Goan Observer - Weekly News Portal

The seriousness of cartooning!

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:12:48 +0000

By Neeta Omprakash

HUMOUR adds spice to life and in this age of fast food, spices have special significance in the culinary industry. Everybody can laugh but only few can make others laugh, cartoon is a strange combination of seriousness and humour. An essential quality expected in a cartoonist apart from the sense of humour is the intelligence to analyse a situation objectively and generalise it to be presented in an art form. He needs to be an alert critic. Many cartoonists misunderstand the profession; they feel it is to create humour by distorting figures and add lengthy lines which ultimately make no sense. A dilemma of a cartoonist is that he can neither be considered a poet nor an artist although he has the basic knowledge/talent of both fields.
"The best cartoon is the one which conveys the message with minimum details and without any words," opines octogenarian cartoonist Mr Mangesh Tendulkar, who held an exhibition of his cartoons at KA from March 9 to 12, 2010. He pointed out one such example: "Human nature where, suddenly, animal instinct surfaces." He shows this aspect of human nature with just a row of foot prints of man that suddenly change to that of an animal’s and again to man’s and part of the leg is seen towards the end. A similar message is conveyed in the cartoon where Hitler sees his mirror reflection as Gandhi and vice-versa. He says, "Every human being has two sides, some times when Gandhi commits a mistake he is disturbed to see ‘Hitler’ within him, and when Hitler does a good deed he is equally disturbed to see ‘Gandhi’ surfacing from his personality." ‘Good and evil are present in every man’ is a common observation but to be putting it in this manner needs a cartoonist like Mr Tendulkar.

PARABLE

THE process of creation was answered with a parable, he says, "There are fishermen who catch fishes with different methods and one among them is to stand still in the shallow water and wait for an unaware fish to come close and catch it within in the spur of a moment. Exactly like an unaware fish, the ideas travel and I catch them." Probably because of this attitude, the range of subject matter in his cartoons encompasses many facets of life. His keen observation of people around him transforms into humorously satirical cartoons.

Political cartoons, social satires and portraits of politicians and celebrities are common features of cartoons which are seen even in Mr. Tendulkar’s exhibition, but a rare aspect of his exhibits is the poetic touch: ‘A squirrel travels from one tree to the other on the sound waves created by a bird’s chirping.’ He lends his brush even to some incidences which touch his heart or let the tears role down even if he has to go beyond the conventional definition of cartoons. The news of ornithologist Dr Salim Ali’s death disturbed him to such an extent that he was unable to create any cartoon. He was contributing to a newspaper at the time so he let the pathos flow into paper by showing a bird crying - a cartoon which was not part of this exhibition.
He reflects upon the deteriorating political situation where the distinction between a criminal and politician is becoming a difficult task. One of his cartoons has a punch line "DNA test cannot distinguish between a politician and a criminal."

Having asked why there are no punchy political cartoons analysing critical situations in the nation, he replied, "A political cartoon is never published by newspapers as every newspaper belongs to some politician. The editor is concerned about his salary. I do not want to be a mouth-piece of any political party. All politicians are the same, whether they belong to the ruling party or to the opposition. This particular cartoon which comments on politicians (it shows a criminal being taken to jail and he says to the police "Be careful you are talking to a future minister") was not published by all newspapers. During the elections, I personally stood with this cartoon at every public meeting at the entrance. Almost all the politicians saw it. The newspapers published my photograph holding a cartoon and standing at the entrance, but not the cartoon."

ROLE MODEL

THE determination to speak the truth and bring reality to the focus of the public is the job of a cartoonist. Mr Tendulkar’s idol is Shankar Pillai, editor of Shankar’s Weekly, which was published in the 1950s. He was well known for his fiery lines and, because of that, he was always kept at a distance by politicians. He still remembers one cartoon which created a lasting impression on his mind and kindled the cartoonist in him. "Shankar showed Vinoba Bhave giving a talk to the dacoits of MP where the CM Sampurnanand was also present in the audience. The dacoit sitting next to him feels restless seeing a new face and whispers ‘I operate from MP, where do you operate from?’ I am sure Mr Sampurnanand must have seen that cartoon. Such punches like that of Mike Tyson were seen only in his cartoons."

Many of Mr Tendulkar’s cartoons at the first instance appear very simple but they have in depth understanding of contemporary life situations and human nature. He says, "With age, vision has become clearer. It doesn’t matter whether any body criticises or appreciates and only because of this I can express myself more truthfully." He talks about the evolution and adaptability of all living creatures to its habitat. He feels due to the contemporary man’s attitude of ‘giving more importance to the material things and neglecting human emotions and feelings’ he might have to develop some adaptability features to suit the habitat created around the material world. In his cartoon, he shows HMV’s gramophone having a antique value for sale, but the dog on their logo goes astray. But he is also optimistic that before the situation becomes worse, man’s conscience will prick him, make him repent and search within for human values. He is of the opinion that our culture has strong roots, which will certainly help in valuing human feelings more than the material world.

Through his cartoons, he always makes an attempt to caution professionals of the danger in identifying oneself with the profession. He strongly believes that the profession overpowers at one stage and moulds the thinking/personality of the person. He cites one example: "A press photo journalist who witnesses a crime being committed prefers to click a photo rather than help the victim." He shows such situations in his cartoons where ‘A lady working on the computer turns into a computer, a housewife picks up her hot tempered husband with a kitchen pincer and holds him under a running tap of water. An orthopaedic surgeon mends his broken chair with the help of a bone."

Apart from the wisdom which is expressed in a humorous form, one can also appreciate the artistic qualities of his cartoons, especially the plastic quality of bold sweeping lines, minimum use of colours, compositional aspect and space management. Quite a few of his cartoons can be considered paintings. His lines have the potential to catch the inner quality of the personality, be it Asha Bhonsle’s eternal smile on her face or the cruelty in the eyes of Narayan Rane.

Even at the age of 80, Mr Tendulkar creates cartoons regularly. I wondered about the motivation which sustained his interest for decades, in spite of the fact that there is not much monetary benefit (he does not sell his cartoons during exhibitions. Only those cartoons which are published in the newspapers are paid). The question remained unanswered as even he didn’t have an answer!

He is always overwhelmed to exhibit in Goa because he feels Goan viewers have an eye for art and a mind to understand the satire in his cartoons.

When Abu died…

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:01:28 +0000

By Sheela Jaywant

Seema was stricken with grief when she was told her husband was in the ICU. And, now, she had an important decision to make.

ICU? ABU? Had I heard right? Dazed, gathered enough energy to check out how much money I had in the cupboard. I shoved it all in my purse. Still unbelieving, I hurriedly hailed a passing rickshaw and rushed to the hospital. "Abu, Abu" I blurted out to the man sitting at the counter. I had never been inside a hospital before. The receptionist guided me to the ICU. I walked cautiously. It’s true then, I thought to myself, Abu was indeed in deep trouble.

I didn’t know what an ICU looked like and my pulse raced as I asked one of the nurses where he was. The smell there was so strange, so unfamiliar. She pointed to a still form lying on a bed, covered by a sheet. I couldn’t recognise Abu, his face all swollen and with a bandage on his head. There was some kind of tube coming out of his mouth. It was a flexible pipe (like that of a washing machine, actually,) and it led to a machine by his side that hissed rhythmically. "He’s on a ventilator," the young doctor beside me said softly. There were wires stuck onto Abu’s chest which were attached to a monitor that indicated the beating of his heart. Bottles hung on stands on both sides of him, feeding some fluid into his system via his veins. What had happened? My mind was too dulled to react. My favourite cousin, who’d turned 30 the previous month, was lying motionless, dependent on these gadgets, unconscious. What happened?

"What’s happened?" I kept asking aloud. Someone escorted me out. I think it was one of the staff. Not sure. The policeman in the waiting room told me the details. Apparently, whilst walking back from work, he was hit by a passing vehicle, and his head had dashed against a paving stone. Passers-by had picked him up and rushed him to the closest hospital. And that was about eight hours ago. They had not found anything on him to indicate where he worked or lived, since he wasn’t carrying a wallet on him. Strange, I thought. Then I guessed even under shock, that someone might actually have picked his pocket. How could people do these things? Anyway, on the cover of a book he was carrying, my number had been scribbled, and that was how they had traced me.

"We need some details from you," the policeman said. Very mechanically I gave him Abu’s name, address, next of kin, phone number, age, whatever he asked me for. My voice sounded strange. As I spoke, I simultaneously wondered how I was going to tell all this to Seema, his wife, and my best friend.
"That’s all," the cop said when he was through. He added, "You need to call someone from home." He was a helpful, polite man, I must say.

