@gmail.com
+91-9850461649

  Turning a spotlight on colonial politics and films,
  Portuguese researcher Dr Maria do Carmo Piçarra
  trawled multiple archives for her project ---
  Cinema Empire: Representations of Portuguese Asia
  in the Portuguese Film Archives.

In Goa recently, she screened important archival film footage
(Once Upon a Time in Goa, Identity and Memories on Film, 18
Feb to March 3 , 2020).  An assistant professor at the
Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Dr Piçarra is a researcher
at ICNOVA and a grant holder (2018-2020) from Fundação
Oriente for the study she presented in Goa.

She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences, and her
postdoctoral research was on “Cinema Empire”.  Portugal,
France and England, representations of the empire in cinema
(2013-2018).  She is a film programmer, co-founder of
ANIKI-Portuguese Journal of Moving Image and was deputy chair
of the Portuguese Institute of Cinema, Audiovisual and
Multimedia (1998-1999).

Among other books and articles she published Overseas Blues:
Censorship and Propaganda in Estado Novo's Cinema (2015),
Salazar goes to the Movies, Vol I & II (2006, 2011) and was
principal editor of the trilogy Angola.  The Birth of a
Nation (2013, 2014, 2015) and of (Re)Imagining African
Independence.  Film, Visual Arts and the Fall of the
Portuguese Empire (2017).

Excerpts from an interview with Pamela D’Mello

Q.  In  colonial era propaganda newsreels -- Journal de
Portuguese and Imagens de Portugal -- there’s not much
footage on colonial Portugal’s Asian provinces of Goa, Daman
https://arquivos.rtp.pt/conteudos/vassalo-e-silva-visita-o-distrito-de-damao/
, Diu, Macau and Timor.  But considerably more on African
colonies --- Angola and Mozambique.  Why is that?

A: Yes, that is true.  For many years the Portuguese
dictatorship of the Estado Novo (Second Republic 1933-1974)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_Novo_(Portugal) was not
concerned much in filming people or events in its Asian
colonies.  Films were made mainly about Angola and
Mozambique.  Portugal was a kind of pioneer in the use of
films for colonial propaganda to present itself to other
European countries.

At the time, it was concerned about William Cadbury’s
accusation that Portugal had slave workers on the islands of
St Tome, Principe.  It also wanted to disprove American
sociologist Edward Ross's report, that said there were slave
workers in Mozambique and Angola.

  The dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar was
  just starting and they began doing these films as a
  reaction to these accusations.  By the end of the
  1920s, teams went to the African colonies to make
  films, to show that actually there was no slave
  labour in Angola and Mozambique.  But of course, it
  was propaganda.  And indeed even until 1974, there
  were some people doing a kind of slave work.
  Slavery did not exist officially, but those who
  could not afford to pay taxes were forced to work
  free for the government, building roads and bridges.

At a certain point, the Portuguese regime paid for
international filmmakers, French ones, to do propaganda on
Portuguese colonies, as they did for Belgium in Uganda.

These documentaries would be presented at UNICEF and United
Nations as journalistic reports, but I discovered in the
Portuguese Archives, records of how much the filmmaker was
paid, where the films were screened and copies of the films.

Q.  What was  the approach of Journal de Portuguese and
Imagens de Portugal to the colonies?

A: My Masters research  was about propaganda films by Journal
de Portugese filmed from 1938 to 1951.  It was headed by
Antonio Ferro,  this guy who was really clever as the
Director of Propaganda.  He was an admirer of Hitler and
Mussolini,  but after the horrors of the concentration camps
became known, people were unwilling to work with him and
Ferro was eased out in 1948.

The National Secretariat of Propaganda was renamed in 1944 as
Information Secretariat.  His deputy continued Ferro's Policy
of the Spirit (using cultural promotion and symbols to create
national identity)
http://www.newsmuseum.pt/en/propaganda/ferros-brands until
1951.

Imagens de Portugal (Images of Portugal) started in 1953.
The first series went upto 1958 and was run by someone who
had the trust of the Regime and the gaze
http://www.cinemateca.pt/Cinemateca-Digital/Ficha.aspx?obraid=3094=Video
was similar to Journal de Portugese.

The second (1958-1961) and third (1961-1970) series were
given out by open contests.  By that time television rendered
newsreels unimportant everywhere in the world.

  Even Marcello Caetano, our dictator at the time,
  would speak to the Portuguese people through a
  programme on TV called Family Talks.  He would

[Goanet] The Colonial Gaze: A researcher looks at the politics of film in pre-1960s Goa

[Goanet Reader]

THE COLONIAL GAZE: A RESEARCHER LOOKS AT THE POLITICS OF FILM IN PRE-1960s
GOA

By Pamela D'Mello
dmello.pam...@gmail.com
+91-9850461649

  Turning a spotlight on colonial politics and films,
  Portuguese researcher Dr Maria do Carmo Piçarra
  trawled multiple archives for her project ---
  Cinema Empire: Representations of Portuguese Asia
  in the Portuguese Film Archives.

In Goa recently, she screened important archival film footage
(Once Upon a Time in Goa, Identity and Memories on Film, 18
Feb to March 3 , 2020).  An assistant professor at the
Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Dr Piçarra is a researcher
at ICNOVA and a grant holder (2018-2020) from Fundação
Oriente for the study she presented in Goa.

She holds a PhD in Communication Sciences, and her
postdoctoral research was on “Cinema Empire”.  Portugal,
France and England, representations of the empire in cinema
(2013-2018).  She is a film programmer, co-founder of
ANIKI-Portuguese Journal of Moving Image and was deputy chair
of the Portuguese Institute of Cinema, Audiovisual and
Multimedia (1998-1999).

Among other books and articles she published Overseas Blues:
Censorship and Propaganda in Estado Novo's Cinema (2015),
Salazar goes to the Movies, Vol I & II (2006, 2011) and was
principal editor of the trilogy Angola.  The Birth of a
Nation (2013, 2014, 2015) and of (Re)Imagining African
Independence.  Film, Visual Arts and the Fall of the
Portuguese Empire (2017).

Excerpts from an interview with Pamela D’Mello

Q.  In  colonial era propaganda newsreels -- Journal de
Portuguese and Imagens de Portugal -- there’s not much
footage on colonial Portugal’s Asian provinces of Goa, Daman
https://arquivos.rtp.pt/conteudos/vassalo-e-silva-visita-o-distrito-de-damao/
, Diu, Macau and Timor.  But considerably more on African
colonies --- Angola and Mozambique.  Why is that?

A: Yes, that is true.  For many years the Portuguese
dictatorship of the Estado Novo (Second Republic 1933-1974)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_Novo_(Portugal) was not
concerned much in filming people or events in its Asian
colonies.  Films were made mainly about Angola and
Mozambique.  Portugal was a kind of pioneer in the use of
films for colonial propaganda to present itself to other
European countries.

At the time, it was concerned about William Cadbury’s
accusation that Portugal had slave workers on the islands of
St Tome, Principe.  It also wanted to disprove American
sociologist Edward Ross's report, that said there were slave
workers in Mozambique and Angola.

  The dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar was
  just starting and they began doing these films as a
  reaction to these accusations.  By the end of the
  1920s, teams went to the African colonies to make
  films, to show that actually there was no slave
  labour in Angola and Mozambique.  But of course, it
  was propaganda.  And indeed even until 1974, there
  were some people doing a kind of slave work.
  Slavery did not exist officially, but those who
  could not afford to pay taxes were forced to work
  free for the government, building roads and bridges.

At a certain point, the Portuguese regime paid for
international filmmakers, French ones, to do propaganda on
Portuguese colonies, as they did for Belgium in Uganda.

These documentaries would be presented at UNICEF and United
Nations as journalistic reports, but I discovered in the
Portuguese Archives, records of how much the filmmaker was
paid, where the films were screened and copies of the films.

Q.  What was  the approach of Journal de Portuguese and
Imagens de Portugal to the colonies?

A: My Masters research  was about propaganda films by Journal
de Portugese filmed from 1938 to 1951.  It was headed by
Antonio Ferro,  this guy who was really clever as the
Director of Propaganda.  He was an admirer of Hitler and
Mussolini,  but after the horrors of the concentration camps
became known, people were unwilling to work with him and
Ferro was eased out in 1948.

The National Secretariat of Propaganda was renamed in 1944 as
Information Secretariat.  His deputy continued Ferro's Policy
of the Spirit (using cultural promotion and symbols to create
national identity)
http://www.newsmuseum.pt/en/propaganda/ferros-brands until
1951.

Imagens de Portugal (Images of Portugal) started in 1953.
The first series went upto 1958 and was run by someone who
had the trust of the Regime and the gaze
http://www.cinemateca.pt/Cinemateca-Digital/Ficha.aspx?obraid=3094=Video
was similar to Journal de Portugese.

The second (1958-1961) and third (1961-1970) series were
given out by open contests.  By that time television rendered
newsreels unimportant everywhere in the world.

  Even Marcello Caetano, our dictator at the time,
  would speak to the Portuguese people through a
  programme on TV called Family Talks.  He would

[Goanet] You can't turn the clock back... Article on the recent visit by the Portuguese President to Goa (by Edgar Valles)

[Goanet Reader]

 * GOA: YOU CAN'T TURN THE CLOCK BACK *
By Edgar Valles  diasval...@gmail.com

“* Time does not go back, but the past can become the future, if we know
how to take advantage of the past * ”, here is the lapidary synthesis of
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, when referring to Portugal-India relations and, in
particular, to Goa.

The President of the Portuguese Republic spoke these words at a conference
in Goa, where he highlighted the feeling that all Portuguese people have
when they arrive at what was the crown jewel:

“*In Goa, I feel at home. I have already visited so many nations… small,
medium and large countries, but I have to confess that this is a very
special visit for me. It reminds me of the past. In Goa, I feel completely
at home * ”.

However, he stressed that he has no nostalgic feelings: * “Goa is
integrated in India, but it is different… a unique place… unique where we
find the future, but we don't stick to the past. That’s why I feel like my
coming to Goa is not nostalgic * ”.

Alexandre Moniz Barbosa, the editor of the Herald, said in the Sunday
editorial that “Goa can be considered the basis for further strengthening
of relations between India and Portugal. If Lisbon may be the gateway to
India in relation to the European Union, Goa it can likewise be Portugal's
gateway to India ”.

Still today, in Goa there are a significant number of people who speak
Portuguese. The Instituto Camões and the Indo Portuguese Friendship Society
promote the teaching of the Portuguese language and Fundação Oriente has a
relevant cultural role as well. The University of Goa has a Department of
Portuguese, which offers postgraduate degrees in this language.

The benefits for Goa of increased trade, cultural and cultural relations and
even politics with Portugal is immense.

What attracts Indian tourists to Goa, the smallest state in India, is its
specificity, the feeling that they are in Europe without having gone
through immigration control. This is largely due to the Portuguese
influence, the long history the region shares with Portugal that almost
sixty years of integration in India has not managed to erase.

Such influence in no way affects Goa's being part of India. However,
unfounded fears persist, mental blocks that damage relationships of
Portugal with Goa.

There are still those in Goa who are not convinced that Portugal is a
democracy, which is no longer a colonial power and which he has no
neo-colonial ambitions.

Certainly for this reason, the recent visit of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to
Goa was for just over 24 hours, and very discreet. Prime Minister Antonio
Costa's was a climax in January 2017, to the point there are those who,
ironically, said he could win the local elections if he competed.
Obviously, there were others who did not like such popularity.

Marcelo's visit, therefore, was at another level.

In any case, relations are on the right track and it seems that shadows of
the past will not override hope for the future ...

Edgar Valles
Former President of the Casa de Goa, Lisbon.

[Goanet-News] You can't turn the clock back... Article on the recent visit by the Portuguese President to Goa (by Edgar Valles)

[Goanet Reader]

 * GOA: YOU CAN'T TURN THE CLOCK BACK *
By Edgar Valles  diasval...@gmail.com

“* Time does not go back, but the past can become the future, if we know
how to take advantage of the past * ”, here is the lapidary synthesis of
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, when referring to Portugal-India relations and, in
particular, to Goa.

The President of the Portuguese Republic spoke these words at a conference
in Goa, where he highlighted the feeling that all Portuguese people have
when they arrive at what was the crown jewel:

“*In Goa, I feel at home. I have already visited so many nations… small,
medium and large countries, but I have to confess that this is a very
special visit for me. It reminds me of the past. In Goa, I feel completely
at home * ”.

However, he stressed that he has no nostalgic feelings: * “Goa is
integrated in India, but it is different… a unique place… unique where we
find the future, but we don't stick to the past. That’s why I feel like my
coming to Goa is not nostalgic * ”.

Alexandre Moniz Barbosa, the editor of the Herald, said in the Sunday
editorial that “Goa can be considered the basis for further strengthening
of relations between India and Portugal. If Lisbon may be the gateway to
India in relation to the European Union, Goa it can likewise be Portugal's
gateway to India ”.

Still today, in Goa there are a significant number of people who speak
Portuguese. The Instituto Camões and the Indo Portuguese Friendship Society
promote the teaching of the Portuguese language and Fundação Oriente has a
relevant cultural role as well. The University of Goa has a Department of
Portuguese, which offers postgraduate degrees in this language.

The benefits for Goa of increased trade, cultural and cultural relations and
even politics with Portugal is immense.

What attracts Indian tourists to Goa, the smallest state in India, is its
specificity, the feeling that they are in Europe without having gone
through immigration control. This is largely due to the Portuguese
influence, the long history the region shares with Portugal that almost
sixty years of integration in India has not managed to erase.

Such influence in no way affects Goa's being part of India. However,
unfounded fears persist, mental blocks that damage relationships of
Portugal with Goa.

There are still those in Goa who are not convinced that Portugal is a
democracy, which is no longer a colonial power and which he has no
neo-colonial ambitions.

Certainly for this reason, the recent visit of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to
Goa was for just over 24 hours, and very discreet. Prime Minister Antonio
Costa's was a climax in January 2017, to the point there are those who,
ironically, said he could win the local elections if he competed.
Obviously, there were others who did not like such popularity.

Marcelo's visit, therefore, was at another level.

In any case, relations are on the right track and it seems that shadows of
the past will not override hope for the future ...

Edgar Valles
Former President of the Casa de Goa, Lisbon.

[Goanet-News] Why Goans Must Protect the Constitution by Protesting Against the CAA (Roland Coelho, SJ)

[Goanet Reader]

Roland Coelho, SJ

Attending a civil society sponsored peaceful protest
organized by educationist Arvind Bhatikar against the Citizen
Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) at Panjim's Azad Maidan on 18
December 2019, one of the very young protesters standing
nearby, asked me: "Will anything come of this?  Are Modi-Shah
too powerful and will they do whatever they want without
listening to the voices of the people?" I did not have an
adequate answer, that evening.

  A month later, young people don't feel powerless.
  Powerful dissenting voices across the nation --
  particularly those of young people -- have united
  to protest against the CAA which is discriminatory,
  divisive, and disruptive.

The CAA applies to three of our eight neighbours --
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan -- and arbitrarily
chooses six religious communities -- Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist,
Jain, Christian, and Parsi -- refugees who entered into India
on or before the thirty-first day of December, 2014.  The CAA
excludes other refugees -- Ahmadis from Pakistan, Hindu and
Christian Tamils from Sri Lanka, Buddhists from Tibet, and
Rohingyas from Myanmar.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Government
asking for clarifications.  This Court will decide on the
validity of the CAA, judge whether the CAA violates the right
to be treated equally under our constitution, and whether it
discriminates on the basis of religion.  The Government has
not satisfactorily explained why Muslims and Jews have been
left out of the CAA.  Was this an arbitrary decision?  Did
the Government pass the CAA on the basis of data or because
of the RSS agenda of Hindu Rashtra?  Let the Supreme Court
decide.

  On the face of it, the CAA looks like a mild
  amendment.  Combine it with the National Register
  of Citizens (NRC) and it has ominous overtones.
  The Assam NRC exercise is a case in point where 1.9
  million people were unable to provide adequate
  documentation that the Government required.  A
  majority of these are Bengali Hindus.  Due to the
  CAA, these Bengali Hindus can get Indian
  citizenship if they entered our country before 31
  Dec.  2014.  Not so for the Muslims who also fled
  persecution in Bangladesh; they are at risk of
  being labelled "illegal immigrants" and being
  shunted to detention centres in Assam.

On Liberation Day last month, CM Pramod Sawant urged Goans
"not [to] fall prey to such misleading campaigns." As CM he
assured people that it was his "duty to protect the interests
of every Goan... Hindu, Muslim or Christian."

Then why should we worry?  Because the Modi Government has a
brutal manner of protecting the interests of people, as seen
in the vicious repression of democratic protests by youth,
students, and civil society in many parts of this country.

Because "ever since the new Government was elected in May
2019, there have been several controversial legislations
passed by the Parliament that lead to the collapse of the
democratic institutions of India which have been carefully
and painstakingly built by enlightened leaders over the last
seven decades" (Press Statement by Christian leaders, New
Delhi, 20 Dec.  2019).  Because a questionable law can be
abused by the authorities against vulnerable citizens.

The CAA-NRC can be abused in Goa.  Goa has fostered peaceful
and harmonious existence between people of different faiths.
Tourists often visit Goa because of the friendliness of
people here and the pluralistic fabric of this state that
makes people feel at ease with one another.  This will
change.

Out-migration of Goans to foreign lands and In-migration of
people from other states will transform Goan identity.  When
the Modi Government says that PAN, Aadhar, or Passport
documents are not sufficient to prove citizenship, we should
worry.  When the Prime Minister says that you know protesters
by "their clothes," we should worry.  When the BJP leader
Dilip Ghosh says "Our governments in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and
Karnataka have shot these people like dogs," we should worry.
When fundamentalists troll Deepika Padukone and demand the
boycott of her film, because she took a stand, we should
worry.

To that young protester standing next to me in the Azad
Maidan last month, I would say, "Yes, your protest has the
Government worried." The people in Goa cannot keep silent.
We must protest against the CAA and protect our constitution.
For our good and for the good of our sisters and brothers.

[Goanet] Why Goans Must Protect the Constitution by Protesting Against the CAA (Roland Coelho, SJ)

[Goanet Reader]

Roland Coelho, SJ

Attending a civil society sponsored peaceful protest
organized by educationist Arvind Bhatikar against the Citizen
Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) at Panjim's Azad Maidan on 18
December 2019, one of the very young protesters standing
nearby, asked me: "Will anything come of this?  Are Modi-Shah
too powerful and will they do whatever they want without
listening to the voices of the people?" I did not have an
adequate answer, that evening.

  A month later, young people don't feel powerless.
  Powerful dissenting voices across the nation --
  particularly those of young people -- have united
  to protest against the CAA which is discriminatory,
  divisive, and disruptive.

The CAA applies to three of our eight neighbours --
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan -- and arbitrarily
chooses six religious communities -- Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist,
Jain, Christian, and Parsi -- refugees who entered into India
on or before the thirty-first day of December, 2014.  The CAA
excludes other refugees -- Ahmadis from Pakistan, Hindu and
Christian Tamils from Sri Lanka, Buddhists from Tibet, and
Rohingyas from Myanmar.

The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Government
asking for clarifications.  This Court will decide on the
validity of the CAA, judge whether the CAA violates the right
to be treated equally under our constitution, and whether it
discriminates on the basis of religion.  The Government has
not satisfactorily explained why Muslims and Jews have been
left out of the CAA.  Was this an arbitrary decision?  Did
the Government pass the CAA on the basis of data or because
of the RSS agenda of Hindu Rashtra?  Let the Supreme Court
decide.

  On the face of it, the CAA looks like a mild
  amendment.  Combine it with the National Register
  of Citizens (NRC) and it has ominous overtones.
  The Assam NRC exercise is a case in point where 1.9
  million people were unable to provide adequate
  documentation that the Government required.  A
  majority of these are Bengali Hindus.  Due to the
  CAA, these Bengali Hindus can get Indian
  citizenship if they entered our country before 31
  Dec.  2014.  Not so for the Muslims who also fled
  persecution in Bangladesh; they are at risk of
  being labelled "illegal immigrants" and being
  shunted to detention centres in Assam.

On Liberation Day last month, CM Pramod Sawant urged Goans
"not [to] fall prey to such misleading campaigns." As CM he
assured people that it was his "duty to protect the interests
of every Goan... Hindu, Muslim or Christian."

Then why should we worry?  Because the Modi Government has a
brutal manner of protecting the interests of people, as seen
in the vicious repression of democratic protests by youth,
students, and civil society in many parts of this country.

Because "ever since the new Government was elected in May
2019, there have been several controversial legislations
passed by the Parliament that lead to the collapse of the
democratic institutions of India which have been carefully
and painstakingly built by enlightened leaders over the last
seven decades" (Press Statement by Christian leaders, New
Delhi, 20 Dec.  2019).  Because a questionable law can be
abused by the authorities against vulnerable citizens.

The CAA-NRC can be abused in Goa.  Goa has fostered peaceful
and harmonious existence between people of different faiths.
Tourists often visit Goa because of the friendliness of
people here and the pluralistic fabric of this state that
makes people feel at ease with one another.  This will
change.

Out-migration of Goans to foreign lands and In-migration of
people from other states will transform Goan identity.  When
the Modi Government says that PAN, Aadhar, or Passport
documents are not sufficient to prove citizenship, we should
worry.  When the Prime Minister says that you know protesters
by "their clothes," we should worry.  When the BJP leader
Dilip Ghosh says "Our governments in Uttar Pradesh, Assam and
Karnataka have shot these people like dogs," we should worry.
When fundamentalists troll Deepika Padukone and demand the
boycott of her film, because she took a stand, we should
worry.

To that young protester standing next to me in the Azad
Maidan last month, I would say, "Yes, your protest has the
Government worried." The people in Goa cannot keep silent.
We must protest against the CAA and protect our constitution.
For our good and for the good of our sisters and brothers.

[Goanet-News] Goanetter Francis Rodrigues' Greatest Konkani Song Hits Out this Weekend

[Goanet Reader]

Goanet News

Nearly a decade after the first volume of a book of Goan Konkani made it to
the stands, its follow-up volumes are on the way.  Goanetter, the Canada-US
based attorney, musician and chess buff Francis Rodrigues is working to
beat a December 29, 2019 deadline for its release.

Rodrigues has announced plans [http://konkanisongbook.com/] to release the
Greatest Konkani Song Hits Vol 2, along with another book of piano
arrangements for the same, before the year is out.

His first volume took a short time to get noticed, but once it was, it was
eagerly sought by many connected with the world of music.

The book -- with lyrics, notations and an accompanying DVD -- helped Goans
both at home and in the diaspora to better understand and replicate their
music.  But more than that, it helped a whole lot of foreign musicians to
spread the Konkani music of Goa.

If you see a group of young Swedes singing mandos a capella, or a Dutch sax
lady-musicians belting out Konkani notes, it just could have something to
do with the recent trend of Goa's musical talent publishing works on the
charming local music of this region.

Rodrigues said: "To popularize and document our super-catchy Konkani music
magic internationally, I'm continuing this music project in the Roman
Script, transcribed perfectly note-for-note sheet-music, playable on any
instrument. It is now also arranged for the piano."

Rodrigues said the initiative, following on the first a decade ago, seeks
to make "notes of original best-selling Konkani music of the last 60 years,
from Goa, Mangalore, Maharashtra, even Portuguese" available across the
globe.

Through this, unavailable music of Chris Perry, Frank Fernand, M.  Boyer,
Alfred Rose, Henry D'Souza, H.  Britton, Manuel Alphonso, Ulhas Buyao,
Roque Lazarus, Anthony Fernandes, Antoninho D'Souza, Celestino Alvares,
Raimund Barreto, Ronnie Monseratte, is being transcribed.

His 220-page larged sized first  volume had offered "never before" sheet
music, lyrics, chords, guitar tablature, translations of the lyrics, and
programme notes.

