[Goanet] Afrah Shafiq’s Alternate Reality

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/Afrah-Shafiq%E2%80%99s-alternate-reality/193833 If you have not yet visited, do not miss the last week of Afrah Shafiq’s engrossing multimedia masterpiece *Sultana’s Reality* at the increasingly invaluable Sunaparanta arts centre on the crest of Altinho in Panjim. One

[Goanet] Sunset at Curlies (O Heraldo, 11/9/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Sunset-at-Curlies/193868 Long before the notoriety that has brought bulldozers to its once-idyllic location in South Anjuna, this beach shack was the last bastion of hippie soul from an era of countercultural adventures that extended from Haight-Ashbury

[Goanet] When Jerry Met Sujata (O Heraldo, 17/9/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/When-Jerry-Met-Sujata/194077 Precisely twelve years ago in September 2010, the Bombay-based writer Jerry Pinto showed up at the fifth anniversary celebrations of Bookworm Library. in Taleigao “It was like a birthday party,” recalls Sujata Noronha – the cheerily formid

[Goanet] They're Killing Miramar (O Heraldo, 18/9/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/They%E2%80%99re-killing-Miramar/194112 Shock and anger at Miramar this week, as bulldozers suddenly showed up to tear through the last remaining stand of casuarina trees near the entrance, in yet another undesirable orgy of concretization being imposed withou

[Goanet] Fire on the Mountain (Kodai Chronicle, September 2022)

https://www.thekodaichronicle.com/uncategorized/the-rest-is-history/ Earlier this year, in an unusually bracing March chill that kept dusting the ridges of Landour with snow, I made my way down the crest of Mussoorie from behind the extravagantly turreted Chateau de Kapurthala, past the back entra

[Goanet] Hindus and Muslims, and Amos Noronha (O Heraldo, 25/9/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Hindus-and-Muslims-and-Amos-Noronha/194396 There are many odd, disturbing and worrisome aspects to the unexpected, unprecedented flare-up - on ostensibly Hindu-Muslim lines - in the ancient city of Leicester in the UK, and also the sheer mystery of why 2

[Goanet] The Africander Odyssey (O Heraldo, 1/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/The-Africander-Odyssey/194628 The upcoming issue of *London Review of Books* will be remembered for its landmark essay by Mahmood Mamdani, in which the highly regarded 76-year-old Indian-Ugandan academic – he was at Columbia University in New York and is now the Chanc

[Goanet] Listening to Putin (O Heraldo, 2/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Listening-to-Putin/194673 Prideful and ornery, and speaking directly to history, Vladimir Putin made an extraordinary global address earlier this week. At the Sept 30 Kremlin ceremony formally annexing four regions of Ukraine that the Russian military oc

[Goanet] The Rise (and Fall?) of Goa's Book Ecosystem (O Heraldo, 8/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/The-Rise-and-Fall-of-Goa%E2%80%99s-Book-Ecosystem/194886 27 long years ago in 1995, along with many other curious people, I connected my telephone to my computer and dialled up to the Internet for the first time. This was on Netscape Navigator, and the best search eng

[Goanet] Becoming "Cruella" (O Heraldo, 9/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Becoming-%E2%80%98Cruella%E2%80%99/194927 The most powerful woman of Indian origin in the world tilted further into cartoonish villainousness this week, during the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. At every given opportunity, Suella Fernandes

[Goanet] Nasreen Mohamedi: Against the Grain (O Heraldo, 15/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/Nasreen-Mohamedi-Against-the-Grain/195191 Uncommon paradoxes abound in the art, reputation and startling posthumous trajectory of Nasreen Mohamedi, the enigmatic modernist who died at 53 in 1990. In the past two decades, her spare, subtle oeuvre – in paintings, drawin

[Goanet] Adeus, Panjim? (O Heraldo, 16/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Adeus-Panjim/195251 Earlier this week, lifelong Panjim resident and Travel & Tourism Association of Goa office- bearer Jack Sukhijia – he is named for his grandfather, the ‘Father of the Opinion Poll’ Jack Sequeira – posted on Facebook: “Have heard state