I stood for only a couple of minutes by the phone booth, then dialled the number I knew by heart. And I spoke as if I was talking about someone else, not Abu. I did not mince calmer words but my voice was very husky, very low. I told Seema exactly what had happened in the last hour or so, as I knew spent five coins whilst the phones at both ends had long moments of silence.

Seema said nothing at all, just "yes?" or "hmm?" My mind was clearing up, hers was getting numb. Had I done the correct thing by telling her this news over the phone?

"Seema’ I was calmer now. No response from her. Had she fainted? I spoke louder.

"I’m here," she spoke softly. "I’m coming over. Wait for me." And she put the phone down. It was agony, waiting for her to come.

All our lives we’d been open and honest in every deal, every way. I could not now, under duress, change that habit. It was part of our nature. Now, people tell me that that was not what I should have done, but I was in no condition to think then.

While she was on her way, my mind ran from event to event in our lives. Seema was my classmate and my cousin Abu was six years our senior. He had stayed with us for his studies whilst his parents were away on postings to remote areas. Telling them was going to be difficult, because… well because I’d never had to give anyone bad news before this. I was ruminating on all this when I saw Seema enter.

She didn’t make a fuss. Her face, her mannerisms, all displayed nervousness. Her voice was reduced to a whisper, and she certainly looked ill. But, true to form, she was not hysterical or anything. I repeated what I’d told her over the phone. I wondered aloud whether this was the right time to give my uncle and aunt a call. Or maybe I ought to call up my parents first. Or hers? She was quiet, placid. Suddenly, there was a call for me from within the ICU.

We both ran in. I will always remember that young doctor’s voice. It was hoarse; he was looking at us. "This is Seema, his wife," I introduced.

"I’m sorry to have to tell you, the patient is no more," that’s all he said.

I blew a fuse then. Was he mad? Was he really a doctor? Abu’s chest was heaving, the monitor showed a heartbeat on the screen — how could he declare him dead? No more? Not alive? I wanted a second opinion. Seema was silent, just staring at Abu, at the peeping tongue, the half-closed lids, the cleft on his chin. I’d forgotten that she hadn’t seen him thus, she hadn’t entered the ICU until then, and I felt bad that I was raising my voice. But I demanded to see a senior doctor, someone more responsible, more knowledgeable, someone who could see that Abu was breathing, not dead. Someone took Seema away. She kept staring at Abu, still quiet, as she left. A soft female voice by my side said, "How was he related to you?" Was? Why was this woman using the past tense? She guided Seema and me to a small room by the side of the ICU.

"I am a co-ordinator here, my name is Anuja. Are you two alone here? Have you informed any other relatives?" We shook our heads. She offered us her phone and actually told us what to say since we were at a loss for words. I called up my parents. ‘Tell them you are calling from this hospital, say that you are waiting here for them, that Abu’s injured. There is no need to give them the detailed news over the phone. Please speak calmly. I spoke so mechanically that I was sure they would have guessed what had happened. Anuja got us glasses of water, and I saw Seema looking less pale now, but her eyes had begun to moisten. She refused to talk on the phone although I offered the instrument to her. Once the call was disconnected, we went out again into the visitors’ area and sat in silence, side by side, holding hands, waiting for the elders to arrive.

I knew my parents would have informed Seema’s and Abu’s too. Time seemed to stop. I saw the others in the waiting area moving around, but didn’t register anything. I noticed trivial things like the clock on the wall was a couple of minutes faster than my watch, that the plants weren’t real, that the magazines were actually new ones and someone had scribbled names of doctors and medicines on one of them.

When the elders did come, and they came together, our silence continued. It was an unbelievable situation. Actually, they came to the hospital with the impression that the injuries were minor, and were ready to scold Abu for being reckless on the road. Our silence warned them that something was seriously wrong. To say that they were shocked is an understatement. But as with Seema, they did not make the fuss either.

"Where’s he?" Seema’s father asked. We just pointed towards the ICU. They went in and were there for a long time.

In the meantime, Anuja, the hospital co-ordinator, had been talking to us soothingly, and we were able to gather our thoughts together. She asked us many questions about him, our families, our jobs, and then came back to Abu’s death.

"How," we echoed, "can the doctor declare him dead when he was still breathing? We can see the chest moving, we can see the heartbeat monitored."

"He’s brain dead. The injury to the head has caused enormous trauma to the brain. Abu’s heart is beating because the doctors are artificially maintaining blood pressure. The ventilator is a mechanical support. The instant it is switched off, the heart will also stop. It can’t keep the heart beating for more than a couple of hours anyway."

"How can you be so certain?" I asked. "Why can’t we ask someone else? I know there are cases when persons have recovered from coma."

"He was not in a coma. A patient in coma is alive, and there are some tests that prove that. He gags if a spatula is inserted into the throat. His eyes move if ice cold water is injected into the ear."

I noticed from the corner of my eye that Seema was concentrating on every word. "There are other medical tests besides simple ones like these." Seema gasped and I held her hand again. She squeezed it and then let go.

Before I could ask Anuja any questions, she continued, "Our doctors did their best to revive him. Two sets of specialists came… before declaring death." I calculated the time. Yes, more than eight hours had certainly elapsed since Abu’s accident. Seema obviously thought of the same thing because she had instantly looked at her watch and gasped again.

We were letting this sink in when Abu’s parents walked in. Seema’s folks and mine followed them. Pale faces all. We sat silently whilst Anuja took them inside the small room at the side. Seema and I were called in after she had finished talking to them.

"Is there nothing we can do?" we asked, aghast and still unbelieving. This was the first time we had heard of brain death. All were crying and sniffling by now, unashamedly. "Nothing at all? We keep reading about miracles. Please help us"

What she said next was the strangest thing I had ever heard.

"Yes, Abu can live on, but not as you imagine." We were instantly alert.

"How?" we chorused. We were willing to take any chance, however remote.

"Don’t worry about the money… It has nothing to do with money, and it will not bring Abu back to you. I’m talking of organ donation."

I recalled Aishwarya Rai on TV. She had pledged to gift away her beautiful pair of eyes after she died, and had let the world know it, to set an example. So had A Bachchan and Kapil D. I told Anuja we’d seen those advertisements. "You have? Between them, six blind persons will benefit. Should they donate their kidneys, hearts, livers and pancreases as well, at least 15 other human lives can be saved. Abu can donate all of these if we hurry."

Confused, we looked at each other.

Gently, but rapidly, Anuja gave us a lot of information. And we listened carefully with a sort of morbid curiosity. We were new to all this. "Those whose kidneys have failed can resort to an expensive but partial treatment, dialysis. With the other organs, there is no alternative. Transplantation is the only choice and those patients have to depend on a cadaver donation."

I don’t remember all of it verbatim, but having gone through what followed, and having done tonnes of homework on the subject subsequently, I am able to give a gist of what she said."If the organ is a single one, like the heart or the liver, there’s no question of having a living donor like in the case or kidneys. And only brain-dead cadavers can donate these organs. The Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994 has been the only Act passed by Parliament that was done without a PIL and by unanimous consent."Enough!

Surprisingly, Abu’s mother, my aunt, wouldn’t take her eyes off Anuja and, in spite of the tears flowing ceaselessly down her cheeks, wanted her to talk on. All the while, one or the other of us would step out and take a peek at Abu, to make sure that no machine was switched off. We said so to Anuja.

"No," said Anuja, "the machines will not be disconnected… We have a list of those waiting for organs… it is their only hope to live."

"You know," sobbed Abu’s mother, "when Abu was in college, he had donated blood at a camp. And he had said he couldn’t understand why people were afraid of giving blood. If one could help another, why not? He had said he admired soldiers who could give their lives to ensure that others lived well. He had wanted to join the Army." We clung and wept when she reminded us of how he had failed to clear the medicals after the entrance exam and how we had laughed off his disappointment.

"Would Abu have liked to donate his organs? Had he spoken about it ever?"

No, never. Whoever spoke of death? Funny thing, I thought at the time, I remember, that one really didn’t know how one would die. No one ever spoke of their own deaths. It was discouraged. I wondered how I would die. Then, almost instantly, I wondered what was to be done next, about the funeral and other things. I was paying scant attention to Anuja’s lecture. I suddenly heard Seema’s father ask her something. My father objected to it. They were having an argument of sorts.

"…You need to think of Abu’s parents…" "No harm in hearing her out."

"Are we really concerned about these things?""Shouldn’t we at least know what is possible and what isn’t?"

"Be practical, we need to make - you know - arrangements."
"I don’t think we ought to allow him to be cut up…he’s suffered enough."

Abu’s father choked as he asked Anuja something that I couldn’t hear. But I recall Anuja’s reply.