Songs to be include in the upcoming volume includes "Nachoiea Kumpasar",
"Sorg Tujea Dollani", "Cu Cu Ru Cu Cu", "Pitti Pitti Mog", "Kazarachem
Utor", "San Franciscu Xaviera", "Mando Goencho Khoro", "Io Moga", "Chakka",
"Godacho Panv", "Ya Ya Maya Ya", "Upkar Korat", "Tum Mhojem Sukh",
"Jurament Neketrancher", "Hi Pori Koneachi", "Portuguese Folk Medleys",
"Maria", "Kedna", "Noxibak Rodtam", "Goenkarponn", "Rajan Ani Prema",
"Abghat Kelo", "Voddekkara", "Jhila Ani Lila", "Aikat Mhozo Tavo", "Ami
Dogui Sezara", "Juliana", "Sorga Rajeant", "Sao Joao", "Chan'neache Rati",
and "Tuzo Mog".

"The Greatest Konkani Song Hits 2" will be released at 3 pm on coming
Sunday, December 29, 2019 at the Menezes Braganza Hall, Panjim.

Music chords with printed diagrams decorate the sheet-music, so the songs
can be harmonically accompanied by the piano, accordion, keyboard, guitar,
etc.

"Catering to bands and ensembles worldwide, separate music notations in
tablature for the guitar are being added," said Rodrigues.  Translations
have been well researched and set to verse, thus not only increasing their
charm, but now enables these great gems to be sung in English too.

The detailed liner and program notes, which brings the reader the stories
and background behind these fabulous songs and their composers.  Much of
the detail is original, told with great charm, Rodrigues said..

The separate volume of solo piano arrangements (for both amateur and
concert-pianists) is also being released alongside on coming Sunday.

The book has been illustrated by cartoonist Alexyz, who recently won the
State Award 2019.  Some links to his work are available to visit and check
out:

Extract page 1: http://konkanisongbook.com/downloads/pdfs/gkshv2_sample.pdf

Extract page 2: http://konkanisongbook.com/downloads/pdfs/gkshv2_sample2.pdf

The two books cover music from Goa, Mangalore, worldwide, with even the odd
Marathi, Portuguese and Kiswahili hit thrown in.  The launch on coming sund
(Menezes Braganza Hall, Panjim), is open to all, with book signings by the
author.  Together with the launch, there will also be a free music show.

Contacts for Rodrigues: WhatsApp +1 (657) 232-6014

Some work influenced by the earlier volume:

Cathrina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKc7Q3ZLRzQ
Lisboa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu1A-WqGVxk
Tambdde Roza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuyUeHs2w_U
Malaika: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWFoZIbufhU
Molbailo Dou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHtdqmIskF8
Sweater Kori: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGm6ML12AIQ

###

[Goanet] Goanetter Francis Rodrigues' Greatest Konkani Song Hits Out this Weekend

[Goanet Reader]

Goanet News

Nearly a decade after the first volume of a book of Goan Konkani made it to
the stands, its follow-up volumes are on the way.  Goanetter, the Canada-US
based attorney, musician and chess buff Francis Rodrigues is working to
beat a December 29, 2019 deadline for its release.

Rodrigues has announced plans [http://konkanisongbook.com/] to release the
Greatest Konkani Song Hits Vol 2, along with another book of piano
arrangements for the same, before the year is out.

His first volume took a short time to get noticed, but once it was, it was
eagerly sought by many connected with the world of music.

The book -- with lyrics, notations and an accompanying DVD -- helped Goans
both at home and in the diaspora to better understand and replicate their
music.  But more than that, it helped a whole lot of foreign musicians to
spread the Konkani music of Goa.

If you see a group of young Swedes singing mandos a capella, or a Dutch sax
lady-musicians belting out Konkani notes, it just could have something to
do with the recent trend of Goa's musical talent publishing works on the
charming local music of this region.

Rodrigues said: "To popularize and document our super-catchy Konkani music
magic internationally, I'm continuing this music project in the Roman
Script, transcribed perfectly note-for-note sheet-music, playable on any
instrument. It is now also arranged for the piano."

Rodrigues said the initiative, following on the first a decade ago, seeks
to make "notes of original best-selling Konkani music of the last 60 years,
from Goa, Mangalore, Maharashtra, even Portuguese" available across the
globe.

Through this, unavailable music of Chris Perry, Frank Fernand, M.  Boyer,
Alfred Rose, Henry D'Souza, H.  Britton, Manuel Alphonso, Ulhas Buyao,
Roque Lazarus, Anthony Fernandes, Antoninho D'Souza, Celestino Alvares,
Raimund Barreto, Ronnie Monseratte, is being transcribed.

His 220-page larged sized first  volume had offered "never before" sheet
music, lyrics, chords, guitar tablature, translations of the lyrics, and
programme notes.

Songs to be include in the upcoming volume includes "Nachoiea Kumpasar",
"Sorg Tujea Dollani", "Cu Cu Ru Cu Cu", "Pitti Pitti Mog", "Kazarachem
Utor", "San Franciscu Xaviera", "Mando Goencho Khoro", "Io Moga", "Chakka",
"Godacho Panv", "Ya Ya Maya Ya", "Upkar Korat", "Tum Mhojem Sukh",
"Jurament Neketrancher", "Hi Pori Koneachi", "Portuguese Folk Medleys",
"Maria", "Kedna", "Noxibak Rodtam", "Goenkarponn", "Rajan Ani Prema",
"Abghat Kelo", "Voddekkara", "Jhila Ani Lila", "Aikat Mhozo Tavo", "Ami
Dogui Sezara", "Juliana", "Sorga Rajeant", "Sao Joao", "Chan'neache Rati",
and "Tuzo Mog".

"The Greatest Konkani Song Hits 2" will be released at 3 pm on coming
Sunday, December 29, 2019 at the Menezes Braganza Hall, Panjim.

Music chords with printed diagrams decorate the sheet-music, so the songs
can be harmonically accompanied by the piano, accordion, keyboard, guitar,
etc.

"Catering to bands and ensembles worldwide, separate music notations in
tablature for the guitar are being added," said Rodrigues.  Translations
have been well researched and set to verse, thus not only increasing their
charm, but now enables these great gems to be sung in English too.

The detailed liner and program notes, which brings the reader the stories
and background behind these fabulous songs and their composers.  Much of
the detail is original, told with great charm, Rodrigues said..

The separate volume of solo piano arrangements (for both amateur and
concert-pianists) is also being released alongside on coming Sunday.

The book has been illustrated by cartoonist Alexyz, who recently won the
State Award 2019.  Some links to his work are available to visit and check
out:

Extract page 1: http://konkanisongbook.com/downloads/pdfs/gkshv2_sample.pdf

Extract page 2: http://konkanisongbook.com/downloads/pdfs/gkshv2_sample2.pdf

The two books cover music from Goa, Mangalore, worldwide, with even the odd
Marathi, Portuguese and Kiswahili hit thrown in.  The launch on coming sund
(Menezes Braganza Hall, Panjim), is open to all, with book signings by the
author.  Together with the launch, there will also be a free music show.

Contacts for Rodrigues: WhatsApp +1 (657) 232-6014

Some work influenced by the earlier volume:

Cathrina: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKc7Q3ZLRzQ
Lisboa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu1A-WqGVxk
Tambdde Roza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuyUeHs2w_U
Malaika: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWFoZIbufhU
Molbailo Dou: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHtdqmIskF8
Sweater Kori: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGm6ML12AIQ

###

[Goanet-News] Goa CM Pramod Sawant's Land Buying Spree Raises Eyebrows (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

At a time when Goa's
unemployment rate is the
highest in the country, his
land deals have given
ammunition to political
opponents.  Goa CM Pramod
Sawant's Land Buying Spree
Raises Eyebrows

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

12/Dec/2019

Panaji (Goa): Pramod Sawant credits his stint as a government
Ayurveda medic in rural Goa for his political awakening.  He
would have not become chief minister, had he obtained an MBBS
or engineering degree, he told an Ayurveda association meet
some weeks ago.

Fact is, had the Goa chief minister not chanced upon a
full-time career in politics (he was first elected MLA in
2012), it's unlikely he could have acquired the slew of
properties that have brought him into the spotlight in recent
weeks.  Not on a government salary anyway.

  His land-buying spree in Dodamarg, Maharashtra, dug
  up by the BJP's new political opponent, the Shiv
  Sena, compelled the Goa CM to defend his real
  estate interests across the state's border.  The
  properties had been acquired for his "personal
  use", he told the media, adding later in a tweet
  that he intended to use the land for "agricultural
  and medical purpose".

Dodamarg is close to where Goa plans to set up its new
greenfield airport at Mopa.  Sawant probably has his eye on
the future development of the area, his political opponents
say.  But the issue snowballed into a major controversy when
the Shiv Sena's Dodamarg leader Baburao Dhuri alleged that
the Goa chief minister was behind a move to merge the
Maharashtra region with Goa, only to drive up real estate
value there.  "The Shiv Sena opposes the demand for merger of
Dodamarg with Goa.  This is a political ploy by Sawant
because he whas invested in real estate here," Dhuri said.

Sawant stoutly denied he had a hand in the merger demand –
which has wide support among residents of the backward region
– but other opposition parties too latched on to the
disclosures, insisting the 46-year-old BJP leader "come
clean" on his land deals.  Even as the Maharashtra assembly
results were coming out on October 24, Sawant and his wife
travelled to Sawantwadi to register two more sale deeds for
land in Dodamarg, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera pointed
this out.  "If it's all in the clear, why doesn't he come out
in the open with all the details?" Khera told The Wire.

A large part of the controversy over the extent of his real
estate investments in Maharashtra was caused by Sawant's own
declaration in the affidavit filed before the 2017 election.
It shows he bought 2,966 acres of land in Mauje, Thalekol,
Dodamarg, Maharashtra in July 2016 for Rs 38 lakh.  The CM
told The Wire the figure was wrong, and it was actually 2.966
acres (approximately 12,000 sq metres).  He also threatened
legal action against opposition parties for "propagating
lies".

Pramod Sawant's affidavit.

What's significant though is that these personal deals have
been transacted at a time when the state is beset by a series
of serious economic issues that Sawant's government has not
even acknowledged.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Goa's
unemployment had scaled to 34.5% in November, the highest in
the country, against the all-India rate of 7.5%.  Goa hasn't
set up any new industry or fast-tracked clearances for new
ventures.  Under Sawant, the government has no revival plan
for mining, nor has it spelt out measures to address the
slowdown in the tourism sector.  In October, the Centre
approved Karnataka's diversion of water from the Mhadei River
– a bone of contention between the two states for years –
without even consulting its CM in Goa, leaving the BJP's
state leadership red-faced.

Complaint filed with the ACB

  Sawant's appetite for real estate has been no
  secret.  In early 2017, RTI activist Sudip
  Tamhankar filed a complaint with the
  anti-corruption bureau (ACB) of the Goa police
  asking for an investigation into the BJP
  legislator's disproportionate assets.  In his
  affidavit before the 2012 election, Sawant had
  declared assets worth Rs 62 lakh, liabilities of Rs
  44.4 lakh and tax returns for Rs 4.5 lakh.

Yet barely two years later, Jay Ganesh Developers and
Associates, a real estate company the Goa CM set up in 2014
with three other partners, began to acquire huge tracts of
land in Bicholim, North Goa.  Over 2014-2015, Jay Ganesh
bought 36,500 sq metres for Rs 2.55 crore (The Wire has
copies of the sale deeds which show Sawant as partner No 1 in
the company).  The land has since been developed, subdivided
and is being sold as small plots.

What stands out, however, is not the undervaluation of the
sale on paper, which by the market value notified by the
state government and declared in the sale deed itself should
have been Rs 5.7 crore, but that the land transactions
coincided with the phase when Sawant sat as chairman of the

[Goanet] Goa CM Pramod Sawant's Land Buying Spree Raises Eyebrows (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

At a time when Goa's
unemployment rate is the
highest in the country, his
land deals have given
ammunition to political
opponents.  Goa CM Pramod
Sawant's Land Buying Spree
Raises Eyebrows

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

12/Dec/2019

Panaji (Goa): Pramod Sawant credits his stint as a government
Ayurveda medic in rural Goa for his political awakening.  He
would have not become chief minister, had he obtained an MBBS
or engineering degree, he told an Ayurveda association meet
some weeks ago.

Fact is, had the Goa chief minister not chanced upon a
full-time career in politics (he was first elected MLA in
2012), it's unlikely he could have acquired the slew of
properties that have brought him into the spotlight in recent
weeks.  Not on a government salary anyway.

  His land-buying spree in Dodamarg, Maharashtra, dug
  up by the BJP's new political opponent, the Shiv
  Sena, compelled the Goa CM to defend his real
  estate interests across the state's border.  The
  properties had been acquired for his "personal
  use", he told the media, adding later in a tweet
  that he intended to use the land for "agricultural
  and medical purpose".

Dodamarg is close to where Goa plans to set up its new
greenfield airport at Mopa.  Sawant probably has his eye on
the future development of the area, his political opponents
say.  But the issue snowballed into a major controversy when
the Shiv Sena's Dodamarg leader Baburao Dhuri alleged that
the Goa chief minister was behind a move to merge the
Maharashtra region with Goa, only to drive up real estate
value there.  "The Shiv Sena opposes the demand for merger of
Dodamarg with Goa.  This is a political ploy by Sawant
because he whas invested in real estate here," Dhuri said.

Sawant stoutly denied he had a hand in the merger demand –
which has wide support among residents of the backward region
– but other opposition parties too latched on to the
disclosures, insisting the 46-year-old BJP leader "come
clean" on his land deals.  Even as the Maharashtra assembly
results were coming out on October 24, Sawant and his wife
travelled to Sawantwadi to register two more sale deeds for
land in Dodamarg, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera pointed
this out.  "If it's all in the clear, why doesn't he come out
in the open with all the details?" Khera told The Wire.

A large part of the controversy over the extent of his real
estate investments in Maharashtra was caused by Sawant's own
declaration in the affidavit filed before the 2017 election.
It shows he bought 2,966 acres of land in Mauje, Thalekol,
Dodamarg, Maharashtra in July 2016 for Rs 38 lakh.  The CM
told The Wire the figure was wrong, and it was actually 2.966
acres (approximately 12,000 sq metres).  He also threatened
legal action against opposition parties for "propagating
lies".

Pramod Sawant's affidavit.

What's significant though is that these personal deals have
been transacted at a time when the state is beset by a series
of serious economic issues that Sawant's government has not
even acknowledged.

According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Goa's
unemployment had scaled to 34.5% in November, the highest in
the country, against the all-India rate of 7.5%.  Goa hasn't
set up any new industry or fast-tracked clearances for new
ventures.  Under Sawant, the government has no revival plan
for mining, nor has it spelt out measures to address the
slowdown in the tourism sector.  In October, the Centre
approved Karnataka's diversion of water from the Mhadei River
– a bone of contention between the two states for years –
without even consulting its CM in Goa, leaving the BJP's
state leadership red-faced.

Complaint filed with the ACB

  Sawant's appetite for real estate has been no
  secret.  In early 2017, RTI activist Sudip
  Tamhankar filed a complaint with the
  anti-corruption bureau (ACB) of the Goa police
  asking for an investigation into the BJP
  legislator's disproportionate assets.  In his
  affidavit before the 2012 election, Sawant had
  declared assets worth Rs 62 lakh, liabilities of Rs
  44.4 lakh and tax returns for Rs 4.5 lakh.

Yet barely two years later, Jay Ganesh Developers and
Associates, a real estate company the Goa CM set up in 2014
with three other partners, began to acquire huge tracts of
land in Bicholim, North Goa.  Over 2014-2015, Jay Ganesh
bought 36,500 sq metres for Rs 2.55 crore (The Wire has
copies of the sale deeds which show Sawant as partner No 1 in
the company).  The land has since been developed, subdivided
and is being sold as small plots.

What stands out, however, is not the undervaluation of the
sale on paper, which by the market value notified by the
state government and declared in the sale deed itself should
have been Rs 5.7 crore, but that the land transactions
coincided with the phase when Sawant sat as chairman of the

[Goanet] Badly designed highways splinter Goa's waterways, disrupting local hydrology (Pamela D'Mello, Mongabay India)

[Goanet Reader]

Badly designed highways splinter Goa's waterways, disrupting
local hydrology

by Pamela D'Mello
1 October 2019
dmello.pam...@gmail.com

  Residents of Nuvem village in South Goa are
  protesting the building of a highway bypass that is
  inundating their paddy fields with monsoon
  rainwater, leading to crop losses.  Over 250 km of
  highways are being built or widened in Goa at a
  cost of Rs 86 billion.

  Hastily designed and ill-planned road building and
  widening projects in Goa that block the free flow
  of water have been blamed for their disregard for
  the region's hydrological water drainage systems,
  causing damage to farmland and village communities.

  Environmentalists allege that many infrastructure
  projects have been cleared with dodgy environmental
  assessment impact reports, and some of these
  projects have worsened the impacts of the August
  2019 floods in Goa.  Many petitions have been filed
  in the courts.

Milagres Costa of Nuvem village stared in dismay at his paddy
fields flooded with stagnant water from the monsoon rains in
July, spelling doom for the crop.  An under-construction
highway -- the 11.9 km Margao Western Express Bypass, a
stretch of National Highway 66 meant to skip south Goa's
commercial town Margao -- has disrupted the hydrology of the
area, obstructing the free flow of excess water.  This has
impacted the low-lying fields of Nuvem, once known as a rice
bowl.

The highway has been laid through a portion of Rumdem lake in
this tribal area, as it winds through the Sal River's
floodplains.  A 60-metre wide, 4-metre high and 2-km long
embankment is obstructing the flow of water.

"There are 4 lakh sq.  metres of fields in Nuvem, which get
their water from 3 bhandaras (lakes).  Thirty to forty
percent of the main Rumdem bhandara has been blocked by the
bypass highway," said Costa, former head of Nuvem Village
Farmers Club.  "Before 2014, 80 percent of the fields were
cultivated twice a year.  Last year, less than 5 percent was
cropped in the Kharif (summer) season and 12 percent in the
Rabi (winter) season.  During the monsoon, the fields are
totally flooded.  The pipes under the highway for
cross-drainage are inadequate and the water stagnates.  We
are hit very badly."

  Since 2014, when contractors began dumping some 24
  lakh cubic metres of mud, including sludge from a
  nearby industrial estate, in an area less than 100
  metres from the Sal River, it sounded the death
  knell for the rice fields in the area, said Costa.

The most fertile land in Goa is sandwiched between the
Western Ghats in the east and the Arabian Sea on the west.
Scores of rivers from the mountain range cross the narrow
plains before draining into the sea.  The coastal areas have
numerous backwaters that provide a vital lifeline to farmers
and fisherfolk.  In recent years, hastily designed and
ill-planned infrastructure projects have destabilized the
delicate hydrology in the state, where a majority of the
people depend on farming and fishing for their livelihood.

PHOTO: Margao Western Express Bypass embankment near Rumdem
lake, Nuvem blocks water flow.  Photo by Pamela D'Mello.

Bad infrastructure design

The state government has admitted to the bad design of the
Margao bypass, but that's scant consolation for farmers.
"There are certain places on the Western Bypass where the
consultant may have made a mistake in the design.  I will not
deny that," Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the
legislative assembly in August, when lawmakers flagged
concerns over flooding, including the danger this posed to
Margao city.

  "Since 2008, we have raised 150 objections to this
  bypass alignment at public hearings.  We are fed
  up.  Besides the fields that are flooded,
  floodwaters have reached our doorstep.  Is it fair?
  Where do we go?" asked Zarina D'Cunha of Nuvem
  Civic and Consumer Forum.  "We were asking that
  this portion on the floodplains be constructed on
  stilts (for water to pass).  But we were being told
  there's no money for that."

Activist Siddharth Karapurkar said he wrote several articles
in local newspapers to highlight the Sal River's origins from
the Verna hills and the site of a temple in Nuvem village.
"I wanted to broad-base the concern for Sal," he said.

The authorities, however, declined to bear the increased cost
of the road on stilts.  When the area flooded between June
and August and proved that concerns of local residents were
all too real, Chief Minister Sawant promised to find the
money to construct a contentious 2.35-km stretch in Seraulim
and Benaulim villages on stilts.

PHOTO: The Margao Western Express Bypass construction site
flanked on both sides by floodwaters of River Sal and its
tributaries.  Photo by 

[Goanet-News] Badly designed highways splinter Goa's waterways, disrupting local hydrology (Pamela D'Mello, Mongabay India)

[Goanet Reader]

Badly designed highways splinter Goa's waterways, disrupting
local hydrology

by Pamela D'Mello
1 October 2019
dmello.pam...@gmail.com

  Residents of Nuvem village in South Goa are
  protesting the building of a highway bypass that is
  inundating their paddy fields with monsoon
  rainwater, leading to crop losses.  Over 250 km of
  highways are being built or widened in Goa at a
  cost of Rs 86 billion.

  Hastily designed and ill-planned road building and
  widening projects in Goa that block the free flow
  of water have been blamed for their disregard for
  the region's hydrological water drainage systems,
  causing damage to farmland and village communities.

  Environmentalists allege that many infrastructure
  projects have been cleared with dodgy environmental
  assessment impact reports, and some of these
  projects have worsened the impacts of the August
  2019 floods in Goa.  Many petitions have been filed
  in the courts.

Milagres Costa of Nuvem village stared in dismay at his paddy
fields flooded with stagnant water from the monsoon rains in
July, spelling doom for the crop.  An under-construction
highway -- the 11.9 km Margao Western Express Bypass, a
stretch of National Highway 66 meant to skip south Goa's
commercial town Margao -- has disrupted the hydrology of the
area, obstructing the free flow of excess water.  This has
impacted the low-lying fields of Nuvem, once known as a rice
bowl.

The highway has been laid through a portion of Rumdem lake in
this tribal area, as it winds through the Sal River's
floodplains.  A 60-metre wide, 4-metre high and 2-km long
embankment is obstructing the flow of water.

"There are 4 lakh sq.  metres of fields in Nuvem, which get
their water from 3 bhandaras (lakes).  Thirty to forty
percent of the main Rumdem bhandara has been blocked by the
bypass highway," said Costa, former head of Nuvem Village
Farmers Club.  "Before 2014, 80 percent of the fields were
cultivated twice a year.  Last year, less than 5 percent was
cropped in the Kharif (summer) season and 12 percent in the
Rabi (winter) season.  During the monsoon, the fields are
totally flooded.  The pipes under the highway for
cross-drainage are inadequate and the water stagnates.  We
are hit very badly."

  Since 2014, when contractors began dumping some 24
  lakh cubic metres of mud, including sludge from a
  nearby industrial estate, in an area less than 100
  metres from the Sal River, it sounded the death
  knell for the rice fields in the area, said Costa.

The most fertile land in Goa is sandwiched between the
Western Ghats in the east and the Arabian Sea on the west.
Scores of rivers from the mountain range cross the narrow
plains before draining into the sea.  The coastal areas have
numerous backwaters that provide a vital lifeline to farmers
and fisherfolk.  In recent years, hastily designed and
ill-planned infrastructure projects have destabilized the
delicate hydrology in the state, where a majority of the
people depend on farming and fishing for their livelihood.

PHOTO: Margao Western Express Bypass embankment near Rumdem
lake, Nuvem blocks water flow.  Photo by Pamela D'Mello.

Bad infrastructure design

The state government has admitted to the bad design of the
Margao bypass, but that's scant consolation for farmers.
"There are certain places on the Western Bypass where the
consultant may have made a mistake in the design.  I will not
deny that," Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the
legislative assembly in August, when lawmakers flagged
concerns over flooding, including the danger this posed to
Margao city.

  "Since 2008, we have raised 150 objections to this
  bypass alignment at public hearings.  We are fed
  up.  Besides the fields that are flooded,
  floodwaters have reached our doorstep.  Is it fair?
  Where do we go?" asked Zarina D'Cunha of Nuvem
  Civic and Consumer Forum.  "We were asking that
  this portion on the floodplains be constructed on
  stilts (for water to pass).  But we were being told
  there's no money for that."

Activist Siddharth Karapurkar said he wrote several articles
in local newspapers to highlight the Sal River's origins from
the Verna hills and the site of a temple in Nuvem village.
"I wanted to broad-base the concern for Sal," he said.

The authorities, however, declined to bear the increased cost
of the road on stilts.  When the area flooded between June
and August and proved that concerns of local residents were
all too real, Chief Minister Sawant promised to find the
money to construct a contentious 2.35-km stretch in Seraulim
and Benaulim villages on stilts.