[Goanet] The Marvellous, Mysterious JoeGoaUk (O Heraldo, 22/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/The-Marvellous-Mysterious-JoeGoaUk/195539 This is my long-overdue tribute to an intriguing senior citizen, known only by the cryptic Internet moniker of JoeGoaUk. Over many years, this intrepid anonymous correspondent has shared tens of thousands of photographs, along

[Goanet] Goa’s Great Derangement (O Heraldo, 23/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Goa%E2%80%99s-great-derangement/195591 Although parts of his instant classic were written here, Amitav Ghosh wasn’t thinking specifically about Goa in his urgent, game-changing *The Great Derangement *(University of Chicago Press, 2016). The great noveli

[Goanet] ABC of Alexyz (and Marialena) - O Heraldo, 28/10/202roh2

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/ABC-of-Alexyz-and-Marialena/195879 50 strong, sparkling years into her professional career at the epicentre of the western classical music world in Vienna, you would never have expected to find Marialena Fernandes playing her heart out by the roadside in Siolim. Nonet

[Goanet] Reading About Rishi (O Heraldo, 30/10/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Reading-about-Rishi/195919 The elfin 42-year-old is a walking trigger warning. The first UK Prime Minister since Disraeli whose ethnic roots lie outside the British Isles, and the youngest in 200 years, Rishi Sunak is also an observant Hindu who made his

Re: [Goanet] Reading About Rishi (O Heraldo, 30/10/2022)

is the ability to navigate > the road to economic advancement. > > > Mervyn > > > > > > On Sunday, October 30, 2022 at 02:25:16 a.m. CDT, V M > wrote: > > > https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Reading-about-Rishi/195919 > > The elfin 42-year-old

[Goanet] Karen Anand: Masala Memsahib (O Heraldo, 5/11/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/Karen-Anand-Masala-Memsahib/196231 Long before Nigella Lawson (who was born in the same year, but began focusing on food much later), India had its own posh, alluring “domestic goddess” in Karen Anand, who started writing in *Gentleman* and *The Independent* while she

[Goanet] Ideas @ Goa Heritage Festival, Campal (Nov 15-19)

*FREE & OPEN TO ALL* *goaheritagefestival.in * *15th November, Tuesday* 10am: Festival Inaugural with Damodar Mauzo + Launch: *Parmal: Aicat Mozo Tavo* 11: Gabriella D’Cruz: Edible Estuary 11:45 Maria de Lourdes Bravo da Costa Rodrigues: Falsehoods a

[Goanet] Here Comes Claire (O Heraldo, 13/11/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Here-comes-Claire/196628 It feels almost routine when another child of the Konkan ascends ever-greater heights in the west, but this week’s appointment of Claire Coutinho as the UK’s new Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing really takes another

[Goanet] The Immigrant World Cup (O Heraldo, 4/12/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Immigrant-World-Cup/197622 Sometimes the images streaming out of Qatar are almost too contradictory to process. Here’s only one example - just last month on October 3rd, the French parliament was suspended after Grégoire de Fournas – a newly elected far-

[Goanet] "So Quick The Deep Sea Did Swallow Them All" - O Heraldo, 3/12/2022

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/%E2%80%98So-Quick-The-Deep-Sea-Did-Swallow-Them-All%E2%80%99/197583 Last month, I received an unusual email from Mervyn Maciel, my long-time correspondent (although we have still not met in person). “I don’t know if you are aware that I lost five members of my family

[Goanet] Identity, Mispronunciations, Heritage: Goa Writers

https://scroll.in/article/1034362/identity-mispronunciations-heritage-seven-goa-writers-consider-whats-in-a-name

[Goanet] Casino-mukt Goa? (O Heraldo, 11/12/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Casinomukt-Goa/197979 All the snarled traffic and disrupted schedules notwithstanding, Panjim’s citizens have one big reason to thank Narendra Modi for today’s flying visit. It turns out the prime minister so dislikes the cheap vulgarity of the gambling

[Goanet] Serendipitous Opportunities? (Navhind Times, 18/12/2022)

https://www.navhindtimes.in/2022/12/18/magazines/panorama/serendipitous-opportunities/ Considering the minuscule scale of Panjim, and the giant ambitions of the Serendipity Arts Festival that has already played out citywide four times previously (during which time I myself curated three exhibition

