[Goanet] Book Review: Flake by Matthew Dooley (Scroll.in, 29/7/2020)

https://scroll.in/article/968838/making-the-horror-more-bearable-wodehouse-prize-winner-matthew-dooley-explains-why-humour-matters Although still interchangeably called “comic books”, the exploding genre of graphic novels has far outgrown its origins in cartoon strips and the funny pages of daily

[Goanet] Vaccine Dreams: The Pandemic End Game? (Dhaka Tribune, 24/7/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/07/23/op-ed-vaccine-dreams-the-pandemic-end-game Even as Covid-19 spikes dramatically in the subcontinent, there are unmistakable indications of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Earlier this week, two broad serological surveys – tests that

[Goanet] The End of Our American Dreams (Dhaka Tribune. 31/7/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/07/30/op-ed-the-end-of-our-american-dreams >From the distance of thousands of miles, it has been both breath-taking and distressing to watch the United States of America haemorrhage its prestige away, in what seems like just a few blinks of the eye.

[Goanet] Rediscovery of India: Bhopal (Conde Nast Traveller) ORIGINAL TEXT

https://www.cntraveller.in/story/time-travelling-through-the-heart-of-india-madhya-pradesh-bhopal/ Dawn blurs velvet at Bhimbhetka. The pitch admits a diamond glimmer, then softens. Here are veils of sandstone, sculpted by aeons of wind and water into loops, swirls, crevices, narrow pathways. An

[Goanet] Inventing India (but losing Hindustan), Mint Lounge 11/01/2021

https://lifestyle.livemint.com/how-to-lounge/books/how-the-invention-of-india-eroded-the-idea-of-hindustan-111610285710735.html In her new, outstanding *Voices of Dissent:An Essay* (Seagull Books, Rs. 499), the eminent historian Romila Thapar describes how the advent of colonialism meant “a

[Goanet] The Shimmering Tides (Are Nothing To Celebrate), Mint 11/1/2021

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/the-curious-case-of-the-glowing-beaches-11610294858330.html Just over a month ago in remarkable unison, several separate communities arrayed on India’s coastline alongside the Arabian Sea reported the presence of sparkling waves – the technical term is

[Goanet] Brendan Fernandes' Very Big Year (GQ, Jan 2021)

https://www.gqindia.com/entertainment/content/brendan-fernandezs-very-big-year *Mog Asundi *is an essential Konkani catchphrase, which literally means “let there be love.” While most often shared to bid farewell, it’s also an illuminating encapsulation of the profoundly peaceable and inclusive

[Goanet] The Cosmic Kite comes back down to Earth (Dhaka Tribune, 27/11/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/11/27/op-ed-the-cosmic-kite-comes-back-down-to-earth Even by the atrocious standards of this *annus horribilis*, which is already spilling over with too much loss and longing, the news that Diego Maradona died on Wednesday (in his beloved Buenos

[Goanet] The Archivists of Assagao (GQ, November 2020)

https://www.gqindia.com/live-well/content/meet-chef-anumitra-ghosh-dastidar-and-shalini-krishan-the-duo-behind-goas-edible-archives As far back as anyone can remember, the narrow road from Mapusa – the market town of North Goa – dropped down towards the Arabian Sea at Anjuna by skirting dense

[Goanet] Salazar: The Dictator Who Would Not Die (Scroll, 21/11/2020)

https://scroll.in/article/979070/remembering-salazar-the-portuguese-dictator-who-refused-to-die-or-depart-from-goa-with-dignity On November 7, several hours after all the main broadcast networks, Fox and CNN on cable, and the Associated Press had all called the 2020 Presidential Elections for Joe

[Goanet] The Indian Bird on the American Thanksgiving Table (Scroll.in, 26/11/2020)

https://scroll.in/article/979490/thanksgiving-day-how-an-indian-bird-made-its-way-to-the-american-dinner-table Of all the epic nomenclature failures in the history of “the New World” – think Columbus’s blithe dubbing of the Lucayan, Taíno, and Arawak peoples he confronted in 1492 as “Indians” –

[Goanet] The Story of Flooding in the Language of Trees (Dhaka Tribune. 4/12/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/12/04/op-ed-the-story-of-flooding-in-the-language-of-trees We all know climate change is massively disrupting weather patterns all over the world, with especially devastating effects in our South Asian countries. But a new study released earlier