"…of course. The blood group is checked out and tissue-matching done."

I didn’t want to hear any more. All of us were very quiet, in great distress. We didn’t know what to think. I wished Anuja would go away. As if she’d read my mind, she did get up and go. I watched her step out. With great effort, I followed her, then turned back to the ICU and stood by Abu’s side.

There was no doubt that, in spite of the heaving chest, he was no more. I had read about brain death, long ago, in a newspaper article maybe. I didn’t want to believe it. Panic rose within me. If the denial in me was so strong, I didn’t want to believe it, I didn’t want to know what the others were going through. They had followed me. We stood around the bed in silence, our minds quite devoid of thoughts, our hearts heavy, eyes wet. It was so difficult to see Abu just lying there.

Another patient was wheeled in and we had to make space for the bed to be turned. The doctor who had declared the death came by. I asked him, "How long will this machine go on?"

"A couple of hours at the most."

Seema pleaded, "Can’t you do anything?’

"I’m sorry."

"Then why are you keeping him on that machine?" There was a trace of rising hysteria in her voice now. We huddled close to her.

"Until the heart finally stops, we will not switch it off, although there is nothing we can do."

Seema hiccupped and we helped her walk from there. We went back to Anuja’s room, for in the visitors’ area, we would have had no privacy and we did not want to be surrounded by strangers.The grief was so heavy that our shoulders began to droop. My mother, ever the practical type, broke the silence. "What do we do now?" They began to discuss whom to contact, who would go home, etc in a very matter-of-fact way. I couldn’t make out what was going on in Seema’s mind.

"She said Abu could live on…" Seema’s whisper reached all our ears.

Extremely hesitantly, her parents went to her and said, "No one comes back. We have to accept whatever is written in our fate." They turned to me and suggested I take her home.

Now it was the other important woman in Abu’s life, his mother, who repeated, "She said he can live on. They wanted him to live through others doomed to die. I guess I understand that now, in retrospect. At the time, I couldn’t fully comprehend that sentiment.

Her husband almost choked the instant she said that, and made jerky movements with his hands. "Abu is gone, gone."

Seema’s father gently added that Abu should not be subjected to more trauma. He had faced enough injury. They now needed to tackle the misfortune that had befallen them without complicating matters any more.

Seema and Abu’s mother wanted to meet Anuja again. I called her back, fully aware that my parents’ sorrow was beginning to have chinks of irritation that the two women seemed to be getting unreasonable. My mother whispered to me that I better get a taxi and take them home until she and baba had paid the bills, etc. I ignored that, and went out to find Anuja. I wanted to do my bit to comfort the duo and, inside me, somewhere, I found I wanted to cling…to try to keep any part of Abu alive, anyhow.

When I entered the coordinator’s room again, I knew that they’d been discussing this organ donation business intensely. Everyone was red-eyed and misery was writ large on each face. The air was heavy with sadness and uncertainty.

My father was saying, "… aren’t sure about whether our religion allowed rituals with "incomplete’ bodies, with so many organs removed, There will be mutilation, unnecessary expenditure. Be practical… never heard of such a thing…"

Seema’s father was pleading with the others to go home, go soon, he could manage alone…

In spite of crying bitterly, Seema seemed firm about asking Anuja more questions. And it was Abu’s mother, sobbing violently herself, who was taking her side. "We’re not going home," both declared firmly.

There was chaos as voices began to rise. Strange how perfectly sensible people behave in unexpected ways under pressure.

Matters weren’t improving at all as the three sets of parents began to argue, even about things that weren’t quite relevant here. After a couple of minutes, Anuja took things in hand.

"I need to speak to the wife first," she said firmly.

"My daughter will not be able to handle this," Seema’s father interrupted.

"Don’t you underestimate me," Seema snapped. And the very next instant fell into his arms crying inconsolably. Her mother stepped up and told Anuja not to hurt her any more.

"No, ma," Seema forced herself to sit again. "I want to know more. I don’t want my Abu’s life to be wasted."
Her mother-in-law, very weepy, but just as determined, came and sat by her.

My father betrayed his annoyance when he said, "Our religion does not permit this kind of cutting up of a body. It’s not right. We can’t do rites on an incomplete being."

At this, my mother, ever the non-diplomat, blurted out: "I’m incomplete too, I’ve had a hysterectomy. Which means my body is incomplete too. And you’ve had your appendix taken out and two teeth."

Morbid humour, but it put things into focus.

Silence.

Abu’s mother went back to Abu’s bedside and stroked his head. When she came back, she said with unbelievable calm, "Abu may have wanted it thus. It is the ultimate gift. If his life is gone, it was our destiny, his fate. We can’t change that. But if we can change someone else’s life, this act of charity, let his organs live on." All of us sobbed uninhibitedly.

Abu’s mother insisted that she wanted her son to live on. Seema took up the same chant. No arguments worked. It was hysteria on both sides. Finally, we all asked Anuja to tell us some more.

Seema looked stunned and kept looking at Abu’s mother. Later, she told me, "How well she understood Abu. Yes, it was easier… it was much easier to accept his loss knowing that somewhere, he’d be there… that through his corneas someone was seeing the world." It had made that senseless, sudden loss meaningful.
By then many of our neighbours and relatives had arrived at the hospital and there were several others who gave us their points of view. All agreed on two things: that it was the ultimate act of charity and that Abu would have liked it that way.

Much later, a lot of people asked us the whys and whats of our decision. We’ve taken pains to explain our point of view. What was the point in burning those organs? He didn’t need them, but they were needed here… We found out, also much later, that those who received the organs were carefully chosen. The age of the receiving patient was taken into consideration as also how long the patient had suffered from the ailment. Points were given to each category (there were other criteria besides the onesmentioned) and the patients who had the largest number of points were told to rush to the operating theatre for the transplant. We had been assured, also, that the organs would truly be a donation, nothing would be charged for them. But, when we took the decision, the guiding factor was that we did not want to lose Abu.

To go back to that day, we ultimately signed the consent form.

Abu was taken to the operation theatre.

Afterwards, I saw the bandage. It was neat. We called up after a couple of days to find out how and where the organs were. The law did not permit us to know the identities of the receivers.Anuja told us that there were no matching recipients for the liver and the heart recipient did not survive for more than a couple of hours. The kidneys were used.

We don’t know the names of those who have inside them Abu’s kidneys, nor of those who are seeing through his corneas, but we believe that Abu isn’t ‘resting in peace’. He lives.

Courtesy: New Woman

First popular tiatr festival ends

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:57:15 +0000

By Daniel F de Souza

THE FIRST ten-day popular tiatr festival of commercial tiatrs organised by the Tiatr Academy Goa culminated on March 6, 2010 at the Pai Tiatrist auditorium, Margao, with the awards presentation ceremony. Ten commercial tiatrs fulfilled the criteria for participation and competed in the first ever tiatr festival organised by TAG since its inception. As expected, Prince Jacob’s much acclaimed tiatr ‘Zaiate Zage’, which has created a virtual storm on the stage during the last two seasons, clinched the first place for overall performance, closely followed by ‘Beiman Kir’ of Mario Menezes in the second place and ‘100 Vorsam’ of Menino de Bandar in the third place.

Besides winning the first place for overall performance, ‘Zaite Zage’ also won the first place in three other categories — best background music, best lyrics for ‘Bhurgeank Motorsaikol’ (Cajie de Curtorim), and best script. It also featured in the nomination list of other categories too. The best actor (male) was bagged by Mario Menezes (Beiman Kir), followed by Antush D’Silva (100 Vorsam) in the second place.

BEST PERFORMANCES

ROSHAN Fernandes, who played the electrifying role of a typical Hindu woman to perfection in ‘Moga Oslem Hatiar Na’, was the obvious choice of the jury for the Best Actor (female) award followed by Antonette de Calangute (100 Vorsam) in the second place. Veteran comedian Domnic Coelho (Matiechem Bhangar Korunk) picked the award for the best comedian while child artist Benzer Fernandes (Kiteak Bhurguim Amchi Girestkai) won the first place for acting (male) in the child artiste category. He also won the Best Child Singer (Male) award. While talented and upcoming child artiste Jemma Fernandes (Tthikann) from Divar clinched the first place for acting (female) in the child artiste category.

The first and second place for best direction went to Mario Menezes (Beiman Kir) and Rose Ferns (Moga Oslem Hatiar Na). Similarly, Rose Ferns — known for his appealing stage sets — also won the award for the Best Stage Setting in Moga Oslem Hatiar Na. The award for Best Light Effects was also bagged by Rose Ferns in Moga Oslem Hatiar Na.The award for Best Music (Live Band) was snatched away from veterans in the fray by the newcomers ‘Tthikann’ for their scintillating live tiatr music. ‘Kiteak Bhurgim Amchi Girestakai’ won the first place in the Best Make-up category as well as in the Best Costumes category.

