Prutha Goa

He talks of a ‘madness’ that has driven him for years to salvage the cultural history of this verdant land called Goa. Its versatile heritage has been curated by Victor Hugo Gomes with painstaking perseverance and attention to detail. With his degrees in art and conservation, Victor has moved from village to village documenting trades that have disappeared or are slowly vanishing and has been curating a vast storehouse of Goa’s past in various symbols of her culture. It all began with excursions into forbidden areas. Always a curious child with a questioning mind, Victor would explore attics, storerooms and even the dark rooms used to punish him for misbehaviour, to find strange and intriguing items of interest like different types of clay pots, baskets, tools, old altars and wooden chests filled with clothes belonging to a bygone era. This childhood fascination for gleaning commonplace items, which have shaped Goa’s cultural history, and a questioning mind, nurtured by his grandmother

Memoirs take us back into the past, into a history that may be erased and its valuable essence lost if it is not preserved through documentation. Aloysius D’Souza’s Homeward Bound is a happy example of keeping memories of the past intact and available to future generations. Aloysius, who spent part of his childhood in Burma, recalls lively anecdotes of his life there and in Goa that prove to be a delightful learning experience. The opening pages of the book take us right into the Japanese attack on Burma in December 1941. The fear and commotion of the proceedings is told through the eyes of a young Aloysius, in very much the innocent candour of a young boy, but without negating the urgency of the situation. ‘As far as we youngsters were concerned this was a wonderful holiday. During the days, we investigated the neighbourhood, discovering Chinese market gardeners… ‘Most of these refugees, probably a million or more, trekked out through the jungles and hills of upper Burma into north e

Goa has talent bursting at its seams, and this is no secret. Unfortunately, in the sphere of drama enough of it has not been tapped. The reason for this is not a dearth of avenues, but rather the unwillingness of parents to permit their children to explore this area as a career option has been a stumbling block. In 1987, Kala Academy decided to start the School of Drama, initially called the Theatre Art Faculty, under the direction of S B Josalkar. The motivation was to secure talent in theatre and mould it according to its capabilities. The Director of the School of Drama, Mrs Padmashree Josalkar tells us, ‘Kala Academy invited my husband and me to come here. Before that we were in Delhi. My husband was in the Repertory Company of the National School of Drama and I was teaching at the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya as a drama teacher.’ S B Josalkar, a Goan by birth, had received a scholarship to the National School of Drama. It is no surprise then that he returned to his home state to give Go

Katharina Domscheit is a German curator and the founder and director of Peppina Art, with a Master of Arts in Arts Policy and Management from Birbeck, University of London. She has worked as an artist consultant and a gallery manager in England. In the first of her lectures in a series titled How Art Can Create Change: The Power of the Arts and Culture at the Kokum Design Centre, she expounded the idea of the arts and culture as a means to transform society in a progressive manner. The arts would comprise of dance, music, theatre, literature, visual arts and the combined arts. Culture is an amalgamation of the arts and the values, beliefs, traditions and ways of life of people. Art and culture together would be represented by architecture, news media, the World Wide Web, fashion, food, etc. A division of the arts can be traced with dance, music, mime, drama, films and literature being categorised as the performing arts. The visual arts consist of paintings, photography, installation ar

Anushya Sharma is one of those artists who become completely inseparable from their work. It seems as though her spirit infuses every painting with a signature of her self. She hails from Guwahati, Assam, and was an assistant director in films in Mumbai before the call of art proved too strong to ignore. Her first collection, called Miss A Takes a Holiday , was a success and prodded her to continue in this line. Fool Fantasy , her most recent exhibition of paintings, shown at the Art Chamber, Calangute, takes us on a journey of life, discovery of self and the trials in the process. A certain amount of angst is married with a sense of this peeling away of layers of questions. This says much for the value of the journey being greater than the final result. The series of painting begins with the subconscious motivation to make a change. ‘The fool is basically this very youthful, optimistic spirit about discovering the world, exploring new places, new experiences; not necessarily aware of