PHOTO: The Margao Western Express Bypass construction site
flanked on both sides by floodwaters of River Sal and its
tributaries.  Photo by 

[Goanet-News] Goan-origin Antonio Costa wins the national elections in Portugal (Edgar Valles)

[Goanet Reader]

Edgar Valles
diasval...@gmail.com

Antonio Costa, the first European Chief Minister of Goan
origin, won the national elections that took place on October
6, 2019, in Portugal by a large majority.

His Socialist Party (known as the PS, by its Portuguese
initials) secured 36.65% of the votes and got elected 106 members
of Parliament.  The opposition Social-Democratic Party (PSD),
lead by his rival Rui Rio, secured just 27.90% of the votes and
got elected 77 deputies.

However, Costa will need the support of other leftist parties,
the Communist Party and the Bloco de Esquerda, as he
did not get an absolute majority.  In Portugal, as
in India, the government needs the support of the
Parliament.  The PS needed 10 more MPs to rule without the
support of any other party, on its own.

  In his victory speech, Costa made some important
  statements: "The Portuguese people liked my
  government and what we did, and showed that they
  want a stronger Socialist Party", "Right wing
  parties suffered the biggest defeat in Democratic
  Portugal" and "As I have always said, political
  stability is a essential value".

What was the secret of the success?  In the last four years,
Portugal grew faster on average than the other European
countries, in investments or in the increase of exports.
The country is now much more competitive.  Portugal recovered
its financial credibility.

The interest rate that Lisbon pays to its international
creditors is now 0.5%, when it was 4% four years ago.
Unemployment rate in 2015 was 12.6% and now it is down to 6.6%.
The Government put an end to cuts on salaries and pensions,
increasing the national minimum salary.  The poor are much
better off and there was a reduction in the gap between the
richest and the poorest. Confidence has been regained.

So, during the campaign, Costa was able to declare, proudly,
that Portugal was much better now than it was in 2015, when
he took over as Chief Minister, although he didn't win
electorally, at that time. In those elections, the Right-wing
PaF (Portugal Ahead) coalition won almost 47% of the seats in
the 230-member Assembly of the Republic, but the Socialists
successfully formed an alliance after the Right coalition fell.

This time round, the victory of Costa and the Socialist Party
is even more important because there are very few European
countries with a leftist government in power.  Most of the
countries have Conservative governments and populism is
growing everywhere.

In fact, even in Portugal an extremist right wing party,
called 'Chega' (which means 'Enough') was able to enter in
Parliament, though with just a single deputy.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the President of Republic, has
appointed Costa as Chief Minister.  Currently, he is forming
government.  Costa said that the ministers would be basically
the same and that he will go on working for the benefit of
Portuguese people.

###

* Edgar Valles is a Lisbon-based Goan advocate, author and
  former President of the cultural centre in the Portuguese
  capital, the Casa de Goa.  See http://www.casadegoa.org/

[Edited by Frederick Noronha]

[Goanet] Goan-origin Antonio Costa wins the national elections in Portugal (Edgar Valles)

[Goanet Reader]

Edgar Valles
diasval...@gmail.com

Antonio Costa, the first European Chief Minister of Goan
origin, won the national elections that took place on October
6, 2019, in Portugal by a large majority.

His Socialist Party (known as the PS, by its Portuguese
initials) secured 36.65% of the votes and got elected 106 members
of Parliament.  The opposition Social-Democratic Party (PSD),
lead by his rival Rui Rio, secured just 27.90% of the votes and
got elected 77 deputies.

However, Costa will need the support of other leftist parties,
the Communist Party and the Bloco de Esquerda, as he
did not get an absolute majority.  In Portugal, as
in India, the government needs the support of the
Parliament.  The PS needed 10 more MPs to rule without the
support of any other party, on its own.

  In his victory speech, Costa made some important
  statements: "The Portuguese people liked my
  government and what we did, and showed that they
  want a stronger Socialist Party", "Right wing
  parties suffered the biggest defeat in Democratic
  Portugal" and "As I have always said, political
  stability is a essential value".

What was the secret of the success?  In the last four years,
Portugal grew faster on average than the other European
countries, in investments or in the increase of exports.
The country is now much more competitive.  Portugal recovered
its financial credibility.

The interest rate that Lisbon pays to its international
creditors is now 0.5%, when it was 4% four years ago.
Unemployment rate in 2015 was 12.6% and now it is down to 6.6%.
The Government put an end to cuts on salaries and pensions,
increasing the national minimum salary.  The poor are much
better off and there was a reduction in the gap between the
richest and the poorest. Confidence has been regained.

So, during the campaign, Costa was able to declare, proudly,
that Portugal was much better now than it was in 2015, when
he took over as Chief Minister, although he didn't win
electorally, at that time. In those elections, the Right-wing
PaF (Portugal Ahead) coalition won almost 47% of the seats in
the 230-member Assembly of the Republic, but the Socialists
successfully formed an alliance after the Right coalition fell.

This time round, the victory of Costa and the Socialist Party
is even more important because there are very few European
countries with a leftist government in power.  Most of the
countries have Conservative governments and populism is
growing everywhere.

In fact, even in Portugal an extremist right wing party,
called 'Chega' (which means 'Enough') was able to enter in
Parliament, though with just a single deputy.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the President of Republic, has
appointed Costa as Chief Minister.  Currently, he is forming
government.  Costa said that the ministers would be basically
the same and that he will go on working for the benefit of
Portuguese people.

###

* Edgar Valles is a Lisbon-based Goan advocate, author and
  former President of the cultural centre in the Portuguese
  capital, the Casa de Goa.  See http://www.casadegoa.org/

[Edited by Frederick Noronha]

[Goanet-News] Teresa... and the Slum Bum (Remo Fernandes)

[Goanet Reader]

By Remo Fernandes
Via WhatsApp

In  December 1987, I had an extra day in Calcutta due to a
flight cancellation, and decided to visit Mother Teresa's
homes.  I didn't think it would be easy to meet her
personally, but as instructed, I pulled the bell string
hanging outside the old gate at Mother House at 3 pm.  I told
the nun who opened it that I was just a musician from Goa and
had no official work with Mother Teresa, but would it be
possible to see her for just a few seconds?  She said "Of
course", and ushered me into the courtyard.

  A few minutes later this little 72-year-young lady
  comes skipping down a rickety flight of wooden
  steps, looks at me with piercing smiling eyes, and
  clutches my right hand in between both of hers.

  I can't describe what I felt at that moment.  Call
  it a psychological reaction at meeting such a
  personality, but I've never felt it again -- and
  I've met quite a few. Personalities, I mean.

A thought came into my mind at that very moment, and it
simultaneously came out through my mouth.  "Mother, I would
like to compose a song about you, and contribute it’s
earnings towards your work," I managed to speak.  "I don't
wish to waste your time, but your blessing is all the
inspiration I need." Her eyes twinkled even brighter.  "Sure,
my son.  Do it.  But do it with love".

  On the flight back home that evening, I composed
  three full songs with lyrics and music.  I had
  never written more than one song in a day.

I started recording them as soon as I reached home, but
couldn't find quite the right singers in Goa at the time.  So
I decided to shelve the project for a while and proceed with
singers from Bombay later.

However, I was then at the busiest period of my career,
recording my own albums, shooting music videos, touring India
and abroad on concert trips, endorsing international products
such as Pepsi and Shure Microphones...  and, before I knew
it, the 'later' had turned into 27 years.

But I never forgot those songs and that intention, and once I
left Goa and settled here in Porto, Portugal, their time had
come.  As I set out to finally record them in 2016, those
three songs gradually turned into a full-fledged two-hour
musical on the life and work of Mother Teresa, complete with
an overture.

A double album with a total of 26 songs and two
instrumentals.  It was a creatively frantic time.  I was
composing and writing a new song almost before I had
completed recording the previous one.  I had never worked
this way before.  And now, after I've recorded 35 awesome
singers from India, Europe, USA and UK singing their
respective parts in it, it is finally released today, 10th
October 2019.

Every cent which comes in from the sales of this alumb is
going directly to the poorest of the poor.  My account books
will be wide open to anyone who might wish to visit them.

And I am not going to deduct a cent for the three years that
I've worked on it, or for the cost of recording studios,
mastering engineers, instruments, travel, stay, designing art
works and making ad videos.  All this is my little
contribution towards the poorest of the poor of this world.

Buying this album will be your most valuable contribution to
this project.  I thank you very much for it in anticipation.
Remember, you won't be giving your donation to the poor for
free -- I'm giving you two hours of music in exchange for it.

It is most worthy of mention that every singer mentioned in
the ad video attached here has sung in this album for free.

Remo Fernandes
Porto, Portugal
10th October 2019

Give, Mother, Give
https://youtu.be/YPNM3qRJuKo

Take, Mother, Take
https://youtu.be/c-YZTJxGJqw

Teaser
https://youtu.be/30z9UtwgH1s

[Goanet] Teresa... and the Slum Bum (Remo Fernandes)

[Goanet Reader]

By Remo Fernandes
Via WhatsApp

In  December 1987, I had an extra day in Calcutta due to a
flight cancellation, and decided to visit Mother Teresa's
homes.  I didn't think it would be easy to meet her
personally, but as instructed, I pulled the bell string
hanging outside the old gate at Mother House at 3 pm.  I told
the nun who opened it that I was just a musician from Goa and
had no official work with Mother Teresa, but would it be
possible to see her for just a few seconds?  She said "Of
course", and ushered me into the courtyard.

  A few minutes later this little 72-year-young lady
  comes skipping down a rickety flight of wooden
  steps, looks at me with piercing smiling eyes, and
  clutches my right hand in between both of hers.

  I can't describe what I felt at that moment.  Call
  it a psychological reaction at meeting such a
  personality, but I've never felt it again -- and
  I've met quite a few. Personalities, I mean.

A thought came into my mind at that very moment, and it
simultaneously came out through my mouth.  "Mother, I would
like to compose a song about you, and contribute it’s
earnings towards your work," I managed to speak.  "I don't
wish to waste your time, but your blessing is all the
inspiration I need." Her eyes twinkled even brighter.  "Sure,
my son.  Do it.  But do it with love".

  On the flight back home that evening, I composed
  three full songs with lyrics and music.  I had
  never written more than one song in a day.

I started recording them as soon as I reached home, but
couldn't find quite the right singers in Goa at the time.  So
I decided to shelve the project for a while and proceed with
singers from Bombay later.

However, I was then at the busiest period of my career,
recording my own albums, shooting music videos, touring India
and abroad on concert trips, endorsing international products
such as Pepsi and Shure Microphones...  and, before I knew
it, the 'later' had turned into 27 years.

But I never forgot those songs and that intention, and once I
left Goa and settled here in Porto, Portugal, their time had
come.  As I set out to finally record them in 2016, those
three songs gradually turned into a full-fledged two-hour
musical on the life and work of Mother Teresa, complete with
an overture.

A double album with a total of 26 songs and two
instrumentals.  It was a creatively frantic time.  I was
composing and writing a new song almost before I had
completed recording the previous one.  I had never worked
this way before.  And now, after I've recorded 35 awesome
singers from India, Europe, USA and UK singing their
respective parts in it, it is finally released today, 10th
October 2019.

Every cent which comes in from the sales of this alumb is
going directly to the poorest of the poor.  My account books
will be wide open to anyone who might wish to visit them.

And I am not going to deduct a cent for the three years that
I've worked on it, or for the cost of recording studios,
mastering engineers, instruments, travel, stay, designing art
works and making ad videos.  All this is my little
contribution towards the poorest of the poor of this world.

Buying this album will be your most valuable contribution to
this project.  I thank you very much for it in anticipation.
Remember, you won't be giving your donation to the poor for
free -- I'm giving you two hours of music in exchange for it.

It is most worthy of mention that every singer mentioned in
the ad video attached here has sung in this album for free.

Remo Fernandes
Porto, Portugal
10th October 2019

Give, Mother, Give
https://youtu.be/YPNM3qRJuKo

Take, Mother, Take
https://youtu.be/c-YZTJxGJqw

Teaser
https://youtu.be/30z9UtwgH1s

[Goanet-News] Goa Govt Corners Chunk of 'No Development' Beach for Rs 8.5-Crore (Rs 85 million) 'Shrine' to Parrikar

[Goanet Reader]

Goa Govt Corners Chunk of 'No Development' Beach for Rs
8.5-Crore (Rs 85 million) 'Shrine' to Parrikar

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

Bent on fashioning its version of history and creating new
saffron icons, the BJP is shaping a larger than life
narrative of Manohar Parrikar through a memorial for the late
Goa chief minister which is designed more like a shrine than
a monument, complete with an underground meditation hall.

Holographs of the politician will be beamed on the walls and
an enormous metal shingled portrait of his, facing the public
road, will share space with his video clips and the
occasional patriotic film.

  All very well.  Except that a large section of
  Panaji's Miramar beach, a landmark in the cityscape
  and part of its urban vibe, has been boarded up to
  make way for the extravagant construction, even
  though the entire beach is in the 'no development
  zone'.

Parrikar died of cancer while still in office on March 17
this year.  He was cremated on the beach, in itself probably
a violation of several other regulations.

  Miramar beach is classified as CRZ III under the
  coastal regulation laws.  No construction is
  allowed in such zones up to 200 metres of the high
  tide line (HTL), which pretty much includes the
  whole stretch of beach, say environmentalists.  But
  this hasn't stopped Goa chief minister Pramod
  Sawant from brushing aside the law to advertise the
  foundation stone for the Parrikar Smriti Sthal will
  be laid on the beach on December 13, which
  coincides with Parrikar's birthday.

Imagine for a moment a memorial to a Maharashtra politician
taking away a portion of Chowpatty beach in south Mumbai.

According to documents accessed by The Wire, the state
government gave itself "CRZ clearance" to hold the former
chief minister's funeral on the beach on the simplistic
argument that the "area is beyond 100 metres of the high tide
line and as such the location does not attract the provisions
of the CRZ regulation".

A funeral being a sensitive matter, no objections were
raised.

But what were the last rites of a public figure in a public
space is now being appropriated as a "sacred location" to
immortalise the BJP leader in a larger than life avatar. Set
on 1,255 square metres of sand, the monument will "celebrate
the life and spirit" of the former defence minister "morphed
around the sacred location where his last rites were
performed", the design proposal finalised by the state
government (a copy of which is with The Wire) says.

  The Rs 8.5 crore (Rs 85 million) museum-shrine,
  designed by UCJ Architecture and Environment, is
  being launched when the state government is
  practically broke, with mining unlikely to revive
  anytime soon and charter tourism hit by the Thomas
  Cook crisis.  Goa's borrowings are set to spike to
  Rs 22,500 crore by the end of the current financial
  year -- three times its annual revenue growth --
  reported Prudent Media.

A fusion of marble, glass (to represent "purity and integrity
and transparency with which Shri Manohar Parrikar led his
life") and high technology -- used in the interactive library
dedicated solely to him -- the memorial is intended to keep
the memory of the BJP's only significant leader in Goa
burning bright for generations to come.

One can come up with names of several freedom fighters who
spent years in jail for protesting the Portuguese regime.
Most of them -- Purshottam Kakodkar of the Congress, to name
just one -- are being written out of the political narrative
and don't get even a portrait in the lavish complex of the
state's legislative assembly.

The selection of the beach spot for the Parrikar shrine is
significant as well.  It stands adjacent to the samadhi built
for Goa's first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar of the MGP,
whose bahujan samaj legacy the BJP has been keen to
appropriate.  But the Bandodkar memorial came up in 1974,
long before the CRZ laws were conceived.

  Some BJP supporters point out that Parrikar, "a man
  of simple tastes", would have spurned all the
  current hoopla over him himself.  In 2001, in his
  first term as chief minister, the BJP leader had
  set up a one-man committee to look into public
  objections against his move to set up a management
  plan for the city beach which residents saw as a
  bid to privatise the beach.  After a lengthy
  hearing, the Nandkumar Kamat committee concluded
  that the beach was classified as a "no development
  zone under CRZ III" and no construction was
  permitted.

"Miramar beach", the report said, "cannot be equated with any
other beach in Goa...  People unequivocally consider Miramar
beach as a special case, an unique 

[Goanet] Goa Govt Corners Chunk of 'No Development' Beach for Rs 8.5-Crore (Rs 85 million) 'Shrine' to Parrikar

[Goanet Reader]

Goa Govt Corners Chunk of 'No Development' Beach for Rs
8.5-Crore (Rs 85 million) 'Shrine' to Parrikar

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

Bent on fashioning its version of history and creating new
saffron icons, the BJP is shaping a larger than life
narrative of Manohar Parrikar through a memorial for the late
Goa chief minister which is designed more like a shrine than
a monument, complete with an underground meditation hall.

Holographs of the politician will be beamed on the walls and
an enormous metal shingled portrait of his, facing the public
road, will share space with his video clips and the
occasional patriotic film.

  All very well.  Except that a large section of
  Panaji's Miramar beach, a landmark in the cityscape
  and part of its urban vibe, has been boarded up to
  make way for the extravagant construction, even
  though the entire beach is in the 'no development
  zone'.

Parrikar died of cancer while still in office on March 17
this year.  He was cremated on the beach, in itself probably
a violation of several other regulations.

  Miramar beach is classified as CRZ III under the
  coastal regulation laws.  No construction is
  allowed in such zones up to 200 metres of the high
  tide line (HTL), which pretty much includes the
  whole stretch of beach, say environmentalists.  But
  this hasn't stopped Goa chief minister Pramod
  Sawant from brushing aside the law to advertise the
  foundation stone for the Parrikar Smriti Sthal will
  be laid on the beach on December 13, which
  coincides with Parrikar's birthday.

Imagine for a moment a memorial to a Maharashtra politician
taking away a portion of Chowpatty beach in south Mumbai.

According to documents accessed by The Wire, the state
government gave itself "CRZ clearance" to hold the former
chief minister's funeral on the beach on the simplistic
argument that the "area is beyond 100 metres of the high tide
line and as such the location does not attract the provisions
of the CRZ regulation".

A funeral being a sensitive matter, no objections were
raised.

But what were the last rites of a public figure in a public
space is now being appropriated as a "sacred location" to
immortalise the BJP leader in a larger than life avatar. Set
on 1,255 square metres of sand, the monument will "celebrate
the life and spirit" of the former defence minister "morphed
around the sacred location where his last rites were
performed", the design proposal finalised by the state
government (a copy of which is with The Wire) says.

  The Rs 8.5 crore (Rs 85 million) museum-shrine,
  designed by UCJ Architecture and Environment, is
  being launched when the state government is
  practically broke, with mining unlikely to revive
  anytime soon and charter tourism hit by the Thomas
  Cook crisis.  Goa's borrowings are set to spike to
  Rs 22,500 crore by the end of the current financial
  year -- three times its annual revenue growth --
  reported Prudent Media.

A fusion of marble, glass (to represent "purity and integrity
and transparency with which Shri Manohar Parrikar led his
life") and high technology -- used in the interactive library
dedicated solely to him -- the memorial is intended to keep
the memory of the BJP's only significant leader in Goa
burning bright for generations to come.

One can come up with names of several freedom fighters who
spent years in jail for protesting the Portuguese regime.
Most of them -- Purshottam Kakodkar of the Congress, to name
just one -- are being written out of the political narrative
and don't get even a portrait in the lavish complex of the
state's legislative assembly.

The selection of the beach spot for the Parrikar shrine is
significant as well.  It stands adjacent to the samadhi built
for Goa's first chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar of the MGP,
whose bahujan samaj legacy the BJP has been keen to
appropriate.  But the Bandodkar memorial came up in 1974,
long before the CRZ laws were conceived.

  Some BJP supporters point out that Parrikar, "a man
  of simple tastes", would have spurned all the
  current hoopla over him himself.  In 2001, in his
  first term as chief minister, the BJP leader had
  set up a one-man committee to look into public
  objections against his move to set up a management
  plan for the city beach which residents saw as a
  bid to privatise the beach.  After a lengthy
  hearing, the Nandkumar Kamat committee concluded
  that the beach was classified as a "no development
  zone under CRZ III" and no construction was
  permitted.

"Miramar beach", the report said, "cannot be equated with any
other beach in Goa...  People unequivocally consider Miramar
beach as a special case, an unique 

[Goanet] The Menezes Duo: Goa's forgotten history in cyberspace (FN, in NT)

[Goanet Reader]

The Menezes Duo
Goa's forgotten history in cyberspace

Frederick Noronha
fredericknoron...@gmail.com

Eons ago, it seems, when we had more hair than face, and all
that hair was black, that was when tiny Goa's history in
cyberspace first started rumbling across the planet.  A
fortnight ago, this column looked at the work of
Goanet-founder Herman Carneiro, then a 17-year-old, who
launched the pioneering (even at the pan-India level)
emailing-list called Goanet. It would be unfair not to focus
on the almost simultaneous, mid-nineties initiatives from the
Menezes duo.

  Marlon Menezes of Divar/US and Ulysses Menezes of
  Bastora/Kuwait were were both Goan expats.  They
  were schoolmates in Mount Abu, and not related
  despite sharing a surname.  Serendipity struck.
  Both launched similar experiments, which
  significantly shaped the perception of Goa in the
  outside world.

So how did the idea of GoaWeb (as it was initially called)
strike Marlon?

He told me recently: "I was a student at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the early 1990s.  My
university also happened to be the centre of the internet
revolution at that time and was where the first web browser
called Mosaic was developed.  Until then, the internet was
text based (called Gopher), which did not have a very user
friendly interface.  I remember connecting to sites such as
CERN from my school office with a simple click of a link and
wondering why not have something for Goa itself?"

They rest, as they say, is history.  This small initiative
went on to grow into GoaCom.com.  It set up some of the very
first web pages on Goa -- even before governments,
universities, newspapers and industry got into the act.

The infrastructure was available for free at his university.
"In any case, I was just doing it for fun and I really had no
expectations for success or failure," as he put it.

Marlon, first interested in the tech aspects soon realised
his "big gap in my knowledge of Goa itself as I had hardly
lived in Goa".  Many expatriates face such issues.

He reminisced recently: "I had grown in Kuwait and my
experience of India was limited to my stay in Mt.  Abu,
Rajasthan.  History had always been a subject that was dear
to me, and we had learned a lot about India in general, but
very little about Goa.  My earliest projects were to create
maps (very basic by today's standards) of some of Goa's
cities and animations of the Portuguese conquest of Goa and
then India's liberation of Goa."

  Kuwait-based Ulysses Menezes, meanwhile, set up the
  community-oriented Goan-World.com.  He recalls:
  "Connecting dots to complete the puzzle was the
  biggest challenge, and still is, for Goa and its
  people spread out on this planet.  Once we opened
  up on the Net it offered something to look forward
  to without being in Goa itself.  The Carnival, San
  Joao, The Catholic feasts and Hindu zatras, the
  mango season, and Goa diaspora events [is what we
  managed to put online]."

A small ordinary camera with a 35mm roll was what it took to
get started.  "The more I saw the demand and the
encouragement received from the people, fuelled me to move
further up the ladder," says he.  "Once Goanet started it was
a take off point to get in touch with reporters, writers,
organisers."

Marlon's GoaWeb meanwhile grew into GoaCom.com, a site which
was commercial and sold advertising space, but also had
community-building goals, and offered free space to
non-profit initiatives too.  He roped in his father Jerry
Menezes, and extended members of the family or family
friends, Tim de Mello of Anjuna/Canada and John D'Souza.

Three of the four had a background in engineering.  "John was
my uncle who unfortunately passed away earlier this year.  He
was called the 'historian' of the family due to his interest
in recording family events.  I had written an article about
the internet for him for the family newsletter that evoked a
lot of interest.  Separately John and Tim were friends from
Africa," he recalls.

  Tim and John came up with the idea of a commercial
  website for Goa.  Marlon, still in college, was
  open to collaboration.  After awhile, he opted to
  close GoaWeb and focus on a unified platform.  "We
  eventually realised the need for a local presence
  in Goa and one logical place was my parent's home!
  That is how my dad got involved." For a while,
  GoaCom ran out of a bungalow in Miramar, with
  Freddy Faria and Marilyn crafting the HTML code
  then needed to create websites.

