Lifestyle
Relationships
Sports
Business
Health
Art
Culture
Environment
Education
Information Technology
Entertainment
Fashion
Travel
Tourism
Parenting
GOA’S
HeartBeat
Sunday, 9 Jan 2011
Disrespecting the President? BY CHRISTINA VIEGAS HERALD FEATURES published photograph of President, Pratibha Patil, relaxing on a beach in Goa, surrounded by men and women clad in beach wear, angered officials which engendered in the three local photojournos being questioned by the cops. Listening to a handful of opinions, at the onset, I almost believed that the media was being irresponsible in portraying the President in bad light. But wait a minute! The photo-journos were just doing their job and yes the paper was highlighting something very important – lapse in security. Let us start with DSP Umesh Gaonkar who said that the photographers had been specifically asked to remain away from the President as she was on a private visit. A vital point here: these photographers are journalists; people on a constant mission to enlighten people through their pictures. So, what could just be a private visit for a cop is a very important occasion for a journo to scoop out anything of significance. And that is exactly what they did! Like people have said, the camera lens pointing at the President could very well have been someone’s gun pointing at her. If journos were people who would have listened to someone saying just stay away, we would have been content in some 9 to 6 job, with regular meals and sleep timings and gone home for a lovely evening with family or friends. Why would we be insane in slogging at all odd hours to churn out the latest news? Often, risking our relationships with our family members and friends! Why would we die, waiting for hours under trying climates and circumstances for that one important picture, story or interview? Why would we take the risk of accepting an invitation for an interview into someone’s hotel room? She/he might be a celebrity, but is still a stranger to us. Or amidst drunken revelers on/in a casino or pub? Or get crushed amidst a rebellious crowd? Or walk the talk with a personality when she/he is in her/his worst mood? Yes, because we are here for a mission and no one should dictate to us how we need to operate. Least of all cops or politicians! We have our own peers to guide us on that. Now coming to the many people who say that she was on a private visit and is entitled to her personal space: Personal space on a public beach? And that too, a last minute whim? Besides, the media has also brought to light an interesting fact: Where else in the country would you find the President sitting so relaxed on a beach amidst so many people? This is the USP of Goa. People from all over the world come here to relax and they feel comfortable as they don’t get people ogling at them. They can be themselves. The ones who want to feast their eyes on half nude bodies, are the people who come in from
A
out. For us in Goa, it is normal to see foreigners, clad in beachwear, enjoying themselves. Coming to the argument that the President was portrayed in bad light by the media: the President had suddenly tweaked her schedule to arrive at the Taj Exotica. And obviously, the hotel could not ask the guests to keep off the beach. These are people coming from far and paying a hefty sum to enjoy a slice of paradise on the Goan beaches. So, the photograph only revealed reality! Former President, APJ Abdul Kalam was a people’s leader. He was constantly seen circulating with the common people and patting shoulders of the youth, farmers, etc. So, with due respect to President Patil, when it was her intention to enjoy the beaches of Goa, it is also a fact that there will be people in beach wear. I mean, go to a swimming pool at any hotel or sports club; people are bound to be in swimwear. There is nothing wrong in this. Just because the President is going to enjoy some sun and sand, you cannot ask people to surf the waves in saris. So, any kind of anger shown over the photograph in the papers, only speaks of hypocrisy. Perhaps, the authorities should have taken the President to check out our orphanages, religious monuments, and other places where people dress in accordance. For the last 35 years, our very Government and private parties have garnered in the tourists by showcasing our sun-kissed beaches. Why no objection then? I mean, if the President wanted to visit Khajuraho temples, would the authorities have gotten the statues in the temples to dress up? Unfortunately as always, we also had headlines splashed by other national media and websites like ‘Inefficient cops fail to protect President from Paparazzi’. ‘Paparazzi’? So much for the slog put in by our local journos! This is nothing but an attempt to malign anything Goan. So be it if it happens to be the Goan media. At the international film festival in Goa, haven’t we always encountered those ‘high and mighty types’ from the national media who look down on the local media and condescendingly say, “Oh we know you Goan journos!”
Assange to be Book-ed Soon!