[Goanet] Goa's Green Generation Next, (Mint, 4/12/2020)

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/inside-the-race-to-save-mollem/amp-11607008178992.html On 7 April and again on 15 April, even as “the world’s strictest lockdown" shuttered India behind closed doors, the National Board for Wildlife proceeded with two highly consequential meetings via

[Goanet] Naked China (Scroll.in, 3/12/2020)

https://scroll.in/article/980122/chinas-first-major-comics-anthology-strips-away-stereotypes-indians-hold-of-their-giant-neighbour Back in 1995, just six years after the Tiananmen Square massacre, in the times when the city still spilled over every day with millions of bicycle commuters, I found

[Goanet] Comic Book Quarantine (Mint Lounge, 2/12/2020)

https://lifestyle.livemint.com/relationships/raising-parents/as-the-pandemic-leaches-away-all-pleasures-at-least-we-still-have-comic-books-111606884521731.html As weeks blurred into months during this bleak pandemic year, my family’s routines became badly disrupted along with everyone else’s. On

[Goanet] The Tragic Chronicles of “Love Jihad” (Dhaka Tribune, 18/12/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/12/18/op-ed-the-tragic-chronicles-of-love-jihad As hatred for Muslims becomes increasingly entrenched in Indian state policy, the latest atrocity is making it illegal to love them. Earlier this month, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh

[Goanet] Yogesh Maitreya and Panther's Paw Publication (Mint Lounge, 12/12/2020)

https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/talking-point/a-millennial-s-big-dreams-for-dalit-and-bahujan-authors-111607694222089.html On 22 March, just before Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed the nationwide lockdown to combat covid-19, Yogesh Maitreya rushed headlong to shift and secure books and

[Goanet] The Acceleration of Globalization (Dhaka Tribune, 11/12/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/12/11/op-ed-covid-19-the-acceleration-of-globalization An unusual paradox underlies the pandemic predicament that paralyzed the world in 2020. We have been transformed into countless individual islands, with each one separately constrained by

[Goanet] #SaveMollem: Art + Green Activism (Scroll.in, 13/12/2020)

https://scroll.in/article/981021/as-goa-resists-three-environmentally-destructive-projects-artists-create-images-to-savemollem The great Konkani laureate Balakrishna Bhagwant (Bakibab) Borkar once sought to explain why his tiny homeland of Goa has produced so many consequential artists. They

[Goanet] This is the Way (or why The Mandalorian made me cry) - Scroll.in, 20/12/2020

https://scroll.in/article/981784/true-life-confessions-why-the-season-finale-of-the-mandalorian-web-series-made-me-cry On December 4, immediately after Chapter 14 of the deeply satisfying Star Wars-themed *The Mandalorian* was released online, my three sons and I settled in to watch the new

[Goanet] Indian Democracy on Trial (Dhaka Tribune, 20/11/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/11/20/op-ed-indian-democracy-on-trial Whatever else can be said about the shambolic disaster that is Donald Trump’s stubbornly delusional refusal to acknowledge the loss of this month’s US presidential election, there’s no doubt American courts are

[Goanet] What will President Joe Biden mean for South Asia? (Dhaka Tribune, 29/10/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/10/29/op-ed-what-will-president-joe-biden-mean-for-south-asia Polls have been wrong before, but it’s looking increasingly certain that Donald Trump and his Republicans will decisively lose next week’s election. Early next year, Joe Biden and Kamala

[Goanet] REVIEW: How To Argue With A Racist (Scroll.in, 21/10/2020)

https://scroll.in/article/976334/to-argue-with-racists-a-british-geneticist-wants-to-help-readers-understand-science “This book is a weapon” is the first sentence of Dr. Adam Rutherford’s pacy, power-packed *How To Argue With A Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality*. Speaking directly to his

[Goanet] Kamala Harris and the Indian American breakthrough (Scroll.in, 5/11/2020)

https://scroll.in/global/977691/how-indian-americans-moved-from-the-fringes-to-the-us-political-mainstream On August 15, 1981, the very first India Day parade in US history rolled down Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Just a few simple floats trundled only 20 blocks before everyone dissipated back

