Issue No: 1

Friday, November 7, 2014 | Vol. No. 3 | Issue 1 | Price Rs. 10 | www.goastreets.com | G-2/RNP/Weekly/Goa-05/2013-15

Black Money Scandal | Music Festivals | Goa Chitra's Chakras

iT'S oUR

Anniversary Edition

3

Friday, November 7, 2014

By Sapna Shahani

T

he morning after next weekend November 15-16, festival organisers of the massively ambitious New Wave ‘Indie’ and Punk Music Festival to be held at the Go-Karting track in Verna, will heave a sigh of relief.

“It’s been the toughest event that we’ve organised so far,” says Vinesh Iyer, of the Live Music Project and Art Escape. Along with his partner Darryl Noronha, Vinesh has been organizing weekly Saturday night live music events in South Goa

w e N t n e d n e ’p ie d ‘In l a iv t s e F ic s u M e v a W

for over five years now, currently at the Baywatch resort in Sernabatim beach. And as if organizing this mammoth project is a breeze, the hardworking Art Escapists are planning a jazz festival in end November as well.

One of the main reasons that the New Wave festival has been difficult to organize is the lack of sponsor support for music that is not considered mass-oriented.

The indie music genre refers to music that is mostly independently produced by new talent, rather than big recording

TURN TO PAGE 4

Nov 8 Sexy Saturday Special Your chance to jive to DJ Priyanka’s sizzling beats.

SinQ, Candolim 10 pm onwards +91 8308000080

Nov 9 Soma 2014 Resurrection Get electrified with the best of underground electronic music featuring: Asem Shama(DE), Deep Brown (in), and Chicago 9 (RU) Teso Waterfront, Siolim 6 pm to 12 am +91 9561670262

Nov 7, 8, 9 Plan Your Weekend Hit the grove with a collectible of international DJ’s spinning the best of EDM all through the weekend.

At Marbela Beach, Morjim 8 pm onwards +91 9158881180/ +91 832 6450599

Every Monday LIVE MUSIC How about live music and sea food?

Catch Wahida Carmen Gomes live on vocals.

The Fisherman’s Wharf, Cavelossim 7. 30 pm onwards +91 832 2871317 Karaoke Mondays Jive to your own tunes at Karaoke night with Sabby.

The Backyard, Sangolda 8 pm onwards +91 9158372533

Every Tuesday Extraordinary Nights Make your Tuesdays extraordinary with Emmanuel Antao.

Gawin’s Restaurant, Varca 9:00 pm onwards +91 9822177179

Every Wednesday Karaoke Night Bring out the nightingale in you at karaoke with Ashley.

Route 66, Panjim 8:00 pm to 11:30 pm +91 9623922796

Every Thursday Thursday Sizzling Karaoke Nite Discover the hidden “Indian Idol” in you with Saby Fernandez.

Kudos, Chogm Road, Porvorim 7:30 pm onwards +91 832 6510565

Silent Disco With DJ Mr. R & Flakey Spinning EDM. Nothing ‘silent’ about this disco (unless you’re wearing headphones, that is). Alpha Bar, Palolem 9:00 pm onwards +91 9890281505

Every Friday Live Music Music Guru presenting newa artists from around the world jamming to blues, jazz and even rock n roll.

Guru Club, St Anthony prise north Anjuna 9:00 pm to midnight +91 9823383257 | 9960956691 Freaky Friday Don’t freak out. It’s just another party place.

The Peters Pub, Utorda Beach Road Gates open at 7:00 pm +91 9922909432 Reggae Friday Rejoice the laid back chilled out vibe with Graeme Hamilton Laguna, Anjuna @ 7:30 pm +91 832 227 4131

Every Saturday ‘Nacho’ Dance Night A floor breaking mix of Hip Hop, House and Retro music.

Guru Club, Anjuna 10:00 pm onwards +91 9960956691 Saturday Nite Jive Jive to the best of rock and retro classics in a rather electronic tone with Alcatrazz Cheenos, Baga Bridge, Baga +91 8806564991 Silent Noise Party With DJs Husman, Sam & Azgar Find out which one is true. The silence or the noise?

Neptune Point, Palolem 8:00 pm to 4:00 am +91 9822584968

North16 Unplugged @ North16 Bar North16 Bar is playing fabulous tunes all week long! From Mellow Mondays to Jazz and Blues Saturdays, from Rock n Roll Wednesdays to Indipop Thursdays, North16 Bar has all the best gigs in town.

Enjoy unlimited alcohol packages starting at Rs.499/-, So Drink and Dance all night long.

7:30pm onwards.

North 16, Calangute +91 832 674 5423/5421 Cantare There’s live music on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The place fills up with locals (not many tourists), and its non-beach location nestled amid the Portuguese-inspired architecture of Saligao adds to the great vibe.

Cantare, Saligao 8:00 pm onwards +91 832 2409461 The Park, Calangute Every Thursday: Retro Night Every Friday: Karaoke Night with KDJ Tony Every Saturday: Ladies Night with DJ Sunil and Tania The Park, Calangute 8 pm onwards +91 8805028194 +91 832 2267600 Casinos in Goa Deltin Royale Casino Get lucky on a big boat.

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On-going

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Building, D. Bandodkar Road, Panaji Emai id: sales@deltin.comOther: info@deltin.com Call: +91 77 987 40004, +91 88 0666 3673

Every Sunday LIVE MUSIC Behold the one man band, Aviv Pereira!

HENDRIX, Anjuna 8:00 pm onwards +91 8007599945

FROM PAGE 3 companies that generally bank on more lucrative popular music.

Most independent music artists do not fall into a single, defined musical style or genre and usually create music that can be categorized into other genres. So the genre tends to represent a raw, do-it-yourself kind of ideology, which breeds creativity and experimentation in music. The name of the festival ‘New Wave’ reflects this too, as it features many of the new bands in India that are not yet backed by big record labels.

Although there is support from a couple of major sponsors like the shoe brand Vans and Pepsi MTV Indies, more funds are needed to cover the expenses of bringing together around 67 bands, many from across Asia. The festival features some of the most exciting names in the Indian indie music scene like Mumbai-based electro-rock act Sky Rabbit, Delhi-based gypsy jazz band Peter Cat Recording Co and post-punk act Supersonics from Kolkata, besides lots more.

It is a first-of-its-kind music festival for India, and we’re lucky that it’s happening in our back yard. Another quirky aspect of the festival is its focus on punk music. For those unfamiliar with the punk rock genre, it’s a high-energy style that emerged in garages in the West in the 1970s, and is famously associated with bright-coloured Mohawk haircuts and studded leather fashion.

The festival will encourage interactions between some of the best Indian punk bands like Pune-based ‘A Mutual Question’ with bands from farther across the continent like Japan’s all-girl punk band ‘Shonen Knife,’ ‘The U-93s’ from South Korea and ‘Rebel Riot’ from neighbouring Myanmar.

Electronica fans need not despair either as there is wellrounded representation from Bangalore-based ‘Sulk Station,’ Indian classical genre-bending ‘Tritha Electric’ and Sky Rabbit frontman’s well-known solo project, ‘Your Chin’. The organizing team has made efforts to feature indie artists from Goa as well although there is still a shortage in the music-loving state. Familiar names like Elvis Lobo, Joanne Fernandes and Shayne Ballantyne are sure to rock the stage on their home turf.

Priced reasonably at only 1000 rupees per day, the festival organisers are trying to keep it affordable for their younger, eclectic music-inclined following who will be traveling from all major metros. Higher numbers may also turn up given that 10 pre-gigs were organized in cities around India to create awareness about the festival. A crowd of around 5000 are expected but many more may attend from Goa alone to see the inspiring talent of new bands that haven’t performed at music festivals before, like ‘Voctronica,’ an instrument-less beatboxing, acapella group.

Attendees may also score some freebies like a guitar from Gibson or CD giveaways from Darjeeling-based ‘Da Primitive Future’. Eager beavers will be able to camp right on the festival venue, where they can enjoy music all day from 10am until 10pm.

There will of course be food stalls and a flea market as well to cater to the residential and visiting crowds.

The idea for the New Wave music festival originated from organizer Rishu Singh’s compilation albums called ‘Stupiditties’ which featured unheard-of original, creative music and quickly gained a cult following. The eighth Stupiditties compilation album will be released at the festival. Rishu quit his corporate career with Sony Music to start his own independent record label Ennui Dot Bomb, which has gained a reputation for organizing unique, alternative music ‘Bomb Thursday’ events in Mumbai’s suburbs and larger, crowd-funded band lineups branded ‘Control Alt Delete’.

In spite of the hard work, organizer Vinesh Iyer is committed to making the festival the best it can be. “The whole intention is to open up the whole original music scene. The festival should inspire young people to appreciate and create original music.”  Tickets can be purchased at Bookmyshow.com and more information is available on their Facebook page or website at www.thenewwave.asia.

Music & Nightlife 5

Friday, November 7, 2014

Oktoberfest Goa 2014 pumps it up for yet another successful year

T

he first music festival of this year, Oktoberfest Goa 2014 ended on a high note and lived up to its reputation of being one of the biggest home grown music festivals in the country.

The three day, high octane music festival, which was held over the weekend, featured some of the best DJs performing live from across the country and abroad. Gracing the coastal belt of Baga was popular artistes Firebeatz, Gregori Klosman, Matisse & Sadko, Marco V, Tristan Garner, and Arston as headliners at the musical extravaganza.

A huge gathering of EDM fans came in from all over the state and the country. The impressive line-up of artists from India included Abhishek, Pritesh, Sartek and Zedan among others. Goa’s very own DJs, Ajit Pai, Usman, Rinton, Mackenzie and many more were also seen enthralling the enthusiastic festival attendees with their gigs.

The festival was organized by Goa based event management agency Bullseye Entertainment. Sharing his thoughts on Oktoberfest Goa 2014, Festival Director, Munna Ruknuddin said “This being the fourth edition of Oktoberfest Goa, as Goans, we couldn’t be more proud to bring this event to our state.

Each year, we always promise to be bigger and better and this year was no exception.”

In its fourth edition, the three day, much awaited music festival flaunted some of the best DJs from across the country and abroad With some of the biggest international names in electronic dance music performing, the fourth edition of the music festival was bigger and better. But the music didn’t stop there. The after parties then continued on all three days at Café Mambo’s, Baga where music lovers grooved till dawn to the tunes of Kash Trivedi, Lost Stories and John 00 Fleming among others.

About Bullseye Entertainment: Bullseye Entertainment is an event management firm based in Goa. A reputed name in the event management industry, Bullseye Entertainment offers a comprehensive range of event management services.

For more details contact: Sean Faia @ 9823206426

The Lowdown Steven Gutkin, the venture’s chief mentor, is an awardwinning journalist who has reported from some two dozen countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

An international newsman for 25 years, Steven served as Bureau Chief with the Associated Press, the world’s largest news gathering organization, in Israel and Venezuela, as well as AP’s Chief of Southeast Asia Services in Singapore and Indonesia, and Senior Editor in the US. Steven covered the rise and fall of the Medellin and Cali cocaine cartels, rode into Kabul with a triumphant Northern Alliance and directed coverage of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and Lebanon. The Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar was caught because he lingered on the phone with his son to answer Steven’s questions, and the cops traced the call. Steven covered the killing of Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, hurricanes in Puerto Rico and Mexico, the death of Yasser Arafat, a coup in Fiji and the rise to power of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. He also led AP's coverage of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Steven has also worked for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek and CBS Radio.

