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Ongoing: Exhibition of paintings, Art Chamber, Calangute www.goa-art.com
Dec 13: Dance workshop, with Jaap Van Maanen. Tel 2275733 BB Cafe
Dec 14 onwards: Shireen Mody's Goa 2002 exhibition, Arpora. Tel 2276759
Dec 14: Customer Relationship Mgt Seminar, Xaviers, Mapusa Tel 2262356
Dec 17, 18, 20: Indo-Portuguese furniture, lectures Fundacao Ph 2230728
Jan 18-19: International kite carnival at Morgim beach, Pernem
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>From Sunday Indian Express/ December 8, 2002
Everyone loves a good fight
Conservation of Goa's rich colonial heritage has now become a favourite
pastime with its haute bourgeois but it has also made enemies of sworn
friends. Sonu Chinna tries to call a truce between celebrated cartoonist
Mario Miranda and chronicler Mario Cabral e Sa.
Cabral is an intelligent man, but the problem with Goans is that
there is little to do and they have crab-like mentality
-- Mario Miranda
Hunting for Goa's wicked sense of humour? You will have to tear your
eyeballs off the rosy sunset and hit the national highway. Drive 30 minutes
into the darkening heart of rural Goa to Loutolim (pronounced low-to-lay).
Gasp, as first-time visitors do at the sight of the Portuguese-style
mansion.
A captain opens the French window -- all in your imagination -- on the first
floor and rests his gloved hand on the wrought-iron rail. There is just one
detail on the scene from the mad world of Mario de Miranda's doodles: A 118
NE parked in a shed painted a very strange shade of lavender. .
Miranda marches you into his rose-pink study. The light is the equivalent of
a stage whisper -- just about five watts. If you can squint unobtrusively
there is a riot of art on the walls, tabletops and mantlepieces. For more on
what the house looks like, rent a DVD of Shyam Benegal's Trikaal.
With Miranda's personal interest in the fort, I thought (his being
on the committee) was not on a level playing field -- Cabral E Sa
In a soft voice, he demands to know the latest from the enemy camp. Mario
Cabral e Sa, journalist and author of several government-commissioned books
on Goa, is the cause for the mischievous twinkle in the cartoonist's eye.
Cabral has romped home after an earnest campaign against Miranda's efforts
to get an heiress from Britain to restore a fort. The fort is close to the
seat of the government in the Capital, but so is Cabral.
The widow of a British publishing magnate, Lady Hamlyn, who has been
visiting and enjoying Goa for some years now wanted to return the generosity
and hospitality of its people by doing some work for the state. Enraptured
by Goa's untouched but precious heritage, Lady Hamlyn appealed to INTACH in
Delhi to help find a site for restoration, fully funded by her. INTACH put
her in touch with its chapter-head in Goa, Mario Miranda, and he pointed at
the 450-year-old Portuguese Reis Magos Fort.
After two years of negotiations, plans and background work done with various
conservation bodies including the ASI, the project was ready to take off.
But to everyone's shock, a once-enthusiastic state Government did a
somersault and said no -- not only to a lavish endowment of 300,000 sterling
pounds for the restoration work but also put its foot down on the condition
of leasing rooms on the top level of the fort to Lady Hamlyn for 15 years.
It also denied her permission to offset the leasing amount for the proposed
apartment on top of the fort against her endowment.
Miranda, who has satirised Goa's ways, is also quite at home with its
quirks. "I have given up (on the fort)," he gracefully accepts defeat. The
small matter of Cabral's victory run is, however, an entirely different
matter. Miranda's delight is in tripping him up. "He doesn't realise, he
talks to all my friends and they come and tell me all his lies."
Bone of contention: Reis Magos Fort
-----------------------------------
Cabral says the initial idea of tapping Lady Hamlyn's Trust to restore the
Reis Magos Fort was his. Hah, says Miranda.
"But after my second meeting, I thought I was being avoided," Cabral bares
the cause behind his sulk. "He was being avoided? Cabral is old enough. Does
he expect me to hold his hand and lead him around?" asks his new foe.
"He is an intelligent man," concedes Miranda, "but the problem with Goans is
that there is little to do and they have this crab-like mentality. You want
to do something, there is always somebody to pull you down."
Cabral's next grouse is complicated. On one of his many meetings with the
State's Culture Secretary, he heard Miranda was on the committee that was to
decide on Hamlyn's proposal. "With his personal interest, I thought the
matter was not on a level playing field," he gripes.
Miranda is zapped. "Of course, I had a personal interest. Lady Hamlyn is a
dear friend. But what committee is he talking about?"
A chat with the Director of Archaeology Department helps clear the air:
Cabral has mixed up his committees. Miranda is on an unrelated fact-finding
panel for fort restoration. "It was a picnic. They took us to all the forts
and that was it," recalls Miranda. It was a picnic, the Director of Tourism
is yet to submit his report which is due since March. A case of susegad, the
special word they have for easy-going Goan life.
"I was later introduced to the Lady at a party," continues Cabral e Sa, "and
when I explained to her that the restoration idea was mine, she crooned and
said, 'how nice'." Miranda grins like a cat.
He listens intently to Cabral e Sa's conspiracy theory of the Lady's real
intention behind restoring the fort: She wanted to convert the Reis Magos
Fort into a private residence at the expense of the country's national
heritage. "She has castles in Scotland and France, she doesn't need another
house!" In a later proposal, according to Cabral e Sa, Hamlyn included a
sound-and-light show, "perhaps to make it look like a public building." No,
says Miranda.
Over the phone, the journalist laments the fort controversy has ruined his
friendship with the cartoonist of almost 40 years.
"I knew him, I illustrated some of his books, but he was never a friend,"
Miranda's wry put-down should make their next meeting interesting. In Goa's
small world it will come soon enough.
Miranda moved into his ancestral house from Bombay two years ago.
Conservation is a growing passion in Goa with several projects on the anvil.
INTACH appointed Miranda to head its chapter in Goa. The native now looks
for run-down heritage buildings, scouts for money and experts and then sets
off on his toughest task -- convincing the government that restoration is
indeed good for Goa. Some times, they miss the point. Then, there is some
success, like the Museum of Christian Art. At par with international
standards, the museum opened in Old Goa in January this year.
Does he miss the 'Bombay' he knew? "Not really. Definitely not Colaba. But I
miss the jazz and the films." Big sheaves of his cartoons lie on the table.
He is clearly basking in his native Goa. Where else would he find a decent
fight? (ENDS)
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***** CHRISTMAS PARTIES 2002 *****
Dec 14 - Goan Association of New Jersey, Inc., Somerset +1 (732) 599-7644
Dec 21 - GOA-LA, Los Angeles, [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 (714) 821-6168 (late fee on tickets
after Dec 10)
Please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] to announce a party. This service is FREE!
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