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tambdimati is an online review of art, culture, news and opinion relating to Goa, the smallest state in the subcontinent. | Email The Management

October 20, 2010

(Another) Old Man on a Bike: Simon Gandolfi

I am 77. I should know better, grow up, act my age, potter sedately round a golf course in an electric buggy. But, no, I choose to spend six months exploring the Indian subcontinent.

My wife, of course, is pleased to have me out of the house. Men, when they don’t work five days a week, occupy too much space. We have irritating habits – not putting the seat back down, leaving dirty socks and underpants on the floor, failing to put the milk and butter back in the refrigerator.

What do my sons think? The older two, in their 40s, merely shrug; Dad’s acting true to form. But Joshua and Jedediah are university age. Ancient Dad playing Che Guevara is an embarrassment. Their gap-year friends message me: “Hi, Simon, have you left yet? We’re in the Andaman Islands.”

To which Joshua posts: “Oh, my God, my 78-year-old dad on Facebook.”

I reply: “Only 76, please. I will celebrate my 77th birthday in Goa.

(Read the rest of this article at the Guardian)

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December 10, 2010

1st Goa Arts + Literary Festival !!!

The International Centre Goa, Dona Paula- Goa
December 12th – 14th, 2010

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

10:00 am
Inaugural session with U R Ananthamurthy

11:30 am
Goa Writers Showcase: Celebrating 100 years of Bakibab Borkar
Hosted by Dr. Kiran Budkuley

2:00 pm
Panel Discussion: Independent Publishing in the Internet Age
Urvashi Butalia [Zubaan], Frederick Noronha [Goa 1556] and Leonard Fernandes [Cinammon Teal]

3:30 pm
Goa Artist Showcase: Pioneering Land Installation Art in India
A presentation by Subodh Kerkar

4:30 pm
Abbe Faria and Hypnotism in India
(Including live demonstration of Hypnotism)
Lee Siegel

5:30 pm
Who is the Outsider?
U R Ananthamurthy in conversation with Damodar Mauzo
Hosted by Jose Lourenco

6:30 pm
North East Showcase
Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih in conversation with Jerry Pinto

7:30 pm
Book release: The Avenue of Kings by Sudeep Chakravarti
In conversation with Aniruddha Bahal

Followed by Concert from Heritage Jazz

Monday, 13th December 2010

10:00
Goa Artist Showcase: Where Photography Goes Next
Alex Fernandes, P. Madhavan and Edson Dias
In conversation with Georgina Maddox

11:00 am
Goa Writers Showcase: Konkani Katha – is it Mature?
Damodar Mauzo, Pundalik Naik, Mahableshwar Sail and others

12:30 pm
Panel Discussion: Is this a Golden Age for Regional Literature?
U. R. Ananthamurthy, Mridula Garg and Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih
Hosted by Jose Lourenco

2:30
Panel Discussion: Media Ethics post-Radia Tapes (co-hosted by GUJ)
Dilip D’Souza, Aniruddha Bahal, Sandesh Prabhudesai, Prakash Kamat & others
Hosted by Ashley do Rozario

4:00
Poetry Reading: Co-hosted by Alliance Française, CLP Instituto Camões
Poems by Manohar Rai Sardessai, Paulino Dias, Fernando Leal, Carlos Eugenio Ferreira, Leopold Sedar Senghor
Readers: Dr Anuradha Wagle, Dr Edith Furtado, Joanne De Cunha, Claire Chaize, Priya Tadkodkar, Natacha Gomes

5:00 pm
Outside/In: A Life in Photography
Pablo Bartholemew in conversation with Georgina Maddox
Hosted by Goa Centre for Alternate Photography

6:30 pm
Readings:
Samanth Subramanian [Following Fish] (winner of 2010 Shakti Bhatt First Book Award), with Dilip D’Souza [Roadrunner]

7:30 pm
Book Release: Leela: A Patchwork Life by Jerry Pinto
In conversation with Rahul Srivastava

8:00 pm  Concert by C-TAG String Quartet

Tuesday, 14th December 2010

10:00
North East Showcase
Manikuntala Bhattacharya in conversation with Savia Viegas

11:00 am
Goa Writers Showcase: Konkani and Marathi Poetry
Hosted by Vishnu Surya Wagh

2:00 pm
A Critic’s Eye: Richard Bartholemew
Pablo Bartholemew in conversation with Roselyn D’Mello

3:00 pm
Book Release: Personal Effects by Manohar Shetty
In conversation with Jerry Pinto

4:00 pm
Creativity versus Commerce
Venita Coelho in conversation with Saeed Mirza