Marisha Dutt, Publisher and Editor of Goa Streets, is a former Marketing and Advertising Manager with The Wall Street Journal in Singapore. She took a break from work to raise her two boys in Indonesia, Israel and the United States. She has a Masters Degree in Marketing from The University of Strathclyde in the UK and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations. She was born in Assam, India and spent her early years on a tea plantation overlooking a pristine wildlife sanctuary. When she was 10, she and her family moved to Calcutta, where Marisha had the privilege of working alongside Mother Teresa. Later the family moved to Goa. Marisha and Steven were married 11 years ago on the Candolim beach.

Shubham Gupta aka Shubhs, Content and Marketing Coordinator, is a 22 year old guy from Gurgaon. Being a foodie, music lover, and an avid appreciator of art, Shubhs has been previously associated with Times of India, Dentsu Digital, Channel V and AIESEC. Hippie at heart, Shubham loves to trek & travel to exotic destinations. In his meantime, he enjoys international cinema, singing, strumming the guitar, writing poetry and reading. With his knack in creative writing and passion for photography, he manages both visual and written content along with marketing operations.

Radhika Naik, Marketing Executive. A Mapusa resident, Radhika enjoys siestas and, when awake, spending time with family. She was always a big fan of the news and is thrilled to be part of that world today. Music with a slow tempo is her favourite playlist.

Nilesh Shetgaonkar, Administrative Assistant, is a happygo-lucky Morjim native who prides himself on living life to the fullest. He spent seven years in Dubai and loves football, cricket and trivia.

Krishna S. Halankar, An integral member of the distribution and collection team, Krishna enjoys music, driving and to everyone’s surprise likes to shake a leg, too. When asked about his favourite drive, he says nothing beats the good ol’ drive from Goa to Mumbai.

Vijay Gadekar, Distribution Team. Aside from being very handy in all things mechanical, Vijay is a big fan of football with an equal passion for quality beach time.

Correspondents/Writers: Ethel Da Costa, Sheela Jaywant, Charlane Pereira e Rebello, Bina Datwani, Karan Bhagat, Perin Ilavia, Dielle D’Souza, Aparna Raut Desai, Anzil Fernandes, Crespo D’Souza.

We’re Two!

W

elcome to the 2nd Anniversary Edition of Goa Streets!

It’s been a wonderful ride for us these past two years.

Producing a newspaper each week is certainly not easy, and the road has not been without its share of bumps (not terribly unlike the roads of Goa!). But when we started, we promised that we’d offer our readers world-class journalism, in addition to weekly, comprehensive listings on everything there is to do, see and eat in this sunny state. We have been true to this promise, and our journalists have worked hard to bring you a worthwhile reading experience. This anniversary edition is no exception. We believe our story on the children at the site of the planned St. Francis Xavier relics exposition is an extremely important one – and we hope our words will help spur immediate action. And we hope our story on the trail of black money in Goa and India will contribute to the public’s debate on this topic.

Like every other week, of course, this edition also contains stories of a happier nature, from music festivals to fashion to an unusual boat excursion to our piece on Dr. Belinda Viegas-Mueller, a multitalented psychiatrist who also happens to be an accomplished novelist, cyclist and mountaineer!

Two years ago we launched this venture of ours with a “flash mob” on the Dona Paula jetty that has now become one of the most viewed events from Goa in the history of YouTube. Our iconic image of the “Granny on a Harley” has gone viral worldwide. We’ve been involved in a great many events these past months – from charitable bazaars to musical performances to various kinds of festivals – and we’re happy to report we have not neglected the “entertainment” part of our “news & entertainment” review.

Our approach may have taken some getting used to for some.

How can a publication that specializes in telling you where to go for clubbing and cocktails also take the lead in reporting on such issues as mining, Special Status and the economic future of Goa? How does our emphasis on events, parties, restaurants and leisure square with our stories on the forgotten children of Goa, the Canacona building collapse, the state’s garbage menace and the trafficking of women and girls in Goa? This, dear reader, was our idea from the beginning. Yes, many of our readers pick us up for the food/event/nightlife/museum listings. But when you’re thumbing through the paper looking for ideas on how to spend your down time, it is our sincere hope that you will also be able to enjoy a good, worthwhile read.

We pay a lot of attention to our website, www.goastreets.com, which has emerged as a key source of news & events in Goa. And we’re pioneers in the use of social media in the state, with plans to grow both of these areas.

We’d like to take this time to thank our readers, advertisers, staffers, collaborators and everyone else who has helped make our venture the success that it is. For us, this is a happy birthday, and we hope it is for you, too.

Marisha Dutt and Steven Gutkin

7 Friday, November 7, 2014

How to Make An Absolutely KILLER Ceviche Without Killing YOURSELF! Kornelia Santoro

M

y version of ceviche has two small, yet significant shortcuts.

Ceviche is a traditional dish from the coastal regions of South and Central America. Basically it describes the preparation of seafood cured with lemon or limejuice.

The acid in the juice changes the protein in the fish so it seems cooked – but no heat is applied.

I have great experiences with ceviche. At parties it usually disappears in no time at all.

Unfortunately, when you want to prepare a serious amount of ceviche you need loads of lemon or limejuice. I don’t like to use the commercial lemon juice sold in bottles because it contains ascorbic acid as preservative, which adds a distinctive, unpleasant flavour.

Because I don’t want to spend hours squeezing lime, I have worked out the following shortcut: I cure the fish overnight in synthetic vinegar, then rinse the cured fish and douse it in a lemon vinaigrette.

My second shortcut is the choice of fish. Instead of buying fresh fish, I use frozen fish filets. Here in Goa we can buy Basa fish filets imported from Vietnam.

There is a big discussion going on if Basa is healthy or not. So far, I have had only good experiences.

I only buy frozen fish filets in packets that look well closed. I also pay attention that the fish is not covered in big ice crystals. That is a sign that the fish has been defrosted and refrozen.

Some supermarkets sell Basa fish filets defrosted, but I avoid these. I don’t know how long the fish has been lying there. If you buy defrosted fish filets, you have to use them immediately.

My ceviche is a great dish for parties because you can prepare big amounts

with relative ease. However, you cannot keep this dish longer than one or two days in the fridge.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Ingredients (for 4 big servings): • 1 kilogram frozen Basa fish filets • 1 litre synthetic vinegar • 12 lime, maybe less, maybe more • 100 ml extra virgin olive oil • 3 or 4 fresh, big red chillies • 1-bundle spring onions • salt • pepper Method: Take out the frozen fish filets and let them defrost for one or two hours.

They should not be completely defrosted because they are a lot easier to cut into

equal slices when they are still slightly frozen.

Cut them into slices around one centimetre thick. Place the slices into a container and pour the vinegar over it.

The fish should be completely covered by the vinegar so it cures evenly. I prefer synthetic vinegar because it does not imbue any flavour to the fish. I have tried to use toddy or other vinegar, but it leaves a flavour behind that I don’t like so much.

Close the container and leave it overnight in the fridge. Some people claim that you can overcook fish by marinating it and advise not to cure it for longer than 30 minutes or so. I think this is highly exaggerated. Anyway, Basa is a sturdy fish that withstands a night in vinegar easily without turning hard.

The following day, drain the fish and rinse it thoroughly with drinking water. Drain it again and place it into a sufficiently big container or plate. You have to work cleanly when preparing ceviche because you don’t cook the fish.

Wash the spring onions, clean them and slice them finely. Spread them over the fish. Wash the chillies and chop them

finely. I put them into a jam or Nutella glass with a tight closing lid. This is the fastest way to make proper vinaigrette.

Squeeze your lime or lemons. You need about 60 to 70 ml of juice.

This depends a lot on your taste. I like my ceviche quite tart. I want to taste the lemon or lime. You might need to adjust the amount of juice you use according to your taste. Start with a bit less, you can always add more. Place the lemon or limejuice to the chopped chillies in the glass. Add about half a teaspoon of salt, close the lid and shake the glass until the salt has dissolved. Adjoin the olive oil and some pepper and shake again until you have a fine emulsion.

Pour the vinaigrette over the fish and mix everything well. Adjust the seasoning according to your taste.

If you feel adventurous, you can take the taste of ceviche in different directions. I like the taste and the look

of chillies with spring onion. But you could also make a kind of Mediterranean ceviche with oregano, thyme and garlic.

Or you could add the Indian favourite herb coriander and maybe some garam masala with ginger and/or cumin powder. Enjoy!  Kornelia is a German food writer living in Goa, India, with her Italian husband and her son.

She has published two cookbooks, Kornelia's Kitchen Mediterranean Cooking for India and Kornelia's Kitchen 2 - Cooking for Allergies. Both have won the Gourmand World Cookbook Award. All her recipes are easy, fast and delicious - the right kind of food to keep your family healthy and happy without spending too much time in the kitchen.

8 Food & Drinks Nov 9 Tradition Cake Mixing Ceremony The Park Calangute Goa welcomes the holiday season with a fruit soaking ceremony ahead of Christmas.

At The Park, Calangute Goa 4 pm onwards +91 8805028194

November 3 Onwards Thai Food Festival The exotic flavors of lemongrass, basil, kaffir lime always brings to mind Thai food! Ori the specialty Oriental cuisine restaurant At The HQ, Vasco +91 7709003237

Every Tuesday Goan Market Nights Experience authentic Goan dining as we recreate a vibrant market scenario with dancers showing off their traditional moves and local artisans displaying their talent in the form of beautiful handicrafts and pottery.

Rs 1500++ per person At Alila Diwa Goa, Majorda +91 832 2746800

Every Wednesday Grand Goan Buffet For lunch and dinner. Each week’s menu is again different. Keeping tradition alive!

At The HQ, Vasco +91 7709003237

Every Thursday Dine In The Dark At Spice Studio Give your eyes a break while your other senses lead the way to a unique dining experience. Enjoy an Indian thali in the dark at our award winning specialty restaurant, Spice Studio.

PRICE: INR 900++ (food only) At Alila Diwa Goa, Majorda 7.30 pm Onwards +91 832 2746800

Every Saturday Barbeque Nights - With Caroline Treat yourself to assorted grilled delights from the live barbeque and more while you lose yourself in the melodies of Caroline’s saxophone.

Rs 1500++ per person At Alila Diwa Goa, Majorda +91 832 2746800 Sunday Brunches@ 899/head Burger Pizzas Beer Salads Cocktails Desserts House – Spirits Beverages At Cheenos, Baga 12 pm to 4 pm +91 8806564991 Lazy Sunday Lunches With Acacio There is no better finale to the weekend than a lazy Sunday lunch that includes agenerous spread of your favorite cuisine and foot-tapping music

by Acacio.

Rs 1499 all inclusive food and house beverages At Alila Diwa Goa, Majorda +91 832 2746800 Bikini Brunch Sunday BBQ Brunch @ Rs. 950 ++ with unlimited drinks Enjoy Live Karaoke with Emmanuel At The Park, Calangute 12.30 pm to 4.30 pm +91 8805028194

Sunday Brunch This is one of the more interesting spots in town to have a meal. Under the supervision of Vandana Naik, a former top chef in New York City and easily one of Goa’s most notable culinary experts, there’s a wide variety of delights on offer, including pizzas, soups, salads, hummus and meat balls, plus an eclectic mix of Indian, Mediterranean and other world cuisines. That’s not to mention the desserts, another top draw here.