Those were the early days of the Internet, in India and in
the world.  Back in Goa, a few innovators like Prof
Gurunandan Bhat, engineer Joseph 'Boogie' Viegas and others
who could be counted on maybe the fingers of one hand, were
clued in.

When most people came 

[Goanet-News] 'Kongotcars' Whoop It Up In Canada (Armand Rodrigues)

[Goanet Reader]

'Kongotcars' Whoop It Up In Canada

By Armand Rodrigues
acrod...@bell.net

  There was a time when Goan village socials were all
  the rage in Toronto.  Over the years various
  factors have come into play in the dwindling
  interest in this ritual.  One of the few villages
  that has kept the home fires burning is the village
  of Calangute.

John Lobo was the first President at its inception in 1992,
with a term in office running for two years.  Successive
committees have played a pivotal role in ensuring continuity.
Antonio Mascarenhas stands out as being at the helm for a
total of ten years out of the twenty-eight that the
association has been in existence.

Fast-forward to September 8, 2019, and a celebration at the
Europa Convention Centre on the outskirts of Toronto.  Three
hundred and sixty villagers and guests crammed the hall.

Steeped in the religion of their forefathers holy mass
preceded the revelry and was celebrated by the well-known Fr.
Martin Pereira.  Invocations were to St.Alex, the patron
saint of the village.  The Konkanim hymns of 'Conceicao
Saibini' and 'Jesu Mojea Deva' embellished the offerings.

Music was provided by the 'Amigos' band, and a D.J.
supplemented their output.  The acoustics seemed somewhat
overwhelming for the size of the hall.  However, folks of all
sizes and shapes were seen cavorting on the dance floor and
making the most of the nostalgic music.

For some it may have been reminiscent of the days of their
youth when they danced bare-footed on the shores of
Calangute.  The music appealed to a large segment of the
gathering as was evidenced by the congestion on the somewhat
limited dancing space. This may have hampered some from
displaying their best gyrations. And, it may have posed a
problem in selecting the 'Best Couple' on the floor.

Edgar Dias, the President, welcomed all in his opening
speech, introduced his committee, recognized past-Presidents,
and thanked all and sundry for their invaluable help.

  Of particular significance was the commemorative
  plaque presented to centenarian Leonard D'Souza on
  attaining the remarkable age of 102!  Yes, this is
  the Lenny of field-hockey fame who played for the
  Lusitanians and Tatas in Bombay in days of yore.
  Formal cutting of the anniversary cake was a given
  that followed.

Worth noting was the sumptuous sit-down lunch of soup, roast
beef, chicken and all the trimmings among other things, that
all enjoyed.  So also, was the floor-show put on by the
President's wife in the form of a troupe that livened things
up with a Portuguese dance.  And, winners of the numerous
raffle prizes were noticed toting large packages wrapped in
cellophane, of assorted prizes with intriguing contents.  To
their credit, the association published an account summary
for the preceding year in the interest of transparency and
accountability, in its brochure.

When all is said and done, special recognition goes to Milena
Marques who emceed the function with vivacious aplomb in a
full slate replete with activities.

A good time was had by all.

[Goanet] 'Kongotcars' Whoop It Up In Canada (Armand Rodrigues)

[Goanet Reader]

'Kongotcars' Whoop It Up In Canada

By Armand Rodrigues
acrod...@bell.net

  There was a time when Goan village socials were all
  the rage in Toronto.  Over the years various
  factors have come into play in the dwindling
  interest in this ritual.  One of the few villages
  that has kept the home fires burning is the village
  of Calangute.

John Lobo was the first President at its inception in 1992,
with a term in office running for two years.  Successive
committees have played a pivotal role in ensuring continuity.
Antonio Mascarenhas stands out as being at the helm for a
total of ten years out of the twenty-eight that the
association has been in existence.

Fast-forward to September 8, 2019, and a celebration at the
Europa Convention Centre on the outskirts of Toronto.  Three
hundred and sixty villagers and guests crammed the hall.

Steeped in the religion of their forefathers holy mass
preceded the revelry and was celebrated by the well-known Fr.
Martin Pereira.  Invocations were to St.Alex, the patron
saint of the village.  The Konkanim hymns of 'Conceicao
Saibini' and 'Jesu Mojea Deva' embellished the offerings.

Music was provided by the 'Amigos' band, and a D.J.
supplemented their output.  The acoustics seemed somewhat
overwhelming for the size of the hall.  However, folks of all
sizes and shapes were seen cavorting on the dance floor and
making the most of the nostalgic music.

For some it may have been reminiscent of the days of their
youth when they danced bare-footed on the shores of
Calangute.  The music appealed to a large segment of the
gathering as was evidenced by the congestion on the somewhat
limited dancing space. This may have hampered some from
displaying their best gyrations. And, it may have posed a
problem in selecting the 'Best Couple' on the floor.

Edgar Dias, the President, welcomed all in his opening
speech, introduced his committee, recognized past-Presidents,
and thanked all and sundry for their invaluable help.

  Of particular significance was the commemorative
  plaque presented to centenarian Leonard D'Souza on
  attaining the remarkable age of 102!  Yes, this is
  the Lenny of field-hockey fame who played for the
  Lusitanians and Tatas in Bombay in days of yore.
  Formal cutting of the anniversary cake was a given
  that followed.

Worth noting was the sumptuous sit-down lunch of soup, roast
beef, chicken and all the trimmings among other things, that
all enjoyed.  So also, was the floor-show put on by the
President's wife in the form of a troupe that livened things
up with a Portuguese dance.  And, winners of the numerous
raffle prizes were noticed toting large packages wrapped in
cellophane, of assorted prizes with intriguing contents.  To
their credit, the association published an account summary
for the preceding year in the interest of transparency and
accountability, in its brochure.

When all is said and done, special recognition goes to Milena
Marques who emceed the function with vivacious aplomb in a
full slate replete with activities.

A good time was had by all.

[Goanet-News] Goa and the Union of India: Lessons from Article 370 (Al-Zulaij Collective)

[Goanet Reader]

Goa and the Union of India: Lessons from Article 370

By THE AL-ZULAIJ COLLECTIVE

It is now a month since the effective abrogation of Article
370 of the Constitution of India, the article which
acknowledged the federal autonomy of the state of Jammu and
Kashmir as well as the federal nature of the Indian polity.

It has been a sad and painful month for the Union of India,
and we can only condemn the continued suffering and
humiliation of the people of Kashmir -- including the mass
arrests, heavy curfew, communications shutdown, and an
increased militarization of an already heavily militarized
region subsequent to the decision of the government.

  In this context, we would also like to look at the
  issue of federal autonomy from the location of Goa.
  At this juncture, it is important to recollect that
  India is a union of states with varying legal
  histories.  Article 370, which enshrines the
  specificities to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, is
  a recognition of this political diversity.

Goa, like Kashmir, has a unique legal history.  Unlike
Kashmir, however, Goan specificities did not merit any
constitutional recognition.  Subsequent to the annexation of
the territory, Goans were not asked, via a plebiscite, what
they wished their political status to be, nor was a
Constituent Assembly set up, as was the case in Kashmir and
some of the other princely states in the process of accession
to India.

India simply asserted its power and extended its Constitution
to Goa, and erased pre-existing citizenship. Any negotiation
that took place occurred under an unequal arrangement of
power, where the Goan people had, and continue to, struggle
to defend their unique history and status.

  For instance, rather than a plebiscite, what the
  national government offered was merely an 'Opinion
  Poll', years after the first local government under
  Indian sovereignty was already elected in Goa.
  This poll merely allowed for the people of Goa to
  determine whether the territory be attached to
  Maharashtra or maintain its territorial integrity.
  Further, the poll excluded those Goans who were
  resident outside the state while including Indians
  who had been resident in the state for a brief
  period of six years since integration.

As evidenced in the famous words in the preamble to the
Indian constitution, "We the people of India..." a
constitution is the document which enshrines the social
contract through which the people constitute the state.  The
keyword to understand the present political crisis and the
diverse legal histories over the last fifty years, therefore,
is 'constitutionally-mandated contract'.

Citizens of the state of Goa have existed within the Indian
Union without a constitutional and contractual recognition of
their legal history or sovereignty for more than five decades
now, and have consequently been witness to the disregard of
their rights and the resulting impact on their livelihoods,
perhaps best represented in the steady degradation of their
lived environment.

Article 370, even though acknowledged more in its violation,
asserted the Constitutional recognition of the rights of the
citizens and sovereignty of Jammu & Kashmir and thus their
contractual and constitutional participation in the Union of
India.  In other words, Article 370 was a product of a
constitutionally-sanctioned contract between the state of
Jammu & Kashmir and the Union of India, which was affirmed by
the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir as permanent,
as reflected in Article 147 of the Constitution of Jammu and
Kashmir, 1957.

Recognizing the citizenship rights of Goans, just like
Kashmiris and Nagas, is critical because these rights were
hard-fought for across generations.  The citizenship rights
of the residents of the former Estado da Índia -- today
popularly understood as the right to hold a Portuguese
passport -- were the result of the realization of Goan
demands since at least the mid-eighteenth century.

These socio-legal histories are often forgotten because it is
the history of British India, and that too the north of
British India, that dominates the national narrative and
through which the Indian Constitution tends to be
interpreted.  That the efforts of elite (or dominant-caste)
nationalists in British India alone is recognized and the
efforts of non-elites and peoples outside British India, are
either negated as in the case of Kashmir, or simply denied,
as in the case of Goa, is unfortunate and unconstitutional.

  Residents of Goa (and the rest of the former Estado
  da Índia) were citizens of the State of Portugal at
  the time of Indian annexation of the territory.
  Even though the right to citizenship is
  internationally acknowledged as a fundamental human
  right, the same right was taken from the 

[Goanet] Goa and the Union of India: Lessons from Article 370 (Al-Zulaij Collective)

[Goanet Reader]

Goa and the Union of India: Lessons from Article 370

By THE AL-ZULAIJ COLLECTIVE

It is now a month since the effective abrogation of Article
370 of the Constitution of India, the article which
acknowledged the federal autonomy of the state of Jammu and
Kashmir as well as the federal nature of the Indian polity.

It has been a sad and painful month for the Union of India,
and we can only condemn the continued suffering and
humiliation of the people of Kashmir -- including the mass
arrests, heavy curfew, communications shutdown, and an
increased militarization of an already heavily militarized
region subsequent to the decision of the government.

  In this context, we would also like to look at the
  issue of federal autonomy from the location of Goa.
  At this juncture, it is important to recollect that
  India is a union of states with varying legal
  histories.  Article 370, which enshrines the
  specificities to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, is
  a recognition of this political diversity.

Goa, like Kashmir, has a unique legal history.  Unlike
Kashmir, however, Goan specificities did not merit any
constitutional recognition.  Subsequent to the annexation of
the territory, Goans were not asked, via a plebiscite, what
they wished their political status to be, nor was a
Constituent Assembly set up, as was the case in Kashmir and
some of the other princely states in the process of accession
to India.

India simply asserted its power and extended its Constitution
to Goa, and erased pre-existing citizenship. Any negotiation
that took place occurred under an unequal arrangement of
power, where the Goan people had, and continue to, struggle
to defend their unique history and status.

  For instance, rather than a plebiscite, what the
  national government offered was merely an 'Opinion
  Poll', years after the first local government under
  Indian sovereignty was already elected in Goa.
  This poll merely allowed for the people of Goa to
  determine whether the territory be attached to
  Maharashtra or maintain its territorial integrity.
  Further, the poll excluded those Goans who were
  resident outside the state while including Indians
  who had been resident in the state for a brief
  period of six years since integration.

As evidenced in the famous words in the preamble to the
Indian constitution, "We the people of India..." a
constitution is the document which enshrines the social
contract through which the people constitute the state.  The
keyword to understand the present political crisis and the
diverse legal histories over the last fifty years, therefore,
is 'constitutionally-mandated contract'.

Citizens of the state of Goa have existed within the Indian
Union without a constitutional and contractual recognition of
their legal history or sovereignty for more than five decades
now, and have consequently been witness to the disregard of
their rights and the resulting impact on their livelihoods,
perhaps best represented in the steady degradation of their
lived environment.

Article 370, even though acknowledged more in its violation,
asserted the Constitutional recognition of the rights of the
citizens and sovereignty of Jammu & Kashmir and thus their
contractual and constitutional participation in the Union of
India.  In other words, Article 370 was a product of a
constitutionally-sanctioned contract between the state of
Jammu & Kashmir and the Union of India, which was affirmed by
the Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir as permanent,
as reflected in Article 147 of the Constitution of Jammu and
Kashmir, 1957.

Recognizing the citizenship rights of Goans, just like
Kashmiris and Nagas, is critical because these rights were
hard-fought for across generations.  The citizenship rights
of the residents of the former Estado da Índia -- today
popularly understood as the right to hold a Portuguese
passport -- were the result of the realization of Goan
demands since at least the mid-eighteenth century.

These socio-legal histories are often forgotten because it is
the history of British India, and that too the north of
British India, that dominates the national narrative and
through which the Indian Constitution tends to be
interpreted.  That the efforts of elite (or dominant-caste)
nationalists in British India alone is recognized and the
efforts of non-elites and peoples outside British India, are
either negated as in the case of Kashmir, or simply denied,
as in the case of Goa, is unfortunate and unconstitutional.

  Residents of Goa (and the rest of the former Estado
  da Índia) were citizens of the State of Portugal at
  the time of Indian annexation of the territory.
  Even though the right to citizenship is
  internationally acknowledged as a fundamental human
  right, the same right was taken from the 

[Goanet-News] DEBATE: What not to do in Hong Kong: Lessons from Goa, 1961 (Bruce Gilley, TheArticle.com)

[Goanet Reader]

What not to do in Hong Kong: Lessons from Goa, 1961

by Bruce Gilley
02 SEP 2019

A giant Asian state with a potent anti-Western identity.  A
European colonial enclave on its periphery. Growing
agitation from the Asian giant to bring the enclave into
line. After a few months of threat, an invasion. The West
does nothing.

  Hong Kong in 2019?  Maybe.  The scenario did occur
  in India's subjugation of the Portuguese territory
  of Goa in 1961.  It holds lessons for policy makers
  today.  The most important: standing on the
  sidelines and enjoining both sides to work out
  their differences is an invitation to conquest.
  The time for the West to deter nationalist
  aggression by China against Hong Kong is before the
  situation escalates.

Goa was a prosperous port city of about 50,000 souls that had
been seized by a Muslim prince when the Portuguese ousted him
in 1510.

Portuguese rule attracted migrants from the interior areas of
the sub-continent, raising the population to 350,000 by 1850,
shortly before Britain put India under colonial rule.

Even after India became independent in 1947, tens of
thousands of Indians migrated to the enclave, raising the
population to 650,000 by 1960.  The Goa cultural identity was
cosmopolitan and Goans enjoyed Portuguese citizenship.  When
the newly independent India demanded it be handed over,
Lisbon baulked.

  In retrospect, Lisbon's mistake was to depend too
  heavily on international law and on repeated
  promises from Delhi of a peaceful resolution to the
  "Goa problem."

Britain, whose defence ties to Portugal went back to 1373,
warned Delhi against aggression, but was ignored.  A growing
nationalist chorus in India felt resentful about the relative
stability and prosperity of Goa.  On independence day in
1955, hundreds of Indian nationalists attempted to break into
Goa following five similar incursions earlier in the year.
Portuguese sentries fired, killing 28.  The obsessively
anti-colonial Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru imposed
a blockade.

Six years later, after Portuguese sentries returned fire from
India, killing an Indian fisherman by mistake, Nehru's
government declared a need for "self-defence".  Nehru later
admitted this excuse was a sham, but insisted that the United
Nations commitment to decolonisation gave India the right to
invade.  It was India's "sovereign territory", he insisted,
and previous promises to colonial powers to respects its
autonomy were now outdated.

In the small hours of December 18, 1961, the 17th division of
the Indian Army, with bombs falling for air support, launched
a three-pronged attack on Goa.  Within 26 hours, Operation
Vijay (Victory) had lived up to its name, at the cost of 17
Portuguese dead and 21 Indian dead.

A UN Security Council resolution demanding withdrawal of
Indian forces was vetoed by the Soviet Union.  Moscow, along
with Beijing, had stirred up the Goa invasion with rousing
speeches and rallies throughout the 1950s.  The U.S.  and
other Western countries condemned the action against a NATO
ally.  But the fait accompli was hard to reverse given other
priorities.

  The analogy to Hong Kong is far from perfect.
  China already enjoys formal sovereignty over the
  territory and its troops are stationed there.  But
  the political dynamics are the same: a colonial
  remnant with promises of autonomy from the
  neighbouring Asian giant facing pressures to
  conform to the giant's interests against its own.
  In Goa, the end result was complete absorption
  because the international community would not
  defend it.

One unexpected lesson of the Goa invasion might give Beijing
pause: after the takeover, Nehru had a difficult time
restraining fanatical nationalists in India who insisted that
Goa should be erased off the map through absorption into
neighbouring Indian states.  Nehru had unleashed anti-colonial
furies that he found hard to control.  Only India's
(colonial) democratic legacy allowed the system to survive.

China would not be so fortunate.  If party chief Xi Jinping
sanctioned an invasion of Hong Kong to "complete the
liberation of 1997," he might be among the victims.  It is in
everyone's interest to deter another Goa before it is too
late.

--
Bruce Gilley: Bruce Gilley is a professor of political
science at Portland State University.  His article "The case
for colonialism", published in an advance online edition of
Third World Quarterly in 2017, was highly controversial for
its thesis and resulted in death threats against the editor
causing Gilley to agree to its retraction.

https://www.thearticle.com/what-not-to-do-in-hong-kong-lessons-from-goa-1961#

[Goanet] DEBATE: What not to do in Hong Kong: Lessons from Goa, 1961 (Bruce Gilley, TheArticle.com)

[Goanet Reader]

What not to do in Hong Kong: Lessons from Goa, 1961

by Bruce Gilley
02 SEP 2019

A giant Asian state with a potent anti-Western identity.  A
European colonial enclave on its periphery. Growing
agitation from the Asian giant to bring the enclave into
line. After a few months of threat, an invasion. The West
does nothing.

  Hong Kong in 2019?  Maybe.  The scenario did occur
  in India's subjugation of the Portuguese territory
  of Goa in 1961.  It holds lessons for policy makers
  today.  The most important: standing on the
  sidelines and enjoining both sides to work out
  their differences is an invitation to conquest.
  The time for the West to deter nationalist
  aggression by China against Hong Kong is before the
  situation escalates.

Goa was a prosperous port city of about 50,000 souls that had
been seized by a Muslim prince when the Portuguese ousted him
in 1510.

Portuguese rule attracted migrants from the interior areas of
the sub-continent, raising the population to 350,000 by 1850,
shortly before Britain put India under colonial rule.

Even after India became independent in 1947, tens of
thousands of Indians migrated to the enclave, raising the
population to 650,000 by 1960.  The Goa cultural identity was
cosmopolitan and Goans enjoyed Portuguese citizenship.  When
the newly independent India demanded it be handed over,
Lisbon baulked.

  In retrospect, Lisbon's mistake was to depend too
  heavily on international law and on repeated
  promises from Delhi of a peaceful resolution to the
  "Goa problem."

Britain, whose defence ties to Portugal went back to 1373,
warned Delhi against aggression, but was ignored.  A growing
nationalist chorus in India felt resentful about the relative
stability and prosperity of Goa.  On independence day in
1955, hundreds of Indian nationalists attempted to break into
Goa following five similar incursions earlier in the year.
Portuguese sentries fired, killing 28.  The obsessively
anti-colonial Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru imposed
a blockade.

Six years later, after Portuguese sentries returned fire from
India, killing an Indian fisherman by mistake, Nehru's
government declared a need for "self-defence".  Nehru later
admitted this excuse was a sham, but insisted that the United
Nations commitment to decolonisation gave India the right to
invade.  It was India's "sovereign territory", he insisted,
and previous promises to colonial powers to respects its
autonomy were now outdated.

In the small hours of December 18, 1961, the 17th division of
the Indian Army, with bombs falling for air support, launched
a three-pronged attack on Goa.  Within 26 hours, Operation
Vijay (Victory) had lived up to its name, at the cost of 17
Portuguese dead and 21 Indian dead.

A UN Security Council resolution demanding withdrawal of
Indian forces was vetoed by the Soviet Union.  Moscow, along
with Beijing, had stirred up the Goa invasion with rousing
speeches and rallies throughout the 1950s.  The U.S.  and
other Western countries condemned the action against a NATO
ally.  But the fait accompli was hard to reverse given other
priorities.

  The analogy to Hong Kong is far from perfect.
  China already enjoys formal sovereignty over the
  territory and its troops are stationed there.  But
  the political dynamics are the same: a colonial
  remnant with promises of autonomy from the
  neighbouring Asian giant facing pressures to
  conform to the giant's interests against its own.
  In Goa, the end result was complete absorption
  because the international community would not
  defend it.

One unexpected lesson of the Goa invasion might give Beijing
pause: after the takeover, Nehru had a difficult time
restraining fanatical nationalists in India who insisted that
Goa should be erased off the map through absorption into
neighbouring Indian states.  Nehru had unleashed anti-colonial
furies that he found hard to control.  Only India's
(colonial) democratic legacy allowed the system to survive.

China would not be so fortunate.  If party chief Xi Jinping
sanctioned an invasion of Hong Kong to "complete the
liberation of 1997," he might be among the victims.  It is in
everyone's interest to deter another Goa before it is too
late.

--
Bruce Gilley: Bruce Gilley is a professor of political
science at Portland State University.  His article "The case
for colonialism", published in an advance online edition of
Third World Quarterly in 2017, was highly controversial for
its thesis and resulted in death threats against the editor
causing Gilley to agree to its retraction.

https://www.thearticle.com/what-not-to-do-in-hong-kong-lessons-from-goa-1961#

[Goanet-News] In new BJP, a social recalibration in the making (Devika Sequeira, Herald)

[Goanet Reader]

In new BJP, a social recalibration in the making

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

Herald on August 18, 2019

Two photographs of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant stand out:
the first, taken in his first term as MLA, shows him in RSS
fatigues, dhanda on shoulder, posing before a jeep carrying
portraits of the founders of the RSS and VHP with Shivaji in
the centre.

  That photograph went viral after Sawant became
  chief minister, shared frenetically by cheering
  saffron trolls on Twitter.  Shivaji's prominence
  alongside Hedgewar and Golwalkar in that Sangh
  event (probably in Sawant's constituency) is
  significant in the context of the caste-based
  (Shivaji was a Maratha) political moves by the
  current chief minister, but more of that later.

As Manohar Parrikar struggled with the last days of his
cancer and Vijai Sardesai sought amusement in the garish
carnival, Pramod Sawant, the then Speaker of the Goa assembly
-- a position that requires at least a pretence of neutrality
if not actual lack of bias -- was marching through the
streets of Panjim in Sangh gear.

At the Azad Maidan he solemnly took the RSS salute.  The
event took place on March 3 this year, a fortnight before the
former chief minister Parrikar passed away.  A photographer
friend was dutiful and intrigued enough to take several
pictures.

In the cacophony of the carnival, the significance of
Sawant's right-wing play went largely unnoticed in the media.
Thanks to his staunch loyalty to the Sangh, the MLA of
Sanquelim was perhaps prescient about the events to follow.

  On March 19, he became chief minister of Goa.  The
  second photograph was taken the day Pramod Sawant
  occupied the chief minister's office.  On the chair
  next to him sat a portrait of Parrikar, to whom, he
  said, he owed his political all, though his actions
  to "recaste" his mentor's legacy and openly embrace
  defectors has been seen as a betrayal by many of
  the former chief minister’s supporters, not least
  among them, Parrikar's son Utpal.

Politically inexperienced for the high office -- he'd not
even been a minister before -- Sawant has proved a quick
learner on the job.

After procuring a super majority with the 10 Congress
turncoats, he first turned his gaze inwards, strategically
prising out key players and advisors from Manohar Parrikar's
time, the most prominent among them, the additional solicitor
general Atmaram Nadkarni.

In Goa, Nadkarni powered backroom politics to such an extent
that his exit was seen as something of a coup for the new CM.