[Goanet] A Very Bengali Christmas (Dhaka Tribune, 25/12/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2020/12/25/op-ed-a-very-bengali-christmas “This festival stands for love,” said Mamata Banerjee earlier this week. Speaking at the Christmas Carnival on Kolkata’s iconic Park Street – now Mother Teresa Sarani – the West Bengal chief minister added, “this

[Goanet] Jingle Bells in Nagaland (Scroll.in, 25/12/2020)

https://scroll.in/article/982250/listening-to-christmas-in-the-songs-and-stories-of-nagaland *Someone may tell us that Nagas are Christians following a foreign religion. The Indians publicly say this. We do not take Christianity as foreign religion any more than we consider the light of the sun

[Goanet] Black Spartacus Rides Again (Hindustan Times, 4/1/2020

https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-black-spartacus-by-sudhir-hazareesingh/story-Ol3CDuJpiDCOkgIqGbqgQJ.html Einstein famously said about Gandhi that “generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked the earth.” That assessment rings equally

[Goanet] Pssst. Does anyone out here want a quick Covid jab? (Mint, 15/1/2021

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/pssst-does-anyone-out-here-want-a-quick-covid-jab-11610639473567.html One glorious day in my Colaba childhood, I watched my grandfather score an extraordinary bonanza from below the counter of our favourite grocery store. The wordlessly intense transaction

[Goanet] The Implications of American Carnage (Dhaka Tribune, 15/1/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/01/15/op-ed-the-implications-of-the-american-carnage With apologies to the great T.S. Eliot, *this* is how the world ends, not with a bang but a simper. All through the past few days, the world has watched in unbounded horror as American politics –

[Goanet] Captain Fantastic: The legend that is Sunil Chhetri (GQ India, February 2021)

https://www.gqindia.com/entertainment/content/why-sunil-chhetri-the-vanguard-of-indian-football-is-our-favourite Fifteen years and 72 international goals ago, Sunil Chhetri was repeatedly kicked, and found himself limping badly in front of 20,000 howling Pakistanis at Ayub National Stadium in

[Goanet] Decoding India’s Farmer Protests (Dhaka Tribune, 29/1/2020)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/01/29/op-ed-decoding-india-s-farmer-protests Beyond the alternately vituperative and vacuous media talking heads and their unending propaganda blitz, this week’s Republic Day flashpoint in New Delhi casts an unblinking spotlight on the nature of

[Goanet] Judgement Day - Aminder Dhaliwal

https://scroll.in/article/997364/how-aminder-dhaliwal-leaped-from-instagram-to-become-a-superstar-in-the-world-of-graphic-novels >From the heart of the scattered subcontinental diaspora, an uncannily prescient and funny UK-born Punjabi Sikh Canadian-Californian animator has burst from Instagram

[Goanet] Fudging the Covid-19 Numbers (Dhaka Tribune, 18/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/18/op-ed-fudging-the-numbers Earlier this week on June 15, the academic and author Chinmay Tumbe posted some alarming findings on Twitter. He wrote: “We now have decent estimates of excess mortality for [the] first five months of 2021 for 4 large

[Goanet] Book Review: Girish Karnad and mid-century Dharwad

https://scroll.in/article/998110/revisiting-mid-century-dharwad-in-girish-karnads-autobiography-interrogating-the-tug-of-nostalgia In her delightfully bibliophilic 2018 memoir *Listen to Me*, the novelist Shashi Deshpande describes her family’s dispersal from the small college town where she had

[Goanet] Tracking the Delta Variant (Dhaka Tribune, 25/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/25/op-ed-tracking-the-delta-variant Earlier this week on June 23, the American epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding tweeted “Right on cue…#DeltaVariant has arrived in the low #Vaccination states of America and setting off sharp increases in

[Goanet] The Legend of Sunil Chhetri (Dhaka Tribune, 11/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/11/op-ed-the-legend-of-sunil-chhetri “There’s no comparison between me and Lionel Messi,” said Sunil Chhetri for the umpteenth time, after scoring both sensational goals that defeated Bangladesh in the joint qualifying match for the 2022 World

[Goanet] The Center Cannot Hold: India’s State Elections (Dhaka Tribune, 7/5/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/05/07/op-ed-the-centre-cannot-hold-india-s-state-elections In the throes of the most apocalyptic Covid-19 surge any part of the world has suffered, three crucial Indian states have rejected the BJP political juggernaut. Those losses, as well as the