Noon to 4 pm At Cantina Bodega, Sunaparanta, Panjim. +91 832 2421315

Baga, Calangute and Around Amigos Indian, Goan, Seafood Hearty food in an attractive village Below Nerul Bridge, Nerul 12.30 pm to 4 pm & 7 pm to 10.30 pm +919822104920 Aquamarine Bistro & Bar Indian, Goan, Continental Perhaps the top draw is the riverside location. Good place for golden fried prawns and a nice sunset view over the river.

7 am to 10.30 pm At Baga Land’s End, Baga +91 832 2276084/2275482 Bhatti Village Indian & Goan There is chicken cafreal, pork roast and beef roast, sorpotel, samaranchi kodi, feijoida, all the different varieties of chilli fry and fish Roe. At Bhattiwaddo, Nerul 7.30 pm to 11 pm +919822184103 Big Pecker’s Chinese, European, North Indian & Seafood Also offers grilled sandwiches, burgers, pizzas, baguettes and jacket potatoes.

As for the name Big Pecker's, we're a family newspaper so we'll reserve comment.

At Calangute beach road, Calangute 9 am to midnight +91 9823226977 Britto’s Chinese, English, Goan, Seafood At Baga beach, Calangute People used to swear by this joint, but it's become increasingly touristy and, frankly, not all that great 8.30 pm to midnight +91 832 2277331/ +91 832 2276291 Café de Goa Attractive Café with lots of fresh small bites and innovative offerings.

At The Red Tower, Calangute 10.30 am to 5.30 pm +91 832 2279961 Le Poisson Rouge French, Seafood Local fish cooked a la French Style, with a slight touch of Goa; delicious fusion cuisine Opp. Baga Bridge, Baga 7 pm to 11pm +91 9823850276/ +91 832 3245800

Tropical 24x7 Restaurant, Bar & Pub All Day All Night. Check this place out.

Surprisingly lovely food offerings!

At Calangute, Main Road +91 9820115921 Caravela Goan, Indian, Chinese and Continental The lawn of the Goan Heritage offers a wide variety of well-prepared food and cocktails. But the big draw is the party scene on Friday nights.

At Hotel Goan Heritage, Calangute Noon to 2.30 pm & 7 pm to 11.30 pm +91 832 2276761/64 Lila Cafe German –think schnitzel, chicken liver pate and German sausages. Lovely tent-like setting At Baga Creek Road, Arpora Baga +91 832 2279843

Anjuna and Around

Hendrix - The Meating Grill BBQ and Grill Classic barbeque and grill, crafted, perfected and plated, with lip smacking flavours and Live Music At Anjuna, Bhatin 7 pm to 11 pm +91 8007599945 Basilico Italian This alfresco restaurant serves pizzas, home-made pastas, salads and sinful desserts.

At D’Mello Waddo, Anjuna 6.30 pm to 11 pm +918322273721/ +918323953744/ +919822599130 Gunpowder Indian At Cursino Villa, Sauntawaddo, Assagao Noon to 3.30 pm & 7 pm to 11 pm +91 832 2270091/ 92 Kapriz Restaurant Fusion Unique and charismatic fusion of culinary cultures with Indian Flair 8 am to 11 am , noon to 4 pm, 7 pm to 11.30 pm At Royal Goan Beach Club, Arpora +91 9820134503 Cotinga at the Tamarind Chinese, Indian, Italian Fresh and delicious is always in season at the Tamarind.

At Kumar Vaddo, Opp. St Michael Church, Anjuna 10 am to 11.30 pm +91 832 2274319 Artjuna Café European Lifestyle Shop & Café Ok, so the owner Moshe can be a bit gruff at times. No matter. Food and ambience are worth it.

At Monteiro Vaddo, Anjuna +91 832 2274794 Tin Tin Bar & Restaurant American, Steaks, Italian, Eclectic Chef owner Savio truly knows what he's doing at this and his other joint, Route 66 in Panjim At Vagator +91 9623973691/ +91 9623922796 Bean Me Up It’s a small garden restaurant in Anjuna specialising in world vegetarian cuisine At Deulvaddo, Anjuna 8 am to 11 pm +918322273479

Palms n Sand: With a view so mesmerising that the only thing that will compete for your attention is the food.

Located bang on the shores of Arabian Sea, Palms n Sands has been catering a stupendous blend of Goan, North Indian and Continental cuisines along with refreshing cocktails since 1989.

Dando, Candolim Beach, Bardez – Goa (T) 0832-6459171 (M) 9822149629

Candolim

House of Lloyds Continental, seafood, and hearty Goan cuisine.

The restaurant recommends you go for the Goan roast pork, apple salad with tender greens, crispy sardines, stuffed crab and steaks.

At Saipem Road, Candolim 7 pm to 3 am. +91 9823032273

A Pastelaria Good place for pastries, cakes, cookies and other sweet offerings 9 am to 9 pm. At Hotel Mandovi, Panjim. +91 832 2426270/ 73 Avanti Bar & Restaurant Indian, Goan & Seafood Serves up Goan specialties like rawa fried prawns, stuffed squid and stuffed crab masala Near Patto Bridge, Panjim 11 am to 3 .30 pm, 7 pm to 11.30 pm +91 832 2435884/ +91 832 2427179 Bombay Darbar Take Away and Catering Services Surprisingly scrumptious Indian fare At Sairam Residency, Shop no 1, Alto St.Cruz Road, St.Cruz, Tiswadi +91 832-2458877 / +91 832 2458588 Café Bhonsle Chinese, Goan, North Indian One of the Popular Eatier in Panjim Near Cine national, Panjim 6.30 am to 8 pm +91 832 2426000/ +91 832 2431499

O’Asia Pan Asian In a posh hotel right on the busy Candolim strip At The O Hotel, Dando, Candolim Noon to 3 pm, 7.30 pm to 11 pm +918323047000

Pakeeza Restaurant Goan, North Indian, Seafood It’s a family Restaurant run by Muslim Family At 31st January Road, Panjim 12.30 pm to 3 pm +91 9890974424/ +91 9850464086

Kebabs & Curries Indian At Holiday Street, Goan Heritage Hotel, Candolim +91 832 6515279

Margao & Around

The Pavilion Café & Bar Asian Fusion, Chinese, French, Italian, Seafood, Thai, Veg Pavilion Cafe & Bar offers an excellent choice in which to relax, rewind, refresh and socialise in the utmost comfort and luxury.

At Escrivao Vaddo, Candolim 8 am to 11 pm +91 832 2489008 Shivers Garden Restaurant & Sports Bar Chinese, Indian, Italian, Seafood, Continental Outdoor Sitting Opp. Kingfisher Villa, Dando, Candolim +91 9860698281 Horizon Grill Restaurant BBQ, Continental, Oriental, Indian Horizon Grill is a welcoming and charming restaurant where you will love to pamper your taste buds.

At Vaddy, Next to Whispering Palms Beach Resort 5.30 pm to 11.30 pm +91 982246682

Panjim & Around

Hotel Sanskruti Pure Veg. Filled with office workers at lunch time. Cheap and good.

At Porvorim. 7 am to 10 pm +91 832 - 2414400 Daawat - Feast the Soul Multicuisine Restaurant with Bar At Campal, opp., kala Academy,Panjim +91 832 6511010 Black Sheep Bistro The Black Sheep Bistro is Goa’s first casual fine dining concept restaurant Located in the heart of Panjim City At Swami Vivekananda Road, Next to icici Bank, Panjim 7 pm to 1 am +91 832 2222901

Ruta’s World Café Breakfast, Lunch, Coffee Located on a quiet side street right by the City’s Latin Quarter, a world away from the maddening crowds.

At Dr Miranda Rd, Behind Nanutel, Margao.

From 9 am to 6 pm +91 832 2710757 The HQ Restaurant A pulsating business hotel in Goa which is located most conveniently in the heart of Vasco-Da-Gama city.

At Swatantra Path, Vasco +91 832 2500015 A Tartaruga Goan, Seafood, Italian, Chinese, The restaurant opens onto the Cocodel-Mar lawns overlooking the beach ahead making it the perfect location for your tropical dining experience.

At Longuinhos Beach Resort, Colva Beach Salcett +91 832 2788068 Zeebop by the Sea Restaurant Looking for a relaxed evening with an amazing sea view, delicious seafood & drinks, with a great ambiance, fun, entertainment, & beautiful sunsets?

At Utorda Beach, Utorda, South Goa +91 832 2755333/+91 9822154541

Canacona Big Fish Restaurant & Bar Try out the bruschetta, the opensandwich-style bread with all kinds of different toppings, or the Marguerite Pizza, the Foccacia and, of course, the pastas.

At Palolem beach, Canacona 8am to 11 pm +91 9418097133, +91 9904312298 Baba’s Little Italy Chinese, Goan, Indian, Italian & seafood. At Palolem Beach, Canacona 9 am to 11 pm +91 9923749449

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Friday, November 7, 2014

What Good Is The Exposition of Relics If It’s Done Through the Exploitation of Children?

By Anzil Fernandes

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he current pope took the name Francis not by coincidence but because he believes in the values the original Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier, stood for. Of all of Goa’s claims to fame, housing the relics of this saint who once called Goa his home is among the most notable. In less than 10 days from now, Goa will witness the exposition of the relics of the co-founder of the Society of Jesus, the congregation from where Pope Francis hails. But the truth is the values that St. Francis Xavier espoused are being trampled here in Goa in the preparations for the event.

When was the last time you drove past these works in Old Goa? On one recent afternoon, I witnessed children as young as eight years old carrying heavy boulders on their heads to prepare the parking lot for the exposition. Toddlers roam the roadside as their parents toil. The children are covered in dirt, unattended and most definitely out of school.

Listen up, people of Goa. Pay heed Public Works Department. THIS IS A GOVERNMENT PROJECT! These children have a right to be in school and to be cared for. Honour the great saint through living by his humanitarian values. What good is the exposition of his relics if it is

carried out through the exploitation of children?

“It’s the government duty to ensure that at least minimum facilities are provided to these kids, which they are entitled to by law,” says eminent human rights activist and advocate Albertina Almeida.

At age three, one might expect Laxmi to play with soft toys with her mum and dad and possibly learn a few nursery rhymes. But this is not the life Laxmi leads. A dusty footpath surrounded by debris and mud is her bed. She is fast asleep with a soiled blue bed sheet and a

towel to cover her body.

Laxmi’s mother is sweating in the hot sun as she and other women are busy crushing boulders and fixing the road for the exposition.

It’s not clear exactly how many kids are affected, but the numbers appear to be in the dozens and it’s an indisputable fact that child labour is involved.

If you haven’t paid much heed to this and other situations like it, you’re not alone. Since almost every construction site in Goa is brimming with migrant workers and their out-of-school children, including the road widening project on the highway leading to Old Goa, many residents simply dismiss the phenomenon as the way the world is, or perhaps just ignore it. I’m sorry, dear reader. This is NOT the way the world is supposed to be, not when the lives and well-being of children are at stake.

Nanashaheb, a 37-year-old native of Karnataka agrees the government should provide educational facilities to the kids but he admits he is helpless.

“What will a poor man like me ask the government or contractor?” he asks.

Another Karnataka labourer, 30-yearold Sachin Chawan, is helping to build the parking lot for the event. Speaking about his two-and-a-half-year-old son’s future education, he says, “I’ll send him to school once I return home.” But he had no words when asked how he planned to manage that, given his nomadic existence staying in a single place for no longer than six months.