J
ulian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, recently said he had signed a book deal to tell his life story and expressed hope it would be “one of the unifying documents of our generation”. Edinburgh-based Canongate Books said it had acquired world rights - apart from North America where the publisher will be Alfred A Knopf - to the whistleblower's autobiography. It will be published in Britain in April. Assange, who is on bail in Britain facing extradition proceedings to Sweden on charges of sexual assault, has overseen the release of thousands of US diplomatic cables on the WikiLeaks website. The publishers said the 39-year-old Australian would use the book to discuss his philosophies. Assange said, “I hope this book will become one of the unifying documents of our generation. In this highly personal work, I explain our global struggle to force a new relationship between the people and their governments." The deals for the autobiography were worth more than one million pounds (1.2 million euros, 1.5 million dollars). He said the money would help him defend himself against the allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden. Assange denies the women's claims and says Sweden's attempts to secure his extradition are politically motivated. “I don't want to write this book, but I have to,” he said. “I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat,” he added. The release of the cables has infuriated Washington, which claims they have put diplomats' lives at risk. US officials are believed to be examining how to indict Assange for espionage. (Courtesy: AFP)
Goan Delicacies for the Delhi Palate
Diplomatic Delhi plays host to many embassies and also has guest houses of various Indian states, including Goa. The Goa Niwas at the capital city has a truly Goan restaurant called ‘Viva o Viva’ which is authentic to the core, giving every Delhite the Goan delight BY JANICE RODRIGUES HERALD FEATURES eing a diplomat or a business man requires you to move out of the state quite often, and being a true Goan, you will definitely miss the sea, sand and more prominently, the ‘xitt-koddi’ that is synonymous to the Goan food. You have to bear up with the homesickness while you are away from home in most cases, but you need not worry about it when you are in the country’s capital. Goa Niwas and the Goan restaurant Viva o Viva will surely transport any person to the land of ‘sanna’ and ‘sorpotel’. Delhi plays host to political and diplomatic delegates from all across the country and the world. Each state has its own guesthouses in the capital and Goa is no different, with a Goa Niwas in the Chanakyapuri area of Delhi, the state has a really swank restaurant to boast about. Viva o Viva, run by Delhi-based chef Patrick Barretto will treat anyone who steps into the restaurant. “The government has put up a tender notice for anyone to set up a Goan restaurant in Delhi and I got the tender,” says Chef Barretto about the beginning of the restaurant. Patrick, a chef and kitchen consultant, has worked nationally as well as internationally, having set up projects in places like Scotland, Germany and the US. Though born into a family of musicians, he spent most of the time in the kitchen learning the art of cooking from his mother. “Another person who showed me authentic Goan food is Churchill Alemao’s mother,” says the chef. The foodies who have a yearning for Goan food in the capital have a reason to rejoice as Viva o Viva has a menu that will transport the reader to a Goan beach, with the ambience adding to
B
Ritem aidon sodanch chodd vazta - Anonymous
email us at: goasheartbeat@herald-goa.com
Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air - Henry Anatole
India's Traditional Magicians: striving Hard not to disappear
P
rakash Mavinkurve is an unlikely magician. He works as a hospital anaesthesiologist in Mumbai - and uses his breaks to hone his magic skills, stage routine and one-liners. Medical colleagues and a captive audience of patients provide a perfect stage for coin or card tricks, which can not only put nervous children at ease but also relieve the tensions of a high-pressure job. “There's always a group of nurses that keeps changing, so every day I can find a new guinea pig,” said the 58-year-old with a smile. But like so much else in modern India, magic and magicians are changing, as the country's growing middle classes find other forms of entertainment. “There are a lot of magicians in Mumbai who use the vernacular language - Hindi or Marathi,” said Mavinkurve, who counts the bumbling, fez-wearing British comic and magician Tommy Cooper as a hero. “But there are very few that use good English. Magic is declining in popularity in English because English-speakers have more access to television, DVDs and so on. They have their own priorities... Now a magician has to compete,” he added. Magicians around the world