[Goanet] 25 Years Downstream with Orijit Sen (O Heraldo, 10/12/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/25-Years-Downstream-with-Orijit-Sen/197925 His artwork has attracted international attention pretty much throughout his adult life, but it is Corjuem-based Orijit Sen’s acute, sparkling writerly prowess that really wowed me in the brilliantly produced 25th anniversar

[Goanet] Mazel Tov Nadav Lapid (O Heraldo, 18/12/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Mazel-tov-Nadav-Lapid/198320 We’re almost at the end of an extremely tumultuous end-pandemic twelve months filled with astonishing events, but there is no doubt who is Man of The Year when it comes to speaking truth to power, and standing up for what is

[Goanet] O Come All Ye Faithful (to MoCA) - O Heraldo, 17/12/2022

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/O-Come-All-Ye-Faithful-to-MoCA/198268 In this holiday season filled with good cheer, and gorgeous artistic outpourings extending all across the Mandovi riverfront to every corner of India’s smallest state, it is wonderful to see the newly reconfigured Museum of Christ

[Goanet] Libia Lobo Sardesai’s Voice of Freedom (O Heraldo, 24/12/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/Libia-Lobo-Sardesai%E2%80%99s-Voice-of-Freedom/198571 History came crackling alive on 20th December earlier this week, when the great Libia “Libby” Lobo Sardesai delivered an unexpected up-close-and-personal account of the *Voz de Liberdade* underground radio station

[Goanet] The Hopes and Fears of All the Years (Mint, 25/12/2022)

https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/opinion/christmas-in-bethlehem-is-about-looking-beyond-miracles-111671894840580.html Way back in 1984, when I was still only a teenager, my family received special permissions to visit “The Holy Land” that were printed on pieces of paper we were told to discard

[Goanet] Do They Know? (O Heraldo, 25/12/2022)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/By-invitation/Do-They-Know/198602 It is almost four full decades since the highly unlikely figure of Bob Geldof (a scruffy punk rocker from Ireland who fronted the Boomtown Rats) spearheaded Band Aid, an unprecedented “supergroup” of world-famous pop musicians who rec

[Goanet] India in the Inferno (Dhaka Tribune, 23/4/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/04/23/op-ed-india-in-the-inferno Every day that passes, another horrific set of new lows are being plumbed in India, as the country continues to be blasted by the worst and most devastating Covid-19 surge that any country has experienced throughout t

[Goanet] The Dystopian Dichotomies of Vaccine Apartheid (Dhaka Tribune, 30/4/2021)

All this past week, the news was dominated by societies that seem to be living on separate planets. In the USA, the CDC issued new guidelines allowing 100 million citizens (the roughly 30% of the population that is fully vaccinated against Covid-19) to go without masks in various settings. Meanw

[Goanet] The Center Cannot Hold: India’s State Elections (Dhaka Tribune, 7/5/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/05/07/op-ed-the-centre-cannot-hold-india-s-state-elections In the throes of the most apocalyptic Covid-19 surge any part of the world has suffered, three crucial Indian states have rejected the BJP political juggernaut. Those losses, as well as the

[Goanet] Judgement Day - Comixense and the Indian comics scene (Scroll.in, 13/5/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/994781/with-comixense-a-new-magazine-aims-to-introduce-young-indians-to-the-magic-of-graphic-storytelling The winding journey of Indian comics has taken another leap towards respectability with *Comixense*, the brand-new quarterly magazine produced by Orjit Sen, Francesca

[Goanet] Pandemic Goa: Who Belongs? Who is to Blame? (The Hindu, 15/5/2021)

www.thehindu.com/society/who-belongs-to-goa-this-question-resurfaces-as-the-state-battles-the-raging-pandemic/article34554870.ece On May 1, India’s smallest State crested a milestone: a record 54 people died from COVID-19. Social media erupted with anger about how the number of casualties in Goa w

[Goanet] India’s Judiciary into the Breach? (Dhaka Tribune, 16/5/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/2021/05/15/op-ed-india-s-judiciary-into-the-breach In an unprecedented flurry of rulings, statements and interventions, India’s courts have waded directly into the country’s ongoing Covid-19 crisis. In several different states, as well as the Supreme Court, th