“We cannot provide education facility as they work for a few days here and move out once work is over”, explains

contractor C H Abdulla, overseeing some of the works at the site. He said there are four separate groups of workers engaged in the project, each consisting of 15 to 20 men and women, plus their children.

I put several calls in to the Public Works Department, or PWD, to get their comment, but the calls were not returned. Finally, I found a PWD official at the site, but he refused to talk to me when he found out I was a journalist.

Goa’s Directorate of Women and Child Welfare operates 1,262 ‘anganwadi’ or pre-primary schools, which provide educational, nutrition and health facilities to the poor. The department’s director, Vikas Gaunekar, said sending the migrants’ children to these schools or availing of the directorate’s other benefits is the sole decision of the parents. After explaining the plight of the kids at the ongoing construction works at Old Goa, Vikas agreed to send his team to survey the area and work to enroll the kids at a nearby anganwadi.

Peter Viegas, Coordinator of the Save Old Goa Action Committee, puts the onus on the government. “If the development work itself is done haphazardly what more do you expect?” he asked, adding that the church-government entity charged with preparing the exposition was given an Rs 50 crore budget but “the work only started 3 to 4 weeks back.”

The spirit of St. Francis Xavier is at the core of the exciting, positive changes taking place at the Vatican these days.

Showing off his relics is a poor way to honour his life and memory, if we fail to take responsibility for the well-being of these young souls. 

Feature 11

Friday, November 7, 2014

Dr. Belinda Viegas-Mueller The Renaissance Woman of South Goa

Novelist, Cyclist, Mountaineer and Psychiatrist How many hats does she don?

Excerpts from Dr. Belinda

Viegas-Mueller’s superb novel ‘The Cry of the Kingfisher’ appeared in Goa Streets in November 2013. Now, a year later on the occasion of Streets’ two-year-anniversary, we bring you this feature about this extraordinary novelist, cyclist, mountaineer and psychiatrist.

Dr. Belinda has published 3 books, and was recently the only woman to complete a grueling 1200-kilometre cycling tour. A few years back, she also scaled the Wetterstein Mountains in her 8th month of pregnancy. Today, she has a successful psychiatric practice at Varca in South Goa. Dr. Charlane Pereira e Rebello (herself a psychologist) catches up with this 53-year-old Goan Renaissance Woman.

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s I met Dr. Belinda at her clinic in Varca, she seemed quite thrilled to be interviewed and she sat on no high horses, moral or any other kind. Her story unfolded quickly – a tale of globe-trotting in various avatars before finally settling down in Goa with her German husband Richard and 2 children, Ayesha and Rohan.

Born and brought up in Nairobi, Dr. Belinda Viegas nostalgically remembers her childhood, especially the fishing trips and her close proximity to Africa’s incredible array of wildlife. Young Belinda had dreamt of being a wildlife ranger or a biologist.

In 1971, her mother Janet Viegas moved to Belgaum to teach at St. Paul’s High School. That is when Belinda decided to pursue medicine at St. John’s Medical College in Bangalore.

She was uncertain about her choice of specialization. Confused and anxious, she took a break before joining psychiatry.

Within the first week of joining, she knew that she had made the right choice.

She says, “In psychiatry, one can see the person as a whole; one can see the person with thoughts and feelings.”

Among her accolades in these early years was winning the Gundu Rao Gold Medal for Preventive and Social Medicine from the Bangalore University and the

Major Dr K Padmanabha Menon Prize in Community Medicine.

And yet medicine was just part of what excited Belinda in life. Among her other top passions was sports.

She played badminton for Bangalore University for one year. Even during her XIth and XIIth Science at GSS College in Belgaum, she actively participated in National Cadet Corps sports camps.

While she was completing her MD in Psychiatry at NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences), Bangalore in 1988, she was introduced to rock-climbing and trekking, and did a course with the Uttarkashi School of Mountaineering. She joined St. John’s Medical College as a teaching faculty in psychiatry.

Organizing treks for staff and students during her tenure at NIMHANS, she met Richard while doing the Mt Everest Base Camp trek in Nepal. That was in the year 1989, and she and Richard decided to travel together.

Marriage took her to Germany in 1991.

Though she didn’t speak German, she spent her time at home writing. Despite being in her 8th month of pregnancy, Belinda took to climbing the Wetterstein Mountains (home to Germany’s highest peak, the Zugspitze) in 1992. By the time she entered her second pregnancy a

couple years later, she had also taken to cycling.

Belinda has enjoyed trekking with her children. She recalls, “All 4 of us went for the Annapurna trek in 2006.

Ayesha was 14 years old and Rohan was 12. Completing the Annapurna Circuit takes 21 days. However, the Nepali guide warned that we wouldn’t be able to complete this trek.”

“Neither Richard nor I were the youngest of the lot doing the Annapurna Circuit. Also, Ayesha and Rohan were with us. However, I still remember that we finished the trek with the Israeli soldiers,” adds Belinda proudly.

An excerpt of her book The Cry of the Kingfisher can be read at http:// www.goastreets.com/the-cry-of-thekingfisher/). That and her other two books, Goa Maaza (April 2011) and The Golden Gate... and other stories (December 2011) were all released in the same year.

Amazing!

The Cry of the Kingfisher revolves around three women’s struggle for happiness. Goa Maaza is a tale of a man in search of love, and making peace with his past.

Some of Belinda’s writings are based on her personal experiences at the clinic.

The fruit of her creative potential did not come easily. Still, some initial rejections

from publishing houses never stopped Belinda from writing and doing what made her happy.

In Golden Gate, Belinda has penned children’s stories, the same ones she narrated to her kids. The illustrations in the book have been done by Belinda herself (yet another talent!).

Recently, Belinda was the only woman to cycle the Daal Bhati 1200 km event in Rajasthan within 90 hours truly an extraordinary feat.

Traversing the distance from Jaipur this past February 27 and cycling through Bundi Kota - Chittorgarh - Udaipur - Mt Abu - Ajmer before finishing at Jaipur on March 2 required great physical and mental stamina. She was the only female rider among 10 male riders to successfully complete this feat.

Belinda recalls, “I was one of the oldest of the lot on a hybrid (heavy bike). Richard’s bike broke down and I had to cycle the last stretch all alone. But Richard and the others motivated me to finish the event.”

She quips, “I call myself an accidental cyclist. The only serious things I do are writing and psychiatry.”

As part of her psychiatric practice, she began to adopt psychotherapy to get to the root of underlying problems.

Medicine is often not enough, she believes.

Belinda also provides voluntary services to schools. Practicing in Varca in South Goa, she gets patients from all over.

She says, “The battle is half won when parents get their children here.

Prevention is better than cure. I love interacting with children, and working with teachers and parents. It’s my way of giving back to the society.”

She often visits and counsels the residents of Karunalaya, a home for the dying, destitute, poor and abandoned in Belgaum.

Belinda says on a parting note, “I believe in happiness. Today, people are seeking happiness in external things; they have to find happiness within themselves. Each one is born in this world with a talent.”

Belinda, of course, was born with many. 

12 Cover Story

The Best of Goa Streets A Sampling From The Past Year

In honour of our 2nd Anniversary on Nov. 8, we bring you the following selection of some of our best work during the past 12 months. It’s been a great ride, and we’re very proud of the journalism we’ve provided. Take a look at some of the stories that have made a splash!

The Forgotten Children of Goa Where the streets have no soul

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by Vivian Maverick Martins 11/04/2014

hey want to run, they want to hide, they want to tear down the walls in their minds and hearts. They want to seek shelter from the hot summer and the cold winter and the poison rains. They live on nameless streets with no souls, forgotten by the universe. This is the harsh reality of life for the

street children of Goa. One can see them almost everywhere in Goa today and the number, according to experts, has increased – even if there’s been no official accounting of the exact numbers.

Rahul, a 10-year-old boy, can be seen on the famous food street of Miramar in a torn tee and worn out shorts, with a plastic bag in hand to take home the goodies collected. Shawarma is one of his favorite delicacies on the food street and he hopes that someone buys him one. He describes how the cart owners drive him away as they feel customers will be deterred by this surprise guest asking them to shell out a little extra. “Some people advise me to work in order to feed myself while others are kind enough to feed my friends and me without too many questions,” he says. (Work? This boy is 10!). He doesn’t go to school, and has no recreational activity and no support.

Goa and the Lure of Europe Why are Goans lining up for Portuguese passports?

by Vivian Maverick Martins 27/12/2013

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very day in Goa, the government grants at least 200 marriage and other certificates required to obtain a Portuguese passport. Local public offices are inundated with requests for resident certificates. Archival deposits and education zones are frequented by growing numbers in search of old Portuguese documents like the Certidao Narrativa (birth record) and the Passa Viagem (travel document). All this is indicative of the fact that the trickle of Goans chasing the European dream has turned into something more akin to a flood.

“In a search for a better life I decided to make a move to the UK, leaving Goan memories behind,” says Clifford Judas Serrao, who now lives in Swindon, in the United Kingdom – an easy transfer once a Portuguese passport is obtained.

Indeed, the number of Goans availing themselves of their right to Portuguese citizenship – one of the happier outcomes of Portugal’s 451-year rule over Goa – has doubled in the past seven years. Today, an estimated 2,000 people per year register their births with the Portuguese consulate in Goa, the first step toward obtaining a passport, according to government and consulate officials.

Goa’s Oldest Person In Conversation with Goa Streets

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by Ananda Krishna 21/03/2014

ourdes Lobo was born on December 08, 1908, the same year that Orville Wright made his first one-hour flight, Mahatma Gandhi was arrested in South Africa for not carrying his ‘pass’ and Henry Ford launched the first Model T automobile. She’s now 105, as far as I can prove the oldest person in Goa. I had the privilege of spending several hours with her in recent weeks – and what I found was a strong, feisty and independent woman who wanted to

speak for herself, won’t eat fish if she thinks it’s too expensive, and took an abiding interest in me and my camera.

Lourdes, a fluent Portuguese speaker, was 52 when Goa was liberated from Portugal’s 451-year rule in 1961 (Yes, that’s right. She was already a middle aged woman more than a half century ago). But when she looks back, she doesn’t see it as a “liberation” at all.

“During the Portuguese time we did not have any problems. We did not have to shut our windows and doors. It’s like we are imprisoned now,” she says.

Life for Lourdes has not been particularly easy, but if she’s anything, she’s a fighter. At the ripe young age of 102 – three years ago – she developed gangrene. The doctors wanted to amputate her leg from the waist down but she refused. Instead Lourdes stuck to her guts and healed herself with home remedies.

“The Lord has sent me with my legs. I will die with my legs,” she said, reflecting a certain iron determination that may well help explain her extraordinary longevity.

The doctor called her the “miracle woman”, and yes, there is something miraculous about her life in the north Goan village of Carmorlim, where her two daughters take care of her at the family’s ancestral home. Baptism and marriage certificates corroborate Lourdes’ birth date and show that yes, she will turn 106 in December.

The Bikini and Pub Wars of Goa And The Threat of Talibanisation (Not to worry. It’s not happening… Yet)

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by Aparna Raut Desai 08/08/2014

all it a Goan identity crisis. You’d think the issue would have been decided by now – after all these decades of hippies, fullmoon raves and beach psychedelia. But crazily, and against all odds, we Goans are still trying to decide whether we want to be Ibiza or Kabul, a free-spirited seaside paradise of silent noise and scant coverings or a bastion of “Indian” values that are menacingly beginning to look more like “Afghani” ones.