owe a lot to India, where magic or ‘jaadu’ in Hindi has a rich history, even in ancient mythology. Variations on the Indian balls and cup routine or basket trick, where swords apparently pass through an assistant inside a basket, have become mainstays of many stage acts. And Western audiences and magicians continue to be fascinated by the Great Indian Rope Trick, in which a small boy shins up a long, rigid rope and then disappears. Colonies of wandering street magicians, among whom such tricks have been passed down through the generations, still exist although their numbers are dwindling. “Traditional Indian magic may be dying,” said Mandar Patil, who with his wife runs Patil's House of Magic and Entertainment in Mumbai, a treasure trove of tricks and props from selftying shoelaces to hand-chopping guillotines. “There are very few of those street magicians’ colonies left. To earn your livelihood and survive just by performing magic is difficult, “he said. Patil is a past president of the Society of Indian Magicians and developed a love for magic from his father, who performed at Indian festivals when the family lived in Toronto, Canada. The organisation, established in 1932, is one of India's oldest, although membership only runs into the low hundreds. The Internet and television shows have opened up the previously secret world of magicians, allowing newcomers to learn tricks. Specialised magic academies have also been
set up, dedicated to preserving traditions and teaching would-be magicians. “For the common man, it is good entertainment,” said Patil. “There has been a lot of exposure on television and people have come to know the different types of magic from close-up and conjuring to illusion.” But Patil and Mavinkurve say Indian performers have to adapt, as audiences become more exposed to the likes of big name overseas artistes such as US illusionists David Blaine, Criss Angel or David Copperfield. “We have copied Western culture. It's more westernised in India now. Magicians are not doing traditional tricks in daily shows, birthday parties and all that. They are doing more Western magic,” said Patil. “There's not much creation (in India),” added K S Ramesh, an actor-magician and president of the Magic Academy in the southern city of Bangalore, saying fee-paying audiences now expected elaborate, Las Vegas-style presentation. For the self-taught Mavinkurve, who became hooked on magic after a colleague performed a trick at a medical conference over 30 years ago; such influences have made life more difficult for those who rely on simple sleight of hand. “The magic that the audience sees is coming from overseas. It's very high-tech. Many people will compare it when I perform,” he said. Nevertheless, the magicians said they believed the ancient art of trickery and illusion still has a place in modern India and there is still a demand among customers who are prepared to be amazed. “When the magic happens in that nanosecond, it's the same whether it's an Indian street magician or David Copperfield. The thrill and feel for the audience at that moment: that's why magic will always be there,” said Ramesh. (Courtesy: AFP)
the Goan touch. With dishes like Prawn Peri Peri, Pork Sorpotel and Chiken Xacuti, the restaurant serves all Goan delicacies. Apart from the main course, the restaurant also serves some desserts and snacks that are inherent to the Goan dining table, including bebinca, dodol and the very popular, ‘Alle Pelle’ or ‘Alle Belle’. “The ‘alle pelle’ are a real hit here in Delhi,” says Patrick who started his career as a caterer in 1986. Although Delhi is surrounded by land and has no access to the sea, Patrick manages to source out the freshest of the seafood. “I get fish like ‘bombils’, mullets and ‘mudoshi’, and sometimes Pomfret and King fish, all coming from Gujarat; they are all fresh fish,” says Patrick. When questioned whether he faces any problems sourcing the pork, as Delhi is a largely Hindu dominated place, he replies, “Not at all”, explaining further, “the North Eastern guest houses serve pork too, and we get our pork from the English farms, so there is not much of a hassle.” Of course, the other non-perishable ingredients are stocked up from Goa. “Vinegar, kokum, the Goan black jaggery, and the ‘ausande’ beans are all brought from Goa,” says Chef. Viva o Viva was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi on June 11, 2010, but hasn’t yet been open to the public, the only reason being the lack of chairs and tables. “I have been waiting for the Government of Goa to provide me the furnishing but they haven’t done so yet,” sighs Patrick. Despite this, the restaurant has an ever growing list of visitors. “We had just a select crowd here first, then the word got around,” explains Patrick. And even though he has difficulty accommodating the guests, he concludes in true Goan hospitality, “Everyone is welcome.”