[Goanet] Pandemic Goa: Who Belongs? Who is to Blame? (The Hindu, 15/5/2021)

www.thehindu.com/society/who-belongs-to-goa-this-question-resurfaces-as-the-state-battles-the-raging-pandemic/article34554870.ece On May 1, India’s smallest State crested a milestone: a record 54 people died from COVID-19. Social media erupted with anger about how the number of casualties in Goa

[Goanet] India’s Judiciary into the Breach? (Dhaka Tribune, 16/5/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/2021/05/15/op-ed-india-s-judiciary-into-the-breach In an unprecedented flurry of rulings, statements and interventions, India’s courts have waded directly into the country’s ongoing Covid-19 crisis. In several different states, as well as the Supreme Court,

[Goanet] Judgement Day - Comixense and the Indian comics scene (Scroll.in, 13/5/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/994781/with-comixense-a-new-magazine-aims-to-introduce-young-indians-to-the-magic-of-graphic-storytelling The winding journey of Indian comics has taken another leap towards respectability with *Comixense*, the brand-new quarterly magazine produced by Orjit Sen,

[Goanet] Farewell, Maestro (Times of India, 21/5/2021)

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/goa/a-tribute-to-maestro-santiago-lusardi-girelli/articleshow/82820341.cms >From the moment Santiago Lusardi Girelli made his first appearance in Goa in 2013, it was clear the Spanish-Argentinean dynamo was someone extraordinary. I vividly

[Goanet] Another Lesson fromTeacher Shailaja (Dhaka Tribune, 21/5/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/05/21/op-ed-another-lesson-from-teacher-shailaja In the same week that India set another horrific Covid-19 world record with 4529 deaths in 24 hours – experts say the unofficial total is much higher – the country also lost the architect of its most

[Goanet] Easterine Kire’s Clear Bright Sound over a Sleeping World (Scroll.in, 20/05/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/995300/naga-writer-easterine-kires-clear-bright-sound-over-a-sleeping-world The protagonist of *The Man Who Lost His Spirit*, one of ten hauntingly brief stories in Easterine Kire’s spare, exquisite new collection *The Rain-Maiden and the Bear-Man* (Seagull Books, Rs.

[Goanet] Open Letter to Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan from The People of Goa (O Heraldo, 1/6/2021)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Open-Letter-to-PT-Rajan/175575 Dear Dr. Thiaga Rajan, Please accept our sincere gratitude for your forthright and highly principled “Statement to the People of Goa” dated May 30th. In their entirety, your comments truly evoke the spirit of the great Thanthai

[Goanet] Hockney, Antilla, Central Vista: Hijacking the Public Space (The Hindu, 29/5/2021)

https://www.thehindu.com/society/the-central-vista-project-exemplifies-the-anti-democratic-vision-colonising-indias-public-spaces/article34674703.ece There’s a sucker born every minute, and the latest is the Mayor of London. On May 11, Sadiq Khan heralded “the first of a series of major art

[Goanet] Searching for Aparanta (on Goa' Statehood Day) -- Times of India, 30/5/2021

h ttps://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/goa/goa-statehood-day-special-searching-for-aparanta/articleshow/83081390.cms?from=mdr You

[Goanet] From Madurai to Dabolim: a Tamil Nadu minister wins fans in Goa (Mint, 3/6/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/online-views/how-tamil-nadu-s-finance-minister-got-his-fans-in-goa-11622650732791.html Less than a month after Palanivel Thiagarajan became M.K.Stalin’s finance minister in the new Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu, the legislator from Madurai has

[Goanet] Book Review -- Encyclopaedia of the Visual Arts of Maharashtra (Scroll, 5/6/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/996729/in-an-encyclopedia-of-maharashtras-visual-arts-vivid-portraits-that-brush-across-linguistic-lines In our smartphone-saturated times, with every scrap of information you might want to know seemingly already at your fingertips, what good reasons could possibly exist

[Goanet] Book Review -- Desi Delicacies: Food Writing from Muslim South Asia (Hindustan Times, 5/6/2021)

https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-desi-delicacies-food-writing-from-muslim-south-asia-edited-by-claire-chambers-101622807669991.html On April 12, after a culinarily-themed episode of *Browned Off*, her fabulously arch podcast in conversation with publisher Faiza Khan, the UK-based

