FN: Frederick Noronha’s blog

Sangolda is a scenic village in Bardez, probably equidistant from both state-capital Panjim and the commercial town of Mapusa. For long, like other parts of the ‘Old Conquests’ (the longer-held Portuguese former colonies), many in this village have been migrating far and wide (including globally) to earn a living. But now, with Goa becoming a hot centre for real-estate speculation and second- or third-homes for the affluent, there are pressures on this land too.

Says Goa’s just-out Draft Regional Plan for Goa-2021: “Then there are the ’second homes’ which are much in demand by people from other parts of India, that are filling up the landscape of Goa. Most of these apartments and houses are left unoccupied for much of the year. This is deeply resented by the local population — and the Task-Force recommends some disincentives that can be considered. As for instance, a higher tax on housing held by non-residents levied by the local panchayat for, say, the first five years.”)

Here’s a rustic shot of the Sangolda-Guirim area taken a few (maybe 3-4) years ago, during a morning walk. It’s still rustic in parts, but the pressures are visible:

More on the setting here:

Over the past fortnight, there were signs of rebuilding going on in parts of the village.

“House renovation” is a notorious clause (or, loophole) in the Goa building laws, which allows someone to take over an old home, build a concrete monstrosity in its place, and claim that the home is being “renovated” or redone!

This is from just alongside the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Retreat, 1983) road:

And here’s another old house which is under the axe. (I used to pass by it almost daily, and read the legend “DFVD D’Souza, 1907″, if I recall right. One can only imagine the work, toil, sweat, tears and heartburn, apart from stories of Goan out-migration, that had gone into building these homes, generations ago):

Incidentally, the fields at Sangolda, not too long ago (maybe a decade back), used to be held up as a show-piece of Goa’s successful agricultural policies. As (younger) journalists, were were shown the “progressive” farmers in the area, and how their work was yielding rich crops. Today, these very places have become spots for the wholesale sale of field-well water … to cope with the tourism, real-estate, industrial and unsustainable hilltop housing booms that Goa is seeing.

Below photo, close to Sangolda, on the Guirim-Saligao end.

And another one of scenic fields, a Goa many fear we would lose in the rush to money, money and GDP.

I often wonder what makes some Goan villages more succesptible than others when it comes to succumbing to the building boom. Is it land-ownership patterns and bhadkarism-munkarism (landlord-tenant) tussles? Is it a corrupt panchayat (village council, waiting to be sold out to the highest bidder)? Is it the mind of the builders and the politicians? (One can’t forget the role of a Parulekar in siting an industrial estate on a hillock of “his” constituency, on very questionable grounds, even while officials and specialists apparently didn’t successfully question such an approach.)

As the above-cited Draft Regional Paln for Goa 2021 says, “There are 20 industrial estates in the State — many of which raise critical issues in regard to siting, infrastructure availability, and the unfortunate mismatch between local skills and jobs available, etc. RP-2021 seeks to rectify the situation by generating appropriate jobs where they are most needed. Firstly, the process of allocation of plots at industrial estates should be extremely transparent and should follow the policies established by the State. The current method leaves much to be desired….”

Just some random thoughts generated by a couple of photos (taken above)….

Tags: goa, villages, real-estate, land speculation, sangolda, bardez, guirim

My former colleague and friend, Niraj Naik, has come out with “Goa’s first comprehensive data bank on (a) multimedia CD”. It promises to explore all facets of Goa, with the largest compilation of photographs and information. It is an “ideal gift for students” and a “treasure trove for students, teachers, tourists, NRGs (non-resident Goans) and Goa enthusiasts” says the cover of the CD. It is priced at Rs 99 and comes from http://www.digitalgoa.com

Unfortunately, the CD runs only on Windows (.exe file) while my comp runs on GNU/Linux (Free Software)….

Tags: goa, india, cds, resources, online, digitalgoa, digitised resources

Richard de Souza has his family-tree site here:
http://moirafamily.tribalpages.com/
Says he: “Have a look around and let me know what you think by leaving
a comment in the Guest Book.”
Courtesy, Moira-Net: http://groups.google.com/group/moira-net?hl=en

Tags: village, family tree, goa, india, villages, moira, moira-net

Needed volunteers who can translate old Portuguese texts into English, for possible republication, including Arte Palmarica. See http://www.divshare.com/download/4088057-e79 If you can help in any way, please get in touch. Also, needed volunteers to help put online, the digital versions of copyright-expired Goa-related books. FN, http://goa1556.goa-india.org … publishing Goa, not accidentally

Tags: goa, books, translations, digitising

Tags: goa, transport, goastalgia

A blog on a community of expat Goans: http://goanswindon.blogspot.com/ Just a single post though.  And a link to the Asian Chaplaincy, here
This page takes me to some other expat Goan links: BMX Canada, Casa de Goa in Lisbon (Portugal), Edmonton Goan Association, Goan Overseas Association in Toronto, Goan Overseas Association in Victoria-Australia, Goan Overseas Association-Sydney, Goans of Mumbai, Goaday, MelGoans-Australia, Youth For Goa.In
Some seem to have only skeletal info, probably created to build links and info in the future about these themes.

Reviewed by Frederick Noronha

One problem with books in Goa is that you never know when a new one is published. Obviously, book reviewing is a task not done very much seriousness here (except for a few publications like Goa Today). While castigating others, this reviewer also needs to accept blame for some long delays sometimes. This very title, for instance. That it is a labour of love is no excuse for not getting it done on time!

