Prutha Goa

Yashodan Heblekar and his wife Dr Jyoti Heblekar are unusual in their repudiation of the fast paced city life that most associate with money and ease. Jyoti is a practicing Homeopath and Yashodan an insurance salesman with an engineering and an MBA degree. Eccentric and innovative in their approach to life, the husband and wife team, along with their son and daughter, Tanmaye and Shrusti, who are also the resident butterfly experts, have created a butterfly conservatory around their house called Mystic Woods. The flight from the city prompted the couple to build a house in Pisgal, Ponda (Goa), which is unique in its construction in that it supports a garden on its roof and is built on huge rainwater harvesting tanks. The roof garden has come under fire for its apparent infeasibility. Prophets of gloom and doom have predicted roots growing through the roof, leakage and erosion of soil in the monsoon season. Fortunately, science and a bit of luck have rescued the house from any such cala

Some days ago Ramesh Ghadi and Mario Cordeiro led around 35 young men to clear and revive the spring at Aquem, Mollembhat, Saligao. This is a story of likeminded people coming together and making a positive change. It clearly shows the power of unified action in the pursuit of truth, justice and protecting our ever fragile environment in Goa. The spring, which is called Akhenchi Zhor , used to be one of the many lifelines of aqua hidden in villages that bring pure water with medicinal properties to the people. However, years of apathy and neglect took its toll; and it has been seven years since the spring ran dry, ending with it a thriving ecosystem of flora and fauna. Ramesh Ghadi, a well-known poet, heritage lover, fitness consultant and managing director of Ghadi Fitness, says, ‘In the last few years a lot of illegal constructions came up in this hilly orchard area. Even access to the spring was blocked. People stopped visiting the spring for the last decade. A month ago I visit

António Xavier Trindade is indeed an exemplary Goan talent; one that has been showcased at the Fundaҫão Oriente-India. The Trindade Collection was donated to the Fundaҫão Oriente in 2004 by the Esther Trindade Trust. The collection has works of both, António Xavier Trindade and Angela Trindade (1909-1980), his daughter and noteworthy artist in her own right. Trindade was born in 1870 in Sanguem, Goa to Roman Catholic parents and went on you seek an education in art at the renowned Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy School of Art in Bombay (Mumbai) at the age of 17. He then became part of the faculty in 1921 after the completion of his studies, earning a reputation as one of India’s leading artists who was well-appreciated in both Western and Indian circles. Considered a realist, Trindade would nevertheless continue to incorporate elements of the Romantic era. His technique of light and dark is similar to work by Spanish artists Diego Velázquez (Baroque) and Francisco Goya (Romanticism). His

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

Shirley Louise Gonsalves’ book The Luso-Indian Stethoscope delves into the history of having Luso-Indians, mainly Christians, play a prominent role as medical professionals in the 19th century in India. The non-fiction book is an academic read, and rightly enough, since the research undertaken for the tome was part of the author’s study as a postgraduate student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Dept of History, University of London. Shirley Gonsalves provides an understanding of how terms such as race, caste, religion, etc may have held different meanings at various points of time and the effect these differences had on the willingness of people to identify themselves or not with a particular identity group. Broadly categorised, Luso-Indians were indigenous people from the Konkan region whose ancestors had been ruled by the Portuguese and converted to Catholicism. The book talks about clearer definitions for terms such as caste, race, religion, and so on being introduced

Edwin Fernandes strikes one as an eager storyteller, who has perhaps not had his literary talent tapped to its utmost owing to the fact that he had not the time to devote to it exclusively. This ‘accidental’ banker, who held journalistic aspirations as a school boy, would follow the conventional path of a profession safer than the whimsical world of literature and climb his way up the career rungs to become a general manager at IDBI. However, his writing continued to some extent unabated, having the honour of his writings appearing in publications such as Mid-Day , The Teenager , The Statesman (Kolkata) and so on. He even edited the IDBI house journal for over a decade. His first book was Patna Ponderings , a compilation of essays written during his posting in Patna. From there Edwin ventured into the world of blogging where he achieved considerable success, being listed as one of Sulekha.com’s top ten bloggers. Beyond Bandra , the author’s latest offering, is a collection of blog wri