A half dozen other heads -- Rajendra Talak, Santosh Kenkre to
name two -- rolled as well.  The developments convulsed a
section of the BJP's -- rather Parrikar's -- core supporters
among the Saraswats who are still seething in resentment.
The new leader after all was expected to be but a soft
acolyte of the former defence minister.

  Those who see the upending of the old social order
  in the new BJP as mere payback for upper-caste
  domination under Parrikar, are missing the point.
  This is as much a social recalibration as it is a
  silent but determined bid for total power within.
  And currently it rests in the hands of two
  individuals: Sawant and Satish Dhond, the BJP's
  invisible man.  With the calculated inclusion of
  Babush Monserrate, from the Panjim constituency no
  less, Utpal Parrikar has been thrown under the bus,
  at least for now.  Within the BJP's Hindu-Sangh
  formula, he alone would have posed a leadership
  challenge to Sawant if it came to that.

The Congress might learn a few uncomfortable facts were it to
revisit the political moves before the Panjim by-election.

Did Monserrate approach the Congress merely because he knew
that that was his best platform to win the seat?  Or did he
approach the party after he'd already done a crossover deal
with Dhond and Sawant?  Exposing political deception of this
level is important, at least for the sake of voters who are
being taken for a ride election after election.

  Whatever his flaws, Manohar Parrikar spent years
  building and shaping the BJP narrative in Goa, to
  the extent the party came to be completely
  associated with him.  Sawant got to the top with no
  achievement to speak of, except his ties to the RSS
  and the cruel (not for him though) twist of fate
  that catapulted him there.  The flattery that
  gushed out in the assembly for a bogus award given
  the chief minister by a questionable NGO run by a
  crony editor of an unapologetically communal
  newspaper, speaks to the pathetic level of those we
  vote.

Michael Lobo who was all sound and fury only a few weeks ago
for being left 

[Goanet] In new BJP, a social recalibration in the making (Devika Sequeira, Herald)

[Goanet Reader]

In new BJP, a social recalibration in the making

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

Herald on August 18, 2019

Two photographs of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant stand out:
the first, taken in his first term as MLA, shows him in RSS
fatigues, dhanda on shoulder, posing before a jeep carrying
portraits of the founders of the RSS and VHP with Shivaji in
the centre.

  That photograph went viral after Sawant became
  chief minister, shared frenetically by cheering
  saffron trolls on Twitter.  Shivaji's prominence
  alongside Hedgewar and Golwalkar in that Sangh
  event (probably in Sawant's constituency) is
  significant in the context of the caste-based
  (Shivaji was a Maratha) political moves by the
  current chief minister, but more of that later.

As Manohar Parrikar struggled with the last days of his
cancer and Vijai Sardesai sought amusement in the garish
carnival, Pramod Sawant, the then Speaker of the Goa assembly
-- a position that requires at least a pretence of neutrality
if not actual lack of bias -- was marching through the
streets of Panjim in Sangh gear.

At the Azad Maidan he solemnly took the RSS salute.  The
event took place on March 3 this year, a fortnight before the
former chief minister Parrikar passed away.  A photographer
friend was dutiful and intrigued enough to take several
pictures.

In the cacophony of the carnival, the significance of
Sawant's right-wing play went largely unnoticed in the media.
Thanks to his staunch loyalty to the Sangh, the MLA of
Sanquelim was perhaps prescient about the events to follow.

  On March 19, he became chief minister of Goa.  The
  second photograph was taken the day Pramod Sawant
  occupied the chief minister's office.  On the chair
  next to him sat a portrait of Parrikar, to whom, he
  said, he owed his political all, though his actions
  to "recaste" his mentor's legacy and openly embrace
  defectors has been seen as a betrayal by many of
  the former chief minister’s supporters, not least
  among them, Parrikar's son Utpal.

Politically inexperienced for the high office -- he'd not
even been a minister before -- Sawant has proved a quick
learner on the job.

After procuring a super majority with the 10 Congress
turncoats, he first turned his gaze inwards, strategically
prising out key players and advisors from Manohar Parrikar's
time, the most prominent among them, the additional solicitor
general Atmaram Nadkarni.

In Goa, Nadkarni powered backroom politics to such an extent
that his exit was seen as something of a coup for the new CM.

A half dozen other heads -- Rajendra Talak, Santosh Kenkre to
name two -- rolled as well.  The developments convulsed a
section of the BJP's -- rather Parrikar's -- core supporters
among the Saraswats who are still seething in resentment.
The new leader after all was expected to be but a soft
acolyte of the former defence minister.

  Those who see the upending of the old social order
  in the new BJP as mere payback for upper-caste
  domination under Parrikar, are missing the point.
  This is as much a social recalibration as it is a
  silent but determined bid for total power within.
  And currently it rests in the hands of two
  individuals: Sawant and Satish Dhond, the BJP's
  invisible man.  With the calculated inclusion of
  Babush Monserrate, from the Panjim constituency no
  less, Utpal Parrikar has been thrown under the bus,
  at least for now.  Within the BJP's Hindu-Sangh
  formula, he alone would have posed a leadership
  challenge to Sawant if it came to that.

The Congress might learn a few uncomfortable facts were it to
revisit the political moves before the Panjim by-election.

Did Monserrate approach the Congress merely because he knew
that that was his best platform to win the seat?  Or did he
approach the party after he'd already done a crossover deal
with Dhond and Sawant?  Exposing political deception of this
level is important, at least for the sake of voters who are
being taken for a ride election after election.

  Whatever his flaws, Manohar Parrikar spent years
  building and shaping the BJP narrative in Goa, to
  the extent the party came to be completely
  associated with him.  Sawant got to the top with no
  achievement to speak of, except his ties to the RSS
  and the cruel (not for him though) twist of fate
  that catapulted him there.  The flattery that
  gushed out in the assembly for a bogus award given
  the chief minister by a questionable NGO run by a
  crony editor of an unapologetically communal
  newspaper, speaks to the pathetic level of those we
  vote.

Michael Lobo who was all sound and fury only a few weeks ago
for being left 

[Goanet-News] Why the Mangalorean can't sing as well as the Goan and other stray observations... (Ivan Arthur)

[Goanet Reader]

Why the Mangalorean can't sing as well as the Goan and other
stray observations...

Ivan Arthur
ivan.art...@gmail.com

  There! I have raised a lot of Manggy hackles.
  Haven't I?  And while I dodge the rotten eggs and
  choice Kannada invective from at least some of you,
  including my own siblings, I look forward to some
  scholarly insights from others reading this.

This was in fact, a question, discretely whispered in my ear
by an East Indian priest who directed our choir.  While I
couldn't but agree with him, based on empirical local
evidence of musical talent, I did not then have a ready
answer.

I put the question to my father, who should have bristled at
that suggestion, being a musician and a Mangalorean to boot.
In his youth, in the 1930s and 40s, he led a string trio in
Mangalore with violinist Theodore Melville, who later ran a
music academy in Balmatta.

Dad laughed and said, "Ask your mother to sing and you will
know."

My mother loved singing.  She sang with fervour, each
subsequent phrase of the song slipping a semitone lower till,
what began in C would end unashamedly in B flat or somewhere
there.

But it was not just my mother.  She was about the best singer
in her family.  The others transformed a simple pop song into
unrecognizable recitatives that Kiri te Kanawa would envy.

It was different when my father's Protestant family came
over.  They would sing hymns from the Sankey and Moody hymnal
and they would do it in glorious four-part harmony.  I have
attended the Methodist services that my paternal uncles and
aunts would attend and I marvelled at the resonant harmony of
the congregational singing.  Quite unlike the Maiden Mothers
and Soul of My Saviours sung in our Catholic churches.

Oh yes, we had sacred 'jam sessions', as I call them now,
when Tony Mascarenhas and his siblings, Frank, Joachim and
Martha visited us on weekends and sang traditional Christian
hymns in disciplined vertical harmony; occasionally slipping
into classic Konkani songs, such as Doriyacha lahrari and
Tambde Rosa, again sung almost as if they were from Sankey
and Moody.

So then, we did have Mangalorean Catholics in our family who
could sing.

I have attended traditional Mangalorean Catholic and
Protestant weddings in Byculla, Mumbai in the late fifties.
And I noted the difference between the two.

At Catholic weddings, after that hearty feast of viands,
which included that favourite sorpotel, all eaten on banana
leaves on the floor, the guests would struggle up to their
feet and sing the Laudate.

In fifty different flats and sharps simultaneously to sound
like some twelve tone row composition.  The Protestants after
a less meaty meal, sans spirits, would bring out their piano
accordions, violins and guitars and sing a disciplined line
of songs.

During teenage and adolescence, I attended a number of
birthday, baptism and engagement parties of East Indians,
Goans and Mangaloreans in our parish in Amboli, a suburb of
Mumbai.  While my palate sang hallelujahs at the East Indian
and Mangalorean table, my ear rejoiced in the Goan
celebration of song.

  Most of the Goan home parties would begin with a
  ladain, the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
  song.  They were almost always sung in triadic
  harmony, which they referred to as seconds.  The
  voices were rough and throaty but you wouldn't hear
  a note out of place.  There would at most times be
  a couple of rebecs scratching out an obligato
  accompaniment to the tune.

So then, I need to ask the question differently, perhaps: Why
does the Goan Catholic sing better than the Mangalorean
Catholic?  The Mangalorean Protestant has to be viewed
separately.

  The Goan of yesteryears got solfeggio with their
  three R's in school.  Music was part of their basic
  education and so became part of their culture and
  perhaps part of their genetic make-up, engendering
  generations of musicians who performed all over the
  world, and are the acknowledged influencers of the
  Bollywood musical.

The Mangalorean Protestant (please correct me if I am wrong)
perhaps got his music from the Basel Mission
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Mission] institutions
that taught them to sing their hymns from off the five lines
of a score to sing in church or even for their occasional
performances of the sacred oratorios.

Can I hear some Catholic voices rise up to speak about the
Jeppu Seminary Band?  Or individual song writers like Albert
Pinto, whose songs such as Rosaline mujhe mogache and
Chowpatty re sanjche velari became all-time hits.  And maybe
some grand old aunt will sing the St.  Agnes School Anthem
composed by a good Catholic nun.  Do you remember the words?

For God is all our strength.
In Him we do and dare.
To fight against the wrong
To cherish and revere.

So humbly let us stand.
United heart and 

[Goanet] Why the Mangalorean can't sing as well as the Goan and other stray observations... (Ivan Arthur)

[Goanet Reader]

Why the Mangalorean can't sing as well as the Goan and other
stray observations...

Ivan Arthur
ivan.art...@gmail.com

  There! I have raised a lot of Manggy hackles.
  Haven't I?  And while I dodge the rotten eggs and
  choice Kannada invective from at least some of you,
  including my own siblings, I look forward to some
  scholarly insights from others reading this.

This was in fact, a question, discretely whispered in my ear
by an East Indian priest who directed our choir.  While I
couldn't but agree with him, based on empirical local
evidence of musical talent, I did not then have a ready
answer.

I put the question to my father, who should have bristled at
that suggestion, being a musician and a Mangalorean to boot.
In his youth, in the 1930s and 40s, he led a string trio in
Mangalore with violinist Theodore Melville, who later ran a
music academy in Balmatta.

Dad laughed and said, "Ask your mother to sing and you will
know."

My mother loved singing.  She sang with fervour, each
subsequent phrase of the song slipping a semitone lower till,
what began in C would end unashamedly in B flat or somewhere
there.

But it was not just my mother.  She was about the best singer
in her family.  The others transformed a simple pop song into
unrecognizable recitatives that Kiri te Kanawa would envy.

It was different when my father's Protestant family came
over.  They would sing hymns from the Sankey and Moody hymnal
and they would do it in glorious four-part harmony.  I have
attended the Methodist services that my paternal uncles and
aunts would attend and I marvelled at the resonant harmony of
the congregational singing.  Quite unlike the Maiden Mothers
and Soul of My Saviours sung in our Catholic churches.

Oh yes, we had sacred 'jam sessions', as I call them now,
when Tony Mascarenhas and his siblings, Frank, Joachim and
Martha visited us on weekends and sang traditional Christian
hymns in disciplined vertical harmony; occasionally slipping
into classic Konkani songs, such as Doriyacha lahrari and
Tambde Rosa, again sung almost as if they were from Sankey
and Moody.

So then, we did have Mangalorean Catholics in our family who
could sing.

I have attended traditional Mangalorean Catholic and
Protestant weddings in Byculla, Mumbai in the late fifties.
And I noted the difference between the two.

At Catholic weddings, after that hearty feast of viands,
which included that favourite sorpotel, all eaten on banana
leaves on the floor, the guests would struggle up to their
feet and sing the Laudate.

In fifty different flats and sharps simultaneously to sound
like some twelve tone row composition.  The Protestants after
a less meaty meal, sans spirits, would bring out their piano
accordions, violins and guitars and sing a disciplined line
of songs.

During teenage and adolescence, I attended a number of
birthday, baptism and engagement parties of East Indians,
Goans and Mangaloreans in our parish in Amboli, a suburb of
Mumbai.  While my palate sang hallelujahs at the East Indian
and Mangalorean table, my ear rejoiced in the Goan
celebration of song.

  Most of the Goan home parties would begin with a
  ladain, the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary in
  song.  They were almost always sung in triadic
  harmony, which they referred to as seconds.  The
  voices were rough and throaty but you wouldn't hear
  a note out of place.  There would at most times be
  a couple of rebecs scratching out an obligato
  accompaniment to the tune.

So then, I need to ask the question differently, perhaps: Why
does the Goan Catholic sing better than the Mangalorean
Catholic?  The Mangalorean Protestant has to be viewed
separately.

  The Goan of yesteryears got solfeggio with their
  three R's in school.  Music was part of their basic
  education and so became part of their culture and
  perhaps part of their genetic make-up, engendering
  generations of musicians who performed all over the
  world, and are the acknowledged influencers of the
  Bollywood musical.

The Mangalorean Protestant (please correct me if I am wrong)
perhaps got his music from the Basel Mission
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Mission] institutions
that taught them to sing their hymns from off the five lines
of a score to sing in church or even for their occasional
performances of the sacred oratorios.

Can I hear some Catholic voices rise up to speak about the
Jeppu Seminary Band?  Or individual song writers like Albert
Pinto, whose songs such as Rosaline mujhe mogache and
Chowpatty re sanjche velari became all-time hits.  And maybe
some grand old aunt will sing the St.  Agnes School Anthem
composed by a good Catholic nun.  Do you remember the words?

For God is all our strength.
In Him we do and dare.
To fight against the wrong
To cherish and revere.

So humbly let us stand.
United heart and 

[Goanet-News] The Feast of a Founder (Dr Michael Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

The Feast of a Founder

Dr Michael Lobo
dr.michael.l...@gmail.com

I have entitled this post "Feast of a Founder" as today is
the feast of St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order
-- more formally known as the "Society of Jesus" -- a
congregation that has had a significant influence on the
course of history not merely of Christianity but also of
varied facets of civilization in general.  The society has
had an especially important role to play in the history of
many Christian communities of India.

Ignatius Loyola was born with the name Inigo Lopez to an
aristocratic family in northern Spain in the first half of
the 1490s (the exact year is disputed).  This part of Spain,
on the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay, is known as the
Basque country -- and its inhabitants speak a language that is
unrelated not just to Spanish but to the entire Indo-European
family of languages.

A soldier in his youth, Inigo's right leg was badly fractured
at the Battle of Pamplona (1521) and he had to undergo
surgical operations in an era that knew nothing of
anaesthetics.  It was during his convalescence that he
experienced a spiritual awakening, which resulted in his
making a pilgrimage to Rome and to the Holy Land.  He became
known as Ignatius of Loyola, Ignatius being the Latin form of
Inigo, and Loyola being the name of his family estate (now a
Jesuit shrine).

  The first half of the 16th century was a period of
  religious upheaval in Europe.  Posterity has termed
  it "The Reformation", though this name is rather
  illogical as what happened was more in the nature
  of a Revolution.  Commencing with Martin Luther of
  Germany -- who, angered by the sale of indulgences,
  publicly broke off from the papacy in 1517 -- the
  defections continued under the leadership of King
  Henry VIII of England, John Knox of Scotland, John
  Calvin of France, and Ulrich Zwingli of Switzerland
  among others.  A single defection often serves as a
  catalyst for others (as this very form has
  experienced).

It was in this critical period in the history of the Church
that Ignatius formed a group of disciples (mainly Spanish
students at the University of Paris, including Francis
Xavier) who took vows of poverty, chastity, obedience to the
pope, and dedication to a life of apostolic work.  They
initially called themselves Amigos en El Senor (Friends in
the Lord).  In 1540, Pope Paul III granted them formal
recognition as the "Society of Jesus", a name that was deemed
presumptuous by some critics.

The early Jesuits founded schools throughout Europe, their
teachers specializing in classical studies and theology.
They played a major role in curbing the spread of
Protestantism, a movement that became known as the Catholic
Counter-Reformation.  Finally, they also sent missions
throughout the globe, including the newly discovered American
continent.  The first Jesuits arrived in India within a year
of the foundation of the Society.

  It is mainly through their worldwide missions that
  the Jesuits left their imprint -- learning native
  languages, creating scripts for those languages
  which existed only in oral tradition, and compiling
  grammars and dictionaries.  Their missions
  gradually extended to education and health care.
  Their first institution in Asia was St Paul's, Goa,
  founded by St Francis Xavier within a year of his
  landing in Goa in 1542.  St Paul's offered classes
  in grammar and rhetoric and also housed India's
  first printing press.  Though the buildings have
  now disintegrated, the gate still stands as a ruin.

More ambitious was St Paul's, Macau -- founded in 1594.  Macau
(near Hong Kong) was a Portuguese colony and the college was
founded as part of an understanding between the Portuguese
government and the papacy.  St Paul's, Macau, served as a
base for Jesuit missionaries in the Far East.  Over the
course of time, its academic programme encompassed subjects
such as theology, philosophy, mathematics, geography and
astronomy as well as the Latin, Portuguese and Chinese
languages.  The college had to be closed in 1762, when the
Portuguese made a decision to suppress the spread of Jesuit
influence.  In the 19th century the buildings were destroyed
in a fire -- and it is now an architectural ruin, regarded by
UNESCO as one of their heritage monuments.

It is noteworthy that both these pioneering Jesuit
institutions were named after St Paul the Apostle.  This is
presumably because the Jesuit missionary work in countries
where Christianity was little known was somewhat analogous to
St Paul's efforts to spread the word of Christ among the
Gentiles (this being the general term in Biblical times to
refer to all communities that were outside the 'civilized
world').

But after the construction of St Paul's Cathedral, 

[Goanet] The Feast of a Founder (Dr Michael Lobo)

[Goanet Reader]

The Feast of a Founder

Dr Michael Lobo
dr.michael.l...@gmail.com

I have entitled this post "Feast of a Founder" as today is
the feast of St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order
-- more formally known as the "Society of Jesus" -- a
congregation that has had a significant influence on the
course of history not merely of Christianity but also of
varied facets of civilization in general.  The society has
had an especially important role to play in the history of
many Christian communities of India.

Ignatius Loyola was born with the name Inigo Lopez to an
aristocratic family in northern Spain in the first half of
the 1490s (the exact year is disputed).  This part of Spain,
on the southern coast of the Bay of Biscay, is known as the
Basque country -- and its inhabitants speak a language that is
unrelated not just to Spanish but to the entire Indo-European
family of languages.

A soldier in his youth, Inigo's right leg was badly fractured
at the Battle of Pamplona (1521) and he had to undergo
surgical operations in an era that knew nothing of
anaesthetics.  It was during his convalescence that he
experienced a spiritual awakening, which resulted in his
making a pilgrimage to Rome and to the Holy Land.  He became
known as Ignatius of Loyola, Ignatius being the Latin form of
Inigo, and Loyola being the name of his family estate (now a
Jesuit shrine).

  The first half of the 16th century was a period of
  religious upheaval in Europe.  Posterity has termed
  it "The Reformation", though this name is rather
  illogical as what happened was more in the nature
  of a Revolution.  Commencing with Martin Luther of
  Germany -- who, angered by the sale of indulgences,
  publicly broke off from the papacy in 1517 -- the
  defections continued under the leadership of King
  Henry VIII of England, John Knox of Scotland, John
  Calvin of France, and Ulrich Zwingli of Switzerland
  among others.  A single defection often serves as a
  catalyst for others (as this very form has
  experienced).

It was in this critical period in the history of the Church
that Ignatius formed a group of disciples (mainly Spanish
students at the University of Paris, including Francis
Xavier) who took vows of poverty, chastity, obedience to the
pope, and dedication to a life of apostolic work.  They
initially called themselves Amigos en El Senor (Friends in
the Lord).  In 1540, Pope Paul III granted them formal
recognition as the "Society of Jesus", a name that was deemed
presumptuous by some critics.

The early Jesuits founded schools throughout Europe, their
teachers specializing in classical studies and theology.
They played a major role in curbing the spread of
Protestantism, a movement that became known as the Catholic
Counter-Reformation.  Finally, they also sent missions
throughout the globe, including the newly discovered American
continent.  The first Jesuits arrived in India within a year
of the foundation of the Society.

  It is mainly through their worldwide missions that
  the Jesuits left their imprint -- learning native
  languages, creating scripts for those languages
  which existed only in oral tradition, and compiling
  grammars and dictionaries.  Their missions
  gradually extended to education and health care.
  Their first institution in Asia was St Paul's, Goa,
  founded by St Francis Xavier within a year of his
  landing in Goa in 1542.  St Paul's offered classes
  in grammar and rhetoric and also housed India's
  first printing press.  Though the buildings have
  now disintegrated, the gate still stands as a ruin.

More ambitious was St Paul's, Macau -- founded in 1594.  Macau
(near Hong Kong) was a Portuguese colony and the college was
founded as part of an understanding between the Portuguese
government and the papacy.  St Paul's, Macau, served as a
base for Jesuit missionaries in the Far East.  Over the
course of time, its academic programme encompassed subjects
such as theology, philosophy, mathematics, geography and
astronomy as well as the Latin, Portuguese and Chinese
languages.  The college had to be closed in 1762, when the
Portuguese made a decision to suppress the spread of Jesuit
influence.  In the 19th century the buildings were destroyed
in a fire -- and it is now an architectural ruin, regarded by
UNESCO as one of their heritage monuments.

It is noteworthy that both these pioneering Jesuit
institutions were named after St Paul the Apostle.  This is
presumably because the Jesuit missionary work in countries
where Christianity was little known was somewhat analogous to
St Paul's efforts to spread the word of Christ among the
Gentiles (this being the general term in Biblical times to
refer to all communities that were outside the 'civilized
world').

But after the construction of St Paul's Cathedral, 

[Goanet-News] Aghô Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiriô chollotai mugo.

[Goanet Reader]

Aghô Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiriô chollotai mugo.
[Milagrin, Bull Fights in London.]
Courtesy the blog ZorotMorotGoesMyVillage
https://zorotmorotgoesmyvillage.blogspot.com/

Sonia Gomes
rgso...@gmail.com

'Mother, Mother, where are you?' screams Rosalyne full of
excitement and delight.  Words tumble from her young,
tremulous mouth.

'Yes, Rosalyne,' replies her Mother very sedately as befits a
person, who has lived in England amongst people known for
their impeccable deportment.

'Rosalyne dear, must you shout, I am not deaf, you know!' she
smiles to take the sting off her anger.

'You know Mother,' continues Rosalyne in a more refined
voice.  'There is a girl in our class and she is from Goa, I
told her that we too are from Goa.'

'But Rosalyne dear, we are not from Goa, ummm, we are from
Kenya.'

'What???' screams Rosalyne forgetting her cultured voice.
'But Grandpa and Grandma are from Goa.'

'Of course they are Rosalyne,' replies genteel Frieda...

And the argument goes on...

A couple of days later, Rosalyne enters with an ear splitting
yell, a spring in her leap, a wide grin to the utter
displeasure of genteel Frieda.  Rosalyne, she thinks, will
never be a calm, sensible English girl.  Frieda hopes and
prays that Rosalyne would be much like Darrell Rivers from
Mallory Towers.  Sigh.  'Mother, Mother!' Frieda winces...

