TidBits - Mhapsa Fest is still on.
Mhapsa Fest has long since ended but the reverberations on account of which are still being felt. Per se, the fest was a very good idea. The controversy started when I voiced my displeasure of the fest being called the Mhapsa Fest. According to me, Mhapsa was definitely Marathi sounding since the name of this town has always been spelled as Mapusa. Miguel Braganza, who was one of the main organizers of the Fest took offence to my saying what I had said and there was a lot bile flowing on the net on account of that for a while before all became quiet and normal. I happened to see Mhapsa Fest surfacing once again through the Herald's "Reader Speak" captioned "MORE ON THE RECENT MHAPSA FEST" (Herald 4 March, 2004), by a senior citizen of ward 5 of Mapusa. Glad to note that I was not the only one to object to 'Mhapsa' the incident was forgotten once read. However, I was not surprised to see Miguel, at his best, retaliating the above through the "Reader Speak" of March 11, 2004 captioned "JUST CRITICISM? DO SOMETHING BETTER" On going through the piece, I felt a bit uneasy. There was something in this piece which seem to be not just right. Therefore, I looked up March 4 paper and went through the senior citizen's piece again. And there it was. The senior citizen had never mentioned anything about drug addicts. But Miguel had specifically castigated the senior citizen over drug addicts, Quote -Let him do his "Lenten repentance" or go searching for the drug addicts in the park with a lantern- Unquote. I generally took it as Miguel's imaginations running wild and accusing someone for things he has not said . And I promptly forgot all about the whole thing. Until yesterday, when I attended a meeting of a group of Mapsekars of which I am also a member. And since I had met Miguel once at such a meeting, I casually mentioned about the above letters I had read in Herald . To my surprise, the senior citizen who had written the letter to Herald actually was present for the meeting. And he went one step ahead and showed me the letter that he had posted to the Herald. And voila, the drug addicts did figure in his letter. I asked the senior citizen "Did you also post this letter to Miguel Braganza?". "No " he said. "Then how come he writes about the drug addicts when nothing is mentioned of it in the Herald's print version?" I asked. He just shrugged and said " Maybe Miguel got to read my letter to Herald through his good offices with the Herald's Staff" To that I said "It is highly unethical of Herald, or even of Miguel for that matter, to do that, even through friendly relations". "And it amounts to the abuse of such relations". Cheers Floriano Lobo goasuraj ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################