[Goanet] Easterine Kire’s Clear Bright Sound over a Sleeping World (Scroll.in, 20/05/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/995300/naga-writer-easterine-kires-clear-bright-sound-over-a-sleeping-world The protagonist of *The Man Who Lost His Spirit*, one of ten hauntingly brief stories in Easterine Kire’s spare, exquisite new collection *The Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man* (Seagull Books, Rs. 699

[Goanet] Farewell, Maestro (Times of India, 21/5/2021)

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/goa/a-tribute-to-maestro-santiago-lusardi-girelli/articleshow/82820341.cms >From the moment Santiago Lusardi Girelli made his first appearance in Goa in 2013, it was clear the Spanish-Argentinean dynamo was someone extraordinary. I vividly

[Goanet] Another Lesson fromTeacher Shailaja (Dhaka Tribune, 21/5/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/05/21/op-ed-another-lesson-from-teacher-shailaja In the same week that India set another horrific Covid-19 world record with 4529 deaths in 24 hours – experts say the unofficial total is much higher – the country also lost the architect of its most p

[Goanet] Hockney, Antilla, Central Vista: Hijacking the Public Space (The Hindu, 29/5/2021)

https://www.thehindu.com/society/the-central-vista-project-exemplifies-the-anti-democratic-vision-colonising-indias-public-spaces/article34674703.ece There’s a sucker born every minute, and the latest is the Mayor of London. On May 11, Sadiq Khan heralded “the first of a series of major art proje

[Goanet] Searching for Aparanta (on Goa' Statehood Day) -- Times of India, 30/5/2021

h ttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/goa/goa-statehood-day-special-searching-for-aparanta/articleshow/83081390.cms?from=mdr You hav

[Goanet] Open Letter to Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan from The People of Goa (O Heraldo, 1/6/2021)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Open-Letter-to-PT-Rajan/175575 Dear Dr. Thiaga Rajan, Please accept our sincere gratitude for your forthright and highly principled “Statement to the People of Goa” dated May 30th. In their entirety, your comments truly evoke the spirit of the great Thanthai Periyar

[Goanet] From Madurai to Dabolim: a Tamil Nadu minister wins fans in Goa (Mint, 3/6/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/how-tamil-nadu-s-finance-minister-got-his-fans-in-goa-11622650732791.html Less than a month after Palanivel Thiagarajan became M.K.Stalin’s finance minister in the new Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu, the legislator from Madurai has

[Goanet] The Great Collapse of the Indian Economy (Dhaka Tribune, 4/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/04/op-ed-the-great-indian-collapse On May 31st, India’s National Statistical Office released its finding that the country’s GDP contracted by 7.3% over the past year, signifying the first reversal since 1979, and the greatest retrenchment since In

[Goanet] Book Review -- Encyclopaedia of the Visual Arts of Maharashtra (Scroll, 5/6/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/996729/in-an-encyclopedia-of-maharashtras-visual-arts-vivid-portraits-that-brush-across-linguistic-lines In our smartphone-saturated times, with every scrap of information you might want to know seemingly already at your fingertips, what good reasons could possibly exist

[Goanet] Book Review -- Desi Delicacies: Food Writing from Muslim South Asia (Hindustan Times, 5/6/2021)

https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-desi-delicacies-food-writing-from-muslim-south-asia-edited-by-claire-chambers-101622807669991.html On April 12, after a culinarily-themed episode of *Browned Off*, her fabulously arch podcast in conversation with publisher Faiza Khan, the UK-based Pakist

[Goanet] The Legend of Sunil Chhetri (Dhaka Tribune, 11/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/11/op-ed-the-legend-of-sunil-chhetri “There’s no comparison between me and Lionel Messi,” said Sunil Chhetri for the umpteenth time, after scoring both sensational goals that defeated Bangladesh in the joint qualifying match for the 2022 World Cup

[Goanet] Judgement Day - Aminder Dhaliwal

https://scroll.in/article/997364/how-aminder-dhaliwal-leaped-from-instagram-to-become-a-superstar-in-the-world-of-graphic-novels >From the heart of the scattered subcontinental diaspora, an uncannily prescient and funny UK-born Punjabi Sikh Canadian-Californian animator has burst from Instagram to