Reviewing Edward de Lima ‘Spoken Konkani: A Self-Learning Guide’ 2006 cannot be an easy job. He’s an agreeable person, one you couldn’t pick up a fight with in public. And he was also in charge of our National Cadet Corps troop during the lone year one tried this out almost a generation ago. He could immediately build up a rapport with boys in the troop.

This is a simple book by him, which promises to teach you a bit of spoken Konkani, not too much, in a simple and easy manner. It has 20 ‘units’ — the author’s long years in academia shows. Dr Lima recently did his PhD on the Dharwad-based Goan writer Armand Menezes.

This is a welcome addition. One says so because of where one comes from, and one’s belief in the need to promote and encourage a diversity of languages (Konkani, whether Devanagari and Roman and its many other scripts, Marathi, English, Portuguese, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit too … and anything else).

It is obviously a departure from the dogmatic days of Devanagari-Konkani-alone approaches. Strange how so many writers (of the non-Devanagari camp) just took a break in their writing, without even realising how dogmatism was blocking creativity, ever since Devanagari became the lone accepted script post 1987.

Lima proffers to teach you Konkani by way of conversations at situations you are likely to encounter. The post office (with email around, it’s not that important anymore), the hotel, the doctor’s, the restaurants, and so on.

At the start of the slim book, there’s a guide to pronunciation. What one found useful was, at the very end, a listing of months, Konkani numbers, time, useful words and phrases, spices (mossalo), taste (ruch), nature (soimb), cereals (dhanya), vegetables (tarkari or bhaji), fruits (folam), Goan fish (Guenchem nustem), parts of the body (kuddiche andde), animals (zanvaram), birds (suknni or sonvnim), and the ever-complex set of relationships in Konkani (nathem). As an aside, I just disagree with Lima when he says “hippy” is a derogatory term for a foreigner in today’s Goa.

People in coastal Bardez will use this term for any Caucasian, without the bat of an eyelid. And why blame them, when hippies are the foreigners they first encountered (post Portuguese departure)? Even my decent academic friends get labelled thus quite frequently.

This is Lima’s third release. The second was a reprint. When we met many moons back, and I promised to do the review, he told me the earlier publications — in 2001 and 2002 — had done well. Artist Ramanand Bhagat has a neat illustration on the cover. Maureen’s at Panjim is the printer. The book, priced at Rs 100, was printed with a 50% financial assistance through the Goa Konkani Academi’s educational scheme.

It’s devoted, rather quaintly, “to my mother whose words I first learnt to lisp”.

Released in February this year, the book was inspired, says the author, by his several cousins — second-generation Goans in England, Canada and Australia — who were keen to learn to speak Konkani, while just on holiday in Goa.

Says Edward da Lima (58): “I wrote the book in the Roman script because it would enable all English readers easy access to the language. To learn Konkani in the Devanagari script would have been a formidable task, as they would first have to learn the script.”

It’s written in the dialect predominantly used in Bardez in North Goa, or Bardeshi. “I found it easier to write in that dialect as I speak that dialect myself,” the author told me. He says Konkani has the strong form of consonants like n, t, d, ch and l — which do not exist in English — and hence his transliteration guide could help readers navigate this “treacherous sphere”.

Any challenges while doing this work? Says Lima: “The problems are the same faced by all translators. There cannot be an exact translation of any sentence from a source language like English to a target language like Konkani without compromising its core meaning. It is a difficult task to find an accurate, meaningful and creative synonym to each word.”

Did you know that the the English words “please”, “excuse me” and “sorry” do not have their Konkani equivalents. Of course, this does not make Konkani a rude language! Check out the wealth of words to describe fish, different forms of rice, and so on.

On the script row, Lima feels: “There are many reasons as I see it. One is, Roman script writers do not get due recognition. The second is that financial assistance is only made available to the Devanagari section by the government. And the third is that Roman script writers face discrimination at government interviews, as they are required to write in the Devanagari script.”

He’s pragmatic when he says knowledge of English the international language is essential, even while “Konkani is our lifeblood”.

Incidentally Lima belongs to a generation that never had to — or got the opportunity to — study Konkani. He learnt English, Hindi, French and Portuguese. An alumni of Monte de Guirim in Bardez, he recalls times when it was the biggest school in North Goa, with 400 boarders at its height. He was there from 1953 to 1963, and recalls times when “boys from all surrounding villages used to come up like ants” climbing up that hillock.

I guess purists would attempt to write off this slim book as too basic. But, then, we have long complained about the lack of accessible language learning tools in Konkani, isn’t it?

%T Spoken Konkani
%S A Self-Learning Guide
%A Edward de Lima
%I Vikram Publications, 515 Lima Vaddo, Porvorim Ph 832.2413573
%C Porvorim, Goa
%D 2006
%O paperback, references, bibliography, index
%G ISBN not available
%P pp 63
%K Konkani, language, Goa, Roman script

Jennifer “Jen” Lewis, a Goan lady-engineer based in Birmingham, seems to be having a ball of a time with what she calls Family konkani knock knock jokes

While reading these jokes, I ran into one of her newer mailing lists which I wasn’t aware of. It’s the GoanStudentsAbroad list on Yahoogroups.com.

And btw, Jen is also behind the impressive VascokarsUnited mailing list, meant to keep in touch people from Goa’s largest urban area and port-town. Beneath her name, I also saw a link to the esoterically-named IEIGLC That stands for the Goa branch of “The Institution of Engineers (India) Incorporated by Royal Charter 1935″. Guess the GLC stands for the “Goa local chapter” and it includes members with engineering degrees such as the AIE, AMIE, MIE and FIE. Oh fie, don’t ask what that all stands for!

PS: And, btw, you can find Goanet Careers here, and that list’s archives here