The Delicate Balance of Little Lives is author Jessica Faleiro’s second innings as a writer. A book of short stories, The Delicate Balance of Little Lives reveals the interwoven lives of five women with each woman’s tale of dealing with the sufferings she has undergone. Jessica has another book of short stories called Afterlife: Ghost Stories from Goa , which was published in 2012, to her credit. The passionate writer, who transitioned from a career of working in research and policy to acquiring a master’s in Creative Writing from Kingston University, England, took a dive head first into the deep end of the volatile pool of literature, writing and publishing. Having lived in Goa, Mumbai, Miami, Paris and London, and travelled extensively on work, Jessica makes optimal use of her travel adventures by writing about them. She has been conducting vision board and creative writing workshops in India and abroad. However, her primary goal is to channel her own creativity and present it to re

Fair-Weather Brother by Pogoat (pseudonym) is a harsh reminder that all is not well in the state of Goa. With a dystopian twist, the book attempts to jolt the inured mind into awakening and addressing these issues. The book is the first of a trilogy and lives true to its warning that the content is suitable for those above 18 years. The novel takes you on a surreal, psychedelic trip (pun intended) through the eyes of Charlie, the main protagonist. His brother James accompanies him but also has his own set of experiences. The foundation of the novel is laid in Goa’s tourism industry and its flailing performance in recent times. This prompts Charlie and James to embark on a search for alternative sources of economic stability. The two seem to have the Goan ‘sussegad’ attitude built into all their decisions and movements. Trying to combine a holiday and a paid job as caretakers of a luxury campsite at the Nubra Valley in Kashmir, the two brother first halt at Mumbai, where James has a jo

Fundação Oriente India prides itself on embracing languages that reflect Goa’s rich linguistic history within the sphere of its biennial Goan Short Stories Competition. The participants can submit their entries in Konkani (Romi or Devanagari scripts), English, Marathi and Portuguese in 1,000 to 3,000 words. The competition began in 2011 and following every edition of the competition there has been a release of a book containing stories by the winner and finalists. The 2015 edition of the Goan Short Stories Competition resulted in Monsoon Winds: Short Stories from Goa . Nayana Adarkar’s ‘Rakhondar: The Protector’ is a reminder of the patriarchal system that has its vice grip on Indian women wherein women are passed on from one male family member to another under the guise of protection. She derides this system of protection by pointing out that it is she who ends up doing all the protecting. The position of the middle class and lower middle class Indian woman is still to a large extent

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

Roanna Gonsalves’ first book The Permanent Resident comprises 16 short stories based in Australia, her adopted home. The stories weave their way through shattered dreams, disillusionment and the reality of surviving in an alien culture. The book was first published by UWA Publishing in 2016 and its reprint was published by Goa, 1556. Making her way to Australia as a student, Roanna has garnered accolades that are completely justified by her writing. Aside from earning her doctorate from the University of New South Wales, Roanna is a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Endeavour Award. The Permanent Resident has been incorporated in the syllabi of a number of Australian universities and is being studied in particular in the areas of Australian Literature, Postcolonial Literatures, and Creative Writing. Merely ruling her a skilful writer would be understating her genius. Her words traverse the pages with fluidity that leaps up to greet and refresh the reader at every helpi

Goa is advertised as a land of fun, frolic and feni for the sake of tourism: sunsets on beaches and coconut trees are the superficial portrayal of the land. The Salt of the Earth bares Goa in its true form without the trappings of a Portuguese influenced Westernised culture. This book of short stories translated from Konkani brings us tales of the core of Goan culture and narratives of feminist ideology. The first person to be awarded a doctorate in Konkani from Goa University, author of The Salt of the Earth Jayanti Naik has a Sahitya Akademi Award to her credit. Besides short stories her oeuvre covers a range of genres including poetry, drama and children’s literature. Since her first book of short stories called Garjan ( The Roar ), she has written over 32 books, 16 of which are folklore based. Her passion for preserving Goan folklore also distinguishes her as folklore researcher at the Goa Konkani Akademi. There is not a story in the book that does not relate to suffering, and i