[Goanet] The Great Collapse of the Indian Economy (Dhaka Tribune, 4/6/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/06/04/op-ed-the-great-indian-collapse On May 31st, India’s National Statistical Office released its finding that the country’s GDP contracted by 7.3% over the past year, signifying the first reversal since 1979, and the greatest retrenchment since

Re: [Goanet] Further Chapters for Jewish India? (Scroll, 7/7/2021)

Thank you for the kind feedback + interesting comments, Mervyn. One day I'm going to go check out these Shirazi... On Wed, 7 Jul 2021, 22:20 Mervyn Lobo, wrote: > On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, 02:53:45 a.m. CDT, V M > wrote: > > > https://scroll.in/article/999497/reading-the-

[Goanet] Tracing the Contours of Indian Apartheid (Dhaka Tribune, 2/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/02/op-ed-tracing-the-contours-of-indian-apartheid Earlier this week, results of the largest-ever survey of religious attitudes across India delivered an unsettling portrait of sectarian anxieties. Pew Research Centre interviewed nearly 30,000

[Goanet] A Tale of Two Deaths (Dhaka Tribune, 9/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/09/op-ed-a-tale-of-two-deaths In the span of just 48 hours this week, two famous old men passed away very close to each other in the Mumbai locality of Bandra. Their lifestyles were wildly divergent, but the life stories of Dilip Kumar and Stan

[Goanet] Further Chapters for Jewish India? (Scroll, 7/7/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/999497/reading-the-complex-reality-of-indias-jewish-communities-tiny-but-still-expanding In her aching, confessional *Book of Esther*, the author Esther David (her original family name was Dandekar) describes attempting to “make aliyah” via the Law of Return, which gives

[Goanet] The Dystopian Dichotomies of Vaccine Apartheid (Dhaka Tribune, 30/4/2021)

All this past week, the news was dominated by societies that seem to be living on separate planets. In the USA, the CDC issued new guidelines allowing 100 million citizens (the roughly 30% of the population that is fully vaccinated against Covid-19) to go without masks in various settings.

[Goanet] Shooting the Messenger (Dhaka Tribune, 5/2/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/02/05/op-ed-shooting-the-messenger The combined weight of India’s official soft power, writ and influence was brought to bear against an unlikely target this week, when the mass of government, Bollywood, cricketer and sundry celebrity Twitter

[Goanet] No Evidence? No Problem! (Dhaka Tribune, 12/02/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/02/11/op-ed-no-evidence-no-problem An explosive investigative report in the Washington Post earlier this week has revealed that all of the main charges in the Indian government’s high-profile Bhima Koregaon case – which alleges that a group of

[Goanet] Book Discussion TODAY - Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down, and How They Cope

Dear Friends, No book on contemporary India rivals the award-winning journalist M. Rajshekhar's brilliant new 'Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down, and How They Cope' for its coolly analytical vivisection of the body politic, and its sclerotic systems. Please join me and the author

[Goanet] India in the Inferno (Dhaka Tribune, 23/4/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/04/23/op-ed-india-in-the-inferno Every day that passes, another horrific set of new lows are being plumbed in India, as the country continues to be blasted by the worst and most devastating Covid-19 surge that any country has experienced throughout

[Goanet] Falling Hu(man)ity

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/20/op-ed-falling-hu-man-ity Captured twenty years apart, two viscerally shocking images [SEE ATTACHMENT] from New York City and Kabul come together to tell one of the dominant stories of our interlinked and increasingly calamitous 21st century.

[Goanet] Here Comes the Third Wave (Dhaka Tribune, 13/8/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/13/op-ed-here-comes-the-third-wave Red flags are popping up all over India to indicate that Covid-19 is about to roar back to wreak its devastation all over again. Epidemiologists refer to the average number of people who get infected from each

[Goanet] The Great Indian Fire Sale (Dhaka Tribune, 27/8/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/27/op-ed-the-great-indian-fire-sale It is a gala week for Indian kleptocrats, after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an extraordinary 80 billion dollar privatization programme encompassing 13 different sectors of the economy,