5:00 pm
Goa Art Showcase: Tradition of Goan Gold Jewellery
A presentation by Wendell Rodricks
Introduced by Jose Lourenco

6:00 pm
Beyond the Singer-Songwriter: A Pioneer’s Journey
Remo Fernandes in conversation with Samanth Subramanian

7:30 pm
Book release: A Place in the Shade by Charles Correa
With Padma Bhushan Maria Aurora Couto

And

Panel Discussion: Goa in the 21st Century
Charles Correa, Dr. Oscar Rebello, Rahul Deshpande, Edgar Ribeiro and Sanjit Rodrigues

Followed by an open-air concert by Sonia Sirsat

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November 2, 2010

2010: Record Rainfall

2010 is the second wettest year in more then a century.

While December 19, 1961 marked a turning point in the state’s history, Goa also received the highest annual rainfall of 4313.6mm the same year.
The rainfall of 3723.5 mm so far this year is the second highest since 1961

Rain clouds that filled the sky during the weekend have dispersed on Monday, but given the uncertain weather, they may reappear. But there has already been enough rain to register the second highest rainfall in 110 years.

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October 31, 2010

400 Years for Rachol Seminary

By Alexandre Moniz Barbosa, in TOI.

The stones of the fort of Rachol are over 600 years old. From within the walls of the fort once emerged armies that conquered lands and defended their king.

That changed four centuries ago when the fort became the bulwark of Christianity in Asia and from within its enclosed walls emerged armies, not of soldiers but of priests, conquering not lands but “saving souls”, fortifying not the kingdom of an earthly king
but of a celestial one.

Since November 1, 1610 the fort has housed a Catholic seminary, where over the centuries boys and men have been trained to undertake priestly duties. On Monday the residents of the Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol-priests and seminarians-will celebrate 400 years of the seminary’s existence on the mound in the village.

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October 26, 2010

8 Finger Eddie’s Last Party (Cremation in Mapusa)

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October 28, 2010

80,000 Russians in Goa Last Year – 1400 Overstayed

In 2009, the flow of Russian tourists to Goa reached 80,000 people, of which 1,400 people overstayed their visas, according to India’s embassy in Moscow. This is just one of the reasons why the Indian authorities reduced visa validity periods for Russian visitors and introduced a number of other tough restrictions.

The new visa regulations took effect on 1 February 2010. Visas are now issued for 55 days only, though it used to be very easy to get a double entry visa for six months, or even a multiple entry visa to India. And now, application for a new visa can only be submitted following a two-month period after the applicant leaves India. Those needing to enter India within two months following their latest exit from the country have to apply for a permit to India’s embassy or consulate, providing persuasive reasons for their repeat visit within such a short period of time.

Many seek alternative ways, such as going to Kazakhstan in Central Asia or Israel, hoping to find less strict visa regulations. It is hard to say how effective these methods are, since Israel and the CIS countries have a checkered reputation with Indian diplomats. In general, а two-month pause in trips to India affected almost all countries issuing Indian visas.

The revisions in India’s visa regulations have had a very adverse impact on both fans of South Asia’s largest country, and India’s tour operators. In other words, it became a disaster for many.

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October 17, 2010

A Kind of Absence: Chapter 1

Thinking about History

Scattered from their places of origin, human groups are apt to wonder and argue about their identity, their tradition, their destiny.

Values and practices that gave character to their way of life before dispersal and seemed to be matters of common agreement become subject to discussion.

The issue most often is whether and how much of that heritage can be preserved in the new surroundings, but among Goans the existence of such a shared legacy seems itself to be in question.

At a gathering of immigrants newly settled in North America the question was debated: is there a distinctive Goan personality? Almost immediately a rift appeared along the fault line dividing generations.

- Yes, a hybrid of East and West, a mixture of all the cultures that once dominated our ancestors. What is our culture anyway? Song and dance, food, caste, religion. An authoritarian religious culture, oppressive of women and the young.

- Goans are like coconuts, ventured someone, brown outside, white inside.

-There is really no Goan identity, another declared, only expediency, survival techniques. Chameleon-like adaptability. Some Indian elements westernized, some western elements Indianized. Attachment to the land. Sentimental nostalgia.

- No no not so! What is it to be Goan? Warmth, hospitality, family ties, a passion for excellence. The village is the heart of Goan culture. Goan youth abroad are completing the gradual loss of identity begun by their elders… They wanted to be English or something… would not be found cooking Goan, wearing Indian clothes… We must look for our roots in India.

- But… look at colonial history !… look what they did! What options did our ancestors have?

- Do we have a future? Is our culture worth preserving?