[Goanet] Fudging the Covid-19 Numbers (Dhaka Tribune, 18/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/18/op-ed-fudging-the-numbers Earlier this week on June 15, the academic and author Chinmay Tumbe posted some alarming findings on Twitter. He wrote: “We now have decent estimates of excess mortality for [the] first five months of 2021 for 4 large

[Goanet] Book Review: Girish Karnad and mid-century Dharwad

https://scroll.in/article/998110/revisiting-mid-century-dharwad-in-girish-karnads-autobiography-interrogating-the-tug-of-nostalgia In her delightfully bibliophilic 2018 memoir *Listen to Me*, the novelist Shashi Deshpande describes her family’s dispersal from the small college town where she had g

[Goanet] Tracking the Delta Variant (Dhaka Tribune, 25/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/25/op-ed-tracking-the-delta-variant Earlier this week on June 23, the American epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding tweeted “Right on cue…#DeltaVariant has arrived in the low #Vaccination states of America and setting off sharp increases in #Covid19

[Goanet] Tracing the Contours of Indian Apartheid (Dhaka Tribune, 2/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/02/op-ed-tracing-the-contours-of-indian-apartheid Earlier this week, results of the largest-ever survey of religious attitudes across India delivered an unsettling portrait of sectarian anxieties. Pew Research Centre interviewed nearly 30,000 peo

[Goanet] Further Chapters for Jewish India? (Scroll, 7/7/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/999497/reading-the-complex-reality-of-indias-jewish-communities-tiny-but-still-expanding In her aching, confessional *Book of Esther*, the author Esther David (her original family name was Dandekar) describes attempting to “make aliyah” via the Law of Return, which gives

Re: [Goanet] Further Chapters for Jewish India? (Scroll, 7/7/2021)

Thank you for the kind feedback + interesting comments, Mervyn. One day I'm going to go check out these Shirazi... On Wed, 7 Jul 2021, 22:20 Mervyn Lobo, wrote: > On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, 02:53:45 a.m. CDT, V M > wrote: > > > https://scroll.in/article/999497/reading-th

[Goanet] A Tale of Two Deaths (Dhaka Tribune, 9/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/09/op-ed-a-tale-of-two-deaths In the span of just 48 hours this week, two famous old men passed away very close to each other in the Mumbai locality of Bandra. Their lifestyles were wildly divergent, but the life stories of Dilip Kumar and Stan Sw

[Goanet] Who'll Stop The Rain (Dhaka Tribune, 16/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/16/op-ed-who-ll-stop-the-rain It has rained non-stop all this week in my home town of Panjim, the pocket-sized capital city of India’s smallest state. Right outside where I live beside the estuary where the Mandovi river meets the Arabian Sea at

[Goanet] Rohan & Kumar Go to the Big Leagues (Scroll, 23/7/2021)

https://scroll.in/global/1000840/rohan-and-kumar-go-to-the-baseball-big-leagues I will never forget the chills that jolted my spine when I first chanced upon the great sportswriter George Plimpton’s explosive *Sports Illustrated* story headlined *The Curious Case of Sidd Finch*. It was way back in

[Goanet] McCarthyism and India’s Moment of Truth (Dhaka Tribune, 24/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/24/op-ed-mccarthyism-and-india-s-moment-of-truth Sometimes, all it takes to change the course of history is a single act of conscience. That’s what happened on June 9, 1954 in the USA, during yet another inquisitorial public hearing in Joseph McC

[Goanet] Álvaro Pereira belongs to the Ages (O Heraldo, 29/7/2021)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/Álvaro-Pereira-belongs-to-the-Ages/178022 History turns and twists in unpredictable ways, but Álvaro Pereira never failed to stand up for what was right when it counted the most. The gentlemanly anti-colonial Freedom Fighter, who passed away yesterday at his home in

[Goanet] Bad Blood on India’s North East Borderlands? (Dhaka Tribune, 30/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/30/op-ed-bad-blood-on-the-borderlands Violent border disputes flare from national antagonism, but what happened between Assam and Mizoram earlier this week is beyond bizarre. On July 26, 200 armed police from Assam raided checkpoints that separat

[Goanet] The True Face of India at its Best (Dhaka Tribune, 6/8/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/06/op-ed-the-true-face-of-india-at-its-best Every four years in predictable rotation, the Olympic Games become another pearl-clutching moment for India’s chattering classes. As every day passes, the nation of 1.3 billion continues to fall far dow