From among the singers in the male category, Francis de Tuem (Matiechem Bhangar Korunk) and Agnelo de Dabolim (Amchei Anvdde) won the first and second place respectively for solo singing. While among the ladies it was young and talented singer Semenca Rebello (Tthikann) who walked away with the first place, veteran Rosy Alvares (Beiman Kir) had to be content with second place in the solo singing category. Child artiste Shenaya Pereira (Tthikann) won the award for best child singer (female).

In the duet singing category, it was the father-daughter pair of Socorro de St Cruz and Sonia Fernandes who took the first place in Amchei Anvdde. Angela, Olga and Antonnette (100 Vorsam) won the Best Trio singing award, and Felcy, Domnick, Albert, Andrew and Luis (Matiechem Bhangar Korunk) took the first place in the quartet/quintet singing category.

AMATEUR WINNERS

WHAT was very encouraging and appreciative in this festival was the overall performance put up by the amateur team of Tthikann (directed by Comedian 64), virtual newcomers in the competition who did not have any big names in their line-up. The group snatched four prestigious awards (music, solo singing, child singer and acting) and featured in the nominations of other categories too, sending a loud and clear signal to the seniors that talent can confidently stand up to the challenge posed by experience. As a matter of fact, the jury — in concurrence with TAG — could have made an exception to the rule and gone a step further and presented a ‘Special Appreciation Award’ to ‘Tthikann’ in appreciation of their praiseworthy performance in the festival which would perhaps go a long way in encouraging young and upcoming talent on the tiatr stage. From what I understand, the troupe members of Tthikann are all Bardez-based artistes, including the musicians, shattering yet another myth that South Goa holds the sway on the Konkani stage as far as performing artistes are concerned.

One category that was perhaps overlooked in this competition as far as the awards were concerned was the ‘Tiatro Kantos’. This category should find a prominent place among the list of awards in future tiatr festivals since ‘kantos’ is an integral part of the traditional tiatr which, unfortunately, receives little attention from the present generation of tiatrists, of course with the exception of a few playwrights.

One tiatr lover speaking to me on condition of anonymity on the sidelines of the awards ceremony said, "The audience attendance on the days of the competition was good, however TAG should seriously analyse the reasons for the poor turnout at the awards function. Perhaps the entertainment aspect featured at the awards ceremony could be one of the reasons. However, one encouraging sign noticed in the competition is that the directors have taken pains to put up appealing stage sets, especially created for their respective presentations. I hope these directors will continue this positive practice in their commercial presentations in towns as well as in villages and do not disappoint tiatr lovers by presenting their shows totally dependent on unimpressive and faded podd’ddes (backdrops). Otherwise any number of competitions will not help improve the quality and standard of tiatr."

The jury for the competition consisted of senior stage artistes like Wilson Mazarelo, Premanand Sangodkar and Joseph Mendes.

`We’re marching, marching… for bread, but we want roses too!’

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:54:37 +0000

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! Suddenly now it looks like there’re a lot of men in this country who do want their women folk to be liberated in every sense of the word liberation….although these days society seems to be torn between definitions of what liberation should and should not mean in the interests of harmony in society between men and women.

In Panaji there were several functions paying tribute to women liberated and women partially liberated and women who still have a long way to go before they become financially independent women i.e. not dependent on father in their youth, husband in their marital years and sons (or unmarried daughters!) in the autumn and winter years of their life. Women by and large continue to suffer from material poverty and remain beholden to men on many counts be they fathers, husbands, sons or employers….this despite the large number of women who do "double duty" working at home as well as 9 to 5 jobs in offices, especially in urban metros.

At one of the "International Women’s Day" celebrations the Bailancho Saad had fiery and eloquent lawyer Nandita Haksar to put things in perspective. Speaking to a 300 strong audience of women from small-time rural and urban Goa, many with children in tow, the celebrated Goa-settled Ms Haksar, speaking in a mix of Hindi and English, traced the history of the women’s movement for basic human rights on par with men. "On this day, March 8, 1910, a hundred years ago in New York," she reminded, "15,000 working class women from factories decided to protest for the first time against injustice…" It was a historic moment remembered and recreated by women the world over when March 8 comes around.

Speaking on the subject of "State Responsibility Towards Women", she reminisced poignantly, "when we were dealing with the 16-year-old Mathura’s rape case in the Supreme Court I remember it was the first time we were using the word rape in Hindi — balatkar - and we could hardly say it properly!" Such was the embarrassment and even her mother wanted to know if it was alright to use such language in public…now, of course, everyone uses the word and understands it for what it is — violence against the basic right of a woman not to be raped. At least in the eyes of the law women have come a long way and this is something to celebrate together with other women who celebrate "International Women’s Day" the world over.

Women should celebrate be in the city or in the village, Nandita Haksar urged, "The women’s movement is a happenings movement, the fact that all of you can leave your homes and come to this event itself is something to celebrate!" She remembered the first time in India in 1975 when women celebrated the day at the Lal Quila in Delhi, she had been invited to speak on the occasion, "At that time I could hardly talk, my voice wouldn’t come out, I too was scared to speak out…in a bus if a man touched me I was too scared to say anything and preferred to get out at the next stop rather than stay in the bus!" Amidst sympathetic laughter and claps in the audience, she confessed, "See, I’m talking to all of you and can any of you believe that at one time the words wouldn’t come out of my mouth. Today nobody can say anything to me!"

It may be one woman’s small problem, Nandita Haksar concluded on an upbeat note, but "every woman’s small problem is our problem. This is a movement for a better world and a lot of men are with us and they too are fighting for women’s rights…I tell my husband that the women’s movement is to change society, make society a beautiful society. We are not fighting only for bread, roti…but also for the khoobsoorat gulab (beautiful rose)!" That was the message that the working class factory women in New York a hundred years ago were trying to tell the world, when they sang a song which said, "We’re marching, marching because we want bread…and we’re fighting because we want roses too!" Women the world over are still saying the same thing. Treat us like equal human beings on a common platform.

Several other educative-cum-entertainment programmes at the function reiterated the usual women’s’ rights messages e.g. Rajini Ratnakar Naik sang a song about life in her village of "Ponda-Querim"; a Vinita Coelho team of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan presented a slideshow asking women to be alert and to take an interest in village planning for it will affect the quality of their life for the better or worse. A drama group presented a vivid skit focusing on domestic violence, AIDS and other issues concerning women’s frustrations and dilemmas and how they impact family life. Even as restlessness set in at the Gomantak Maratha Hall where the Bailancho Saad "International Women’s Day" function took place, there was a welcome break - delicious hot batatavadas were distributed along with tea in flimsy plastic cups; the women’s movement in Goa still has to practice eco-friendliness in this respect!

A French dinner at O’Coqueiro

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:52:55 +0000

By Tara Narayan

IF YOU haven’t discovered the legendary restaurant of O’Coqueiro yet you have missed out on something! You can’t miss it. It’s right there flush on the highway to Mapusa at Porvorim …a single line of golden bulbs running around the twin-bungalow complex of Portuguese vintage. Low and inviting, it has a cool open courtyard set within and set off by this beautiful frangipani tree…I always want to sit at the table near the tree naturally! For this is the original frangipani of clusters of lush white blooms with scented yellow centres, a fragrance to fill the senses, it’s also the pagoda or temple tree and the Chinese see it as a "tree of immortality".

I’m very fond of O’Coqueiro for old and new times sake. Discovered it a long time ago in the early 1980s when the late Gines Viegas turned it into a cause celebre of a Goan food restaurant…now it’s owned by entrepreneurial Anil Counto who’s restored the complex and given it a fresh lease of life, also a free hand to Chef Peter Fernandes to continue with the restaurant’s famed traditional Goan Portuguese cuisine. They were celebrating some French occasion there and the hubby - who can’t tell fois gras from truffles or oioli from croissants (no, no, that’s not true, I’ve already introduced to him to the best croissants of Goa at Lila Café (Baga) some time ago!) said, "I’m taking you for a romantic French meal, come on!"

A pity that it wasn’t quite a week-long French food festival but Chef Peter had put out a menu listing some French temptations for the who’s who of Goa; there’re quite a few high priests and high priestesses of the French language, French cuisine, French haute couture and quite a few social celebrations for Goan French aficionados now! What did you cook? I asked Chef Peter a day later and he said, come and see, they’re still doing the menu. The weekend evenings can be quite pleasant out at the O’Coqueiro courtyard and I met up with young Sushant Sanzgiri who’s a chef out at the Hilton in London…the Sanzgiri family of Sailesh (works for Mr. Anil Counto), Lakshmi (works with a housekeeping agency) and son Sushant are friends, and I asked Sushant if he was having fun in London.