Who says dreamers cannot make it big?! Santosh Mainkar was a typical Mumbai boy with high aspirations. Through hard work and persevering constancy, he has gradually climbed the rungs of cinematic fame. This Economics graduate from Mumbai University had a strong inclination towards becoming a thespian from his college days, but fate had a slightly alternative calling in store for him. On completing his higher secondary schooling, he became a regular participant in theatre and this is what primarily set him about patterning his career course in the direction of acting. The current of destiny forced him on a different route when he directed a Marathi street play for the NSS whilst still in college. The street play, which was performed at Kirti College in Dadar, obtained second place. The success of the play proved his directorial prowess. From then on it was about script writing and direction for Santosh. Santosh Mainkar His first documentary was Dhoop , which won first prize at Elphinsto

Heta Pandit reproduces poignant tales connected with the process of using a grinding stone, still alive in many a Goan village. As these village women grind away, they sing songs that tell stories. Since this is usually a solitary job, the ladies have only these songs to make light their work.  Heta, a heritage conservationist and writer, says, ‘Welcome to the world of songs from Goa. Songs that are not sung in any pub, club or café, but songs that are sung in people’s homes, kitchens and backyards.’ These are songs that are composed entirely by Goan women and were collected over the course of a year and a half. These are not new songs. They have been a part of Goa’s culture for eons. Discovering this sub-culture in a land that has been ruled by the different dynasties such as the Kadambas, the Adil Shahs of Bijapur, the Portuguese and so on, aside from being culturally and historically influenced by the empires with whom Goa had trade relations and travellers of other regions; has bee

By Richard Lees, MD of Volunteering Goa LTD and International Consultant for Prutha Goa Any observer of the media today, be it newspapers, radio, TV or online media, could be forgiven for thinking that we are living in a very terrible time for humanity. We are fed with endless stories of war, corruption, natural disasters, terrorism, suicides and more. Even our modern obsession with celebrities seems more often than not to focus on their falling from popular favour, be it sporting heroes who are found to be taking drugs or politicians, singers, actors, etc who are caught having affairs. We even enjoy our stories of bad luck – the millionaire who lost everything in a stock market collapse seems to be a popular news story too. Is it true that the world is just getting worse and worse? Surprisingly, actual data does not support this view at all. Max Roser is an economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford University. He makes his data available freely through the website

The Muzgachem Fest at Carmel College of Arts, Commerce and Science for Women, Nuvem was a flurry of musical notes, art and delving into Goa’s cultural roots. On the 9th of December 2017, Marius Fernandes organised his penultimate cultural festival in collaboration with the women’s college which was established in 1964. The campus was abuzz with the chatter of young women around the college’s trademark trees before the basketball court. Clarice Vaz Artist Clarice Vaz, who specialises in spin painting, fluid painting and syringe painting, was on form demonstrating painting using combs and brushes with her usual enthusiasm. Alexyz, the cartoonist, introduced visually impaired artist Stacy Rodrigues, an ex-student of Carmel Higher Secondary School. The indomitable Stacy spoke about her struggles with her eyesight and how she had conquered them. Savio Godinho spent time entertaining the young Carmel ladies with painting attractive images on their forearms. Akshay Chari, a graduate of the Go

Rahul and Shobhana Chandawarkar are very much a power couple who decided to move from to Goa for a life of a better quality, and the freedom to have control over decision making in their careers. The latter was achieved by starting their own event management company called Cashewrina Events. Rahul was involved in sales and marketing for ten years after acquiring his MBA degree from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in 1987. He changed his career pathway to journalism in 1997. Since then he has worked for The Times of India and has been the editor of Sakal Times at Pune. He has been editor of Gomantak Times in Goa as well for a few months. Being in media for about eighteen years has allowed Rahul to build a network of contacts, especially performance artists, which in turn made the idea of starting an event company viable. Shobhana, who has been part of the IT industry for most of her life, has now transitioned to a different role in the partnership she holds in Cashewrina Ev