[Goanet] Pastéis de Nata de Goa (Scroll, 12/8/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/1002638/in-goas-delectable-pasteis-de-nata-trend-a-state-serves-up-a-taste-of-its-cosmopolitan-history Earlier this year, as Goa lurched its way in and out of the most slipshod Covid-19 lockdowns imaginable, where everything was open while the authorities pretended not to

[Goanet] Here Comes the Third Wave (Dhaka Tribune, 13/8/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/13/op-ed-here-comes-the-third-wave Red flags are popping up all over India to indicate that Covid-19 is about to roar back to wreak its devastation all over again. Epidemiologists refer to the average number of people who get infected from each p

[Goanet] Falling Hu(man)ity

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/20/op-ed-falling-hu-man-ity Captured twenty years apart, two viscerally shocking images [SEE ATTACHMENT] from New York City and Kabul come together to tell one of the dominant stories of our interlinked and increasingly calamitous 21st century. T

[Goanet] The Great Indian Fire Sale (Dhaka Tribune, 27/8/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/27/op-ed-the-great-indian-fire-sale It is a gala week for Indian kleptocrats, after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an extraordinary 80 billion dollar privatization programme encompassing 13 different sectors of the economy, includin

[Goanet] Life and Death in the 9/11 Century (Dhaka Tribune, 10/9/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/09/10/op-ed-life-and-death-in-the-9-11-century Precisely two decades ago outside my home on the Hudson River waterfront, I watched the World Trade Centre towers crumble into a mountain of ashes. Our shocked knot of neighbours called out in involuntar

[Goanet] Rethinking Panjim's Cultural Capital (Times of India, 19/9/2021)

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/goa/its-time-to-rethink-panajis-cultural-capital/articleshow/86110577.cms An excellent decision from an unexpected source has cast another highlight on Panjim’s superb heritage infrastructure, where the success of both private and non-state

[Goanet] Commander Solo: Abhilash Tomy (GQ, September 2021)

Call him Abhilash. Like the narrator in Moby Dick, the “watery part of the world” is his obsession. In that classic 19th century novel, Captain Ahab compulsively pursues “the great white whale”, but our hero’s fixation is the Golden Globe Race to circumnavigate the world solo. Consider these number

[Goanet] Déjà vu in Goa's Open Season for Tourism (Mint, 24/09/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/theres-d-j-vu-in-goa-over-an-open-season-for-tourism-11632414743365.html A distinct pall of dread gripped Goa this week, after the state government abruptly threw open the casinos, spas and massage parlours that had remained closed since April. Chief minis

[Goanet] Lusitanian in Hind by Aravind Adiga (2013)

Note: today is Francisco Luis Gomes's birth anniversary --> The Lusitanian In Hind Francisco Luis Gomes, Goan polymath, was one of our earliest patriots. He can’t lie forgotten. “I was born in India, cradle of poetry, philosophy and history, today its tomb,” wrote the young Indian. “I belong to t

[Goanet] Stress Test for Indian Democracy (Dhaka Tribune, 01/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/01/op-ed-a-stress-test-for-indian-democracy An unexpected surge of non-stop intraparty hubbub is throwing up novel configurations that have considerable implications for India’s overall political scenario. The most public intrigues have been unde

[Goanet] Tracing Pandora’s Finger of Scorn (Dhaka Tribune, 8/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/08/op-ed-tracing-pandora-s-finger-of-scorn More than 2000 years ago, the first authorial poet of the western world, Hesiod wrote about the even more ancient myth of Pandora. Driven by curiosity, this first-ever woman, the mother of all humanity,

[Goanet] Expanding the Fault Lines of Indian Apartheid (Dhaka Tribune, 15/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/15/op-ed-expanding-the-fault-lines-of-indian-apartheid “This isn’t apartheid?” On Oct 12, journalist Kashif Kakvi posted that question on Twitter alongside a short, sordid video from Madhya Pradesh where, he said “Indore Police booked 4 Muslims fo

[Goanet] The Eternal Sunset of Vamona Navelcar (O Heraldo, 19/10.2021)

