WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF OUR TIATROS?

_{There is a deep concern among the Tiatrologists and in the Tiatro cirlce that Tiatro will suffer a deep scar due to the heavy damage it suffered in its promotion due to the Tiatro and Tiatrists undergoing these days the terrible effects of Lockdown because of Corona Virus.  Very many of our Tatrists are living like a daily wagers, “work today and get your remuneration to day and spend it to feed  you”.  Since this is the case, these Tiatrists will undergo lot of difficulties in the life of their survival.  This is one aspect of their life affecting their sustenance.}

_{The second aspect will be the diminishing quality of their Tiatros because by being out of this profession for another approximately one year because Corona Virus effect will not die down fully, people in Goa will have to maintain to keep the distance between every two persons which will not be convenient for the audience in the Tiatro Hall. Since it will take a long time for the complete eradication of Coronato Virus, the audience will be afraid to attend to the Tiatros for the fear of acquiring the invissible particles of Corona Virus. If  you observe the whole scenario of this subject, everybody involved in this Tiatros business will be in a dilemma.  Hence, Tiatro will suffer a big set-back and as such it will go back atleast to 50 to 75 years.  And who will raise its standard again to the level of the 23rd March 2020?}

_{This is not going to be the first such incident where Tiatro  suffered a set- back. Earlier,   25 – 30 years after the first Tiatro was staged in Bombay, Tiatro suffered a heavy set back because decent people stopped patronizing Tiatros because of its very low quality displayed in the form of vulgarity and “Zupattis”.  Suddenly, from nowhere the then young genius the late Minguel Rod appeared on the Konkani Stage and thru his very high intellectual Tiatros beautified with excellent cantos and beautiful songs the revival of Tiatro was brought.  The audience from the elite and educated class of Goans including the Portuguese educated “Bhattkar” and high caste Cristian and Hindu “Bamonn” started patronizing our Tiatros. Those few who are still alive and who have seen the Tiatros of Minguel Rod namely “Bapul Bhau, Ghorchem Kestaum, Ghorib Sezari, Goenkar Munddkar Beltod, Lemddo Santan, Open to Close etc." I am sure they will give the testimony of the genuineness of what I wrote here. In order to have a Minguel Rodan type of revolution in our Tiatros we must pray to God to send in our midst a Messiah type of Tiatrist to stage absolutely high standard Tiatros to which the audience will automatically get magnetized and who will not be afraid of any Virus.}

_{Now, the ball is in the court of Tiatrists to revive the interest of Tiatros into the minds of our audience.  Initially in the beginning audience will be afraid, to remove this fear of their minds and hearts, the Tiatrists mainly the top few “Lokhpriya” Playwrights and directors must have a round table type of conference among them and select thru consensus one  genuine director who is the most sought after director by the audiene and put the ball into his court to stage his first Tiatro after the Lockdown and thru this experiment everyone will come to know what is the actual status of  the revival of our Tiatros.  Any L:adru-Pedru type of director will not move the mountain -  audience – to watch the  first Tiatro, only the top celebrity type of director will be able to wake up the dormant audience. One whole round should be allocated to this director to stage his Tiatro all over Goa. Then the second best known director should be pushed to stage his Tiatro in a similar manner and then the third director and so on.  Let every director be allotted one month to complete staging his tiatro. In 4-6 month time you will do the assessment of the interest in audience and also of Corona Virus.  Once you feel everything is settled down in the right direction and the situation is returned to the previous normalcy, then let every director and every Tiatrist use own decision to play his role.}

SEAFARERS' WOES & GOVERMENT'S LETHARGY.