“In Afghanistan, girls could wear shorts, sleeveless tops, anything they wanted without worry,” reminisces a young Afghani student in Panjim. “Then the Taliban took control of our city, and instantly, women had to wear burkhas. If they were not accompanied by a male member of the family, they were not allowed to leave the house.”

Ok, let’s be real here. No one is saying that’s where we’re headed in Goa. But with the BJP in power both at the centre and at home, palpable changes are in the air. Some of them, to be sure, are welcome, especially the feeling that our economy may get a much needed boost. But what about those bikinis and pubs that our PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar spoke so disparagingly about?

First, let’s be clear. This is about more than just beachwear and beverages. It’s about who we are, and who we strive to be. It’s about our culture’s lure for the rest of the world, our extraordinary blend of East and West that has been drawing visitors from around the globe for decades. At heart, we are an easy-going

Cover Story 13

Friday, November 7, 2014

people who’ve always displayed a broad-minded tolerance that provides stark relief in a region still battling unspeakable outrages like female infanticide. So when the likes of Dhavalikar speaks out against our “bikini and pub culture,” it feels like he’s shooting down much more than that.

Judging from the reactions of the people of Goa, it seems the good minister will have his work cut out for him in replacing our enlightened worldview with a medieval one. People from all walks of life, exemplified by Goan fashion designer Wendell Rodricks’ open letter to Dhavalikar suggesting he wear a loin cloth if he opposes Western attire, spoke out against the minister.

No, “young girls in short skirts in nightclubs” are not a threat to Goan culture, Mr. Minister, many of us declared. But you may well be!

Goa for the Goans?

The Truth About ‘Special Status’

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by Goa Streets 30/10/2014

rom the Goan perspective, it’s not hard to see why so many folks in this tiny state of ours are hankering for “special status” – laws that would ban real estate sales to outsiders. For one, such a move would almost surely bring prices down, suddenly giving ordinary Goans the possibility of being able to afford their own homes. And it might help reverse what many Goans see as the deeply troubling trend of our state’s culture and heritage being swallowed up by Mother India.

Eleven Indian states already enjoy “Special Status” or “Special Category Status” – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. Can Goa be added to this list? Fortunately for those who would hate to see outsiders banned from buying land, and unfortunately for all those clamouring for Goan Special Status, prospects for such a move look highly unlikely.

To be sure, lip service is being paid, including by the chief minister himself. Committees are being set up to explore the issue, including a recent seminar organized by the Goa Legislators’ Forum. And a Goan delegation is scheduled to depart for New Delhi to push for Goan Special Status (which would require an amendment to the nation’s constitution).

But Goa’s real estate magnates are among the most powerful players in the state, and despite Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s occasional verbal nods to Special Status, he is seen as amenable to the wishes of the business community.

Moreover, the BJP-led central government, with its Hindu

nationalist bent, is not likely to bend over backwards for the cause of Catholic cultural preservation in a former Portuguese colony. The central government has already struck down a number of attempts to prohibit or restrict land sales to non-Goans.

Goa for the Goans? It might sound like a good idea, but how many of our people will perform menial jobs in construction or garbage collection? Here’s the bottom line: deign to labour, or keep quiet about migrants!

The point is we have laws and policies right here in Goa, and they can be used to preserve our precious heritage.

First, by creating the economic conditions that would keep Goans at home. Second, by stemming the tide of rampant environmental and architectural degradation. Third, by making sure infrastructure keeps pace with development.

It’s important also to keep in mind that not all change is bad, even when a region’s fundamental character is altered. What was Bali like a generation ago? Or Maui or Ko Samui or Macau? Goa’s not the first beautiful holiday destination to attract outside investment, and it won’t be the last. Yes, there are winners and losers. Yes, the loss of identity hurts. But you don’t have to bring back yesterday to achieve a better tomorrow.

14 Feature Eclectic fashion fusion at the Goa Couture Fashion Week (GCFW), Nov 1-2, Tito’s Courtyard

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hey dazzled. The ramp temperature soared. Baga has given Goa’s fashionistas a new address to UP their style barometer, reports Goa’s Fashion & Lifestyle writer, Ethel Da Costa The Goa Couture Fashion Week (GCFW) presented by Hema Art & Fashion Company on Nov 1-2 at Tito’s Courtyard, concluded to a stylish, colourful finale with the coming together of some of the country’s most talented, versatile and unique designers.

Opening Day 1 saw Designer Verma D’Mello presenting a collection that drew an emotional response with an evening wear presentation that flirted with the colour Black dedicated to the Blind: `The Dark Room.’

Moist eyes were seen everywhere when Verma escorted her showstopper - the pretty, sight impaired Rina Dourado dressed in couture - do the ramp walk and bow. Warm, heart-felt accolades exploded from the audiences starting off the Goa Couture Fashion Week to a great season start.

Designer Felix Bendish with `Lost

in Paradise’ brought the wild to the spotlight. Sequined parrots, cockatoo beak belts, beaded lizards, shiny frogs on suspenders, tribal and funky neck wear, feathers and twig headsets, jumpsuits, cocktail dresses with wide play focus on animal-inspired accessories added a dash of Nature.

Young Designer Anees Deen then juxtaposed the charm of vintage, old world Victorian summers with `Nostalgic Goa’ as white tea roses, sun hats, lace on brocade, white on cream, corset dresses and layered gowns set a romantic tone for the night. Shravan Kumar Ramaswamy brought out all the stops with his fabulous weaves, embroidery on ethnic eco-friendly fabrics weaved by the master weavers of Hyderabad.

Day 2 of the Goa Couture Fashion Week saw Opening Designer Ramesh Dembla add some oomph and glamour with `Sheer Ecstasy,’ a collection designed with the style diva in mind, and he did not disappoint with fashionista and showstopper for the collection Yellow Mehra doing justice in a black layered mermaid tail gown. (You may also know Yellow as owner of the fabulous restaurant Fiesta!)

Lucknow Designer Arshi Jamal displayed classical tradition, with motifs and stitch focusing on the roots of his city. The surprise of the evening was the talented, young and upcoming Designer Sparsha Deshpande.

Her work is young, fashionable and shows a play between prêt and sophisticated evening wear. Well done. She was supported by upcoming jewellery designer Pravita Vernekar, who brought out the bling on chokers, bracelets in gold and diamonds.

An apt finale by Designer Manali Jagtab to the 2-day fashion extravaganza included a dramatic entry of models clicking champagne flutes in elegant black evening couture as they walked from the audience onto the ramp, drawing wide applause and whistles. Pulled back hair, red pouts and smoky eyes added heat to haute by Hair & MakeUp executed by Bina Punjani Studio.

The GCFW 2014 headlined by Showstopper Supermodels Parvathy Omnakuttan, Himangini Singh, Prachi Mishra, Natasha Suri, Anita Kumar and Gauri Jambalikar. Fashion direction by Shie Lobo added much pizzazz to the proceedings. 

And Congrats to Goa Streets for Entering Its Not-So-Terrible Twos!

By Sheela Jaywant

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f you speak in English, it’s anniversary. If you speak in an Indian lingo, it’s usually aahniverserry.

Until some decades ago, the fact that you were born involved a celebration on the day you were named, incorporated into your religion, got married and in your memory sometime after you died. For dear departed (Hindu) ancestors, males only, there’s a collective anniversary celebration called Shraadh. Anniversaries came and went unnoticed.

Party times were at traditional festivals or when you built a house. Promotions were rare, changing jobs rarer still and yes, at retirement your department hosted snacks and balloons for you and gifted you a watch for the forty years of effort you’d put it at chair and desk. If you were somehow linked to a senior post, you may have had ‘official functions’. Anniversary was a word in the dictionary, understood and comprehended, but not a part of an Indian’s life.

Then began the birthday parties.

(Birth anniversaries.) Cousins were guests, some neighbours and classmates, later their parents joined in. Food was cooked by the women of the house.

Presents opened and discussed after everyone had left. Outsourced menus came later.

Wedding anniversaries, in my memory, got noticed after a certain watch company decided to nudge out an existing public-sector one (HMT, whose watch section ‘died’ just a few weeks ago). Advertisements declared that you were entitled to a watch as gift for your first, ninth, seventeenth, whichever anniversary.

We Indians love celebrations, don’t we? The anniversary seed grew like the beanstalk in Jack’s story. If Facebook posts are indicators of social change, today we have anniversaries for ‘the first time we saw each other’, ‘the first time we met’, engagements and weddings of course, ‘the first job’, ‘the first day of the current job’, ‘first trips out of the country’, and getting the ‘first car’, ‘first mobile-phone’, ‘first computer’ and so on. I have no doubts that where memory is concerned, Indians have the best and strongest. It’s in our genes. And in the byrote education system we grew up in.

When it comes to politicians’ deaths and births, anniversaries are very, very important. Big banners, posters, pamphlets and full-page advertisements declaring bronze, silver, gold, platinum, ruby, emerald and diamond death/birth

anniversaries add to the general litter on the streets. And to the coffers of food and beverage companies.

It’s not just in India. Internationally, there are ‘anniversaries’ which are special. So we have world kidney /heart /spleen /wrist /earlobe days for those concerned about their bodies. And world save the trees/dogs/medieval music/ aboriginal art days for those concerned about things non-human.

And then we have magazine anniversaries.

When Editor Steve G (or Steve-jee, which might sound the same but is a more respectable ethnic version of his name) phoned to say his (and Marisha’s) baby was completing two years, I thought, Goa Streets has entered the era of the Terrible Twos. Human toddlers at that age graduate from crawling to standing to taking steps, assert their independence and are curious about every and anything. They take risks, they break norms (vases and curious, too), they learn faster than ever and are full of energy. Goa Streets has reached that (st) age.

The night it was born, over rum and coke and a delicious dinner hosted by the publisher-printer-editor-writingmarketing-do-it-all team of Steve and Marisha, I had wondered what this periodical would be about.

Over the next many weeks, which later stretched into months, I read it regularly to educate myself about where I could eat Italian, French, Greek, even Goan food. Though a local, I didn’t know which restaurants employed musicians and which music could be enjoyed on which days and where.

Later, for some time in that lovely old-style Portuguese house in Sangolda which houses its office, I worked quiet summer afternoons, editing articles on night-life in Goa. It was my virtual entry into a world I’d never been in.

Anniversary conversations in the corporate and personal world are about ‘what have we done/achieved’. Steve’s email from the Goa Streets office was different: it wanted to discuss, at the anniversary, how to move forward, with novel ideas and original thoughts.

Considering that this magazine has covered dance, music, art, literature, mining-problems, rape in children, education, monsoon woes, sunsets, fishing-problems, fashion-designers, antique furniture shops, scuba-diving, luxury homes, transport and 48 x 4 issues, I’ve no doubt that Goa Streets has already made its mark on this coast.

Happy, healthy returns, I say, and may Goa Streets have many, many more anniversaries. 

15

Friday, November 7, 2014

The Wheels of Fortune Have Been Good to Victor Hugo Gomes!

By Perin Ilavia

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t was the eve of the 5th anniversary of Goa Chitra, one of the finest museums on Goan-ness in the entire state. What better way to celebrate than to open a whole new museum on the premises, this one called “Goa Chakra.”

The festivities taking place this past Nov. 1 were inaugurated by the chief minister, who was brought to the venue in a cycle rickshaw. Wheels, of course, are the theme of Goa Chakra, which displays, among many other artefacts, 68 carriages dating back a century or more.