'Mother, Mother! Benita has invited me to her house...'

Frieda thinks with a sigh, Oh no, oh no.

'Mother, Benita wants me to come to her house for Saibin.
Mother it's so beautiful, Saibin...'

'What's Saibin dear?'

'Oh Mother, didn't you know? The Blessed Virgin Mary...'

'Oh, no, oh no, that old fashioned drivel from the country,'
thinks Frieda

'You know Mother, the Saibin will go from
Mellissa's house to Benita's House.  Whilst
taking the Saibin from one house to another, we
will light candles and sing hymns all the way.'

'Oh Mother, isn't that the neatest thing you ever saw?'

'May I go, please Mother, please,' Frieda looks at her
daughter, eyes glowing, cheeks rosy from the excitement and
the cold.

'But Rosalyne dear, I thought you were going to Maeve's house
for a sleepover.'

'I told Maeve I wouldn't be coming; that I would be going to
Benita's,' replies Rosalyne carelessly.  I can go to Maeve's
anytime...But Saibin!'

'Mother, do you realize that this is the first girl from Goa
who has invited me for anything?'

And thank God for that, thinks Frieda, that European Union
(EU) rabble.

In comes Joe. 'Let her go Frieda, let her go, it will do her
good to be around her own people.'

'Her own people!' echoes Frieda, 'you call that mass of
people from EU our own people?'

'Of course I do, Frieda.  I have had a drink or two with some
of the guys from my own village and they are perfectly fun
guys.  Just doing their bit...Just trying to earn a living
much like us.'

  'Joe, you actually mingle with the EU crowd,
  socializing with that horde, what could you
  possibly have in common with those uneducated
  plebs.'

'Oh, Frieda, Frieda, my dear!  You forget how 'educated' I
was when I came here from Kenya.  As to what binds us, our
village sweet pea'

Joe hums, 'Amchea sezareak assa pisso, umm, umm'

  Mia Couto the Mozambican author, talks about the
  asimilados, the colonized, who leaving behind their
  own culture and traditions immerse themselves into
  the culture and traditions of the colonizer.
  Coconuts, he calls them, very white on the inside
  but sadly brown on the outside.  'Why did they do
  it'?  Well the answer is obvious, to blend, to
  mingle and to feel one with the colonizer.

In Kenya, the highlight of my father's career was when Mr.
Bryson his boss, visited our home, picked me up and I, as any
little child will do, tried to prise off his pipe.  And Mr
Bryson had said, 'Not that my girl, not that.'

My mother going to weddings in Goa, in the sweltering heat of
May in nylon stockings and some ridiculous hat stuck firmly
to her head with bobby pins.

Emulate the colonizer.

  The migrants, who went to Africa in search of jobs,
  were all types, educated, uneducated, tailors,
  musicians, cooks, all working hard to earn a decent
  wage.  Everyone bent on getting a good deal, every
  parent yearning to give his child a good education,
  these were sent back to India or Goa for better
  instruction.

But at no point did these Goans think they should be Goans in
every sense of the word, showcase their own 'Goanness, their
culture.

Konkani, what's that?  Their children did not speak the
language; they spoke English of course, and Swahili, what
better way to show off their Africander origins than to speak
Swahili amongst themselves, when on a holiday in Goa?  Goan
feasts?  Those noisy, vigorous Feast of St Francis or San
João?  Litany?  Too boisterous. 

[Goanet] Aghô Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiriô chollotai mugo.

[Goanet Reader]

Aghô Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiriô chollotai mugo.
[Milagrin, Bull Fights in London.]
Courtesy the blog ZorotMorotGoesMyVillage
https://zorotmorotgoesmyvillage.blogspot.com/

Sonia Gomes
rgso...@gmail.com

'Mother, Mother, where are you?' screams Rosalyne full of
excitement and delight.  Words tumble from her young,
tremulous mouth.

'Yes, Rosalyne,' replies her Mother very sedately as befits a
person, who has lived in England amongst people known for
their impeccable deportment.

'Rosalyne dear, must you shout, I am not deaf, you know!' she
smiles to take the sting off her anger.

'You know Mother,' continues Rosalyne in a more refined
voice.  'There is a girl in our class and she is from Goa, I
told her that we too are from Goa.'

'But Rosalyne dear, we are not from Goa, ummm, we are from
Kenya.'

'What???' screams Rosalyne forgetting her cultured voice.
'But Grandpa and Grandma are from Goa.'

'Of course they are Rosalyne,' replies genteel Frieda...

And the argument goes on...

A couple of days later, Rosalyne enters with an ear splitting
yell, a spring in her leap, a wide grin to the utter
displeasure of genteel Frieda.  Rosalyne, she thinks, will
never be a calm, sensible English girl.  Frieda hopes and
prays that Rosalyne would be much like Darrell Rivers from
Mallory Towers.  Sigh.  'Mother, Mother!' Frieda winces...

'Mother, Mother! Benita has invited me to her house...'

Frieda thinks with a sigh, Oh no, oh no.

'Mother, Benita wants me to come to her house for Saibin.
Mother it's so beautiful, Saibin...'

'What's Saibin dear?'

'Oh Mother, didn't you know? The Blessed Virgin Mary...'

'Oh, no, oh no, that old fashioned drivel from the country,'
thinks Frieda

'You know Mother, the Saibin will go from
Mellissa's house to Benita's House.  Whilst
taking the Saibin from one house to another, we
will light candles and sing hymns all the way.'

'Oh Mother, isn't that the neatest thing you ever saw?'

'May I go, please Mother, please,' Frieda looks at her
daughter, eyes glowing, cheeks rosy from the excitement and
the cold.

'But Rosalyne dear, I thought you were going to Maeve's house
for a sleepover.'

'I told Maeve I wouldn't be coming; that I would be going to
Benita's,' replies Rosalyne carelessly.  I can go to Maeve's
anytime...But Saibin!'

'Mother, do you realize that this is the first girl from Goa
who has invited me for anything?'

And thank God for that, thinks Frieda, that European Union
(EU) rabble.

In comes Joe. 'Let her go Frieda, let her go, it will do her
good to be around her own people.'

'Her own people!' echoes Frieda, 'you call that mass of
people from EU our own people?'

'Of course I do, Frieda.  I have had a drink or two with some
of the guys from my own village and they are perfectly fun
guys.  Just doing their bit...Just trying to earn a living
much like us.'

  'Joe, you actually mingle with the EU crowd,
  socializing with that horde, what could you
  possibly have in common with those uneducated
  plebs.'

'Oh, Frieda, Frieda, my dear!  You forget how 'educated' I
was when I came here from Kenya.  As to what binds us, our
village sweet pea'

Joe hums, 'Amchea sezareak assa pisso, umm, umm'

  Mia Couto the Mozambican author, talks about the
  asimilados, the colonized, who leaving behind their
  own culture and traditions immerse themselves into
  the culture and traditions of the colonizer.
  Coconuts, he calls them, very white on the inside
  but sadly brown on the outside.  'Why did they do
  it'?  Well the answer is obvious, to blend, to
  mingle and to feel one with the colonizer.

In Kenya, the highlight of my father's career was when Mr.
Bryson his boss, visited our home, picked me up and I, as any
little child will do, tried to prise off his pipe.  And Mr
Bryson had said, 'Not that my girl, not that.'

My mother going to weddings in Goa, in the sweltering heat of
May in nylon stockings and some ridiculous hat stuck firmly
to her head with bobby pins.

Emulate the colonizer.

  The migrants, who went to Africa in search of jobs,
  were all types, educated, uneducated, tailors,
  musicians, cooks, all working hard to earn a decent
  wage.  Everyone bent on getting a good deal, every
  parent yearning to give his child a good education,
  these were sent back to India or Goa for better
  instruction.

But at no point did these Goans think they should be Goans in
every sense of the word, showcase their own 'Goanness, their
culture.

Konkani, what's that?  Their children did not speak the
language; they spoke English of course, and Swahili, what
better way to show off their Africander origins than to speak
Swahili amongst themselves, when on a holiday in Goa?  Goan
feasts?  Those noisy, vigorous Feast of St Francis or San
João?  Litany?  Too boisterous. 

[Goanet-News] POLITICS: Goa's Voters Lose as BJP Deliberately Misreads Anti-Defection Law (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

Goa's Voters Lose as BJP Deliberately Misreads Anti-Defection Law

  Considering the Pramod Sawant-led coalition
  government was under no threat, the BJP's gleeful
  embrace of the turncoats has also shaken the
  saffron party's core supporters in the state.
  Goa's Voters Lose as BJP Deliberately Misreads
  Anti-Defection Law

PHOTO: BJP working president J.P.  Nadda with Goa chief
minister Pramod Sawant and other Goa Congress rebel MLAs in
New Delhi on July 11, 2019.  Photo: PTI/Kamal Kishore

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com
16 hours ago

Panaji, (Goa): The defection of 10 Congress MLAs to the BJP
in Goa has not only plunged the already embattled national
party into its worst crisis in the state in recent years but
has also shaken the saffron party's core supporters, who have
been left astounded by the BJP national leadership's gleeful
embrace of the turncoats.

Three of the defectors will now be accommodated as ministers
in the state government -- a far cry from the legal
requirement that all of them be disqualified for switching
loyalties.

The Congress, which won 17 seats in the 2017 assembly
election and was actually the single largest party -- the BJP
managed to win only 13 seats -- is now left with just five
MLAs.

  The BJP rank and file's disapproval is
  understandable -- after all, the Pramod Sawant-led
  coalition government in Goa was under no threat.
  Four short of a majority on its own (17 in a house
  of 40) till Wednesday's events, six members from
  the Goa Forward Party and independents had helped
  the BJP cruise comfortably through half the term.
  Modi's overwhelming victory in May had also ensured
  the allies stayed on.

"I don't know why they had to do it.  I don't see the reason.
We already had a majority with the support of GFP and
independents," Nilesh Cabral, one of BJP's more vocal
ministers, said.

Goa Forward Party had been the BJP's "most dependable ally",
the regional party's leader Vijai Sardesai, reminded the BJP.

But none of that will matter now that the saffron party has
gained a bloated majority of 27 overnight.

Sardesai, who scaled the ladder to the deputy chief minister
position under the coalition deal, and three other ministers
will likely be eased out in the cabinet reshuffle on Saturday
to make way for the Congress defectors and deputy speaker
Michael Lobo -- credited with the Goa BJP's "surgical strike
on the Congress".

Out in the cold, Sardesai's comeuppance for his betrayal of
the secular cause when he supported the BJP rather than the
Congress after the 2017 assembly election result is the only
silver lining in the latest political mauling in Goa, an AAP
member told The Wire.

  "The BJP has gained MLAs but lost trust," Giriraj
  Pai Vernekar, a former aide of Manohar Parrikar,
  lamented.  Parrikar's son, Utpal, too lashed out at
  the "new leadership" for its opportunistic
  politics, adding that commitment and trust in the
  Goa BJP had died with his father.

In the eyes of many in the state, the BJP's claim to occupy
higher moral ground is hypocrisy at best.  In this term
alone, under Parrikar, the party rewarded former Congress
chief minister Pratapsingh Rane's son Vishvajit with a
cabinet post for defecting from the Congress.  In October
last year, two more Congress MLAs were lured away to
cynically bring down the numbers in the Goa assembly to keep
the government from going under.

Just a few days after Parrikar's death, two MLAs from the
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (two-thirds of the MGP's three
MLAs) were spirited away to the Raj Bhavan in the dead of
night to be sworn in as ministers after turning saffron.

The new BJP legislature party currently has more "Congress
MLAs" (16 out of 27) than dyed-in-the-wool saffronites.  And
more Catholic MLAs than Hindus -- to highlight an
uncomfortable detail for a party championing the Hindu
rashtra cause.

  For all their venting on social media over the
  debasement of the BJP's "culture and principles",
  by the entry of the Congress turncoats -- "vile
  scum" is how one bhakt described some of them --
  BJP voters are expected to line up and
  unquestioningly endorse the lotus symbol,
  irrespective of the candidate.

They did so in the May by-election when both Congress
defectors were re-elected.  An in-house mutiny ignited by the
former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar against the previous
defections too was shut down and never heard of again.  In
the face of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah's aggressive
expansionist agenda, there's little room for protest for
those who might disagree with the methods, say observers.

Unprincipled defections

On Thursday, speaker Rajesh Patnekar notified his acceptance
of the "merger" of two-thirds of the Congress legislature
party in Goa 

[Goanet] POLITICS: Goa's Voters Lose as BJP Deliberately Misreads Anti-Defection Law (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

Goa's Voters Lose as BJP Deliberately Misreads Anti-Defection Law

  Considering the Pramod Sawant-led coalition
  government was under no threat, the BJP's gleeful
  embrace of the turncoats has also shaken the
  saffron party's core supporters in the state.
  Goa's Voters Lose as BJP Deliberately Misreads
  Anti-Defection Law

PHOTO: BJP working president J.P.  Nadda with Goa chief
minister Pramod Sawant and other Goa Congress rebel MLAs in
New Delhi on July 11, 2019.  Photo: PTI/Kamal Kishore

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com
16 hours ago

Panaji, (Goa): The defection of 10 Congress MLAs to the BJP
in Goa has not only plunged the already embattled national
party into its worst crisis in the state in recent years but
has also shaken the saffron party's core supporters, who have
been left astounded by the BJP national leadership's gleeful
embrace of the turncoats.

Three of the defectors will now be accommodated as ministers
in the state government -- a far cry from the legal
requirement that all of them be disqualified for switching
loyalties.

The Congress, which won 17 seats in the 2017 assembly
election and was actually the single largest party -- the BJP
managed to win only 13 seats -- is now left with just five
MLAs.

  The BJP rank and file's disapproval is
  understandable -- after all, the Pramod Sawant-led
  coalition government in Goa was under no threat.
  Four short of a majority on its own (17 in a house
  of 40) till Wednesday's events, six members from
  the Goa Forward Party and independents had helped
  the BJP cruise comfortably through half the term.
  Modi's overwhelming victory in May had also ensured
  the allies stayed on.

"I don't know why they had to do it.  I don't see the reason.
We already had a majority with the support of GFP and
independents," Nilesh Cabral, one of BJP's more vocal
ministers, said.

Goa Forward Party had been the BJP's "most dependable ally",
the regional party's leader Vijai Sardesai, reminded the BJP.

But none of that will matter now that the saffron party has
gained a bloated majority of 27 overnight.

Sardesai, who scaled the ladder to the deputy chief minister
position under the coalition deal, and three other ministers
will likely be eased out in the cabinet reshuffle on Saturday
to make way for the Congress defectors and deputy speaker
Michael Lobo -- credited with the Goa BJP's "surgical strike
on the Congress".

Out in the cold, Sardesai's comeuppance for his betrayal of
the secular cause when he supported the BJP rather than the
Congress after the 2017 assembly election result is the only
silver lining in the latest political mauling in Goa, an AAP
member told The Wire.

  "The BJP has gained MLAs but lost trust," Giriraj
  Pai Vernekar, a former aide of Manohar Parrikar,
  lamented.  Parrikar's son, Utpal, too lashed out at
  the "new leadership" for its opportunistic
  politics, adding that commitment and trust in the
  Goa BJP had died with his father.

In the eyes of many in the state, the BJP's claim to occupy
higher moral ground is hypocrisy at best.  In this term
alone, under Parrikar, the party rewarded former Congress
chief minister Pratapsingh Rane's son Vishvajit with a
cabinet post for defecting from the Congress.  In October
last year, two more Congress MLAs were lured away to
cynically bring down the numbers in the Goa assembly to keep
the government from going under.

Just a few days after Parrikar's death, two MLAs from the
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (two-thirds of the MGP's three
MLAs) were spirited away to the Raj Bhavan in the dead of
night to be sworn in as ministers after turning saffron.

The new BJP legislature party currently has more "Congress
MLAs" (16 out of 27) than dyed-in-the-wool saffronites.  And
more Catholic MLAs than Hindus -- to highlight an
uncomfortable detail for a party championing the Hindu
rashtra cause.

  For all their venting on social media over the
  debasement of the BJP's "culture and principles",
  by the entry of the Congress turncoats -- "vile
  scum" is how one bhakt described some of them --
  BJP voters are expected to line up and
  unquestioningly endorse the lotus symbol,
  irrespective of the candidate.

They did so in the May by-election when both Congress
defectors were re-elected.  An in-house mutiny ignited by the
former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar against the previous
defections too was shut down and never heard of again.  In
the face of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah's aggressive
expansionist agenda, there's little room for protest for
those who might disagree with the methods, say observers.

Unprincipled defections

On Thursday, speaker Rajesh Patnekar notified his acceptance
of the "merger" of two-thirds of the Congress legislature
party in Goa 

[Goanet-News] Go-to man Conceicao Sousa hangs up his boots after 36 years (Sharmila Dhal, gulfnews.com)

[Goanet Reader]

Dubai College gives warm farewell to head caretaker
Go-to man Conceicao Sousa hangs up his boots after 36 years

Published:  June 24, 2019 13:38

Sharmila Dhal
Deputy UAE Editor

PHOTO: Mr Conceicao Souza at the Dubai College, Dubai.
Credit: Antonin Kélian Kallouche/Gulf News

DUBAI: If theres one number everyone in Dubai College has on
their speed dial, it's that of Conceicao Sousa.

  As head caretaker of the British curriculum
  secondary school in Al Sufouh, where he has been
  working for 36 of its 40 years of existence, Sousa
  is the go-to man for anything anyone needs: from
  setting up classroom tables and getting the lights
  fixed to providing logistical support for an event
  or just finding something that's missing.

So when the 67-year-old Indian retired from service on June
13, the warm farewell that the school staff and his 15-member
team gave him was expectedly nostalgic.

"I feel so blessed," said Sousa, who has had the privilege of
working with all the three bursars of the school since its
inception.

"I was hired by Tony Fulger, the first bursar, way back in
1983.  There was nothing here then -- only desert all around
us and the Hard Rock Cafe at a distance," he said, as he
recounted delightful tales from the past.

  "My favourite memory is that of an Arab man who
  would come here in a pickup to steal water from our
  water tank.  One day, I stopped him and asked him
  why he was doing it.  Camel, he replied.  It
  appeared that it was the only word in English that
  he knew.  When I promptly informed the bursar about
  the exchange, he said to let the man be.  Three
  days later, the Arab returned, this time with a big
  can filled with camel milk.  It was his way of
  saying thank you."

Fast forward to 2019 and Sousa, a father of three, said he is
proud to have seen the sprawling desert around him transform
into a bustling school campus, with 10 buildings over 19
acres of land.  And if Dubai College, an outstanding school,
also boasts of being one of the cleanest campuses, much of
the credit goes to him.

"Our school got the second and third place in cleanliness
competitions in 1992 and 1993," he said, adding that he was
personally given the Unsung Hero Award at the Education
Journal Middle East Awards in 2017 after being nominated by
the school.

Many students, who have graduated and returned to the school
as teachers, have fond memories of him. "They tell their
children who study here now about all my secrets."

PHOTO: Conceicao Senior Sports Dinner at 2019

  In a rare gesture, Debra Turpie, head of alumni
  relations and communications and marketing, said,
  "In November this year, we have invited Sousa to be
  the guest of honour at our annual alumni social
  event in London.  He is very excited to travel from
  Goa where he is headed after retirement as he can
  reconnect with 36 years' worth of ex-colleagues and
  students.  He is particularly looking forward to
  meeting Fulgar and Graham Penson, a former teacher,
  now in Australia, whom he considers his best friend."

Annie Kirkcaldy, the headmaster's assistant, said, "The
school also held a staff vs caretaker cricket match as part
of Sousa's leaving event. It was followed by a social hosted
by the headmaster and attended by the majority of the Dubai
College staff.  We also had a senior sports dinner where he
was invited as guest of honour to present the sports colours
to our Sixth Form students.  He is a true gentleman and we
will all miss him." Rich tributes

"Conceicao joined Dubai College in 1983 and has worked his
way up to being the head of the caretaking team.  This title
though does not reflect the contribution made by him in
keeping the school running smoothly.  Nothing is ever too
much trouble for him and he regularly identifies issues and
solves them before anyone else is aware they even exist.  It
is a measure of his knowledge and the confidence that people
have in him that the standard response when looking to set up
an event is 'Ask Conceceio, he will know what to do'." --Kieran Dempsey,
Bursar

"Conceicao is the lynch pin of Dubai College.  His
encyclopedic knowledge of the way Dubai College functions is
second to none.  Nothing is too much trouble for him and he
is able to anticipate all our needs.  He has a phenomenal
memory and once an event that he has set up has taken place,
the next time you just need to mention it and he will reel
off to you what needs to be done as if he has read your mind.
Events like Music Charity Love, World Food Day, Musical
Performances, even exams, would simply not happen so smoothly
without him and his team. --Liz John, Head of Modern Foreign Languages

"Conceicao -- I have worked closely with him for 20 years!
He would be number one on my speed dial, just ahead 

[Goanet] Go-to man Conceicao Sousa hangs up his boots after 36 years (Sharmila Dhal, gulfnews.com)

[Goanet Reader]

Dubai College gives warm farewell to head caretaker
Go-to man Conceicao Sousa hangs up his boots after 36 years

Published:  June 24, 2019 13:38

Sharmila Dhal
Deputy UAE Editor

PHOTO: Mr Conceicao Souza at the Dubai College, Dubai.
Credit: Antonin Kélian Kallouche/Gulf News

DUBAI: If theres one number everyone in Dubai College has on
their speed dial, it's that of Conceicao Sousa.

  As head caretaker of the British curriculum
  secondary school in Al Sufouh, where he has been
  working for 36 of its 40 years of existence, Sousa
  is the go-to man for anything anyone needs: from
  setting up classroom tables and getting the lights
  fixed to providing logistical support for an event
  or just finding something that's missing.

So when the 67-year-old Indian retired from service on June
13, the warm farewell that the school staff and his 15-member
team gave him was expectedly nostalgic.

"I feel so blessed," said Sousa, who has had the privilege of
working with all the three bursars of the school since its
inception.

"I was hired by Tony Fulger, the first bursar, way back in
1983.  There was nothing here then -- only desert all around
us and the Hard Rock Cafe at a distance," he said, as he
recounted delightful tales from the past.

  "My favourite memory is that of an Arab man who
  would come here in a pickup to steal water from our
  water tank.  One day, I stopped him and asked him
  why he was doing it.  Camel, he replied.  It
  appeared that it was the only word in English that
  he knew.  When I promptly informed the bursar about
  the exchange, he said to let the man be.  Three
  days later, the Arab returned, this time with a big
  can filled with camel milk.  It was his way of
  saying thank you."

Fast forward to 2019 and Sousa, a father of three, said he is
proud to have seen the sprawling desert around him transform
into a bustling school campus, with 10 buildings over 19
acres of land.  And if Dubai College, an outstanding school,
also boasts of being one of the cleanest campuses, much of
the credit goes to him.

"Our school got the second and third place in cleanliness
competitions in 1992 and 1993," he said, adding that he was
personally given the Unsung Hero Award at the Education
Journal Middle East Awards in 2017 after being nominated by
the school.

Many students, who have graduated and returned to the school
as teachers, have fond memories of him. "They tell their
children who study here now about all my secrets."

PHOTO: Conceicao Senior Sports Dinner at 2019

  In a rare gesture, Debra Turpie, head of alumni
  relations and communications and marketing, said,
  "In November this year, we have invited Sousa to be
  the guest of honour at our annual alumni social
  event in London.  He is very excited to travel from
  Goa where he is headed after retirement as he can
  reconnect with 36 years' worth of ex-colleagues and
  students.  He is particularly looking forward to
  meeting Fulgar and Graham Penson, a former teacher,
  now in Australia, whom he considers his best friend."

