Prutha Goa

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

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

His presence is undeniably alluring; eye candy for his female fan following. Nonetheless, Kevin D’Mello is more than just good looks. This 28-year-old has talent effusing from every pore of his body – talent he strives to enhance constantly. Kevin’s acting talent is inherent. Although one cannot attribute his prowess completely to genes, the effect of being the offspring of a performer of high calibre cannot be denied. His father, Cezar D’Mello, is a well-known tiatrist, who has garnered accolades for his work on stage. The prodding and stoking of his acting abilities began with his father teaching Kevin to sing enthusiastically with animation. Kevin D’Mello got his foot in the door of the movie industry at the age of nineteen. His name was suggested by activist and lecturer Prajal Sakhardande to Dharmanand Vernekar for an AIDS advertisement which ran on television nine years ago during IFFI. Having noticed him in the advertisement, Dnyanesh Moghe gave him a role in his Konkani film  J

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