Kudos to founder Victor Hugo Gomes, the artist-curator-restorer who’s just gained another feather in his cap!

The grounds’ 1800 square meter built-up area is fringed by a 30-acre property featuring plenty of organic

farming. Structures have been added to the ancestral house to accommodate the display of some 4,000 artefacts reflecting Goa’s traditional agrarian technology and lifestyle.

During the festivities this past week, traditional street food was served on hand carts. There was an impressive collection of non-mechanized indigenous carriages, carts and palanquins with historically significant artefacts related to the wheel from across India. The items relate to war, hunting and racing. There are two-wheeled farm carts, covered carriages, heavy freight wagons and passenger coaches. The ambiance takes you back in time to the days when such wheeled vehicles were an integral part of life in India.

“Bhea bshentch batt” (what you sow you reap), said Victor, recounting his challenging and exciting life journey. “It was five years ago that my wife and I made a commitment to collect, preserve and pay tribute to our unique heritage.

Our vision was to host other topic related museums and encourage crafts facilitation.

Today we are at the threshold of a very significant milestone on this journey as we pay tribute to the rich heritage of the wheel with our new museum”.

It may seem unbelievable, but there is still plenty of room for expansion, as only 10% of their collection is on

display.

Over the years, Victor found that many carts and carriages across India were being phased out and forgotten. He launched the first of a series of exhibitions reflecting India’s rich crafts and traditions, which he hopes to help revive in line with his goal of being a source of inspiration to local craftsmen.

Victor asked the government agency dealing with handicrafts to participate in this event, but they declined. So he approached an NGO - the Kachchh Ji Chaapn – and invited them to showcase print artisans of Kachchh

16 Arts & Entertainment Nov 9 Annual Fado Singing Competition This talent hunt is hosted by the sixth edition of the Semana da Culture Indo Portuguesah.

Sing it out loud at The Institute Menezes Braganza Hall, Panjim. +91 9823206426

Nov 16 Shubharambh Evoke your thoughts at this group art exhibition themed on having a blessed start.

Ujwal Art Gallery, Vagator 9:00 am to 9:00 pm +91 9764847397 | +91 9673885713

Oct 31 to Nov 22 ART EXHIBITION - Entwined Beauty

by Rajesh Salgaonkar Rejoice to a spectacle of Rajesh Salgaokar’s recent collection, “Entwined Beauty”.

Carpe Diem Art & Learning Centre – Majorda 7:30 pm +91 88888 62462

Galleries of Note Off The Wall A collectible of deeply astounding works of art displayed on daily basis at this thoughtful art cafe.

Fort Aguada Road, Sinquerim, Candolim 10:30 am to 11:30 pm +91 9820083497 | +91 9823289123 San Thome Museum Behold a well-kept display of old machines and artefacts demonstrating technical evolution.

At Varca 9:00 am to 8:00 pm +91 9822363917 | +91 832 2771000 Panjim Art Gallery Get a dose of the local culture with figurative work of Goan artists.

Near Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church, Panjim 9:00 am to 8:00 pm +91 9822168703 Mario Art Gallery Discover the original paintings and other memorabilia of the great Goan artist/cartoonist Mario Miranda.

Here you can buy “The Life of Mario”, as well as prints, mounted prints, frames, tiles, mugs, card sets and other books.

‘Houses of Goa’, Salvador-doMundo, Porvorim area 9:00 am to 5:30 pm +91 832 2410711 Gallery Gitanjali An elegant art gallery in Panjim’s Latin Quarter is worth hopping in when you’re in the area.

Fontainhas, Panjim 9:00 am to 9:00 pm +91 9823572035

Moksa Art Gallery Here you will find some immensely conceptual paintings by Salvadoran Fernandez and others.

Naik Waddo, Calangute 9:30 am to 8:30 pm +91 832 2281121 | +91 9326717386 Casa Araujo Alvares Goan heritage at its best and even better when it’s automated.

Rediscover Goan heritage at this 250 year old mansion equipped with automated lighting and sound.

Entry Fee: Rs.50 Big Foot, Loutolim 9:00 am to 6:00 pm +91 832 2777034 Email: bigfoottrust@gmail.com Gallery Attic Goan talent has no saturation point.

Experience a fine variety of paintings by local artists.

Opposite Don Bosco, Alfran Plaza, Panjim 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm +91 832 2420929 | +91 832 2257931 Art Chamber: Galleria de Belas Artes This chamber will astonish you with such confident acrylic strokes that are somewhat three dimensional put across the canvas by Yolanda De Souza and others. The musical acts here are worth looking out for.

Gaura Vaddo, Calangute 10:00 am to 1:00 pm & 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm +91 832 2277144 | +91 9823217435 Sunaparanta- Goa Centre for the Arts The centre houses several exhibition galleries, a large multi-functional space for workshops and lectures, an in-house film club, sketch club, open air amphitheatre, pottery studio and an open courtyard that houses the al fresco café, Bodega. The red velvet cupcakes at Bodega are a must try!

At Altinho, Panjim 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. +91 832 2421311 Gallery Esperance Go back in time and delve in the nostalgia of art in Oils, Watercolors, Crayons Portraits, Landscape and Still Life Photographs.

Near the Our Lady of Merces Church, Merces From 9:00 am to 6:00 pm +91 9545536437 Arte Douro Art Gallery For those who aren’t really into very serious art but still want to look out for interesting pieces of art, this place provides a mix bag of originals and prints from international and local talents.

Porba Vaddo, Calangute 9:00 am to 9:00 pm +91 832 22882266 | +91 9822147148

(a region of Gujarat in Western India). “Khamir” is a cultural platform for traditional creative practices and knowledge systems, born out of a collaboration between the Nehru Foundation for Development and Kachchh Nav Nirman Abhiyan.

On display were ethnic Khamir products made by the world famous Kachchh artisan communities. ‘Ajrakh’ handblock printing was demonstrated during the event. Artifacts in leather, lacquered wood, bell metal, pottery and jewellery (reasonably priced) were on sale. The proceeds go to support the various artistic and musical communities.

The Kutch Sangeet Sadhak Sangathan, in Gujarat, is an informal organization of 305 musicians representing 38 different musical forms. A live performance of folk music by Khanubha Nanubha Jadeja, enthralled the guests.

“It feels great to celebrate this anniversary … Every Sunday from 5pm-7pm, there will be an exhibition of paintings of the artists of Goa, later with other Indian artists. Plans are afoot to bring artisans from other states, basically for our artisans to learn how to price and sell their products without the intervention of a middleman,” Victor said.

Noting a new focus around the world on “sustainable” tourism that benefits local communities, Victor called on Goa tourism officials to work to support Goa’s handicrafts.

Running a museum is not easy, and Victor spends a lot of time researching implements and collecting them, plus visiting and advising

the artisans of Goa. Among his planned projects are a Medical History museum and a display featuring Costumes and Jewellery, as well as documenting weavers, potters and lacquer artisans of Goa. No article on Goa Chitra would be complete without mentioning the amazing work of Victor’s wife Aldina, whose support and vision have helped turned the couple’s dreams into reality.

Goa Chitra Mondo Waddo, Benaulim Ph: 0832-2772910 www.goachitra.com

A glimpse of the 'Brunch Adventures' at Alila Diwa Goa

17

Friday, November 7, 2014

Nov 9

Lifestyle & Fashion

Oct 17 to Dec 23

Museums

Abraxas Fashion & Design Extravaganza Goa 2014 Celebrating 2nd Anniversary The ramp is set for Goa’s Biggest Fashion & Design Extravaganza featuring some of India’s Leading FDCI accredited Fashion Designers.

Tito’s Courtyard, Baga 7:30 pm onwards +91 9822121012

Cheshire Cat Jewellery Gallery This Gallery showcases jewellery, accessories and fashion, among other delights.

At Bairo Alto, Assagao 10:00 am to 7:00 pm +91 9822580898

Camera Our City, OUR Angle An Exhibition of photography on the culture & heritage of Goa Oct 17 - 26 2014 - Photo Submission Nov 6 - 9, 2014 - Public Place Exhibition Dec 19 -23 , 2014 - Gallery Exhibition +91 9370757910 | +91 9474990892

Wendell Rodricks A state-of-the-art fashion boutique featuring a celebration of lavish apparels designed by renowned Goan designer, Wendell Rodricks Luis Gomes Garden, Campal, Panjim. +91 832 2234082

Nov 2 to Nov 7

Goa Chitra With a collection of over 4,000 artefacts, Goa Chitra is an ethnographic museum that focuses on Goa’s traditional agrarian lifestyle and technology.

Mondo Waddo, Benaulim 9:00 am to 5:00 pm +91 832 6570877 Email: goachitra@gmail.com

Performing Arts School, kids classes Have your children develop performance skills with Omaggio Performing Company.

Titos White House 08691850104

Waterfalls in Goa Arvalam Waterfall With an altitude of 70 feet, it falls in a straight drop and is at its most glorious during the monsoons. The spectacle of the thunderous gush of water, with the mountainous terrain as background, is nothing short of stunning.

Valpoi, North Goa Dudhsagar Waterfall Another amazing waterfall best seen in the monsoons. It’s Goa’s largest and highest waterfall, and well worth a visit.

Mollem, South Goa Kesarval Waterfall Emerging from hard rocks and flanked by swaying betel palms, the spring is surrounded by fantastic tropical beauty.

Verna, South Goa Tamdi Surla Waterfall You have to make quite a trek to get here, but once you do, you’ll be pleased. You pass through a dense forest and a number of streams that make for a highly refreshing experience.

Close to it is a temple known as Tamdi Surla, made in the Kadamba style of architecture.

Sanguem, South Goa

July to October White water river rafting River rafting is subject to availability of rapids and adequate water currents, and suitable weather conditions. There are two trips, beginning at 10:30 am and 2:30 pm every day. The program is open to both adults and children above 10 years. White water rafting activities are carried out in accordance with internationally accepted norms.

The instructors are highly trained and the operations run with a ‘safety first’ policy. Each passenger will be provided with safety equipment like life jackets and paddles. reservations@goa-tourism.com.

Sacha’s Shop A little shop of resort wear, prints & stationary, bags, jewellery, art books, handmade soaps, leather lampshades and wooden toys!

Casa Mendes, Panjim 10:00 am to 8:00 pm +91 9823805897 Baba’s Furniture Store The store displays some of the most breathtaking delightful pieces available anywhere in Goa. Open all the time but sadly closed on Tuesday Baba’s Wood Café, Mala, Fountainas, Panjim +91 99 23414098, (+91) 83 23256213 The Private Collection Features an eclectic collection of sophisticated women’s apparel, bespoke jewellery, colorful accessories, lifestyle, furniture, design pieces and more.

Anavaddo, Candolim 10:00 am to 8:00 pm +91 832 2489033 Maria Elena’s Wardrobe Discover an all new way of dressing up to a party with a range of readymade garments and accessories.

Behind Hotel Fidalgo, Panjim +91 9049079769 | +91 7769043301 People Tree Its first outlet in Goa, creates and sells contemporary crafts and cool clothing.