He grinned, Yeah, the pubs in London are becoming gastronomic pubs serving better and better food and amongst other things he’s been catching up with a platter of kangaroo, crocodile and ostrich meat served at an Australian restaurant called "Naked Turtle" - priced at a hundred English pounds! It’s all part of the experience and business of discovering new food, he said. He’s also worked for culinary maestro Gordon Ramsay who cooked for Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday…now, he’s with the Hilton though, there’re two Hiltons in Delhi and one may come up in Goa some time soon.

Sushant’s loves his holidays back in Goa. He tells me that French cooking is really about sauces and if one is interested in cooking French one must first become a master or mistress of sauces. The French menu card propped up on every table listed a table d’hote menu priced at Rs.350, VAT included. The menu: Crème d’Asperges (or cream of asparagus soup) or Tomatoes a la Provencale (grilled tomato Provencale-style) or Salade Nicoise (Mediterranean salad)…Coq au Vin (braised chicken cooked with wine) or Poisson Grille Beurre Blanc (grilled fish fillet with white butter sauce), Pommes Dauphinoise (scalloped potatoes with cheese), rice pilaf, salad vert, and for dessert crème brulee or mousse au chocolat, and salade de fruits frais…fresh fruit salad, except that I think it’s always better to start rather than end a meal with a fruit or veggie salad! In urban India we haven’t caught up with the sensibility of eating au naturale yet!

French cuisine is considered as the crème de la crème of all European cuisines (although I don’t know why… I prefer Italian, Spanish, Greek food which has a lot of comfort to offer!) and a lot of effort goes into fine presentations. It takes an experienced chef to turn out soups, seafood and meat dishes, without smothering them in oodles of butter or cheesy sauces. But this is to say I enjoyed my Poisson Grille Beurre Blanc and the hubby enjoyed his Pommes Dauphinoise and Mousse au Chocolat!

Actually, an occasional European menu makes for a refreshing and welcome change from our masala-laden Indian cuisines. Hey, Chef Peter! It’s a good idea to standardise and offer a French menu occasionally at O’Coqueiro as an option on the main menu!

Limiting loudness

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:50:31 +0000

THE GOVERNMENT of India’s fresh advisory to the electronic media to exercise caution while covering incidents of terror attacks must serve, I think, the Government of Goa to appeal to our newspapers not to afford wide publicity to the loud statements of some of the ministers in the cabinet, especially known for lack or limited standard of education, yet very vocal to deceive their gullible followers and voters with promises and more promises of development in their constituencies, or action on their grievances shortly or soon when the actual meaning of this period is NEVER. Such brash noisy pronouncements mostly found on front pages in the newspapers are irritable, annoying to the educated readers and even suspicious. With my high regard for the present day journalism in Goa such charges are painful to me. But realising the present mood in the state and erosion in the character of the people in general, it seems anything is possible.

Lambert Mascarenhas,
Dona Paula.

WARPED PRIORITIES

OUR government does not seem to get its agenda or priorities right. The Goa’s state exchequer, already on the verge of bankruptcy, was further bled by a crore of rupees spent on the recently held, state organised, carnival celebrations. There is no money for the much needed infrastructure development projects but around a whopping Rs.30 lakh a month is splurged on 434 policemen providing security cover for our politicians, their kin and property.

It’s time our politicians start thinking of Goa. For a start, we can manage this state with 20 MLAs and just four ministers. The wasteful expenditure on unnecessary Zilla Parishad members can be done away with. More powers should instead be vested with the village panchayats while making them more accountable.

There seems to be no solution in sight to the mounting garbage problem and the galloping corruption. Every issue this government addresses seems to always result in two or more new problems. Will Goa ever cruise along? Or will Goa continue to be grounded like the River Princess?

Aires Rodrigues
Ribandar.

REPUGNANT SUGGESTION

AS I was browsing through the newspapers on the net on Women’s day, one of the articles that attracted my attention in particular was a statement made by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan that "due regard must be given to the wishes of a rape victim; if she wants to marry the rapist or give birth to a child conceived following the crime." I am in no way as qualified as the CJI, nor do I understand anything major about the law process, but as a concerned citizen of India, I am much perturbed by this statement.

As far as I am concerned, a rape is a rape, no matter what terms or adjectives are used. The decision of the victim to marry the perpetrator may be entirely personal or because of the circumstances created by the perpetrator, and should not have any influence on the process of justice. In the case of the victim wanting to marry the perpetrator, the wheels of justice should not deviate, but hold on to the path of righteousness and the perpetrator punished, if found guilty or else we’ll have women being singled out and randomly raped and then married as per convenience. This will only encourage rape and accordingly the situation will not be ameliorated in any way but rather exacerbated in more ways than one.

I do not know in what other context the CJI, could have made that statement but as a layman, I know that even in a marriage, forced sex is a rape, so the perpetrator marrying his victim, is surely no alternative for consideration. Given the history of rapes to the rate of convictions, which is very much abysmal in India, our authorities should be working towards giving justice to the brave women, who despite the taboo of being raped, on their lives, have made efforts to fight for justice, so that the perpetrators may be punished and other women may live in dignity.

Our Indian women surely deserve a lot better than what was offered by the CJI.

Freddy Fernandes,
UAE.

Digu govt celebrates birth centenary of merger architect !

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:48:48 +0000

By Rajan Narayan

AND A few more stray thoughts and a few more observations for yet another Sunday. For a Sunday following the week when the group of seven demonstrated its electoral strength in the just concluded Zilla Parishad elections. For a Sunday following the week when Chief Minister Digamber Kamat showed signs of having developed some backbone and started hitting back at the group of seven. For a Sunday following the week when the ghost of merger or at least Maharashtrawadi hovered over Goa again. For a Sunday following the week when politicians in Goa were as agitated as politicians in the rest of the county over the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

ELECTORAL CLOUT

AND a few stray thoughts on the group of seven rebel ministers and MLAs demonstrating their electoral clout. In the recently concluded Zilla Parishad elections, the biggest gainers were the group of seven. The Yuvraj demonstrated his personal clout by getting six of his seven candidates elected in the three talukas of Sattari, Bicholim and Sanguem. The Monster Rat from Taleigao not only managed to get his former PA, who he had appointed as the chairman of the Panaji Planning and Development Authority during his tenure as town and country planning minister, elected from Taleigao but also snatched St Cruz from Victoria Fernandes, who had defeated his worst three quarters in the Assembly elections. Mickky Pacheco rattled his arch enemy Churchill Alemao by not only hijacking the former president of the South Goa Zilla Parishad, Nelly Rodrigues, but managed to get her elected unopposed. In addition Mickky Pacheco outwitted Aleixo Sequeira in the two key segments of the Nuvem Assembly constituency.

It may be recalled that post delimitation the constituency of Loutolim has been replaced by Nuvem, which includes part of Aleixo Sequeira’s present constituency, besides incorporating large parts of Mickky Pacheco’s present constituency — Benaulim — such as Majorda and Betalbatim. The fight for the Nuvem Zilla Parishad seat was particularly fierce with both Mickky and Aleixo Sequeira sparing no effort to win the seat for their candidate. It may be recalled that on the day of polling, there was a clash between supporters of Mickky Pacheco and Aleixo Sequeira at the Fatorda stadium, where the ballot boxes were being stored.

NUVEM DHIRIO

MICKKY, who plans to shift to the new Nagao constituency, has proved his clout and his ‘winability’ by having Aleixo Sequeira’s candidate defeated in Nuvem. Mickky has also rattled both Francisco Sardinha and Reginald Lourenco by getting his candidate elected in Raia, which is an important segment of the Curtorim constituency. By doing so, Mickky has inflicted another blow on his bitter enemy Churchill Alemao, whose group Reginald Lourenco belongs to. To make things worse for the Congress in South Goa, Churchill supporters have won 16 of the Zilla Parishad seats and the probability is that the Varca chieftain will succeed in getting his candidate, Maria Rodrigues elected as the Zilla parishad chief for South Goa. Which is not particularly good for the Congress because though Churchill may now profess to be a staunch Congressman, he is basically a mercenary and is capable of ditching the Congress if he thinks it is to his advantage.