“O meu passado é tudo quanto não consegui ser,” said Vamona Navelcar to me at our first meeting almost two decades ago, and then, with his characteristically mischievous smile, the great artist translated the line from Fernando Pessoa’s *Book of Disquiet* for my benefit: “my past is everything that

[Goanet] Khela Hobe in Goa? (Dhaka Tribune, 29/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/29/op-ed-khela-hobe-in-goa Big intrigue in India’s smallest state, as Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress surges noisily into Goa’s political landscape in anticipation of legislative elections to be held early next year. This weekend,

[Goanet] An Escalation in India’s Culture War (Dhaka Tribune, 5/11/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/11/05/op-ed-an-escalation-in-india-s-culture-war Last Sunday, just before India played New Zealand in the T20 Cricket World Cup, the journalist and strident right-wing troll Abhijit Iyer-Mitra tweeted: “Here’s to wishing the @BCCI - for profit - team

[Goanet] The Suffrage of Goa (Mint, 11/11/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/inside-the-intriguing-quest-for-goa-11636560398078.html An incredible carnival is playing out in Panjim, the tiny riverside capital of Goa. Every morning the main thoroughfares are festooned anew with banners, placards and flags to herald the arrival of some

[Goanet] Toxic Air knows no Boundaries (Dhaka Tribune, 12/11/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/11/12/op-ed-toxic-air-knows-no-boundaries Precisely one week ago, China’s capital city went into high alert about its dangerously deteriorating air quality. The municipal government in Beijing immediately clamped down on unnecessary traffic, shut dow

[Goanet] The Unicorn Indian CEO (Dhaka Tribune, 3/12/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/12/03/the-unicorn-indian-ceo Non-stop hoopla rages in the Indian media after Jack Dorsey, the enigmatic founder-CEO of Twitter, announced on November 29 that he was stepping down on that same day, and his replacement would be 37-year-old Parag Agrawa

[Goanet] High Anxiety in India's Smallest State (Mint, 9/12/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/economy/why-anxiety-is-high-in-india-s-smallest-state-11638978871499.html There was considerable trepidation when registrations opened for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India on 20-28th November. The previous edition, planned for the same time last

[Goanet] Damodar Mauzo's Clear Stream of Reason (Times of India, 12/12/2021)

(note: no link available, but the clipping is attached below) Non-stop jubilation continues to enliven India’s literary landscape, after the December 7 thunderbolt of good news that Damodar “Bhai” Mauzo was named the 57th Jnanpith Award winner. Previous winners of the country’s most prestigious h

[Goanet] Standing Together: Viva Bangladesh! (Dhaka Tribune, 17/12/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/12/17/standing-together-viva-bangladesh >From my perspective, living in India’s smallest state, even in this season of big anniversaries – 75 years since 1947, and 60 years after the end of Portuguese rule in Goa – the occasion of 50 years of indepen

[Goanet] Goa at 60: Still "The Unique" (Outlook, 19/12/2021)

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-still-the-unique-goa-at-60/405790 Just two years after the swift decapitation and annexation of the 451-year-old Estado da India by Jawaharlal Nehru’s troops in 1961, the novelist and writer Graham Greene visited the former Portuguese colony.

[Goanet] Christmas in Goa encompasses the world (Mint Lounge,

https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/christmas-in-goa-encompasses-the-world-with-great-felicity-111640270064982.html Nothing much has changed in Goa since the French adventurer François Pyrard de Laval spent the holiday season here over 400 years ago. “All the streets are then hung with

[Goanet] Timeless Tables: Martin's Corner (Conde Nast Traveller, 27/12/2021)

https://www.cntraveller.in/story/timeless-tables-why-goas-martins-corner-is-still-a-crowd-favourite/ As recently as three decades ago, the little seaside hamlet of Betalbatim was still the postcard-perfect image of an archetypical Goan idyll. It dozed peacefully most days, with only fishermen ever

[Goanet] The Third Wave is a Tsunami (Dhaka Tribune, 7/1/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/01/06/the-third-wave-is-a-tsunami On January 5, India’s smallest state – where I live – registered over 1000 new Covid-19 infections for the first time in almost six months. For some perspective on what that figure means for Goa’s tiny population of under t