Anavaddo, Candolim 10:00 am to 8:00 pm +91 832 2489033

Nov 7 Kids Party Dress up your kids in costumes and have them indulge in face painting, tattoos, chocolate fountain, pizza, and themetic Cupcakes The Courtyard, Mamma Mia, Chicalim 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm +91 9730001412

Celebrity dance workshop

by Amardeep Natt, India’s Dancing Superstar, Ashutosh Pawar (Dance India Dance, season 4) in collaboration with D.I.D Supermom Cecille’s Academy of Performing Arts. the Don Bosco Oratory Hall, Panaji 10:00 am to 1:00 pm +91 8308699784 capadancestudio@gmail.com

Nov 8 and Nov 9 The Ganga - Zuari Academy in association with the NIO Staff club will pay tribute jointly to film maker Rituparno Ghosh by screening four of his top National Award winning films.

Cardium, NIO Dona Paula From 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm +91 9822486204

Supermarkets in Goa Borkar SuperMarket Lake Plaza Building, Margao +91 832 2743680/ 2743699 Big G Big G has eight levels of exclusive shopping with a restaurant, supermarket and the best of brands of various items to boot. Margao, Salcete +91 832 2702995 Maple Leaf Supermarket Maple Leaf Supermarket is a selfservice grocery store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments.

Porvorim, Bardez +91 832 6454099 Ajay Supermarket Morod Village Road, Mapusa +91 832 6520196 Magsons Supermarket Hopping off and Shopping On! Caranzalem +91 832 2464704 Porvorim +91 7507807004 Newton’s Supermarket Major District Road, Candolim +91 832 2489056 Delfinos Supermarket Delfinos HyMart has something for everyone—the widest range of items manufactured locally, in the country and imported.

Candolim. +91 832-2489972 / 73

Museum Of Christian Art At the Convent of Santa Monica, you may pray if you wish to, else just soak in the ambience of peace.

Old Goa From 9:30 am to 5:00 pm +91 832 2285299 Goa State Museum It has some 8,000 artifacts on display including carvings, paintings, manuscripts, rare coins and stone sculptures. A museum shop is planned soon with the aim of popularizing Goan culture through museum objects.

EDC Complex, Patto, Panjim 9:30 am to 5:30 pm +91 832 2438006 | +91 832 2437306 Goa Science Centre The Centre has a science park with interactive exhibits, 3D shows, galleries on oceanic science, explaining mysteries of the underwater world.

Here you’ll find some extremely interesting exhibits aimed at explaining you scientific principles.

Miramar 10:00 am to 6:00 pm +91 832 2463426 Xavier Centre of Historical Research Here you can rejoice exhibitions of paintings, browse through rare books and attend symposiums with particular emphasis on contemporary cultural & social issues affecting Goa. BB Borkar Road, Porvorim +91 832 2417772

As requested, here is the biggest diamond in the entire store. I bet it’s because it’s your anniversary.

Archaeological Museum Here you can check out the sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses, antiques from the Hindu period, and currencies that the Portuguese left behind.

Old Goa From 9:00 am to 5:00 pm +91 832 2285333 Monsoon Heritage Studio Treat yourself to some an collection of mirrored mosaic art and handpicked artifacts at this upscale studio by Yahel Chirinian. Mainath Batti, Arpora 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM +91 9822122771 Wax World Museum A brainchild of Mr. Shreeji Bhaskaran, the man behind India’s first wax museum in Ooty, here’s to you Goa’s very own Madame Tussuad’s. It has over 30 lifelike wax statues of the who’s who of India, including the most eminent personalities from culture, religion, politics, heritage and more.

Gandhi Circle, Old Goa 9.30 am to 7.30 pm +91 9970126202

Go Karting Track I Goa Karting Single and tandem go karts are available for Rs: 180 for ten laps or Rs 200 for ten laps tandem Panjim - Margao Highway, Nuvem 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm +91 832 2757899 | +91 9850736334 Track II Goa Karting Single and tandem go karts are available for Rs: 180 for ten laps or Rs 200 for ten Laps tandem Anjuna - Calangute Rd, Arpora 4:00 pm to 10:00 pm. +91 832 2914526

Water Park Splashdown Water park Calangute - Anjuna Rd, Anjuna +91 832 2273008 | +91 9637424023/024 www.splashdowngoa.com

No, it’s because it was yesterday

Traditional Cake Mixing at The Park, Calangute

T

he age old ceremony of cake mixing starts a few months before Christmas and the winter festivities and is considered to be an usher for good tidings and happiness. Over the years, ‘cake mixing’ has become a celebrated ritual and is an occasion one looks forward to this time of the year.

The Park Calangute Goa welcomes the holiday season with a fruit soaking ceremony ahead of Christmas.

Spreading the cheer along with our Chefs & team, the ceremony will invite participation of all friends, guests and partners amidst tradition and fanfare. Guests and colleagues can roll up their sleeves and put their hands in the mixing pots to make the perfect Christmas cake. The event is post our Sunday Brunch and will have pre-event entertainment by Emmanuel.

• Date & Time: 9th November 2014,4pm Onwards • Venue: The Park Calangute Goa • Contact: Mr. Praveen Vashist

'Laid Back Luxury' is set to roll at N'16 this season

N

orth16 GOA Resort is all set this season with its tantalizing Food Festivals and the ALL NEW North16 Bar Unplugged with musical tunes of different genres and famous bands. Look out for exciting days and nights by the Poolside at North16 GOA. The North16 Bar & Grill will be showcasing some exciting Food & Drink promotions from BBQ under the stars to DJ nights. So, every day of the week is a new treat for you and your friends to come and have fun 'Laidback Luxury' Style!

For reservations or more info. Call 0832 5745555/ 08554984854

Feature 19

Friday, November 7, 2014

Set Sail on a Sunday

Spice Up Your Weekend With a Boat Trip to a Gorgeous Tropical Island Did I mention there are dolphins?

Fishing canoe used for the trip to a private island

By Dielle D’Souza

A

dmit it. Even if you are a compulsive organiser, sometimes it’s nice to let others take over and surprise you, particularly when you want to relax.

Think about a lilting ride across an expanse of the blue ocean, an impromptu display of acrobatics by wild dolphins and lunch on a private island. Sounds fairly dreamy. And pricey! But it doesn’t have to be. If you’re prepared to make a few adjustments here and there, it’s a fun way to spend a random Sunday while the weather is lovely and before the tight party schedule begins.

It’s best to choose a well-known tour operator to avoid rude shocks. The one we chose was well organised, with friendly, helpful staff. While it’s true that most tours cater to the tourists – think statements such as “to your left is Goa’s Mormugao Port” – you can still come away with interesting anecdotes and stories.

Each boat has a fairly large capacity so there will be groups of other tourists sharing the ride. But since this is wedding and holiday season, it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a group of 20-30 close friends and family who’d like to go along. This way you’d have a whole boat to yourself!

The tour left from Vainguinim beach near Cidade de Goa in Dona Paula. If you’re one of those who enjoy sprightly activity first thing in the morning, it’s the perfect place to head to at 7am for an early swim before catching the boat out.

Everyone’s handed a life vest for safety and the minute you leave shore, a light sandwich and soft beverages are served.

It’s an hour and a half ride over fairly

calm seas to Bat Island and the crew is always on the look-out for dolphins.

We were enjoying a chilled beer about half-way through the ride when a shout went up at the prow.

A pod of wild bottlenose dolphins had been spotted in the distance.

As we approached, tailfins broke the surface of the sea and blowholes could be heard opening and shutting in loud ‘whooshes’.

There were a dozen or more dolphins swimming only a few hundred metres from the boat. With the engine cut, the clicking cameras and intermediate ‘oohs’ and ‘wows’ were the only man-made sounds that tore through the silence.

As if on cue, the dolphins were doing somersaults, leaping through the air and slapping their tails. They showed off every acrobatic skill they could, constantly teasing spectators with their moves or by edging closer to the boat.

When they moved on, we continued

towards Bat Island.

At a depth of about five metres off shore, the fishing tackle and bait appears. The crew readily helps with skewering tiny pieces of squid onto hooks before lines are cast off in the hope of catching something.

All too often the line is hooked onto a piece of drift or even a rock, but many are lucky to catch small black-spotted groupers. Since they’re too tiny to find themselves on the top of a grill seasoned

with salt and lime, they are let loose in the sea before they die.

When you’re done with hooking old boots or giving the fish a free snack, hop overboard and enjoy the cool water.

Snorkelling gear is provided and if the water’s clear enough, there are myriad aquatic creatures in every hue to be seen.

When the sun gets too hot, the boat travels on to an island that can only be reached over the water. Part of the territory belonging to the Indian Navy, Hansa is cosy beach sheltered by the rocks. You can go swimming if you’re brave enough to venture into the sea in the heat of the afternoon.

The tour operators organise a number of activities, from football and volleyball to Frisbee.

There’s even a darts board. The fun and games are often interrupted by the thunderous roar of aircraft taking off from the Goa International Airport at Dabolim just over the cliff, the white underbellies of huge planes seemingly an outstretched arm away.

To close, there is a hearty lunch on the soft sands, a blend of vegetarian and non-vegetarian with fresh fish the star of the spread. After a short kip to digest the meal, it’s back to the shore you left off from.

It might not be a luxury getaway, but an island boat trip offers a great change to lazy Sundays in bed.  There are many operators that organise tours to Bat Island, some even customisable.

• Sunset Getaways Goa Website: www.sunsetgetawaysgoa.com • Water Splash Cruises Website: www.watersplashcruises.com Contact: 91 8888864347 +91 9158452188 Email: info@watersplashcruises.com • Exotic Goa Holidays Website: www.exoticgoa.co.in Email: exoticgoaholidays@gmail.com

If you'd like to add a touch of luxury, visit the island on a private yacht.

Website: www.goayacht.com Email info@goayacht.com

By Latika Khosla

R

emember the time when bell bottoms, fringed jackets, fulsome flicked out hair, and heavy liners were the fashion statement?

While we might evolve more readily with fashion, sometimes we get frozen in time with spaces. We aspired to have homes exactly like our parents did, since that is all we knew. Being caught in the past is not a function of time alone, but of stereo-typifying the spirit.

If one mentions youthful spaces, a territorial mind mapping recreates an amplification of a cartoonish world or carefully reconstructs a genuinely fake teenage bastion of rebelliousness.

Immediately come to mind, a room littered with references to the muddlesome mouse (who by the way is 80 years of age) and his friends in a polychromatic ga-ga world. Or we think of the unruly lair of the lurking guerrilla, in search of the eternal Che within!

So how does one achieve youthful spaces? When I asked this question, to people young and older in age, the answers were uncannily common . A familiar thread runs through what each of them has to say. It is this ability to constantly not stay in one place; to be restless in calm; to be a creative rebel!

So On the 2nd birthday of STREETS, we present the things we love about YOUth...

Qualities of ageless spaces:

1. Certainly impermanent.

Whatever. Just floating. Hanging Loose. The words themselves are the geopolitical state that the young inhabit.

Youthful spaces may be decorated with products that are intrinsically temporary.

The material nature of monetary value is exchanged for a playfulness of the provisional. Paper lanterns are used as lighting, or paper kites and chakris as kinetic decor. Baskets or trunks could hold extra linen and also double as makeshift seats.

2. Quirky and odd. Like a gawky teenager, there is something not in proportion. The over-loose T shirt, gangly arms and the spiky tomahawk hair, it is the oddity and the unexpected nature of things. The unexpected, the un-themed!

As an example, in a perfectly ordinary room setting there may be this most unusual chair or a surface that becomes a makeshift coffee table. It sticks out oddly as it is not a part of a range or ‘set’. Make one thing in a room setting an irrational centrepiece of affection. A story telling piece of the home’s character.