The group of seven’s dominance over the north is complete in that besides the victories of the candidates supported by the Sattari Yuva Morcha floated by Vishwajit Rane and the two candidates put up by Babush Monserrate, other members of the group of seven have also succeeded in getting both their BJP and Congress rivals defeated. The Dhavlikar brothers have proved their hold over their constituencies by getting their candidates comfortably elected. Similarly, Tivim MLA Nilkanth Halarnkar has also got his candidates returned in the Zilla Parishad elections. So much so, five members of the group of seven from North Goa — Vishwajit Rane, Babush Monserate, the two Dhavlikar brothers and the NCP member from Tivim — have all established that they have a very stronghold not only over their own constituencies but are kings and kingmakers in North Goa. Which is bad news both for the BJP and the Congress because the Zilla Parishad elections dramatise that it is the NCP, MGP and the two mercenaries who call the shots in North Goa.

MUSLI POWER

IN the south, the Mickky-Churchill combine have virtually wiped out the Congress, including stalwarts like Aleixo Sequeira. Filipe Neri Rodrigues, who was alleged to have distributed money to get his candidate elected, has succeeded in trouncing his rivals, but Neri is not strictly a Congressman and is a fresh entrant to the Congress like Churchill Alemao. The sweeping of the north by the group of five and the inroads made by Mickky Pacheco and the Churchill brothers in South Goa augers ill for Digamber Kamat, at least if not for the Congress. If it is any consolation, the BJP has also received a drubbing in the recently concluded Zilla Parishad polls. The outcome of the Zilla Parishad polls proves that it is money power and muscle power which play the most important role in politics in Goa. He who pays the piper calls the tune.

And a few stray observations on the perception that Digamber Kamat has not taken the ultimatum served on him by the group of seven very kindly. It may be recalled that after a meeting with NCP president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai, the group of seven made it clear to Digamber Kamat that all seven of them were together and that they would withdraw support to his ministry if any one of them was dropped from the cabinet. It may be recalled that due to pressure from Sharad Pawar and the speaker Pratapsingh Rane, the Chief Minister had to drop his plans to sack Sudin Dhavlikar and induct Pandurang Madkaikar into the cabinet. Digamber Kamat seems to have developed some backbone, as dramatised by the fact that he has taken on one of his chief tormenters, Mickky Pacheco.

DIGU OFFENSIVE

INITIALLY, Digamber Kamat did not take any action on complaints that Mickky Pacheco had illegally filled paddy fields owned by him. The accusation was that he had filled up the paddy fields without permission from the Town and Country Planning Department and without any conversion sanad. The TCP Department, which is controlled by Digamber Kamat, has been uncharacteristically tough on Mickky Pacheco. The TCP Department has not only issued a show cause notice to Mickky Pacheco, but also registered an FIR against the Tourism Minister for illegally filling up the paddy fields, even though they may belong to him. Digamber Kamat has not stopped at that, but also taking advantage of the protest by the media about the roughing up of media persons and photographers at the Fatorda stadium on counting day of the Zilla Parishad elections, a non cognisable offence has also been registered against Pacheco. I would not be surprised if the process of framing a charge-sheet in the long delayed case of extortion and cheating of the Majorda Beach Resort casino, which the crime branch has been sitting on, is expedited.

VULNERABLE

NOT just Mickky Pacheco, but other members of the group of seven are also vulnerable and may face Digamber Kamat’s wrath in the run-up to the budget session of the Legislative Assembly. The Dhavlikar brothers may seek to be tamed by framing a charge-sheet against Sudin Dhavlikar and his wife in the Margao bomb blast case. Not just the local police, but apparently the National Investigation Agency has also established that Sudin Dhavlikar and his wife were closely associated with the Sanatan Sanstha, which has been implicated in the bomb blast. Indeed, according to a report in some sections of the media, a case has also been registered against Sudin Dhavlikar for instigating an attack on those who were demanding the closure of the Sanatan Sanstha ashram in Ponda.

Babush Monserrate has already been charge-sheeted in the attack on the Panaji police station. Digamber Kamat might, in his capacity as law minister, also expedite and put on the fast track other cases pending against Babush Monserrate. It may be recalled that a case is pending against Monserrate for instigating an assault of Youth Congress workers who had protested against the Taleigao MLA’s opposition to the IT Habitat in Dona Paula. I understand that Victoria Fernandes is considering registering a case against Babush Monserrate for using money and muscle power to win the St Cruz seat in the just concluded Zilla Parishad elections. Digamber Kamat could also bring charges against Monserrate for misusing and abusing his position as Town and Country Planning Minister in relation to the mass conversion of agricultural and forest land that he facilitated in the discarded Regional Plan 2011.

YUVRAJ IN DOCK

VISHWAJIT Rane is also vulnerable because of the case pending against him of threatening the lawyer and social activist Aires Rodrigues. But of the group of seven, Digamber Kamat maybe inclined to avoid a confrontation with Vishwajit Rane as he would not like to antagonise Pratapsingh Rane. There are also indications from Delhi that Congress President Sonia Gandhi is none too happy over the dadagiri by Sharad Pawar, which led to the dropping of the reshuffle of the Digamber Kamat cabinet and the induction of Pandurang Madkaikar and Dayanand Narvekar in the place of Sudin Dhavlikar and Babush Monserrate. After, if not before, the budget session of the Assembly, Digamber Kamat may be directed by the High Command to carry out the reshuffle which had to be abandoned because of Pawargiri.

MERGER GHOST

AND a few stray thoughts on the revival of the ghost of Marathiwadi if not Maharashtrawadi. We are referring to the inauguration of the birth centenary celebrations of the first chief minister of Goa, Dayanand Bandodkar. Considering that Dayanand Bandodkar was the principal agent if not the architect of the diabolical conspiracy to merge Goa with Maharashtra, I cannot understand why the Goa government is celebrating the birth anniversary of Dayanand Bandodkar. It cannot be a coincidence that Ashok Chavan, the son of Y B Chavan — who was most vociferous about merging Goa with Maharashtra, was the chief guest on the occasion of the inaugural function of the Bandodkar birth centenary celebrations. The general impression is that it was Y B Chavan and other senior Congress leaders who promoted the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and instigated Dayanand Bandodkar to demand the merger of Goa with Maharashtra.

Indeed when the MGP, with the help of a few independents, formed the government after the first elections held in Goa in 1963 both the senior Congress leaders in Maharashtra and the MGP government headed by Bandodkar demanded that the electoral verdict should be considered a mandate for merger of Goa with Maharashtra. In fact, Dayanand Bandodkar kept insisting that he was an interim chief minister till the goal of merger with Maharashtra was achieved. Later, after the then central government headed by Indira Gandhi decided to hold an opinion poll, coincidentally both the MGP-controlled Goa government and the Maharashtra government passed resolutions favouring the merger of Goa with Maharashtra. If the MGP was able to return to power after the Opinion Poll verdict against merger, it was not because of the popularity of Bandodkar and the MGP but because of the hara-kiri committed by Dr Jack Sequeira, who split the UGP. With 14 of the then 30 constituencies voting against merger in the Opinion Poll, a united UGP could easily have defeated the MGP and formed the government in the post opinion poll elections, in collaboration with the Indian National Congress.

KHALAP GIMMICK

WHAT is even more curious about the birth centenary celebrations of Dayanand Bandodkar is the fact that Ramakant Khalap, who was among the first senior MGP leaders to defect to bring down the then Pratapsing government in 1989, is organising his own private celebration of the birth anniversary of Bandodkar, which is distinct from the official celebrations sponsored by the government of Goa. Khalap has decided to organise a felicitation function for all the former colleagues of Dayanand Bandodkar, including Pratapsingh Rane and Proto Barbosa, but excluding Dayanand Narvekar. Never mind that Pratapsingh Rane and Dayanand Narvekar were never colleagues of Dayanand Bandodkar.

They joined the MGP during Shashikala Kakodkar’s tenure as chief minister and deserted the MGP to join the Congress party. Pratapsingh Rane was very lucky because he became the compromise choice for the chief minister’s post when the Congress came to power because of the dispute between Dr Wilfred D’Souza and Babu Naik for the chief minister’s chair. One can understand celebrating Dayanand Bandodkar’s birth centenary because he was a popular and charismatic chief minister. But why should his colleagues be felicitated on the occasion of Bandodkar’s birth anniversary? Khalap obviously wants to claim the legacy of Dayanand Bandodkar though it was he who destroyed the MGP driven by his own ambitions to become the chief minister.