Annie Kirkcaldy, the headmaster's assistant, said, "The
school also held a staff vs caretaker cricket match as part
of Sousa's leaving event. It was followed by a social hosted
by the headmaster and attended by the majority of the Dubai
College staff.  We also had a senior sports dinner where he
was invited as guest of honour to present the sports colours
to our Sixth Form students.  He is a true gentleman and we
will all miss him." Rich tributes

"Conceicao joined Dubai College in 1983 and has worked his
way up to being the head of the caretaking team.  This title
though does not reflect the contribution made by him in
keeping the school running smoothly.  Nothing is ever too
much trouble for him and he regularly identifies issues and
solves them before anyone else is aware they even exist.  It
is a measure of his knowledge and the confidence that people
have in him that the standard response when looking to set up
an event is 'Ask Conceceio, he will know what to do'." --Kieran Dempsey,
Bursar

"Conceicao is the lynch pin of Dubai College.  His
encyclopedic knowledge of the way Dubai College functions is
second to none.  Nothing is too much trouble for him and he
is able to anticipate all our needs.  He has a phenomenal
memory and once an event that he has set up has taken place,
the next time you just need to mention it and he will reel
off to you what needs to be done as if he has read your mind.
Events like Music Charity Love, World Food Day, Musical
Performances, even exams, would simply not happen so smoothly
without him and his team. --Liz John, Head of Modern Foreign Languages

"Conceicao -- I have worked closely with him for 20 years!
He would be number one on my speed dial, just ahead 

[Goanet-News] A Goan village is on the brink of victory to conserve a century-old lake (Pamela D'Mello, india.mongabay.com)

[Goanet Reader]

A Goan village is on the brink of victory to conserve a century-old lake

By Pamela D'Mello on 21 June 2019
dmello.pam...@gmail.com

A community is actively pursuing the conservation of a
Portuguese-era hill top lake in north Goa.  The reservoir
lies in a high-value real estate area which is being eyed
by developers for construction projects.  In the latest
progress, the citizen's efforts have led to a
consultation that will potentially declare the hill top
natural reservoir as a wetland, protecting it with a
buffer zone.

On a rainy day last week, June 12, as cyclone Vayu was
pelting rain on Goa, 400 villagers braving inclement weather,
gathered at a community hall. They were there for Goa's
first consultation on the potential declaration of a hilltop
natural reservoir, as a wetland.

The consultation, called by the Goa State Wetland Authority,
was a hard-fought victory by villagers of Santa Cruz, a
suburban area adjoining Goa's capital Panjim.  For the past
decade, the people of Santa Cruz had tried every avenue to
save their villages' crowning glory, Bondvol Lake, a
110-year-old natural reservoir that collects rain and spring
water over a 9.365-hectare submergence basin.

  Citizens have been actively pursuing their demand.
  They have held bike rallies, public meetings,
  mobilised special gram sabhas, taken awareness
  treks for school children, filed complaints,
  accompanied flying squads, photographed and
  videographed violations and dug into historical
  archive material to back their court petitions as
  well as lobbied with panchayat, politicians and
  state government offices.

PHOTO: A special gram sabha (village council meeting)
organised in 2017 for the preservation of Bondvol lake.
Photo by Pamela D'Mello.

Since 2009, construction firms and land grabbers had
stealthily damaged the lake's drainage (sluice) valves, in a
bid to dry out the lake and usurp the land.  The natural
forests around the lake were surreptitiously felled and
kutcha (temporary) roads leading to the lake were constructed
at the hilltop site, while goons posted at the site, scared
off birders and other common citizens from approaching the
lake area.

A community's heritage

  "Bondvol lake is officially owned by the local
  Calapor comunidade (an ancient village land-owning
  institution in charge of common village lands).  My
  great grandfather was one of the original gaonkars
  (villagers) that helped construct the lake.  It has
  unique natural hydrology that collects rainwater
  from the hills that surround it on three sides.
  And on the fourth side, the villagers fortified an
  earthen embankment.  In 1910, colonial authorities
  put in a valve and a spillway was created to
  irrigate the fields in the surrounding area," said
  Calapor comunidade attorney Peter Gonsalves (60).

Gonsalves made an impassioned plea to save the lake, at the
June 12 consultation, "You can construct buildings.  But
water is a precious resource, and where we have it, we have
to preserve it."

In 2017, the Calapor comunidade had moved the Bombay High
Court's Goa bench to seek protection for Bondvol Lake.
Another citizen, Arturo D'Souza also filed a public interest
petition in the High Court at the same time.  While other
villagers moved the National Green Tribunal.

"We, the villagers have decided that we will do what it takes
to save our community asset, the Bondvol Lake," said
architect and teacher Elsa Fernandes (48).

Villagers became aware of the land mafia mischief at Bondvol,
around six years ago, when they observed, using Google
imagery, how the lake had degraded and depleted over the
years.  "Twenty-five years ago the lake was filled to the
brim, with 15-metre-high water levels. Bondvol is located on
top of a difficult-to-access dense forested hill, in a
pristine environment. We knew the level was dropping, but
nobody knew why. It was later that we realised it was
manmade sabotage. The spillway was damaged and stones and
mud in the embankment were being removed and fruit trees were
being planted on the embankment itself, so the roots could
further damage the dam," said Fernandes.

  A "Save Bondvol Lake" movement got traction in the
  6,100-household village in 2016.  Alert citizens
  noticed roads and construction firms gearing up to
  construct apartments on the lake’s periphery.
  While on its drying up the bed, a single tenant was
  readying to usurp a vast track of the lake's bed
  and convert community property to private ownership.

PHOTO: Dried up lake in 2016.  Photo by Vixal Raw.

"We petitioned several government authorities, but had to
finally approach the court for justice in 2017," said
petitioner Arturo D’Souza.

The High Court ordered the Water Resource 

[Goanet] A Goan village is on the brink of victory to conserve a century-old lake (Pamela D'Mello, india.mongabay.com)

[Goanet Reader]

A Goan village is on the brink of victory to conserve a century-old lake

By Pamela D'Mello on 21 June 2019
dmello.pam...@gmail.com

A community is actively pursuing the conservation of a
Portuguese-era hill top lake in north Goa.  The reservoir
lies in a high-value real estate area which is being eyed
by developers for construction projects.  In the latest
progress, the citizen's efforts have led to a
consultation that will potentially declare the hill top
natural reservoir as a wetland, protecting it with a
buffer zone.

On a rainy day last week, June 12, as cyclone Vayu was
pelting rain on Goa, 400 villagers braving inclement weather,
gathered at a community hall. They were there for Goa's
first consultation on the potential declaration of a hilltop
natural reservoir, as a wetland.

The consultation, called by the Goa State Wetland Authority,
was a hard-fought victory by villagers of Santa Cruz, a
suburban area adjoining Goa's capital Panjim.  For the past
decade, the people of Santa Cruz had tried every avenue to
save their villages' crowning glory, Bondvol Lake, a
110-year-old natural reservoir that collects rain and spring
water over a 9.365-hectare submergence basin.

  Citizens have been actively pursuing their demand.
  They have held bike rallies, public meetings,
  mobilised special gram sabhas, taken awareness
  treks for school children, filed complaints,
  accompanied flying squads, photographed and
  videographed violations and dug into historical
  archive material to back their court petitions as
  well as lobbied with panchayat, politicians and
  state government offices.

PHOTO: A special gram sabha (village council meeting)
organised in 2017 for the preservation of Bondvol lake.
Photo by Pamela D'Mello.

Since 2009, construction firms and land grabbers had
stealthily damaged the lake's drainage (sluice) valves, in a
bid to dry out the lake and usurp the land.  The natural
forests around the lake were surreptitiously felled and
kutcha (temporary) roads leading to the lake were constructed
at the hilltop site, while goons posted at the site, scared
off birders and other common citizens from approaching the
lake area.

A community's heritage

  "Bondvol lake is officially owned by the local
  Calapor comunidade (an ancient village land-owning
  institution in charge of common village lands).  My
  great grandfather was one of the original gaonkars
  (villagers) that helped construct the lake.  It has
  unique natural hydrology that collects rainwater
  from the hills that surround it on three sides.
  And on the fourth side, the villagers fortified an
  earthen embankment.  In 1910, colonial authorities
  put in a valve and a spillway was created to
  irrigate the fields in the surrounding area," said
  Calapor comunidade attorney Peter Gonsalves (60).

Gonsalves made an impassioned plea to save the lake, at the
June 12 consultation, "You can construct buildings.  But
water is a precious resource, and where we have it, we have
to preserve it."

In 2017, the Calapor comunidade had moved the Bombay High
Court's Goa bench to seek protection for Bondvol Lake.
Another citizen, Arturo D'Souza also filed a public interest
petition in the High Court at the same time.  While other
villagers moved the National Green Tribunal.

"We, the villagers have decided that we will do what it takes
to save our community asset, the Bondvol Lake," said
architect and teacher Elsa Fernandes (48).

Villagers became aware of the land mafia mischief at Bondvol,
around six years ago, when they observed, using Google
imagery, how the lake had degraded and depleted over the
years.  "Twenty-five years ago the lake was filled to the
brim, with 15-metre-high water levels. Bondvol is located on
top of a difficult-to-access dense forested hill, in a
pristine environment. We knew the level was dropping, but
nobody knew why. It was later that we realised it was
manmade sabotage. The spillway was damaged and stones and
mud in the embankment were being removed and fruit trees were
being planted on the embankment itself, so the roots could
further damage the dam," said Fernandes.

  A "Save Bondvol Lake" movement got traction in the
  6,100-household village in 2016.  Alert citizens
  noticed roads and construction firms gearing up to
  construct apartments on the lake’s periphery.
  While on its drying up the bed, a single tenant was
  readying to usurp a vast track of the lake's bed
  and convert community property to private ownership.

PHOTO: Dried up lake in 2016.  Photo by Vixal Raw.

"We petitioned several government authorities, but had to
finally approach the court for justice in 2017," said
petitioner Arturo D’Souza.

The High Court ordered the Water Resource 

[Goanet-News] Meet Roy de Souza, the tech entrepreneur who turned a personal crisis into a war against cancer (Viswanath Pilla, MoneyControl.com)

[Goanet Reader]

Meet Roy de Souza, the tech entrepreneur who turned a personal crisis into
a war against cancer

The engineer from University of
Oxford started evaluating the
possibility of building a
company that provides
end-to-end platform bringing
data scientists, immunologists
and immunotherapists, under a
single roof and give them
necessary tools to build
vaccines to treat advanced
stages of colon cancer.

Viswanath Pilla
@viswanath_pilla
MoneyControl.com

For 48-year-old Roy de Souza, life was fantastic on both
professional and personal fronts.  Coming from a Goan family
of doctors that prized education, de Souza didn't disappoint.

  He attained a master's degree in Engineering from
  the University of Oxford and an MBA from Kellogg
  Business School.  In 1999, he plunged into the
  world of startups and founded ZEDO, a digital
  advertising technology company in Silicon Valley.

ZEDO, which manages and runs digital ad campaigns for
advertisers and helps publishers monetise their assets, has
emerged as one of the world's largest internet advertising
technology firms.

Meanwhile, on the personal front, de Souza built a cosy home
in Mumbai and lives with his wife and three children, and
everything was smooth sailing until calamity struck.

One late evening in April 2017, while the couple were
partying at a friend's home in South Mumbai, his wife
complained of severe stomach ache and was taken to the
hospital. The doctor suspected kidney stones and ordered a
CT scan.

"I spotted a shadow-like thing on the liver, but when I asked
them, 'what is this?' They wouldn't tell me," de Souza told
Moneycontrol.

  De Souza's worst fears came true and his wife, who
  was in her 40s at the time, and felt perfectly
  healthy until a few days before the incident, was
  diagnosed with what is scientifically termed as
  metastatic colon cancer.  In its advanced stage and
  aggressively spreading beyond the liver, the
  disease has a survival rate below 15 percent.

Fight against cancer

On the advice of a doctor friend, the de Souzas immediately
flew to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New
York to consult Dr Nancy E Kemeny, a medical oncologist who
specialises in metastatic colon cancer that has spread to the
liver.

Dr Kemeny is famous for pioneering the hepatic arterial
infusion (HAI) pump -- a way to pump high strength chemo
directly into the liver and it has fantastic results.

Founded in 1884, the center is consistently ranked among the
world's best cancer hospital.

An appointment with Kemeny is not easy and the slots are
filled months in advance.  Add to that the fact that she only
treats patients that fall within her specialisation of colon
cancer which has spread to the liver.

Despite the challenges, de Souza's wife remained strong and
composed.  The perseverance paid-off and after days of
effort, he was assured of an appointment with Dr Kemeny.

Keeping her word, Dr Kemeny began chemotherapy immediately
and thankfully the patient responded well.  For perspective,
only 50 percent of patients with metastatic colon cancer
respond to treatment.

But Roy didn't remain the same since then.

  "You look at it, there is a big possibility that
  she is not going to be around.  I am going to be
  here with the kids on my own.  And she is good with
  the children.  I'm not so good.  Children like to
  be with their mother, there is a bond and I don't
  think I can replace that," de Souza said with
  almost tears in his eyes.

  Chemotherapy can prolong a patient's life by
  killing harmful cancer cells with a cocktail of
  toxic drugs, but it doesn’t cure cancer.  De Souza
  thus made up his mind and decided to do whatever it
  takes to save his wife.  That meant dedicating the
  rest of his life to find a cure for metastatic
  colon cancer.

He started with reading textbooks and research material on
cancer.  "I started thinking, well why can't we kill (this
cancer), we have the technology, we have drugs, these are
living cells, we got to get something to go in there and kill
the cells.  And after about six months, I learnt that there
was nothing available.  That's when I started looking at
other cancers, what worked to end other cancers?  What is the
latest thinking?" de Souza pondered.

While scouring for possible treatments that could cure his
wife, de Souza stumbled across promising results of
personalised vaccines in treating melanoma, a type of skin
cancer.

New hope -- personalised vaccines

  According to research, our body's immune system
  acts as a natural defence against cancer, opening
  up the feasibility of using vaccines to treat the
  disease. But it isn't as simple as it sounds.

For instance, much of the polio disease is caused by three
types of poliovirus and it 

[Goanet] Meet Roy de Souza, the tech entrepreneur who turned a personal crisis into a war against cancer (Viswanath Pilla, MoneyControl.com)

[Goanet Reader]

Meet Roy de Souza, the tech entrepreneur who turned a personal crisis into
a war against cancer

The engineer from University of
Oxford started evaluating the
possibility of building a
company that provides
end-to-end platform bringing
data scientists, immunologists
and immunotherapists, under a
single roof and give them
necessary tools to build
vaccines to treat advanced
stages of colon cancer.

Viswanath Pilla
@viswanath_pilla
MoneyControl.com

For 48-year-old Roy de Souza, life was fantastic on both
professional and personal fronts.  Coming from a Goan family
of doctors that prized education, de Souza didn't disappoint.

  He attained a master's degree in Engineering from
  the University of Oxford and an MBA from Kellogg
  Business School.  In 1999, he plunged into the
  world of startups and founded ZEDO, a digital
  advertising technology company in Silicon Valley.

ZEDO, which manages and runs digital ad campaigns for
advertisers and helps publishers monetise their assets, has
emerged as one of the world's largest internet advertising
technology firms.

Meanwhile, on the personal front, de Souza built a cosy home
in Mumbai and lives with his wife and three children, and
everything was smooth sailing until calamity struck.

One late evening in April 2017, while the couple were
partying at a friend's home in South Mumbai, his wife
complained of severe stomach ache and was taken to the
hospital. The doctor suspected kidney stones and ordered a
CT scan.

"I spotted a shadow-like thing on the liver, but when I asked
them, 'what is this?' They wouldn't tell me," de Souza told
Moneycontrol.

  De Souza's worst fears came true and his wife, who
  was in her 40s at the time, and felt perfectly
  healthy until a few days before the incident, was
  diagnosed with what is scientifically termed as
  metastatic colon cancer.  In its advanced stage and
  aggressively spreading beyond the liver, the
  disease has a survival rate below 15 percent.

Fight against cancer

On the advice of a doctor friend, the de Souzas immediately
flew to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New
York to consult Dr Nancy E Kemeny, a medical oncologist who
specialises in metastatic colon cancer that has spread to the
liver.

Dr Kemeny is famous for pioneering the hepatic arterial
infusion (HAI) pump -- a way to pump high strength chemo
directly into the liver and it has fantastic results.

Founded in 1884, the center is consistently ranked among the
world's best cancer hospital.

An appointment with Kemeny is not easy and the slots are
filled months in advance.  Add to that the fact that she only
treats patients that fall within her specialisation of colon
cancer which has spread to the liver.

Despite the challenges, de Souza's wife remained strong and
composed.  The perseverance paid-off and after days of
effort, he was assured of an appointment with Dr Kemeny.

Keeping her word, Dr Kemeny began chemotherapy immediately
and thankfully the patient responded well.  For perspective,
only 50 percent of patients with metastatic colon cancer
respond to treatment.

But Roy didn't remain the same since then.

  "You look at it, there is a big possibility that
  she is not going to be around.  I am going to be
  here with the kids on my own.  And she is good with
  the children.  I'm not so good.  Children like to
  be with their mother, there is a bond and I don't
  think I can replace that," de Souza said with
  almost tears in his eyes.

  Chemotherapy can prolong a patient's life by
  killing harmful cancer cells with a cocktail of
  toxic drugs, but it doesn’t cure cancer.  De Souza
  thus made up his mind and decided to do whatever it
  takes to save his wife.  That meant dedicating the
  rest of his life to find a cure for metastatic
  colon cancer.

He started with reading textbooks and research material on
cancer.  "I started thinking, well why can't we kill (this
cancer), we have the technology, we have drugs, these are
living cells, we got to get something to go in there and kill
the cells.  And after about six months, I learnt that there
was nothing available.  That's when I started looking at
other cancers, what worked to end other cancers?  What is the
latest thinking?" de Souza pondered.

While scouring for possible treatments that could cure his
wife, de Souza stumbled across promising results of
personalised vaccines in treating melanoma, a type of skin
cancer.

New hope -- personalised vaccines

  According to research, our body's immune system
  acts as a natural defence against cancer, opening
  up the feasibility of using vaccines to treat the
  disease. But it isn't as simple as it sounds.

For instance, much of the polio disease is caused by three
types of poliovirus and it 

[Goanet-News] Quo vadis, Goa....? (Caetano V Mascarenhas, Raia/Margao, Goa)

[Goanet Reader]

...@goanet.org

Goanet Reader is edited and compiled by Frederick Noronha in
Goa, and a part of the Goanet project, set up in 1994 by
Herman Carneiro.

[Goanet] Quo vadis, Goa....? (Caetano V Mascarenhas, Raia/Margao, Goa)

[Goanet Reader]

...@goanet.org

Goanet Reader is edited and compiled by Frederick Noronha in
Goa, and a part of the Goanet project, set up in 1994 by
Herman Carneiro.

[Goanet] Goa in Film, three more days from Friday May 24, 2019 ... at Panjim

[Goanet Reader]

GOA in FILM at Sunaparanta, for three more days this weekend,
till Sunday. Screening daily at 6.35 pm, open to all

The focus of the festival is on documentaries and features made
by Goan filmmakers on Goan themes and nine selected films will
be screened over three more days at the Sunaparanta
amphitheater.

Screening schedule is as below:
FRIDAY, 24 MAY 2019

Film: Remembering Kurdi (2016)
Director & Cinematographer: Saumyananda Sahi
Run-Time: 64 mins
'Remembering Kurdi' witnesses the brief resurfacing of a census
town submerged for three decades by the Salaulim dam, in Goa.
Through the explorations of a young man and woman in search of
their ancestral home and history, the film is an allegory for
the universal quest to preserve memory and so also a sense of
belonging.  ***

Film: Saxtticho Koddo (2017)
Director & Cinematography: Vince Costa
Run-Time: 38 mins
An ethnographic film that journeys through Curtorim's agrarian
roots, in an effort to go beyond rice as a staple, and explore
how it is interwoven so intricately into the Goan identity.  ***

SATURDAY, 25 MAY 2019
Film: Caazu (2015)
Directed by: Ronak Kamat
Run-Time: 8 mins
Told through the perspectives of three local cashew liquor
distillers, 'Caazu' is a film about the struggles of the
traditional alcohol industry and the role played by major liquor
companies in their plight.
***

Film: Juze (2017)
Written, Produced & Directed by: Mirandha Naik
Run-Time: 94 mins
RuBoribmol, a village in Goa with a large immigrant population,
is ruled by an abusive, thuggish bully, Juze, known as the ‘Slum
Landlord’.  His appetite for violent intimidation keeps his
immigrant workforce submissive, even when his roving eye extends
to their women.  Santosh, a 16-year old boy, is not intimidated.
His determination to continue with his classes remains constant
in spite of regular beatings from Juze.  As events build to
breaking point, Santosh’s passive resistance evolves into the
determination to confront Juze and finally achieve freedom from
fear.

***

SUNDAY, 26 MAY 2019

Film: Amchem Cantar Hanv Gaitam (2015)
Directed by: Ruth Lobo
Run-Time: 50 mins
A deeper look into the joyful and sometimes wistful tunes
reveals a glimpse into the complexity of the Goan identity and
way of life.  The film tries to present the beauty of the music
and explores the stories behind these eternal compositions.

***
Film: Dances of Goa (2013)
Directed by: Nalini Elvino de Sousa
Run-Time: 20 mins
Travelling through the villages of Goa, a team of youngsters
unveil the rich culture of Goa, through dance.  A journey that
explores the basic lifestyle, rituals, beliefs, customs and
costumes of the Goan village that should not be forgotten.

***
Film: Shifting Sands (2013)
Produced & Directed by: Sonio Filinto
Run-Time: 28 mins
Shifting Sands explores the life of the fishing community in
Calangute, a popular tourist village in Goa, India.  The lure of
fish appeals to locals and visitors alike but is the lure of
fishing still a draw?  The film gives voice to community members
- how they perceive themselves, their trade and the constantly
changing life around them.

Screenings: 6.35 pm onwards at Sunaparanta Amphitheatre

* Film presentation by Directors
* Post screening discussions moderated by Frederick Noronha, Journalist
* Entry free and open to all.

Details from: Sunaparanta - Goa Centre for the Arts 63/C-8, Near
Army House, Altinho, Panaji-Goa 403 001 Phone: 91-832-2421311
Email: i...@sgcfa.org Website: http://www.sgcfa.org

[Goanet-News] Memories of May and Mumbai... It all began with a steamer ride, of course (Wendell Rodricks)

[Goanet Reader]

Memories of May and Mumbai... It all began with a steamer ride of course

Wendell Rodricks
wendellrodri...@gmail.com

"Tell me about the good old days in Goa, Wendell," a
millennial asked me.

Where does one begin? With that steamer ride of course.

Even before the final exams in school were done with, in
Bombay, we were busy planning the holiday wardrobe. Our
parents were eagle-eyed, watching over and rationing the
clothes to the minimum.

"Don't take white clothes. They will turn red with the Goan
mud." "Take one Sunday mass pant and two shirts." "Don't take
chappals. We will buy you new Payal chappals in Mapusa".

  There was a long list of ‘don'ts'. We were keen to
  take our Sunday best to "show off"; the parents
  stopped us. While Daddy packed his pipes and cigars
  carefully, Mummy would diligently fold some
  accessories she hardly ever used in Bombay: a fan,
  sunglasses, a hat and the all important veils for
  Sunday Mass ("If I don't wear a veil, the Padre
  will berate me from the pulpit"). She invariably
  carried two or three veils. Black, white and blue.

The clothes of the parents, four boys and one maid had to be
squeezed into three suitcases and half a dozen hand bags. My
younger brother's milk feeding bottles and two bottles with
screw on cups as caps: one for water and the other a thermos
flask was de rigeur. These would be used to smuggle feni and
whiskey respectively back to 'prohibition days' Bombay on our
return.

Tucked into the bags were an assortment of odd items like
pillows for the journey, a 'godri' quilt for the night on the
steamer, tea ("No tea in Goa"), sugar, fruits and food for
the journey and chocolates, balloons, games for my birthday
which is in the last week of May. The bags that were emptied
in Goa returned with a cornucopia of luxuries. Coconuts,
mangoes, Goa jaggery, khotkhote, chikki, extrastrong mints,
dried dodiare fish, balchao, chorizo sausages, Goa vinegar,
cold pressed coconut oil

For a family that only took the bus or train, we had the
luxury of a taxi to the Bombay port. Three sat in the front,
one on Daddy's lap and four at the back, two on the maid and
my lap. Thank God for spacious Ambassadors, it was not such a
tight squeeze as it sounds. But before we arranged ourselves,
the luggage had to be tied to the 'carrier' contraption on
the roof while the bags went in the boot. The neighbours
peered from their windows to wave goodbye to the Rodricks
family. They would sigh, "Every year they go once or twice to
Goa. Unfair!"

