Category: Popular Essays

By AMITA KANEKAR

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has been the butt of much derision after his statement that he wants to wipe out all signs of Portuguese rule in Goa. People have been asking just how he planned to wipe out everything from the staple diet of not just Goans but all Indians (consisting as it does of vegetables, condiments, and fruit introduced then), to his own wardrobe and a million other things, including, not least, Catholicism and Catholics as well. (more…)

By JASON KEITH FERNANDES

Decades ago, I immersed myself in Advaita philosophy, and ran into the term “neti neti”. The two words are rejections, emerging from the word na iti, not this. The Advaitic philosopher, or the practitioner, who seeks to know the nature of the divine, observes the things of this world, and rejects them, indicating that this is not it, until, having negated all things of this world, they eventually emerge at an understanding of the one thing that is divine. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The newspapers recently reported the case of a lady in Vasco who was attacked by street dogs while walking to her home; she suffered multiple bites and had to be hospitalized for a night. The news was shocking and also depressing, given that it was not the first such incident in Goa in recent years. Also because the fallout was already known: angry, ugly and irrational demands, in the media and social media, for an immediate end to the ‘stray menace’. The usual articles showed up – of the rising number of dog attacks (which revealed that serious attacks are actually very few, that rabies has been controlled in Goa, and that most dog-bites in general are by pet dogs to their own owners), and also of the increasing population of dogs on the streets. Here the tone varied from dismay and horror, both absolutely understandable, to – more often – fury and demands for a Final Solution, so to speak. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

My advancing age hit me hard this weekend, when after buying provisions at Panjim market, I reached the bus-stop in time for the last bus, but there was no sign of it, only the massive traffic jam that has become the norm in this Smartening City. I turned, planning to park myself and my bags on a bench, and found, instead, a pipe. Three of them, actually. Three pipes, sleek and shining, each rising from the ground, running horizontally for a few feet, and returning into the ground; separated from each other by a couple of feet. The old benches had disappeared. (more…)

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

The Goa release of a book titled The Queen The Courtesan The Doctor The Writer by Sabah Khan of the Parcham Collective in Mumbai was held recently. The book has write -ups of who the author considers as  50  ‘inspiring Muslims’ in India. The author does drive home a message by the title itself that inspiration can come from location in various quarters, including the traditionally perceived quarters. We also do live in times when people who are othered and demonized are forced to prove themselves. In that context Sabah Khan’s book is one such attempt. As the author herself says, she considered it unfortunate that she had to write this book. Indeed, this is true even of Muslims in Goa. Increasingly, the small minority of Muslims in Goa is being demonized and othered. As dangerous people, as people who cannot be trusted, as stone-pelters. Though inquiries and fact-findings have proved otherwise. The need for a counter-narrative couldn’t be more pressing. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

What’s responsible for the fires burning all over Goa today? You only have to check the fate of any tree in the state to know that it’s not just the weather. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

The Chief Minister recently made a surprising announcement: that he will build a memorial for the ‘thousand temples destroyed by the Portuguese’ and also rebuild the ‘huge structure’ of the Saptakoteshwar temple that was allegedly destroyed at Diwar. (more…)

By ALBERTINA ALMEIDA

There is much that one comes across about the schemes available for agriculture. But even before one can begin availing of those schemes, there are strong disablers for agriculture in the manner of planning and governance. (more…)

By AMITA KANEKAR

India needs to focus on ease of travel, declared Prime Minister Modi while inaugurating Goa’s new airport last month. The PM’s declaration might have sounded like a joke to some, given that his own one-day-long visit to Goa, just to inaugurate the airport, created utter chaos in the traffic here, with some commuters reaching their destinations three hours late, and official announcements that movement of even emergency vehicles would depend on the position of the VVIPs. (more…)

By JASON KEITH FERNANDES

Some months ago, I became aware of a curious trend on local social media. It appeared that there was a systematic pattern where local news agencies would release little phrases, or headlines, often quoting the chief minister of the state.  Take, for example, the references to the dubious policy of the present government to reconstruct temples allegedly demolished by the Portuguese. Interestingly, none of these phrases could be used as the basis to prosecute the speakers. They could very easily be explained away, as indeed this temple policy has been cleverly explained away in the face of public outrage. (more…)