WOMEN’S BILL

AND a few stray thoughts on why male politicians in Goa and the rest of the country are agitated over the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha. At the national level, consequent to the additional reservations that maybe extended to women if the reservation bill is endorsed by the Lok Sabha, the number of open seats that can be contested by non scheduled castes or scheduled tribes men in the Lok Sabha will be only 282 of the total strength of the Lok Sabha of 543. The stipulation in the Women’s Reservation Bill that the seats reserved for women will be by rotation means that several influential male politicians who have made a career of politics will find themselves unemployed. Though they could of course get their wives, daughters and daughters-in-law nominated for party tickets, there is no guarantee that the electorate will accept the betis and bahus if they have not been active politically. In a feudal male dominated country, the male politicians are not very enthusiastic about the fact that women will call the shots in the Lok Sabha. This is dramatised by the fact that though all the major parties such as the Congress, the BJP and the Left have been swearing by reservations for women and supported the bill in the Rajya Sabha they have been very reluctant to field women candidates.

Like their counterparts in the rest of the country, male politicians in Goa are equally unhappy with the prospect of giving up 13 of the 40 seats to the fair sex. This is because if the reservations bill is passed by the Lok Sabha, it will also apply to state assemblies, which means that one-third of the seats in the Goa Assembly will be reserved for women. In addition, the probability is that at least four seats will be reserved for the scheduled tribes on the basis of the estimate that they constitute 12 percent of the population and proportionately four seats should be reserved for them. The consequence should be that 17 of the 40 seats in the Goa Assembly will be reserved for women and Scheduled Tribes besides the one seat reserved for scheduled caste at present. Not only the group of seven, but the entire male chauvinist brigade in Goan politics will lose their main source of income if the reservation bill is passed by the Lok Sabha. How much the politicians in Goa and political parties and the electorate in Goa love women is dramatised by the fact that there is only one women legislator in the 40-member Goa Legislative Assembly.

Globalisation cause of inflation?

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:39:15 +0000

BY M K VENU

Western economies are using massive liquidity injections to suit their needs, which is causing premature inflationary pressures in emerging economies like India.

GLOBALISATION has resulted in deep inter-linkages among world economies. This, of course, is a truism. But you might still be surprised if someone told you that US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke would determine the fate of Pranab Mukherjee’s 2010-11 Budget. Here’s how.

The Federal Reserve may continue with its easy money policy in the United States for much of this year until a full recovery is in sight. Bernanke has kept interest rates at near zero in recent times in his anxiety to revive the economy and reduce unemployment. In the process, the massive liquidity pumped up in the US has found its way into commodities like oil, copper, aluminium, nickel, etc. According to one estimate, in 2009 alone, an additional $50 billion of cheap money got invested in purely commodity funds. This is three times the average amount that got invested in commodities during any of the boom years from 2004 to 2007. The question to ask is: on what basis are speculators driving up commodity prices even as the global economy as a whole still remains quite weak? Speculation in commodities continues unabated this year. In spite of the weak recovery signs in the US and Euro region, oil prices are estimated to touch $90 a barrel by this year end.

CRUDE OIL PRICES

THE link between global oil prices and Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget assumptions is very clear and direct. If crude prices average at around $85 a barrel during 2010-11 the government’s oil subsidy bill could bloat to about Rs.1,50,000 crore, assuming there is no revision of domestic oil prices upward. An expenditure slippage of that order could increase the fiscal deficit by three percent, from the budgeted 5.5 percent of GDP. There goes the fiscal consolidation programme. This is the worst case scenario.

A slightly better scenario could be this: in the face of political opposition, the government may gather courage to raise oil prices marginally. After doing that, the fiscal deficit may still slip by about 1.5 percent and end up at seven percent of GDP by March 2011.

The larger point being made is the rising global commodity prices led by oil will negatively impact India’s growth assumption in the 2010 Budget. India’s so-called domestically driven growth story will get greatly hamstrung if global commodity prices do not return to normal levels as would be dictated by the current fundamentals of the global economy.

CARRY TRADE

FOR instance, it is totally inexplicable that the prices of oil, copper, aluminium, etc today should be as much as they were during the peak of the global economic boom in 2007. Those fundamental boom conditions do not exist today with the developed economies still showing a lot of inherent weakness. Then why are commodity prices as high as they were three years ago? This is happening largely because of a phenomenon called carry trade. Carry trade is a simple mechanism by which speculators borrow dollars for short periods at near-zero interest rate and speculate in commodities and stocks. The promoter of a leading shipping company in India told me how huge numbers of fully loaded oil tankers are simply floating on the high seas for the last several months without any destination.

This is how it happens. If you are a big commodity trader on Wall Street, all you have to do is raise a cheap dollar loan, buy a hundred thousand barrels of oil in the spot market at the prevailing price. To fully hedge the bet, the same oil is sold in the futures market at the prevailing premium. So you have physically bought oil at $75 and sold it at $83 in the futures market. The premium earned ($7 per barrel) covers the cost of the short-term loan, freight charges for hiring the oil tanker and yet gives you a profit. Indeed, it is astonishing that the speculative market allows such a foolproof bet with little or no risk.

This is happening largely because of the near-zero interest rate policy being followed in the developed economies. Speculation is very safe when money becomes so cheap. After a point, unending supplies of money create higher price points for the speculators to feel totally secure. Of course, the big danger lies in how such cumulative price bubbles eventually unwind. However, from a purely Indian standpoint, the rising global commodity prices will create serious disruptions in India’s political economy. The much touted domestic growth store will get seriously impaired if the price of key commodities, oil, food and metals, move up to much higher levels.

OPPOSITION

POLITICAL opposition is already growing on the back of rising food and oil prices. Further, global speculation in commodities can make things worse for India’s political economy in the months ahead. The opposition parties are bound to raise the tempo of protest as commodity prices rise further. As the political protest gathers momentum, the government might lose the will to do productivity enhancing reforms - such as setting right the agriculture supply chain-which are precisely meant to combat domestic inflationary pressures. The rising global commodity prices can therefore cause enough political scare to scupper domestic reforms initiatives. This is a trap the government must avoid at all costs, going forward.

Western economies are using massive liquidity injections to suit their needs. This liquidity is causing premature inflationary pressures in emerging economies like India. India must combat this inflationary pressure by doing enough productivity enhancing reforms on the supply side so that inflation does not corrode output growth. There is a risk of that happening if sustained anti-inflation reforms on the supply side are not put in place.

The writer is Managing Editor, ‘The Financial Express’

Courtesy: Indian Express

Reservation ‘brainless’?

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:31:09 +0000

BY MADHU PURNIMA KISHWAR

The Women’s Reservation Bill is likely to only empower the ‘biwi-beti’ brigade and create confusion rather than lead to the emergence of women-centric politics on women’s issues.

FOR A long time, any legislation which claimed to be pro women, no matter how stupid and harmful in substance, sailed through Parliament because any legislative initiative claiming to help women enjoyed a moral aura.

The Women’s Reservation Bill is the first piece of legislation witnessing strong opposition within Parliament because this legislation will affect the fortunes of every single politician. If a secret voting is allowed on this important bill, Mrs Gandhi and BJP party bosses who have issued a whip will discover how deeply resentful their own party members are over this bill.

FATAL FLAWS

THE Women’s Reservation Bill in its present form has serious, indeed fatal, flaws. If enacted, this measure will send our already tottering political system into a devastating tail-spin. The one-third of the total parliamentary seats to be reserved for women is to be selected through a lottery system. This implies that at random, at least 180 male legislators will be uprooted from their constituencies every election. In their place, 180 women will be assigned those constituencies before every election. Then, at the time of the next election, when the new list of 180 reserved constituencies is declared in the same manner, these 180 women will not be able to contest from the seats they are holding at that point of time because the same constituency cannot be reserved twice in succession under the bill’s rotation system.

Thus two-thirds of our legislators will be uprooted at every election. This takes away the incentive for women representatives to nurture and be accountable to their constituencies since after each election they will be expected to either withdraw from the contest or move to a different constituency since no constituency can be reserved in succession.

Thus this brainless scheme of reservation jeopardises the possibility of sensible planning to contest a political constituency for both men and women. Since very few women politicians have an independent electoral base, this uncertainty about where they will be fielded from will make them even more dependent on male bosses of their party to win elections. In such a situation, male politicians will find it easy to bring in their wives and daughters - the biwi-beti brigade - as proxies to keep the seat "safe" for them until the next election when they would be likely to be able to reclaim their seats.

RUBBER STAMPS

BEING a politician’s wife or daughter ought not to be a disqualification in itself. After all, children of lawyers and doctors often inherit their father’s practice. But they have to prove their worth every day with their clientele. However, most female relatives are brought in as proxies whose only task is to safeguard the political interests of the men of their families. Like Laloo Yadav’s wife Rabri Devi or Madhu Koda’s wife, they will be brought in as rubber stamps to safeguard family interests and sent home after their use is over.