Thank God finally thru His mercy alone our Seafarers stranded in the  seas disembarked in Bombay and  after the necessary period  required in       quarentine, they will be back soon in the arms of their loved ones and dearest and also with the nearest. Other than God, nobody should be given the credit for their safely disembarkation in Bombay, not even the CM Sawant nor his BJP and neither the Central  government should take cheap credit for the success of Seafarers operation.  If the BJP at Center and in Goa and Sawant ministry in Goa had genuine feelings and clear intention to help these Seafarers then they would all join together and put in their combined efforts to bring them back to Goa in the beginning itself but no, they wanted to ignore their issue may  be because they are almost all Christians because Christians looked neglected by the governing governments. However, if this issue took a serious turn then it was only because of  the nearest and dearest of Seafarers who made a big noise even by undertaking a hunger strike thereby shaking the credibility of the Sawant Government and backed by the total support of the Goans to fight for the cause of Seafarers instead of receiving the time consuming promises by Sawant.  Seafarers association too played a good  role in support of Seafarers demand.

Nobody among Seafarers not even their relatives should adore BJP and Sawant ministry and as a mark of gratitude they should not vote  for the BJP but instead they should oppose the BJP for not rendering  timely assistance to  them.  What BJP has done for these Seafarers was nothing but their duty and to do this type of duty they were elected by the people.  However, BJP in keeping in tune with their rubbish discipline, robbed the Goans of their right to have the Congress government formed its ministry and instead inspite of being in minority seat tally in the last election formed their own government by committing a “Chori” on Congress. If BJP was a good party then they would never initiate the defection and allow the defected MLA’s into their side by form their government.

In my locality recently the main road was repaired, hot-mix tarred and it looks better now.  But we should not think that the MLA concerned should be adored for doing this job,  there is no favour in doing this job, it is only his duty the concerned MLA has done and nothing else. He is elected to be the  MLA  to do his duties which are nothing but his obligations and there is no favour in it.

BJP is claiming to be the service to the public oriented party and it is the only party in India that is having the mass base where the rulers of the government identifies themselves with the commoners.  My foot, you “fotting” traitors of BJP.  You are liars and crook because of this you don’t identify yourselves practically with the commoners.  The  difference between your living standard and that of the masses and commoners was too high and it cannot be  like narrowed down because the top brass of BJP and any other party will not be comfortable to surrender even an inch in favour of the commoners.  

The  way the Ministers living in Goa for example at Altinho Panjim Government Bungalows it looks to me that one more class of people are developed In our midst that is the class of super Goans belonging to the ministerial category.  They are so powerful that they can at any moment turn into Salazar.  Because of the unimaginable facilities they are getting by being the ministers they turn out to be proud and arrogant.  Can anyone living this standard if he wants to prove his simplicity of the  common man that he was born and brought up, surrender his luxuries and live a common man’s life?  Cant he live in his own house instead of living in Altinho and instead spend the tax payers money for any good cause?  The standard of their living now is that of British Monarchy.  Inspite of driving away the British we are still ADORING their living standard that means we must be real traitors. Such traitors will never think good of the common people and common people will never come up as they will remain there only to vote the traitors.

A.Veronica Fernandes.   

SUPPORT FINANCIALLY TIATRISTS FOR THEIR LOSSES.

In Goa Tiatro is one of the industries catering to the needs of huge number of people as evidenced from the enormous  number of audience  attending to almost every Show of Tiatro almost in every major hall in every major locality namely Panjim, Margao, Vasco, Mapusa etc.  Besides the Tiatros are regularly staged in the villages also mainly in aid of some local good causes where the local Church leaders are doing wonderful job in letting their Church Halls to organize these Tiatros. 

This industry of Tiatro is manned by a large number of artistes, organisers, backstage helpers, stage setters, musicians and many others numbering to thousands of Goans coming not only from the Christian community but also from Hindu and Muslim communities as well though the number of Christian community is larger not only on the Stage but also in hall as attendees. As a matter of interest  though Hindus comprised a minuscule number yet since its inception on 17.04.1892 the few members of this community as artistes played a wonderful role in the promotion of our Tiatros.  Who can ever forget the superlative contribution in it of Kamat de Assolna, Shalini Maddolcar and that of Alexinho de Candolim being the first director to induct them namely Roglo, Kanta Divkar and Kamal besides the current shining stars Pradeep and Tari?