[Goanet] Jerry Pinto on Damodar 'Bhai' Mauzo (plus interview)

https://scroll.in/article/1014594/i-had-no-konkani-books-to-read-it-was-the-language-in-which-one-laughed-damodar-mauzo

[Goanet] Exeunt Gerson da Cunha (1929 – 2022)

http://epaper.heraldgoa.in/articlepage.php?articleid=OHERALDO_GOA_20220109_14_1&width=548px&edition=oHeraldo&curpage=14 With his abrupt January 7 exit, Gerson da Cunha has brought down the final curtain on the cultural heyday of Bombay in its most exciting period of relevance. He was also one of t

[Goanet] Letters from London: Maria Aurora Couto (1937 - 2022)

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-incredible-journey-of-maria-aurora-couto-7728621/ At the age of 43, several separate factors came together in the life of Maria Aurora Couto, with considerable impact for the trajectory of Indian literature. The late author, who passed away at

[Goanet] The importance of being Rishi Sunak (Dhaka Tribune, 21/1/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/01/20/the-importance-of-being-rishi-sunak Barring events entirely unforeseen, Boris Johnson is finished as the UK prime minister. One of the main architects of the epochal blunder of Brexit, this egregiously shambolic – but still dangerous – buffoon has fai

[Goanet] Postcards from the Edge: Goa Elections 2022 (Outlook Magazine, 21/2/2021)

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-goa-election-2022-the-good-the-bad-and-the-bizzare/305363 On January 16, the contortions in Goa’s poll-bound politics achieved another lowlight when Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenço resigned from the Trinamool Congress, and signalled his intentions t

[Goanet] Trashing the Magic of Charles Correa

https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/trashing-the-magic-of-charles-correa-1564737541802.html Still reeling from the unprecedented flooding that paralysed Panaji last week, residents of Goa’s pocket-sized capital were further shocked and dismayed when the state minister of art and culture

[Goanet] Goa Submerged: Postcards from the Age of Climate Change (Mint, 20/8/2019)

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/living-on-the-edge-in-india-s-coastlines-1566239091032.html Earlier this month on August 6, all nine rivers of India’s smallest state spilled their banks and spread fast into paddy fields, then flooded right into villages and towns. Incessant, pounding rain and

[Goanet] Christianity’s Place in the Idea of India (HT, 23/8/2019)

https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-carpenters-and-kings-by-siddhartha-sarma-and-the-churches-of-india-by-joanne-taylor/story-Oj0cEgzMcAZCADmTSbZT3K.html Amidst India’s ongoing, ruthlessly executed telescoping of political power into unprecedented dominance for the BJP of Amit Shah and Nar

[Goanet] Lessons from London's pollution revolution (Mint, 15/10/2019)

https://www.livemint.com/news/world/lessons-from-london-pollution-revolution-11571062442464.html TS Eliot wrote “April is the cruellest month” but for Delhi and most of North India it’s November that qualifies. That’s when air pollution spikes dramatically higher, from the year-round hazardous to

[Goanet] Gau Wapsi (original title): Mint, 30/10/2019

https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/the-curious-case-of-goa-s-meat-eating-cows-11572427614148.html Mirth and consternation erupted nationwide last week after Goa’s cabinet minister Michael Lobo reported that cows in his constituency had developed stubbornly counter-intuitive dietary pref

[Goanet] ICG and Goa Writers invite you to Inauguration of The 10th Anniversary Edition of GALF, 5.30 pm on Thursday 5 December at Laran Lawns, ICG

*www.internationalcentregoa.com* View this email in your browser

[Goanet] Imphal Talking (GQ, 12/2019)

https://www.gqindia.com/get-smart/content/why-manipurs-capital-imphal-is-indias-best-kept-cultural-secret Soft rain enveloped my footsteps the first time I walked the streets of Imphal to meet Ronid (Akhu) Chingangbam. The 38-year-old musician dropped me an internet pin to reach his recording sess

[Goanet] Mundo Goa Dialogues @ Serendipity Arts Festival

Dear friends, Please do attend this interesting slate of introductions + discussions, as well as the first-ever Serendipity Arts Festival Open Mikes! There's an amazing line-up, and access is very convenient to the Art Gallery @ Maquinez Palace (the Entertainment Society of Goa premises next to th

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