Prutha Goa

A walk around Panjim city with Vishal Rawlley revealed the city in a different light, one never envisioned. As a citizen, one can become jaded in the approach to one’s own heritage, only because it is what we see on a daily basis. We walk through the city without taking in the subtle signs of Goa’s past dispersed all over. Vishal Rawlley is a man of versatility: a graphic and web designer, documentary filmmaker, illustrator, storyboard artist for feature films and so on. He says, ‘I grew up in a small town in Orissa, and cities were a fascinating place. You know, everyone wants to go to the big city… I studied filmmaking and made a lot of documentaries on urban culture, cities and city communities.’ Vishal, who spent 15 years in Mumbai, was involved in a project called TyPoCiTy, documenting and categorising typefaces in the city of Mumbai in view of graphic design and social importance. This project was the result of a research fellowship received by Vishal Rawlley and Kurnal Rawat f

For years Prof Prajal Sakhardande has been idolised by his students and admired for his activism. The college professor is famous for his ability to pull out historical facts at the drop of a hat and has indeed inspired many of his students to take up history as a subject of study. This associate professor of history at Dhempe College of Arts and Science at Miramar, Panjim, has been lecturing there since 1993. Prof Sakhardande is also the vice chairman of the Goa Heritage Action Group, a non-profit involved in the preservation of Goa’s heritage, and the convenor of the History-History Forum that organises history-related activities under his guidance.  Goa Gold Goa Silver: Her History, Her Heritage from Earliest Times to 2019 is the third book written by Prof Sakhardande. The first two are Muslim History and Heritage of Goa and Matanhy Saldanha, the Legend: Hero of the Subaltern , which was written with Santosh S Sawant Wadkar. Prof Sakhardande talks about his love for history, w

Sanjeev Sardesai is an unusual amalgamation of the educational qualifications of a botanist, the profession of a graphic designer and the passion of a historian. The latter has motivated him to start two groups called Hands on Historians and Sanscritic. In the year 2002, after working for nearly two decades in the hotel industry, Sanjeev gave up his position as a general manger. This was because he realised that tourism was virtually dead. ‘Today after thirteen years of leaving that industry, I still stand by my statement that there is no organised tourism in Goa,’ says Sanjeev, who believes that tourism is the urge of people to travel from one destination to another to discover the culture and heritage therein. So what could our state hold that stokes this desire?! Sanjeev decided he must find out for himself. There is tangible (visually perceived) and intangible (experienced) heritage. Hands on Historians is a forum focused on being a practical historian while Sanscritic (‘sans’ –

The remains of the Tertiary Carmelites’ church and convent, or the Church and Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, have finally achieved the status of a heritage site. It has been an arduous quest towards achieving this mission and the people of Chimbel deserve a substantial amount of praise in moving this issue forward. The Tertiary Carmelites’ church and convent are a heritage of great value given that history sets the remains apart from most other such monuments; its singularity being the fact that it housed the first indigenous order of lower caste priests. The rule of the day was only upper caste Brahmins were allowed to be part of priestly orders. Chimbel’s so called green space marked on the regional plan does not have any tree cover and has been demarcated along the Kadamba plateau off the highway, which makes it a prime target for builders. Once the builders move in, any tree cover at all is compromised. The Tertiary Carmelites’ church and convent are part of the few green

The conference titled 'Challenges for the Preservation of the Diverse Goan Religious Heritages' was held at Fundação Oriente India in Panjim on the 18 th of March 2018. Joaquim R Santos (University of Lisbon), Vishvesh Kandolkar (Goa College of Architecture), Amita Kanekar (Al-Zulaij Collective), and Gulafshan Khan (Deccan College of Pune) presented perspectives on the heritage of various religions in Goa. Architect and research scholar Joaquim Santos spoke about the Catholic religious architecture in Goa and deterrents to its preservation. Some of the apathy towards caring for Catholic structures and even conscious destruction of Catholic monuments could be traced to an animosity towards the Portuguese regime. Perhaps it is because these stand as an ideological and political reminder of that time with the obvious Portuguese influence on the architecture. In 1934, all the significant churches in Old Goa were listed as national monuments. When Goa became part of India, the