By Ram Puniyani

INDIAN SOCIETY is riddled with many evil practices, some of which are tantamount to atrocities on Dalits and other deprived sections of society. Manual scavenging — the removal of human excreta by humans, with the minimum aid of brooms, metal scrapers and buckets — is an atrocity of one the highest levels imposed on a fellow human being. This practice was officially supposed to have been banned in 1993 by the Government of India. Official lapses and apathy apart, surveys by activists working against this practice show that, even now, over 14 lakh scavengers still suffer ignominy and nearly 95% of these workers are women.

By Tara Patel

IS INDIA going to become the biggest market for wines in the next 10 years? It seems a lot of Indians are becoming wine connoisseurs or drinking it anyway, especially in the big metros and the starred hotels nowadays which stock up on very premium wines from Italy (the best!), Argentina, South Africa, Australia… and, of course, in Goa there’s a tradition of drinking Portuguese wines which are imported and stocked by Mario Sequeira of Springfield Distilleries as also Bebe Costa of Costa & Company amongst others.

By Tara Patel

AYURVEDA IS doing well for itself, thank you! It need not be in competition with mainstream Allopathy at al. Look at the number of folk who’re turning to Ayurveda, the country’s traditional system of medicine with impeccable origins. Spend some time at Teresa D Vaghela’s “Vidya Patanjali Chikitsalay” at Porvorim and you’ll see this for yourself…

By Our Special Correspondent

THE WOMEN’S liberation movement which started a hundred years ago in the countries of the West has come circle in India with the passing of the historic 33 percent Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha on March 9, 2010. It’s a breathtaking windfall of a gift for women coming as it did just a day after women urban and rural had finished celebrating and grumbling at various venues to mark “International Women’s Day” on March 8, 2010!

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

EVER BEEN to a jumble sale? You must have gone to at least one jumble sale…if you haven’t you can look forward to going to one this March. Jumble sales can be small or big and can offer half-a-dozen items or hundreds of items, depending on the jumble collection and the social group organising it. Basically, a jumble sale is just that, what it sounds like! Call it a bhel-puri sale if you like and who doesn’t like bhel-puri or any of the other savoury, tangy items?

BY TARA PATEL

GOANS HAVE been going to Mumbai which was Bombay to shop for a long time and they still do. When it comes to shopping, a big time densely populated megapolis like Mumbai has much, much more to offer than Goa vis-à-vis variety and quality. In fact, with the recent advent of several mega malls, Mumbai’s tourism people could well organise a shopping festival for Indians from smaller towns and villages! On the lines of Singapore’s shopping festival…

BY TARA PATEL

IT’S VERY definitely a giant step in child healthcare. Parents with children born with neurological disorders and in dire need of special rehabilitation can now heave a sigh of relief. For Goa’s first ever Paediatric Neuro Rehabilitation Centre opened at Bambolim on January 22, 2010. The spanking new centre is located at the totally re-structured building which once served as the Goa Medical College Dean’s Bungalow. It is close to the GMC and comes with spacious garden grounds. An ideal place for children whose abilities may be limited but who can be taught and trained to enhance their abilities in pleasant surroundings.

HAND-MADE CHOCOLATES are really going places these days with discerning chocolate lovers and there’s a new player in this niche business in Goa. Meet Goa-born and bred Savio Monteiro who has a passion for chocolate and learned all about it before opening his first chocolate boutique, Theobroma Cacao - “That’s the botanical name of the cocoa plant!” — in Mapusa some seven months ago and yet another one called Guanaja two months later. They’re not all about just chocolates,

BY TARA PATEL

FUNNY, FOR some the winter months are a pleasure and they have fun courting all of life’s pleasures…taking advantage of the cool weather, sunny skies, balmy nights. While for some the winter months are a pain when they’re down with colds and coughs and low immunity and ill humor to boot…in short, little vitality and inspiration to live! It all depends on how many inputs of good health you’ve cultivated and maintained through the years. Of course, it’s never too late to rectify punishing habits picked up over a lifetime of negligence and “no time”.

BY TARA PATEL

WHO DOESN’T love chocolate and cheese? Both are dairy products — one sweetened, the other savoury or salted or natural as in Indian cottage cheese paneer. Chocolate and cheese are such big markets that there’re probably as many varieties of chocolate as cheese and there are connoisseurs for both! But this is about cheese. When did you last think of cheese and what a wonderful world of cheese there is available in India and Goa nowadays?