[Goanet] Life and Death in the 9/11 Century (Dhaka Tribune, 10/9/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/09/10/op-ed-life-and-death-in-the-9-11-century Precisely two decades ago outside my home on the Hudson River waterfront, I watched the World Trade Centre towers crumble into a mountain of ashes. Our shocked knot of neighbours called out in

[Goanet] Rethinking Panjim's Cultural Capital (Times of India, 19/9/2021)

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/events/goa/its-time-to-rethink-panajis-cultural-capital/articleshow/86110577.cms An excellent decision from an unexpected source has cast another highlight on Panjim’s superb heritage infrastructure, where the success of both private and non-state

[Goanet] Commander Solo: Abhilash Tomy (GQ, September 2021)

Call him Abhilash. Like the narrator in Moby Dick, the “watery part of the world” is his obsession. In that classic 19th century novel, Captain Ahab compulsively pursues “the great white whale”, but our hero’s fixation is the Golden Globe Race to circumnavigate the world solo. Consider these

[Goanet] Álvaro Pereira belongs to the Ages (O Heraldo, 29/7/2021)

https://www.heraldgoa.in/Cafe/Álvaro-Pereira-belongs-to-the-Ages/178022 History turns and twists in unpredictable ways, but Álvaro Pereira never failed to stand up for what was right when it counted the most. The gentlemanly anti-colonial Freedom Fighter, who passed away yesterday at his home in

[Goanet] The True Face of India at its Best (Dhaka Tribune, 6/8/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/08/06/op-ed-the-true-face-of-india-at-its-best Every four years in predictable rotation, the Olympic Games become another pearl-clutching moment for India’s chattering classes. As every day passes, the nation of 1.3 billion continues to fall far

[Goanet] Pastéis de Nata de Goa (Scroll, 12/8/2021)

https://scroll.in/article/1002638/in-goas-delectable-pasteis-de-nata-trend-a-state-serves-up-a-taste-of-its-cosmopolitan-history Earlier this year, as Goa lurched its way in and out of the most slipshod Covid-19 lockdowns imaginable, where everything was open while the authorities pretended not

[Goanet] Bad Blood on India’s North East Borderlands? (Dhaka Tribune, 30/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/30/op-ed-bad-blood-on-the-borderlands Violent border disputes flare from national antagonism, but what happened between Assam and Mizoram earlier this week is beyond bizarre. On July 26, 200 armed police from Assam raided checkpoints that

[Goanet] Déjà vu in Goa's Open Season for Tourism (Mint, 24/09/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/theres-d-j-vu-in-goa-over-an-open-season-for-tourism-11632414743365.html A distinct pall of dread gripped Goa this week, after the state government abruptly threw open the casinos, spas and massage parlours that had remained closed since April. Chief

[Goanet] Tracing Pandora’s Finger of Scorn (Dhaka Tribune, 8/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/08/op-ed-tracing-pandora-s-finger-of-scorn More than 2000 years ago, the first authorial poet of the western world, Hesiod wrote about the even more ancient myth of Pandora. Driven by curiosity, this first-ever woman, the mother of all humanity,

[Goanet] The Eternal Sunset of Vamona Navelcar (O Heraldo, 19/10.2021)

“O meu passado é tudo quanto não consegui ser,” said Vamona Navelcar to me at our first meeting almost two decades ago, and then, with his characteristically mischievous smile, the great artist translated the line from Fernando Pessoa’s *Book of Disquiet* for my benefit: “my past is everything

[Goanet] Expanding the Fault Lines of Indian Apartheid (Dhaka Tribune, 15/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/15/op-ed-expanding-the-fault-lines-of-indian-apartheid “This isn’t apartheid?” On Oct 12, journalist Kashif Kakvi posted that question on Twitter alongside a short, sordid video from Madhya Pradesh where, he said “Indore Police booked 4 Muslims

[Goanet] Lusitanian in Hind by Aravind Adiga (2013)

Note: today is Francisco Luis Gomes's birth anniversary --> The Lusitanian In Hind Francisco Luis Gomes, Goan polymath, was one of our earliest patriots. He can’t lie forgotten. “I was born in India, cradle of poetry, philosophy and history, today its tomb,” wrote the young Indian. “I belong to

[Goanet] Stress Test for Indian Democracy (Dhaka Tribune, 01/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/01/op-ed-a-stress-test-for-indian-democracy An unexpected surge of non-stop intraparty hubbub is throwing up novel configurations that have considerable implications for India’s overall political scenario. The most public intrigues have been