Now because of the severe jolt received due to Corona Virus, government is giving financial doles to people involved in fragile industries. Tiatro as an industry is also affected and as such government must also consider their case sympathetically. Some of the Tiatrists are directly dependent on Tiatros only and their financial condition must have suffered a big shock. What about their families and dependents?  The ministers and MLA's especailly from the BJP must impress upon the CM to consider the case of Tiatrists sympathetically.

A.Veronica Fernandes,

SUDEEP DALVI.

Sudeep Dalvi the Old Goa resident and citizen of Goa is very  intelligent and straight forward young man who was arrested about 15 days back for his writings in the social media.  On the day of his arrest some people called me giving this terrible news though this news was terrible to me but for Dalvi it is nothing it was like joke for him.  This young man had undergone screening from the Police innumerable times because of his powerful activities as a POWERFUL AND DYNAMIC ACTIVIST and the right hand man of the late Fr. Bismarque.  Since during that time Lockdown was just introduced I found it difficult to move out and thru my personal contacts  I tried to see something could be done to get him released.  Then the next day early in the morning the local daily Herald brought this news item giving some information of his arrest and where he is kept under lockup and also the remand of 2 days.  My fear was that the Police might maltreat him during his custody under them. I was desperately trying to find out because of my only one fear that he may be ill treated.

After frantic search for him because he had no mobile as his was taken by the Police suddenly he called me and briefed me what has happened and he told me in their custody the Goa Police treated him with all the decency reserved for the decent man like himself. Then he said why they will ill-treat him, he has done no wrong no harm for others, he was a political fighter like Goan patriot Dr. Telo Mascharenhas who was arrested by the Salazarist Police in Goa and deported to Portugal to undergo long term prison. But in Goa there are no more Salazarist police, all are Goanist who are very much democratic who knew he was not guilty of any crime that merit him indecent treatment, they had to obey the political instruction and arrest him though they knew they are wrong in arresting him. Even the soldiers who nailed Jesus Christ on the Cross had sympathy for Christ but they could not refuse from obeying the instruction of their superiors. Goa police also faced same type of situation. He praised them for providing him Goan decent treatment purely in Goan style.

Now he is taking care at his home of one Kashmiri young man who was put on the road by his hotelier boss after closing down his hotel where he was working, he was just a “Vatxur” on the road walking alone desparate for food, then he brought him to his place and will send him to Kashmir in the earliest flight when things are ok.

I will meet him personally once Corona Virus Lockdown is lifted.  He is well and there is no need to worry of him. He is the same Sudeep Dalvi.

A.Veronica Fernandes.

I would rather rely on Judas knowing his kiss will betray me but never on a Policeman even though I may be wrong in deducing this conclusion.  This image of Policeman I got during the Portuguese regime who engaged our Goan Policemen to do all the dirty work the greatest being the  work of a Pimp for their Portuguese Pakle Bosses.  During that time a decent Goan coming from the decent Goan family background was never joining for a job in the Police Depatment as a Policeman.  Wearing the Police Uniform that time means lowering your dignity and self respect, the Portuguese Pakles never used to treat you Goan as dignifoied people, they were treating Gans very badly, in the Police Department Canteen the class and quality of the food served to the Portuguese Pakles was never served to the “Goesas”, the system existiung then was of social barriers and discriminatory. Those Portuguese Pakles even used to beat the Goan Policemen in front of others because those Portuguese Pakles coming to serve Goa in the Police Department were the number one Bastards who knew their mothers only well and not the fathers, like Agente Monteiro and so many like him.  These bloody Agente Monteiros use to turn our Goan Policemen whose jobs mainly of Drivers carrying their Pakle Bosses into another Agente Monteiros and as a matter fact the personal driver Agente Monteiro was one Goan Policeman from Ribandar who learnt from Agente Monteiro nothing good but cruelties.  In front of him Agente Monteiro used to kill innocent Goans in a fake encounter to get good Name in front of Portuguese Government of Goa. These Portuguese Pakle Policemen were responsible for converting very nice man, a nice Policeman “SUKDDO” into a most hated Goan Policeman, when he joined the service, SUKDO was a very nice boy but soon under the Portugueswe rascal Policemen SUKDDO was turned into the BASTARD NO ONE performing worst type of cruelties against the innocent and common Goans.  If any Paklo was acting bad Sukddo was acting worse as if he was the son-in-law of Portugal.