We cannot afford to pack our Parliament and state legislatures with a larger contingent of Rabri Devis. Apart from other disabilities, they act as very negative role models for women because they enlarge the compass of the ideology of female subservience, which is most prominent in the domestic realm, into the public and political domain as well. The one and only agenda these women have is to do all that they can to save their husbands’ seat or protect them from being put on trial for looting the public exchequer. They don’t even bother to pretend otherwise. How does such a woman serve the cause of women or empower other women? The biwi-beti brigade, in fact, acts as a definite block against the emergence of independent-minded women who wish to make a space for themselves on their own strength in the public domain.

For example, it is a common phenomenon in India that the women’s fronts of various political parties are headed by wives, other female relatives, or mistresses of prominent male party leaders. These posts are given to these women like a jagir for as long as their men retain their clout in the party. A Brinda Karat, Promila Dandavate or Ahilya Ranganekar is put in charge of the women’s front primarily because of their husband’s clout in the party. Such women do not easily make space for other women with merit. Any woman who enters the party, no matter how talented, has to play a subservient role to these dependent women. The political initiative of most women thus gets curbed rather than encouraged in the party mahila (women) fronts.

PARTISAN

BECAUSE of the familial connection between the main party and the women’s fronts, the politics of the women’s front remains subservient to the party. All too often, the main purpose of the women’s fronts turns out to be narrowly partisan on women’s issues. For example, if a rape is committed by people associated with the Congress party, the women in opposition parties are used to let loose a tirade against the Congress. But the same women turn a blind eye towards victims of atrocities when their own party colleagues are culprits. Can we think of even one Congress woman who took a public stand against her party-men involved in the 1984 massacre of Sikhs? Or any BJP woman who stood in support of the victims of Gujarat riots?

For years, Mamata Banerjee kept crying hoarse about the violence unleashed by CPM cadres on people in rural Bengal, including cases of gruesome rape, in order to obstruct the conduct of free and fair elections in West Bengal. The CPM women responded in characteristic style and hurled the choicest of political abuses at Mamata instead of making common cause with her in combating the culture of violence in West Bengal.
No wonder our country has not yet witnessed the emergence of women-centric politics on women’s issues. The thoughtless scheme of reservation envisaged by the current Reservation Bill will allow the feminine political space to be totally dominated by the biwi-beti brigade which will only demean the idea of women’s empowerment.

When it goes to the Lok Sabha, MPs should demand the right to secret vote on this important constitutional amendment. Democracy is meaningless if legislators are denied the right to vote for issues according to their conviction.

The writer is professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, and founder editor ‘Manushi’

Courtesy: Indian Express

Police-peddler nexus exposed

goanobserver — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:29:03 +0000

BY PRADNYA GAONKAR

Now that Ashish Shirodkar and Saish Pokle of the ANC have seen suspended and booked, the links between the Goa Police and drug lords in the state are slowly coming to light.

THE ARRESTS of alleged drug peddlers Dudu and Atala has brought the narcotics trade in Goa to the forefront. The Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) seems to be on overdrive and those directly or indirectly associated with the illegal trade of drugs for a long time are now being apprehended. The recent arrest of the watchman of St Xavier’s College in Mapusa, Bahadur Singh, infamous for his alleged drug deals within the campus and outside, came as a shock for many Xavierites as well as parents. While the arrests of the drugs peddlers by the Police Department is taking place at a hyper active pace in Goa, the suspension of former ANC PI Ashish Shirodkar and four policemen has exposed the nexus of the police and drug peddlers.

On Wednesday, March 10, 2010, the CID crime branch booked two of the five suspended policemen - Ashish Shirodkar and constable Saish Pokle — under sections 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (hatching conspiracy) and sections 7, 11, 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Ashish Shirodkar has been posted at the ANC for some time now. The possible involvement of such a long-standing policeman raises questions about the actual work done by the Cell and the free hand given to criminals in the region. While the charges against Shirodkar are being framed now, many cases of harassment by the ANC along the coastal belt, which were earlier ignored, are coming to light. GO came across one such case that occurred in 2007, charging PI Ashish Shirodkar and his colleagues of alleged harassment to a local.

HARASSMENT

"THEY came to me while I was resting on a beach bed, caught hold of me and took me along with them in a private jeep to the Panaji Police Station. I did not know why I was taken to the police station until I read the newspaper the next morning," narrates 43-year-old Naresh Harmalkar, who was arrested in a raid carried out by the Anti Narcotic Cell team led by Ashish Shirodkar, along with police constable Sandeep Parab, also known as ‘Caamin’ and ten others on November 3, 2007. Naresh, a resident of Gaonkarwado, Anjuna, owns a shack named Nikita located on Anjuna beach. He has been in the tourism business for more than 20 years. The mundkar of the plot where his shack is located, Naresh built a house and rented it out to tourists and also gave vehicles on rent.

"We are happy with the money earned at our shack and do not want any illegal drug business. Since we refused to pay haftas to the police who come here every now and then, they started harassing my husband," explains Neha Harmalkar, Naresh’s wife. According to the sequence of events that occurred before the arrest, the ANC team had earlier visited Harmalkar’s house on October 23, 2007 at about 11.45 pm and forcibly entered the room where their three daughters and son were sleeping with their mother. Naresh was not at home at the time. The family members narrate that the police used abusive language and broke open the cupboard, emptied utensils and other grocery items.

While leaving the house, Shirodkar allegedly threatened Neha saying that he would be back to take necessary action against her husband in order to show his involvement in drug activities. Thereafter, Caamin visited Harmalkar’s house on many occasions to inquire about Naresh. Neha Harmalkar called on the then Inspector General of Police, Ujjwal Mishra, on November 3, 2007 and filed a complaint against Ashish Shirodkar and PC Sandeep Parab. The same evening, at around 3.30 pm, Shirodkar arrested Harmalkar at his shack. "They took me to a corner and demanded Rs. Five lakh or else a case of illegal possession of drugs would be filed against me," claims Naresh. When Naresh refused to accept the offer, the police put him in the jeep and took him to Panaji police station. An offence of illegal possession of 1.325 gs of charas and 1.1 gs of LSD papers was registered against him.

"I called my brother and followed my husband to the police station. When I asked about my husband, Caamin used foul language. Even the DIG Mishra, who earlier assured me that no harm would be done to my husband, raised his voice and said **** you," narrates Neha Harmalkar. Naresh faced trial and was in police custody for 18 months.

NOTORIOUS

IT is well known that drugs are freely available in Anjuna. Initially, the region was reeling under the dominance of Kashmiris, who allegedly carried out the illegal drug and flesh trade in the region. According to locals, foreign drug peddlers — Russians and Israelis — deal with ‘A class’ clients while the rest are catered to by Kashmiris and locals. Police links with these drug peddlers was obvious considering their frequent visits to the shacks — eating, drinking and making merry.

Sandeep Parab has been attached to the ANC for a lengthy period, even though his fellow policemen have been transferred to other branches and is alleged to have been involved in hafta collection. In Harmalkar’s case also, Sandeep tried to ‘negotiate’ but Naresh refused. A chargesheet was filed against Naresh on receiving chemical reports of the drug samples sent to Hyderabad. But since the drugs were not found on his person or his house, where did the drugs come from? And what was the amount seized and what amount was sent for sampling?

"A procedure is adopted after the drug is seized. After conviction, the police have to receive court orders for destruction of the drugs. A committee is established comprising senior police officials, including the home secretary, who decide what method to be adopted for destruction. The methods adopted are burning in an electric furnace or using wood, depending on the quantity of the drugs but it is made sure that no harm is caused to the environment. The drugs are collected and destroyed together once the amount is just enough for destruction. The place and time for destruction is not revealed to the public," informed Atmaram Deshpande, SP Crime Branch. But again it is not sure whether the amount seized and the amount reported is the same or manipulated. It is suspected that the seized drugs in earlier cases are being used in instances like in the case of Naresh.

MISUSE

"THE Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPA) Act is being misused by the police. There are many youngsters who are into the shack business for years now. There are many who do not want to get involved in the drug business. But policemen like Ashish and Sandeep force them into it, harass them or arrest them if they do not comply to the demands of the police. There are many who do not know how to get out of it and fall prey to the harassment," says Naresh. Naresh had to face trials in the District Session’s court for 18 months and was released on June 2, 2009 on benefit of doubt. Meanwhile the business came to a stand still in his absence.

"There are many policemen who have accumulated enough wealth after being in the ANC for years. This needs to be investigated. If Naresh’s case was considered and a probe was conducted in 2007 itself, we wouldn’t have wasted two years to nab the main culprits involved in drug peddling," says Tara Kerkar, a social activist who had first raised the issue and supported the Harmalkar family.