[Goanet] Standing Together: Viva Bangladesh! (Dhaka Tribune, 17/12/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/12/17/standing-together-viva-bangladesh >From my perspective, living in India’s smallest state, even in this season of big anniversaries – 75 years since 1947, and 60 years after the end of Portuguese rule in Goa – the occasion of 50 years of

[Goanet] Goa at 60: Still "The Unique" (Outlook, 19/12/2021)

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-still-the-unique-goa-at-60/405790 Just two years after the swift decapitation and annexation of the 451-year-old Estado da India by Jawaharlal Nehru’s troops in 1961, the novelist and writer Graham Greene visited the former Portuguese colony.

[Goanet] Timeless Tables: Martin's Corner (Conde Nast Traveller, 27/12/2021)

https://www.cntraveller.in/story/timeless-tables-why-goas-martins-corner-is-still-a-crowd-favourite/ As recently as three decades ago, the little seaside hamlet of Betalbatim was still the postcard-perfect image of an archetypical Goan idyll. It dozed peacefully most days, with only fishermen

[Goanet] Christmas in Goa encompasses the world (Mint Lounge,

https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/christmas-in-goa-encompasses-the-world-with-great-felicity-111640270064982.html Nothing much has changed in Goa since the French adventurer François Pyrard de Laval spent the holiday season here over 400 years ago. “All the streets are then hung with

[Goanet] Toxic Air knows no Boundaries (Dhaka Tribune, 12/11/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/11/12/op-ed-toxic-air-knows-no-boundaries Precisely one week ago, China’s capital city went into high alert about its dangerously deteriorating air quality. The municipal government in Beijing immediately clamped down on unnecessary traffic, shut

[Goanet] The Suffrage of Goa (Mint, 11/11/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/inside-the-intriguing-quest-for-goa-11636560398078.html An incredible carnival is playing out in Panjim, the tiny riverside capital of Goa. Every morning the main thoroughfares are festooned anew with banners, placards and flags to herald the arrival of some

[Goanet] An Escalation in India’s Culture War (Dhaka Tribune, 5/11/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/11/05/op-ed-an-escalation-in-india-s-culture-war Last Sunday, just before India played New Zealand in the T20 Cricket World Cup, the journalist and strident right-wing troll Abhijit Iyer-Mitra tweeted: “Here’s to wishing the @BCCI - for profit -

[Goanet] Khela Hobe in Goa? (Dhaka Tribune, 29/10/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/10/29/op-ed-khela-hobe-in-goa Big intrigue in India’s smallest state, as Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress surges noisily into Goa’s political landscape in anticipation of legislative elections to be held early next year. This weekend,

[Goanet] The Unicorn Indian CEO (Dhaka Tribune, 3/12/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/12/03/the-unicorn-indian-ceo Non-stop hoopla rages in the Indian media after Jack Dorsey, the enigmatic founder-CEO of Twitter, announced on November 29 that he was stepping down on that same day, and his replacement would be 37-year-old Parag

[Goanet] Damodar Mauzo's Clear Stream of Reason (Times of India, 12/12/2021)

(note: no link available, but the clipping is attached below) Non-stop jubilation continues to enliven India’s literary landscape, after the December 7 thunderbolt of good news that Damodar “Bhai” Mauzo was named the 57th Jnanpith Award winner. Previous winners of the country’s most prestigious

[Goanet] High Anxiety in India's Smallest State (Mint, 9/12/2021)

https://www.livemint.com/economy/why-anxiety-is-high-in-india-s-smallest-state-11638978871499.html There was considerable trepidation when registrations opened for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival of India on 20-28th November. The previous edition, planned for the same time

[Goanet] Rohan & Kumar Go to the Big Leagues (Scroll, 23/7/2021)

https://scroll.in/global/1000840/rohan-and-kumar-go-to-the-baseball-big-leagues I will never forget the chills that jolted my spine when I first chanced upon the great sportswriter George Plimpton’s explosive *Sports Illustrated* story headlined *The Curious Case of Sidd Finch*. It was way back

