(16 Dec ’12)
This week Goa has been
celebrating books, authors, artists, musicians. Just last month we had the
ThinkFest and the IFFI, and now we’re in the; midst of the GALF: the Goa Art
and Literary Festival. Treat after treat of culture. Our little state is
becoming quite a happening place. India
has a lot of litfests, but none as charming as this one. Panaji’s riverfront is
pretty, and the whole town was involved in the fest, non-commercially. No
advertisements flung in our face, no hungama. Just serious literature, serious
art, serious music.
The inauguration at KA, my favourite
public place in Goa: calligraphy demonstration by Achyut Palav, and singing by
soprano Patricia Rosario. Supported by Mark Troop and Amar Muchhala. The day
after, at the beautiful Raj Bhavan was the rare Bhand Pather performance. If
there is litfest heaven on earth, I thought, it is here, here, here.
Through
the week there were book releases (Adi Parva by Amruta Patil, These My Words by
Eunice D’Souza and more). Madhav Borkar moderated ‘Songs of Goa’ in which the
participants were Ramesh Veluskar, Nutan Sakhardande, Guadalupe Dias, Nilba
Khandekar, and Paresh Kamat. There was
lots about the ‘Eyewitnesses to History: Memoirs of Goa’ that
featured nonegarian Irene Heredia, Rudolf Heredia, Prabhakar Kamat, Pratima
Kamat was hosted by Jose Lourenco. Jessica Faleiro’s ‘Afterlife: Ghost Stories
from Goa’ was also launched.
What was special about this particular
festival was the presence of writers from Kashmir. No one till now had given
their voice a hearing outside their state, live. We heard about their problems,
their points of view, and we discovered more about them than we had so far
through the television. We also got to see Badshah Paather, a take on King
Lear. So important was this that the CM of that state himself came down for the
inauguration. It helped that our Governor’s ancestors belonged to Kashmir.
Naseem Shafaie, Iftikar Gilani, Saadut Hussain, M Amin Bhat, M K Raina were
present. Much credit must go to those behind the scene who made this happen:
Damodar Mauzo and Vivek Menezes of GoaWriters and Nandini Sahai and Arjun
Halarnkar of ICG.
From beyond Kashmir,
from Pakistan, came Cyril Almeida of Goan origin.
All of this was done
with no corporate support and on a shoe-string budget. It took many months of
the volunteers’ time to make it happen. Behind the scenes, emails flew across
borders and continents. (Graphic artist and author Nicolas Wild came all the
way from France.) Convincing people is never easy, convincing Indians is
difficult, convincing creative people tops it all. One appreciates government
machinery when it isn’t there to help with bookings and manpower.
The first LitFest was
fun. The second one met with obstacles. This one, with its hiccups and all, has
proved that Goa is home to one of the best LitFests in the country. Bookworm, a venture for children run by
Sujata Noronha and her team, had children’s book festival at Azad Maidan. Azad
Maidan was the venue for the musical programs held in the evenings, and some of
the readings. There were many venues for the various events, and one could
shuttle up and down in the vehicles organized. This was a dose of culture Goa
really needed. The LitFest ends tomorrow with a program by Lou Majaw of the
North East.
In little corners of
Goan villages, there are some bhailley doing
good work for local talent. One such is Eleanor Viegas of Peace Cottage,
Betalbatim. She believes that through craft and art, the world can be a better
place and she’s begun to implement her thoughts in her neighbourhood. A few
village women, a few ideas, and she has fused contemporary designs with old
Goan skills like quilting, to come up with really nice pieces that are worthy
of being framed and displayed. The local women have come up with their own
artwork, with embroideries of coconut fronds and women carrying fish. It’s been
a hard grind getting people to do this, but Eleanor has managed it well. She’s
having a workshop and exhibition in January. Best of all, her charming home is
where children can create, imagine, express things. These festivals big and
small are aspects of Goa that fascinate me.
This is the correct
time to be living in Goa, many things happening, many like-minded people around
to participate in them. In Facebook vocabulary: Like.
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