3. The wall is a face book. While thought of as being extremely secretive, youth is also a state of being deliberately transparent. A teenager is always locked away in their room, but their whole life is on display in the room.

Spaces remain young when they deliver an interesting personality of the occupant. See-me-as-I-am, revealing the real person who is the occupant.

This person remains current with changing events. Places they have been to and seen, people who occupy their life, notes and

cards are all up like an open narrative.

4. Random relationships. The suitability of friends is a subject of everyone’s youth. Parents unerringly hone in on the one friend that you slavishly admire. You also know will never be entirely approved of. Either they smoke and drink, or wear clothes too revealing, or have deliciously decadent parents. This is your safe way to dissent; dissent by association. To be as close to this radical, so the frisson of ‘bad tag’ brands you; but lightly.

Youthful rooms have random relationships in their arrangements.

The ‘suitability’ of adjacency should be questionable! A collection of odd companions or mixing upscale stuff with low life. Take a great sofa with classic bones and clad it in denim. Serve up a posh salad in hand painted enamelware.

5. Morphing arrangements.

How many people can we stuff into a telephone booth? (Why would anyone want to try and who thought of the idea?) The desire to be together in close proximity constantly even though doing different things is a quality I see often in the young. In the same room, there could be some people gaming, others obliviously listening to music, and there is always one solitary person who decides to catch up with their sleep surrounded by all this noise.

Ageless rooms undergo transformations very easily. Sofas roll back to clear space for a dance floor or a casual music session on the ground.

Cushions come together to become a table or a sleep over bed. A console becomes a buffet table and a study desk charmingly transforms into a dessert trolley! Transformations is about a space serving multiple functions.

6. Probable cause. The young are saviours of the world. In a whole generation we see a

desire to give back, to work with the disenfranchised. Whether it is the green movement, artisan communities, ethnic minorities or variously challenged people, very often just the allegiance to a cause, is as important as running with a tribe.

Bring the cause home with the choices you make for decor. A lot is available out there which gives heart to a home.

Recycled mirrors and small furniture from metal scrap; paper lamps and papier-mâché bowls; mats and chatais in natural fibres; hand crafted beads and bedcovers from NGOs; and now even refashioned laptop bags from hoarding flex that gets a second life.

7. Colorfun. Though I have left color for last, it really is the first thing we associate with youthfulness! Vital and Vivid it is predictably considered to be the bright colors that are associated with youth. With the same spirit of quirkiness and irreverence, get set to challenge staid perceptions of cosy co-ordination. Plastic brights, of aqua, mauve and orange can be made to mix with darker camouflage shades; clear and clean graphic masses of toxic yellow, raging red and an ultramarine marry degraded and subtle tones of dissenting olive, metallic brown and shadowy blue.

Color confidence is a clear sign of optimism, vitality and above all, Individuality! 

Feature 21

Friday, November 7, 2014

By Crespo D’Souza

A

strophysicists have a term for a celestial object that sucks up everything - a black hole.

It’s a star that has collapsed onto itself and whose gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape from it.

That’s pretty much what the Indian on the street thinks the Swiss banks represent - sucking up liquidity from the Indian economy never to be recovered, money that has been collected in the form of bribes and other corruption. And with the government’s recent announcement before the Supreme Court revealing names of those who were prosecuted for evading tax and storing money in offshore accounts, the clamour for a public flogging of those individuals has grown louder.

For Goa, the first name that came up is that of Radha Timblo - the managing director of Timblo Enterprises and Timblo Private Limited (TPL), which operate under Satish Timblo Group of Companies. (Not to be confused with the Fomento group or the Sociedade Timblo Irmão

Limitada, run by separate branches of the Timblo family tree).

For as much of the attention it received, Timblo’s case is nothing new. According to an NDTV report, between May 2006 and March 2008, Timblo Private Limited had exported to China iron ore worth Rs. 40.86 crore ordered by a Japanese buyer. According to a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) investigation, which the report quotes, the ore was dispatched in five consignments and each were “undervalued by Rs. 20.34 crore”.

This amount was stashed in an account at the Wing Hang Bank in Hong Kong, according to the reports.

Facing a criminal investigation by the Enforcement Directorate, the Timblo company decided to own up and pay a penalty. The family, which runs a Goa-based mining firm, had pleaded guilty before the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, last year and was let off with a fine of Rs. 3.37 crore.

It’s a matter of debate whether the money has been “whitened” by the guilty plea and the fine.

What’s not a matter of debate is that what was kept by the family far exceeded any fine.

Like the bikini analogy, what the central government has revealed is crucial, but what it has kept covered is even more crucial. According to Justice M B Shah, who heads the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the black money episode, the list of 670 odd names submitted before the team were already in its possession.

Understanding who has been left out requires further investigation.

Despite much chest thumping, the Modi government’s efforts till date to bring back black money seem no different than that of the previous government. That’s in stark contrast to the tall claims of bringing all the money back within 100 days.

The current list is only that of Indians who hold or held money in HSBC’s Geneva branch. That’s a drop in the ocean among the plethora of Swiss banks that are in existence.

What, however, should concern Goans in particular is the fact that a lot of the profits earned from mining have leaked out of the state. The Goan economy would surely get a much needed boost if these funds could somehow be returned. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

Between 2004 and 2012, 282 million tonnes of ore were exported from Goa valued at ₹87,748 crore. These are official figures. If one were to assume that it wasn’t just Radha Timblo among the many Goan ore exporters who were undervaluing receipts, while in reality receiving much more unaccounted cash, it would mean a serious ‘black hole’ sucking up money that should have been flowing into Goa. Even if the official numbers are true (a VERY big if), and assuming that the companies spent ₹33,914

crore in extraction, transport and other expenses (as calculated by the Goa Foundation) and another ₹19,065 crore in the form of export duty, mining companies were still earning hefty profits.

A lot of this money is believed to be parked abroad.

So it came as little surprise that five Goans, three of them miners, figured in the global list of individuals and firms who hold offshore accounts in international tax havens, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in June last year.

The names include that of Govindraj Sinai Dempo, the son-in-law of former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat. The journalists’ report alleges Govindraj has opened six offshore accounts in the name of Eden Point Worldwide, Ocean Pines Ventures, Execorp Limited, Portcullis Trustnet (BVI) Limited, Tortola British Virgin Islands and UBS AG Singapore.

In the list released by the journalists, Ambar Timblo, scion of the Timblo mining family, which runs the Fomento group, has been named as having three offshore accounts. Another Goan identified as Sanjay Vijay Singh Shinde was named as having offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands as well as Singapore.

Two other names showing up had their addresses as Dempo House, and the Salgaocars in Vasco also cropped up in the list released.

Goa Foundation Executive Director Claude Alvares believes that all this is a serious loss for Goa. Alvares is championing the cause of setting up a permanent fund for the proceeds of mining. He believes that instead of the money being allowed to be parked abroad or perhaps under the mattresses of mine owners, it should be kept in a permanent fund maintained by the people, with only the interest of the fund allowed to be used by future generations for the welfare of the state’s populace (not unlike what Norway does with its oil proceeds). Miners, for their part, would be allowed a “legitimate” profit of 20% instead of the 60% they earned before the ban.

Given the volumes of ore lying stacked in the state and under the ground, the fund could be as large as Rs 80,000 crore, the interest of which will support state welfare expenses for generations to come.

Data from the Swiss national bank shows that Indian holdings in Swiss banks peaked in 2006 when they stood at Rs 41,000 crore as opposed to 2013 when it was only 13,000 crore. Where did the rest of the money go? Financial analysts believe the money may have returned to India as white money through a process called round tripping or perhaps been moved to other tax havens or invested in real estate and other sectors, both in India and abroad.

Tracking the movement of black money is no easy task. And getting it back is even harder. Modi seems to think it’s possible, however. If India achieves a better, more transparent government, and resumes high economic growth, the problem might then begin to sort itself out. In such an environment, bringing money back to India might just be in the interest of even the black marketeers. 

The festive celebrations have begun at Grand Mercure Goa Shrem Resort

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n Wednesday the 29th of October 2014, while the night was young and the stars twinkled in the sky, Grand Mercure Goa Shrem Resort brought in this festive season by hosting a joyful celebration of the age old tradition of Cake mixing.The ritual began at 9pm by the poolside and the invitees spiritedly donned their gloves and aprons and surrounded the two tables which had all the ingredients ready for the cake mix.

The countdown began and all the invitees accompanied by the chefs enthusiastically commenced the glorious ceremony of cake mixing.

The mixture was composed of a variety of dried fruits and nuts such as apricots,black raisins,sultanas,ginger peel,lemon peel,orange peel, cashew nuts, dried red cherries, black currants,almond flakes, dried figs and dates topped with condiments such as cinnamon powder, cardamom powder, cloves powder, star anise and ginger powder.

Port wine, whiskey, dark rum, white

rum, red wine and brandy were then added to the mixture making it simply fabulous!

General Manager Mr. Manish Dayya said, “We are delighted to announce the beginning of our festivities and we wish everyone a very happy festive season ahead” While the fruits and wine glistened in the night and the sweet aromas filled the air, the excitement and cheer that marked the beginning of this festive season knew no bounds. 

Goa Marriott presents ‘A Date With Chef Anupam’!

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oa Marriott Resort & Spa is pleased to announce the appointment of Anupam Gulati as the new Executive Chef of the property. And what better way to get to know this immensely talented Chef than to go on ‘A Date with Chef Anupam’! Presenting an exclusive interactive session for local media invitees on Tuesday, 4th November, from 11.00 am to 3.00 pm, wherein Chef Anupam Gulati will demonstrate his favourite recipes during an interactive Cooking Class, followed by a Grand Luncheon showcasing his signature dishes. This enjoyable day will then culminate with a quick Kitchen Walkthrough with the resort’s enthusiastic team of chefs!

Chef Anupam Gulati has recently joined the Marriott Group of Hotels as the Executive Chef at Goa Marriott Resort

and Spa. With close to 14 years of experience in the F&B industry, he has been instrumental in designing menus, formulating concepts and creating innovative dishes for the awardwinning restaurants where he has worked before. At Goa Marriott Resort & Spa, Chef Anupam will be handling the F&B operations of the hotel. His day to day responsibilities will include taking care of the kitchen operations and maintaining the food quality.

Chef Anupam believes in using the best ingredients, keeping the flavours simple and authentic and following the highest standards of presentation. Each dish, for him, has to be a work of art. His constant endeavor is to Live Satay Counter at the Kitchen Walkthrough

study, research and highlight the regional cuisines and old forgotten recipes of India.

Prior to joining Goa Marriott Resort & Spa, Chef Anupam has been associated with Oberoi Hotels & Resorts for close to 14 years. Having worked at luxury hotels like The Oberoi Gurgaon, Trident Gurgaon and The OberoiAmarvilas, Agra, his last stint was at The Oberoi Cecil in Shimla as Executive Chef.

Chef Anupam was part of the culinary team during General Pervez Musharraf’s visit to India for the Agra Summit in 2001. He has also cooked for State visits and delegations from China, Tanzania, Morocco and Belarus. Furthermore, Chef Anupam was selected to travel across Europe to research and experience contemporary cuisine, a skill he brought back, to serve his guests authentic international cuisines in India.

Get set for a delicious season of the most vibrant cuisines and flavours you have ever dreamed of, right here in Goa! Come say hello to our new culinary expert! As we say at the Goa Marriott, do away with the formality, and bring in the FUN! 