[Goanet] Who'll Stop The Rain (Dhaka Tribune, 16/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/16/op-ed-who-ll-stop-the-rain It has rained non-stop all this week in my home town of Panjim, the pocket-sized capital city of India’s smallest state. Right outside where I live beside the estuary where the Mandovi river meets the Arabian Sea at

[Goanet] McCarthyism and India’s Moment of Truth (Dhaka Tribune, 24/7/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2021/07/24/op-ed-mccarthyism-and-india-s-moment-of-truth Sometimes, all it takes to change the course of history is a single act of conscience. That’s what happened on June 9, 1954 in the USA, during yet another inquisitorial public hearing in Joseph

[Goanet] Jerry Pinto on Damodar 'Bhai' Mauzo (plus interview)

https://scroll.in/article/1014594/i-had-no-konkani-books-to-read-it-was-the-language-in-which-one-laughed-damodar-mauzo

[Goanet] Exeunt Gerson da Cunha (1929 – 2022)

http://epaper.heraldgoa.in/articlepage.php?articleid=OHERALDO_GOA_20220109_14_1=548px=oHeraldo=14 With his abrupt January 7 exit, Gerson da Cunha has brought down the final curtain on the cultural heyday of Bombay in its most exciting period of relevance. He was also one of the last living links

[Goanet] The Third Wave is a Tsunami (Dhaka Tribune, 7/1/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/01/06/the-third-wave-is-a-tsunami On January 5, India’s smallest state – where I live – registered over 1000 new Covid-19 infections for the first time in almost six months. For some perspective on what that figure means for Goa’s tiny population of under

[Goanet] By the Skin of its Teeth: How the BJP won Goa (News18, 12/2/2022)

https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/by-the-skin-of-its-teeth-how-the-bjp-won-goa-4867097.html In an interview with Rajdeep Sardesai just a couple of weeks before India’s smallest state went to the polls, regional news channel Prudent Media’s editor Pramod Acharya characterised his election

[Goanet] India Elections 2022: The Majoritarian Welfare Juggernaut

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/03/12/indian-elections-2022-the-majoritarian-welfare-juggernaut After this week’s stunning victories in four of five very different Indian states -- from gargantuan Uttar Pradesh to thimble-sized Goa -- the Bharatiya Janata Party under Prime Minister

[Goanet] Whose Hijab is it Anyway? (Dhaka Tribune, 25/2/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/foreign-affairs/2022/02/24/dhaka-seeks-delhis-cooperation-to-resolve-outstanding-issues We are well into the third decade of the 21st century, but much of India is still stuck looking backwards in yet another medievalist orgy of navel-gazing about women’s clothing

[Goanet] War and Peace and Vladimir Putin (Dhaka Tribune, 4/3/2022)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/03/04/war-and-peace “Kings are the slaves of history,” wrote Leo Tolstoy in *War and Peace*, his 1869 literary masterpiece that recalls the French invasion of Russia, and its socio-cultural aftermath as Napoleonic ideas penetrated Tsarist society.

[Goanet] How Can We Sleep When Our Beds Are Burning? (Dhaka Tribune, 1/4/2022)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/04/01/how-can-we-sleep-while-our-beds-are-burning A few days ago, the activist British journalist George Monbiot posted with palpable anguish on Twitter that it was “30°C above normal in the Arctic today [and] 40°C above normal in the Antarctic today. It

[Goanet] The Bread Wars of 2022? (Dhaka Tribune, 25/3/2022)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/03/25/the-bread-wars-of-2022 4000 kilometres south from the legendarily rich agricultural plains that spill between Russia and Ukraine, ancient neighbourhoods in Cairo are unexpectedly resonating with anxiety about pita bread. Egypt’s staple food for

[Goanet] Silence in Nagaland (Dhaka Tribune, 4/2/2021)

https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/02/03/silence-in-nagaland So many things have changed in our world, as we continue to hurtle into the unprecedented. But that is much less the case just over 500 kilometres across the Bangladesh border in India’s spectacularly beautiful state of Nagaland,

[Goanet] Parrikar's Legacy: The Trashing of Panjim (Outlook, 4/2/2021)

https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/india-news-how-goa-trashed-the-legacy-of-former-cm-manohar-parrikar/305391 On December 18, regular evening walkers on Miramar beach along the Arabian Sea waterfront of Goa’s tiny capital city of Panjim were shocked to stumble upon an entirely unexpected

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