Bombay port was utter chaos. Daddy would book a red shirt,
white dhoti coolie who would rope in a friend to juggle 'the'
bed sheet to mark our territory on the lower deck. While my
father went with coolie and one brother, we waited till he
returned and took us all on board. We loved the journey as we
had the run of the entire ship. Only the private cabin deck
was out of bounds. Once a cousin of ours booked a cabin as
she was going on her honeymoon. We found that indulgence
spectacularly posh.

I still recall those sea voyages. The breeze on the open
deck, guitars, feni, hippies, the aroma of hasish. It was all
superbly intoxicating. Dinner was on a thali; plus the meat
cutlets and chilli fry Mummy invariably packed.

All through the night, passengers got off and on in the dark,
carrying lanterns and torches to light their way. I recall an
instance when an old gent in a dhoti got stuck in the rope
ladder leading to the smaller boats that swirled around the
ship. At each stop, the ship would blare a goodbye horn when
we left.

I also recall a bizarre incident when I got a sty in my eye
while on the ship. It hurt a lot till Daddy lanced it the
next morning on arrival in Goa and was horrified to find a
flea that gave birth to baby fleas in my eyelid. Thankfully
there was a doctor on board to attend to the eye lid and I
did not get a scar.

Early next morning, there was always palpable excitement on
the open deck. As the sun peeped over the horizon, we saw the
coastline of Goa appear. It was with immense exhilaration
that we watched the Fort Aguada and Miramar beach draw closer
till the ship docked at the jetty opposite the Customs House.
Pandemonium ensued to get a coolie to get our luggage off the
ship and onto the ferry to Betim. At Betim we boarded a bus
to Mapusa. From Mapusa after lunch, we got into another bus
to Camurlim or Colvale.

The neighbours were intimated by a yellow postcard or a blue
inland aerogramme letter of our arrival. They would kindly
ensure we had two maids ready for the month of May. One to
cook and one to clean. At times they also arranged a house
boy to do the errands.

  To get the old house up to standard took the better
  part of three days. The kitchen, store room and
  front courtyard was treated to a fresh layer of
  crow dung. For us kids that was truly a yucky
  chore. The elders would 

[Goanet] Memories of May and Mumbai... It all began with a steamer ride, of course (Wendell Rodricks)

[Goanet Reader]

Memories of May and Mumbai... It all began with a steamer ride of course

Wendell Rodricks
wendellrodri...@gmail.com

"Tell me about the good old days in Goa, Wendell," a
millennial asked me.

Where does one begin? With that steamer ride of course.

Even before the final exams in school were done with, in
Bombay, we were busy planning the holiday wardrobe. Our
parents were eagle-eyed, watching over and rationing the
clothes to the minimum.

"Don't take white clothes. They will turn red with the Goan
mud." "Take one Sunday mass pant and two shirts." "Don't take
chappals. We will buy you new Payal chappals in Mapusa".

  There was a long list of ‘don'ts'. We were keen to
  take our Sunday best to "show off"; the parents
  stopped us. While Daddy packed his pipes and cigars
  carefully, Mummy would diligently fold some
  accessories she hardly ever used in Bombay: a fan,
  sunglasses, a hat and the all important veils for
  Sunday Mass ("If I don't wear a veil, the Padre
  will berate me from the pulpit"). She invariably
  carried two or three veils. Black, white and blue.

The clothes of the parents, four boys and one maid had to be
squeezed into three suitcases and half a dozen hand bags. My
younger brother's milk feeding bottles and two bottles with
screw on cups as caps: one for water and the other a thermos
flask was de rigeur. These would be used to smuggle feni and
whiskey respectively back to 'prohibition days' Bombay on our
return.

Tucked into the bags were an assortment of odd items like
pillows for the journey, a 'godri' quilt for the night on the
steamer, tea ("No tea in Goa"), sugar, fruits and food for
the journey and chocolates, balloons, games for my birthday
which is in the last week of May. The bags that were emptied
in Goa returned with a cornucopia of luxuries. Coconuts,
mangoes, Goa jaggery, khotkhote, chikki, extrastrong mints,
dried dodiare fish, balchao, chorizo sausages, Goa vinegar,
cold pressed coconut oil

For a family that only took the bus or train, we had the
luxury of a taxi to the Bombay port. Three sat in the front,
one on Daddy's lap and four at the back, two on the maid and
my lap. Thank God for spacious Ambassadors, it was not such a
tight squeeze as it sounds. But before we arranged ourselves,
the luggage had to be tied to the 'carrier' contraption on
the roof while the bags went in the boot. The neighbours
peered from their windows to wave goodbye to the Rodricks
family. They would sigh, "Every year they go once or twice to
Goa. Unfair!"

Bombay port was utter chaos. Daddy would book a red shirt,
white dhoti coolie who would rope in a friend to juggle 'the'
bed sheet to mark our territory on the lower deck. While my
father went with coolie and one brother, we waited till he
returned and took us all on board. We loved the journey as we
had the run of the entire ship. Only the private cabin deck
was out of bounds. Once a cousin of ours booked a cabin as
she was going on her honeymoon. We found that indulgence
spectacularly posh.

I still recall those sea voyages. The breeze on the open
deck, guitars, feni, hippies, the aroma of hasish. It was all
superbly intoxicating. Dinner was on a thali; plus the meat
cutlets and chilli fry Mummy invariably packed.

All through the night, passengers got off and on in the dark,
carrying lanterns and torches to light their way. I recall an
instance when an old gent in a dhoti got stuck in the rope
ladder leading to the smaller boats that swirled around the
ship. At each stop, the ship would blare a goodbye horn when
we left.

I also recall a bizarre incident when I got a sty in my eye
while on the ship. It hurt a lot till Daddy lanced it the
next morning on arrival in Goa and was horrified to find a
flea that gave birth to baby fleas in my eyelid. Thankfully
there was a doctor on board to attend to the eye lid and I
did not get a scar.

Early next morning, there was always palpable excitement on
the open deck. As the sun peeped over the horizon, we saw the
coastline of Goa appear. It was with immense exhilaration
that we watched the Fort Aguada and Miramar beach draw closer
till the ship docked at the jetty opposite the Customs House.
Pandemonium ensued to get a coolie to get our luggage off the
ship and onto the ferry to Betim. At Betim we boarded a bus
to Mapusa. From Mapusa after lunch, we got into another bus
to Camurlim or Colvale.

The neighbours were intimated by a yellow postcard or a blue
inland aerogramme letter of our arrival. They would kindly
ensure we had two maids ready for the month of May. One to
cook and one to clean. At times they also arranged a house
boy to do the errands.

  To get the old house up to standard took the better
  part of three days. The kitchen, store room and
  front courtyard was treated to a fresh layer of
  crow dung. For us kids that was truly a yucky
  chore. The elders would 

[Goanet-News] Romi Konkani: The story of a Goan script, born out of Portuguese influence, which faces possible decline (Karthik Malli, FirstPost.com)

[Goanet Reader]

Romi Konkani: The story of a Goan script, born out of
Portuguese influence, which faces possible decline

Karthik Malli Apr 25, 2019 09:27:00 IST
sai...@gmail.com or http://twitter.com/TianChengWen


  'Hi mhoji kudd'. This is the Konkani phrase that
  greets visitors to Old Goa’s majestic Basilica of
  Bom Jesus. It is a phrase written on the altar in
  bold Latin characters, and it means 'this is my
  body', a phrase from the Catholic Eucharist (a
  translation of the Latin 'hoc est corpus meum').
  Its religious significance aside, the inscription
  is a marker of another prominent facet of Goan
  culture -- Romi Konkani, a widely used,
  standardised Latin-based writing system, used by
  tens of thousands of Goans to write in their mother
  tongue.

The word 'standardised' is significant here. Unlike the
ad-hoc transliteration widely used for most other major
Indian languages (especially online), Romi Konkani isn't a
placeholder for a "traditional" script (read: a Brahmic
script, like Devanagari or Eastern Nagari). It is a
traditional script, one complete with its own set of spelling
conventions and literary history in print. Romi is the only
such Latin-based writing system used by an Indo-Aryan
language in India.

This written tradition developed as a result of Goa's
sustained cultural interaction with the Portuguese State, and
the Portuguese language, and although it has a history of
many centuries, its place in modern Goa is somewhat shaky --
a victim of linguistic nationalism's homogenising tendencies.

Drawing from Portuguese convention

In fact, Romi Konkani takes numerous cues from the spelling
system of Portuguese itself. It differs significantly from
the ad-hoc transliteration used by speakers of literary
Indo-Aryan languages on a number of points. One of these is
the way Romi Konkani deals with nasal vowels. Unlike English,
(but like Konkani and many other Indo-Aryan languages)
Portuguese features nasal vowels, denoted at the end of words
with a 'vowel + m/n' sequence, like in 'homem' (where the
final -em is a nasal E). Romi Konkani uses the same formula:
The M at the end of the names of world-famous coastal Goan
villages like Benaulim, Candolim, and Mandrem actually
indicates that the vowel preceding it is nasalised.

Another distinctive feature is the usage of the letter X to
denote the "sh" sound, as in xacuti, pronounced sha-coo-ti.
This too is directly lifted from Portuguese convention, like
in Portuguese, peixe (fish) pronounced pei-shi.

An interesting feature of Romi Konkani that isn't found in
English, the ad-hoc transliteration of other Indo-Aryan
languages, or Portuguese, is the usage of doubled consonants
to represent retroflex sounds. Moratthi is Marathi, while
Bharot is Bharat.

While minor, this feature is crucial in ensuring the
consistency of written Konkani by removing the possibility of
confusion between dental and retroflex sounds. It also helps
strengthen its nature as a standardised script by making Romi
markedly less ambiguous than, let's say, popular ad-hoc Hindi
romanisation, which is unable to distinguish between the d in
daal (lentils) and the d in daal (to put).

IMAGE: Romi Konkani: The story
of a Goan script, born out of
Portuguese influence, which
faces possible decline
A page from a primer on Konkani

The birth of Romi Konkani

  Romi's roots go deeper than one might expect,
  leading all the way back to the early Portuguese
  colonial period in the mid-1500s, centuries before
  the British had consolidated their control over
  India. When European missionaries first arrived in
  Goa in the early 16th century, they observed that
  Konkani was written using the old Kannada-Telugu
  script, in a local variant called Goykānaḍī (Kānaḍī
  means Kannada in Konkani and Marathi). Sanskrit and
  Marathi, languages used by local Brahmins for
  religious purposes and scholarship, were written in
  Devanagari.

The Catholic Church's Fourth Provincial Council of Goa in
1592 decreed that the Christian doctrine be translated in
local languages, so as to reach the common person. As a
result, Konkani began being used as a vehicle for the
dissemination of the teachings of Christianity on a much
larger scale.

  This tradition, however, took on an entirely new
  avatar with the work of Thomas Stephens, an
  English-born Jesuit (and contemporary of
  Shakespeare's) whose fascinating story is recounted
  in Jonathan Gil Harris' book *The First Firangis*.
  Stevens would end up wholeheartedly imbibing Goa's
  literary traditions, and combined it with religious
  zeal to produce some of the finest Christian
  literature India has ever seen. Although he began
  with a Marathi-language epic, the Krista Purana, he
 

[Goanet] Romi Konkani: The story of a Goan script, born out of Portuguese influence, which faces possible decline (Karthik Malli, FirstPost.com)

[Goanet Reader]

Romi Konkani: The story of a Goan script, born out of
Portuguese influence, which faces possible decline

Karthik Malli Apr 25, 2019 09:27:00 IST
sai...@gmail.com or http://twitter.com/TianChengWen


  'Hi mhoji kudd'. This is the Konkani phrase that
  greets visitors to Old Goa’s majestic Basilica of
  Bom Jesus. It is a phrase written on the altar in
  bold Latin characters, and it means 'this is my
  body', a phrase from the Catholic Eucharist (a
  translation of the Latin 'hoc est corpus meum').
  Its religious significance aside, the inscription
  is a marker of another prominent facet of Goan
  culture -- Romi Konkani, a widely used,
  standardised Latin-based writing system, used by
  tens of thousands of Goans to write in their mother
  tongue.

The word 'standardised' is significant here. Unlike the
ad-hoc transliteration widely used for most other major
Indian languages (especially online), Romi Konkani isn't a
placeholder for a "traditional" script (read: a Brahmic
script, like Devanagari or Eastern Nagari). It is a
traditional script, one complete with its own set of spelling
conventions and literary history in print. Romi is the only
such Latin-based writing system used by an Indo-Aryan
language in India.

This written tradition developed as a result of Goa's
sustained cultural interaction with the Portuguese State, and
the Portuguese language, and although it has a history of
many centuries, its place in modern Goa is somewhat shaky --
a victim of linguistic nationalism's homogenising tendencies.

Drawing from Portuguese convention

In fact, Romi Konkani takes numerous cues from the spelling
system of Portuguese itself. It differs significantly from
the ad-hoc transliteration used by speakers of literary
Indo-Aryan languages on a number of points. One of these is
the way Romi Konkani deals with nasal vowels. Unlike English,
(but like Konkani and many other Indo-Aryan languages)
Portuguese features nasal vowels, denoted at the end of words
with a 'vowel + m/n' sequence, like in 'homem' (where the
final -em is a nasal E). Romi Konkani uses the same formula:
The M at the end of the names of world-famous coastal Goan
villages like Benaulim, Candolim, and Mandrem actually
indicates that the vowel preceding it is nasalised.

Another distinctive feature is the usage of the letter X to
denote the "sh" sound, as in xacuti, pronounced sha-coo-ti.
This too is directly lifted from Portuguese convention, like
in Portuguese, peixe (fish) pronounced pei-shi.

An interesting feature of Romi Konkani that isn't found in
English, the ad-hoc transliteration of other Indo-Aryan
languages, or Portuguese, is the usage of doubled consonants
to represent retroflex sounds. Moratthi is Marathi, while
Bharot is Bharat.

While minor, this feature is crucial in ensuring the
consistency of written Konkani by removing the possibility of
confusion between dental and retroflex sounds. It also helps
strengthen its nature as a standardised script by making Romi
markedly less ambiguous than, let's say, popular ad-hoc Hindi
romanisation, which is unable to distinguish between the d in
daal (lentils) and the d in daal (to put).

IMAGE: Romi Konkani: The story
of a Goan script, born out of
Portuguese influence, which
faces possible decline
A page from a primer on Konkani

The birth of Romi Konkani

  Romi's roots go deeper than one might expect,
  leading all the way back to the early Portuguese
  colonial period in the mid-1500s, centuries before
  the British had consolidated their control over
  India. When European missionaries first arrived in
  Goa in the early 16th century, they observed that
  Konkani was written using the old Kannada-Telugu
  script, in a local variant called Goykānaḍī (Kānaḍī
  means Kannada in Konkani and Marathi). Sanskrit and
  Marathi, languages used by local Brahmins for
  religious purposes and scholarship, were written in
  Devanagari.

The Catholic Church's Fourth Provincial Council of Goa in
1592 decreed that the Christian doctrine be translated in
local languages, so as to reach the common person. As a
result, Konkani began being used as a vehicle for the
dissemination of the teachings of Christianity on a much
larger scale.

  This tradition, however, took on an entirely new
  avatar with the work of Thomas Stephens, an
  English-born Jesuit (and contemporary of
  Shakespeare's) whose fascinating story is recounted
  in Jonathan Gil Harris' book *The First Firangis*.
  Stevens would end up wholeheartedly imbibing Goa's
  literary traditions, and combined it with religious
  zeal to produce some of the finest Christian
  literature India has ever seen. Although he began
  with a Marathi-language epic, the Krista Purana, he
 

[Goanet] BJP's Dynasty Test in Goa: Will It Endorse Parrikar's Son's Legacy Bid? (Devika Sequeira, TheWire.in)

[Goanet Reader]

BJP's Dynasty Test in Goa: Will It Endorse Parrikar's Son's Legacy Bid?

In Goa, the BJP is currently up
against a curious dilemma: will
it encourage Utpal Parrikar's
claim to his father's political
legacy, or will it make a moral point?

PHOTO: Utpal and Abhijaat Parrikar at their father's funeral.
Credit: Narayan Pissurlekar

By Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

Politics
18/Apr/2019

‘Dynasty' and the perpetuation of ‘family rule' have figured
prominently in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election
offensive, helping him pillory the Gandhis and more recently
the Abdullahs and Muftis in the Jammu leg of his campaign.

But in Goa, the BJP is currently up against a curious
dilemma: will it encourage Utpal Parrikar's claim to his
father's political legacy, or will he be denied the ticket
for the by-election to Manohar Parrikar's seat to make a
moral point of it?

  Utpal, the older son of the former Goa chief
  minister, is currently campaigning for BJP's Lok
  Sabha candidates. But he is also the "front-runner"
  -- his media supporters claim -- for the BJP
  nomination to contest the Panaji assembly seat that
  fell vacant after Manohar Parrikar's death last
  month. The Panaji election will be held on May 19.
  Voting for the two Goa Lok Sabha seats and three
  other by-polls takes place on April 23.

Also read: Not Just Congress, BJP and Regional Parties Play
Dynasty Politics Too
https://thewire.in/politics/dynastic-democracy-congress-bjp

>From a complete outsider to politics, diligently distanced
from both party affairs and running of government by the
former CM, Utpal has shot to political prominence in less
than a month of Manohar Parrikar's passing away. Soon after
their father's death, both Parrikar's sons, Utpal and
Abhijaat, made public their intent "to continue his legacy of
service and dedication to the state and the nation".

The statement took family friends completely by surprise,
giving the former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar a handle to
take a dig at Utpal, saying he was "a thorough gentleman" but
hardly "political material". Velingkar who was once close to
Parrikar said the former chief minister "had never nurtured
his sons for a future in politics. He didn't even allow them
to set foot in the Sachivalaya."

  But the 39-year-old Utpal who has a masters in
  engineering from the US and runs a business in
  manufacturing bone implants for the export market
  has proved a quick learner and politically astute
  to seize the day, aware no doubt as everyone is, of
  the BJP's paucity of leaders in Goa post-Parrikar.

PHOTO Utpal Parrikar. Credit: Narayan Pissurlekar

Utpal's first test will be getting the nomination. Will the
Modi-Shah power centre be willing to field him in an election
right away and invite criticism of perpetuating 'family raj',
a slogan coined by the BJP itself to pin down the Congress in
Goa's 2012 election?

Even if the BJP does indeed give Utpal the Panaji ticket, the
bigger test will be to get past the main opponent, Babush
Monserrate.

  With the Goa Forward Party (GFP), a partner in the
  BJP-led government, till a day ago, the
  unpredictable Monserrate is a veteran of many
  political contests and a well-travelled politician
  in the sense of changing parties at least five
  times. He's won elections several times from other
  constituencies but lost out narrowly to the BJP in
  Panaji in March 2017. When Parrikar returned to
  head the Goa government in 2017, Monserrate
  withdrew from the contest in the June 2017 by-poll
  in what was seen as "match-fixing" to allow the
  former defence minister an easy contest against the
  Congress.

Also read: Manohar Parrikar: A Legacy Marred by Political
Compromises and U-Turns
https://thewire.in/politics/manohar-parrikar-goa-legacy

But this is a different ball game, Monserrate told The Wire.
"Come what may, I will be contesting the Panaji seat."

Monserrate joined the Congress on Thursday to get the party's
nomination for the constituency. His campaign is already in
top gear, he says. He scoffs at Parrikar junior's legacy bid.

Manohar Parrikar, he says, never mentioned his sons, and it
was in fact former BJP MLA Siddarth Kunkolienkar who nurtured
the constituency in Parrikar's absence. Let the voters decide
if they want to continue with the legacy or opt for
development, which is lacking in the capital city, he says.

Goa Forward Party's Babush Monserrate. Credit: The Wire

What makes Monserrate a tough opponent is his grip on the
city's municipal corporation where his panel holds the
majority. Parrikar had held the Panaji seat from 1994, but in
two elections his margins of victory were a narrow 1,000-odd
votes over the Congress, often necessitating backroom deals
between the BJP leader and 

[Goanet-News] Miramar beach is no place for another *samadhi* (Devika Sequeira, Herald)

[Goanet Reader]

Miramar beach is no place for another samadhi

The urban beach falls in the no
development zone. A far better
tribute to Parrikar would be to
restore the entire stretch of
beach to its former pristine glory

Devika Sequeira
devikaseque...@gmail.com

A memorial for the late chief minister Manohar Parrikar is
proposed on Miramar beach, adjacent to the Dayanand Bandodkar
samadhi. The decision was the very first announcement made by
the new Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. No public feedback was
sought, nor was an opinion expressed by other members of the
current ruling co-operative -- among them Goa Forward and
independents -- though such a construction would be in
violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone laws.

Already a large section of the beach at the site where the
late BJP leader was cremated has been sectioned off from
public view by a high wall of metal sheets.

Parrikar is only the second chief minister after
Bandodkar to die in office. Unlike the BJP leader
who spent months battling cancer, Bandodkar's
life was cut short at the peak of his political
orbit by a sudden heart attack. Strangely, both
passed away at similar ages: Bandodkar at 62,
Parrikar at little over 63 years. There was an
outpouring of people from the remotest villages
in Goa for the Bandodkar funeral in August of
1973. Just three years later, the Bandodkar
family would be struck by another personal
tragedy when the MGP leader's son Siddarth died
from a gunshot injury. His cremation which also
attracted huge crowds took place at the family's
property at Dona Paula.

Closer to the sea at Miramar, a small marble memorial was
built more than half a century ago in memory of Mulk Raj
Sachdev who died when he was lieutenant governor here in
1964.

A monument to Parrikar at Miramar might seem but a natural
postscript to his cremation there. The existence of another
samadhi also makes for a reasonable argument of precedent,
except that the structure dedicated to Bandodkar came up 45
years ago, long before the Coastal Regulation Zone law came
to be conceived. In fact as recently as 2015 a move by the
city's municipal corporation to restore the decrepit
children's park on the beach was turned down because of the
prevailing CRZ rules.

  Miramar comes under CRZ III and the beach is a no
  development zone. Those conversant with environment
  regulations confirm this. "Structures are permitted
  on the landward side of the road, but nothing on
  the beach side," an environmentalist affirms. A
  relevant clause permitting memorials is found only
  in areas marked CRZ IV -- that is in the water.
  That too, "in exceptional cases", the rules say,
  "with adequate environmental safeguards".

This clause is believed to have been tweaked by the union
environment ministry to specifically accommodate the
extravagant Rs 2,500 crore Shivaji statue which is to come up
in the sea off the coast of Mumbai near Nariman Point. Pegged
as the world's tallest statue, the project has already run
into a storm over major technical flaws and safety issues.

Let me go back to 2001, when Manohar Parrikar was confronted
with one of his first big challenges as chief minister in his
first term. His move to set up a Miramar beach management
plan, seen as an attempt to privatize the urban beach, came
up against strong resistance from the city's residents. After
a lot of back and forth, the government appointed a one-man
committee to conduct a public hearing and weigh the plan
against citizens' objections. Though Parrikar was personally
keen on the project he graciously accepted the recommendation
of the Nandkumar M Kamat committee to reject the plan.

"Miramar beach cannot be equated with any other beach in
Goa... People unequivocally consider Miramar beach as a
special case, a unique beach, so far left intact as a
valuable public asset, public commons unlike other beaches in
Goa which are already congested and commercialized. People
are vehemently opposed to any regulation or restriction on
access to the beach but welcome notified free access points
so as not to disturb the dune flora," the report said, adding
that "People would not support any constructions on the beach
side or landscaping on sand dunes or restricting fishing
activity or promoting any water sports activity".

So unusual was the concept of community participation in
decision making that the committee even chose to dedicate the
report to "the ecosystem, people of Goa, the fisherpeople in
particular and to Shri Manohar Parrikar, the man who launched
a novel and historic experiment in participatory governance
through this exercise of non-statutory public hearing and set
up a trend in India".

  To labour the point a bit, among the many voices to