- It is not sure. Maybe our future is just this: to merge, to identify with the surroundings…

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October 18, 2010

A Letter From Karavali: Aditya Dev Sood in 3qd

Not many people know where or what Karavali is, I find.

Many in the north refer to it vaguely as Mangalore, on account of the large port city located there. With friends from overseas I’m best off describing it as the strip of India south of Goa and north of Kerala.

European traders from the 16th Century called it the Canarese coast, from Canara, or Kanada, the language of the inland powers that loosely controlled it.

It is also sometimes called the Konkan coast, for the Konkani speaking merchants, originally from Goa, who did so much of the commerce with European and Arab vessels. So many different languages, cultures, and religions are folded into these undulating hills, which rise up from the Deccan Plateau, before plunging down, just a few kilometers from the Arabian Sea.

I first came here by accident, in the late summer of 1991. I had actually gone to Goa to visit Ravi, an old school friend of mine, but hadn’t counted on the dynamics of his rather conservative joint family, which frowned on us sipping beers in shacks by the seaside, and prevented us from going out at night, or from bringing friends over.

had a cousin graduating from the Regional Engineering College of Mangalore, several hours south by road, so we volunteered to drive down and pick him and his stuff up.

We took the family jeep, a fiendishly powerful indigenous vehicle called a TRAX, which as I recall, looked to be built out of folded steel sheets and what was reputed to be a reverse-engineered Benz engine. The TRAX ate up the road, while its muscular window wipers swept away the rain furiously.

From the right window you could glimpse the sea from time to time, and on occasion you would spot the trains of the Konkan railway, which run generally parallel and then sometimes criss-cross over or under National Highway 17.

The drive down from Goa was among the most beautiful I had ever been on. And coming from the North, I was pleasantly surprised to find the scenic beauty coupled with a kind of rural prosperity I’d never seen before in India.

Just about everyone seemed to have their own motorcycle and laterite-brick house with Mangalore tiled roofs and a clutch of coconut trees to tend. When I tried to explain what I’d seen to my friends and family back in Delhi, I struggled with the words.

It’s like India, I gushed, but perfect!

Read the entire post at 3QuarksDaily.

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October 15, 2010

A Model for Goa? – Citizen’s Green Manifesto on Western Ghats

Letter signed by all  prospective candidates contesting Lok Sabha from Western Ghats in 2009.

Dear People of Western Ghats,

I understand the importance of the Sahyadri or Western Ghats as a source of ecological security to the millions of people in India. Recognising this fact, once elected to the Parliament, I shall strive to work towards evolving a holistic policy towards the Sahyadri mountain range. In order to attain this I shall try my best to work on the following issues:

1. Will try to work towards conserving the remaining natural forests, flora and fauna in the region

2. Will try to bring policy changes towards establishing Western Ghats Conservation Authority, an inclusive and representative body vested with powers to initiate actions to protect the fragile ecosystems.

3. Will not support any actions, policies that will lead to destruction of the natural resources like forests, wildlife, river or coastal areas

4. Will protect the livelihood base of forest dwellers, without destroying their natural resource base

5. Will work towards reduction of conflicts between man and wildlife

As I am one of the persons who is part of Western Ghats, it is my duty to be the messenger of these mountains which is voiceless. I assure you that I shall be the spokesperson for this Sahyadri in the Lok Sabha.

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October 11, 2010

A Slow Burning Fuse About My Community: Eunice De Souza Talks to Arundhati Subramaniam (Time Out)

I first met de Souza in 1986 when I was a student and she a professor at St Xavier’s College.

She was a somewhat archetypal presence then. She inspired, she terrified, she challenged, she lacerated. She was worshipped, she was feared. She was able to kindle the embers of literary interest in even the most cynical undergrad.

For the more curious, like me, she was nothing short of a beacon. The fact that she was a poet of credibility helped. It added mystique, but more vitally, made her less of a uni-dimensional pedagogue. I remember being stirred by her lectures on Modernism, TS Eliot and Steinbeck – they were razor-sharp, fine-tuned, penetrating. She was one of the most engaged professors around – committed, intellectually strenuous, exacting.

But she didn’t seem particularly happy then. I was angular and wounded enough myself to be able to recognise that. What’s more, her lectures made me feel that happiness wasn’t a particularly desirable condition, that it was a kind of cabbagehood. Her legendary barbs were probably intended to jolt self-satisfied sophomores, but I was probably angst-ridden enough anyway to be affected by that impression for life.

Two decades later, I’m finally almost happy myself – on some days. So it’s good to meet de Souza again when she’s happy too. “I used to feel, how can you be happy when the world’s a mess?” she says. “But it’s a relief to be peaceful at last.” I agree.

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