Prutha Goa

The 7th to the 9th of May saw the celebration of children at the Our Lady of Divar School on Divar Island. Bhurgeanchem Fest , or ‘children’s festival’, was held in association with Uzwaad-The Rays of Hope, a group that focuses on furthering the conservation of Goa’s socio-cultural heritage. The three-day festival had a number of activities for young children that included talks on the history and heritage of Divar by social activist and college professor Prajal Sakhardande, who encouraged the children to learn from history and do their best to preserve and take pride in the heritage that has been passed down to them. Agriculturist Miguel Braganza spoke on gardening and plants to enthuse the youngsters to continue to keep alive the plants and trees that are endemic to Goa, and Sangeeta Naik instructed the young people in using their mobiles and the internet to help them in their studies. There were workshops held in dance, art, street plays, football, singing, tiatr and so on to engag

  In a time when we are struggling to recognise our roots as Goans and fighting to keep our identity from merging into a potpourri of cultures, we have some clarity in the form of the various cultural festivals that have been peppering the years since the beginning of the 2000s and will hopefully continue on through the years to come. We have one man to thank for this and that man is Marius Fernandes, now dubbed ‘ Goemcho Festamkar ’ for daring to leave a lucrative career behind and spend 17 years injecting goenkarponn into the goenkars (Goans) and their progeny. Marius was not born in Goa, but in Kenya in 1959, albeit arriving into a family that was firmly entrenched in Goan culture. Adventure seems to run in his veins since his grandfather Mathias Xavier Fernandes found himself in Kenya after spending the night on a dhow. He had been trying to escape the confines of strict convent education and had sought refuge in the dhow for a night’s rest only to find himself sailing to the con

Abolianchem Fest , dedicated to the abolim flower, was celebrated by Nirmala Institute of Education as the institute’s annual Project Goa celebrations to showcase the socio-cultural aspects of Goan culture before 1975. This included music, games, songs, dances, food, art, craft, etc that is authentically Goan, so as to document and preserve these positive attributes of Goan culture for the benefit of present and future generations of Goans. The festival saw the revival of interest in the abolim , or firecracker flower, also known by its scientific name of Crossandra infundibuliformis . Although it was named the state flower in the early part of the 1970s, there has been a decline in the presence of the flower in most parts of Goa. The abolim flower has been an integral part of religious and cultural rituals in Goa for years, and its resurgence has been spearheaded by the  Abolianchem Fest . Nirmala Institute of Education, where the Abolianchem Fest was held, has been Goa’s foremost s

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