                             During the Portuguese time I noticed one thing that biggest Chamchas and biggest Pimps who used to supply best of females sometimes even from the Temples (Templ Girls) saying they are their wives and sisters and Pakles used to believe this because the Hindu ladies were not conversant in Portuguese language,with the exception of a few.  I know in my village one Hindu in a similar manner used to supply young girls to the Portuguese Pakle soldiers from Aguada.In fact worst of acts were known to have been performed by the Plocemen.  In Calangute in mid education days one PI who was a Christian Catholic was selling Druggs thru one local man who was very close to the Policemen there.  The  PI used catch those selling Druggs and get them arrested and confiscate the drugs from those sellers and keep under his personal custody nd then sell it thru his friend who used to take Rs. 25/- after every 100/-      

CORONA EFFECT ON FOOT-BALL & TIATRO.

Recently, one soccer internationally reputed commentator remarked saying “henceforth when Corona Virus effect is subsided and came to an end, the game of soccer or what we call it as Foot-ball will never be the same again”. It will have lot of quality cutting effects because there will be  negative effects on the players who must have suffered lot of trauma due to the loss in death or in sickness or any other set-back resulted from the effects of Corona Virus. These same sentiments are also echoed by some of the stalwarts of this beautiful game.  Due to crunch in the money power in the hands of big Clubs, the purchasing power of these big clubs for the services of the big players will be less and hence the ambitions of the players to make fast money will be a big set-back.  The spectators number in the Stadia will be less and many of them will refrain from attending the matches because they by giving priority for the urgent needs, soccer will be placed on secondary level.  

Because of the heavy set-back human beings suffered all around the globe due to the deadly sickness Corona Virus the wish of the foot-ball fans to patronize this beautiful game will be lost forever or at least for a long time. The people all around the globe will be occupied to recover their financial losses, physical trauma and mental stress they suffered in the aftermath of the Corona Virus.

Because of the ill effects of the second world war, the world foot-ball around the globe came to a disarray and because of it the soccer pundits had to devise ways and means to revive it on the field and also in the terraces.  Some of the budding soccer players just before the beginning of the World War II wanted to conquer the world in this attractive sport were put on the service of defense of their country. In this way, Germany inducted in its Naval Fleet one full soccer team and sent to destroy the British Fleet in the Indian Ocean where this German Ship was bombed by the superior British Naval Fleet.  With this heavily damaged War Ship, the sailors or the Navymen jumped into the Sea off the Coast at Aguada and those who swam well they survived and at Anjuna they got on the shore where by the kind hearted locals welcomed them. 

  

Gradually they joined the local boys playing football there at Anjuna Tembi Ground and dazzled the locals very much.  People started pouring there to see their magical soccer. Then Fr. Mendonca the principal of Arpora School involved and arranged a friendly soccer match with these German footballers against his the then powerful Arpora Scool student players, to see this match a sea of humanity  congregated at Arpora School ground from all over Goa.  As a mark of respect to this game, Arpora School displayed a nice photo in its Notice Board for many years but it is no more now.  

Now in a similar manner I write something on Tiatro which Came to an abrupt halt because of the spread of Corona Virus and it looks to me that it will be very difficult for the revival of our Tiatros to the level it was just before the halt during the Corona Virus. When one goes into seclusion for any reason, to come back to his former self and level it takes a long time.  This is what will happen to our Tiatros.  The move of the Tiatros on which they were riding is either going to be slow down or disappear, the effect of financial losses especially on those who were totally relying on Tiatros only  as business will be  very severe even though some of them externally display a fair smile but there Is a saying in our language Konkani “Moddvachem Moddem Bhair Kaddleaxivai Kaim Gomona”.  We also suffered the same type of humiliation when we came from Saddam Hussein invasion of Kuwait, no money, no job, no bhatt-bens-no Bank savings in Fixed Deposits to rely on interest and no nothing.  My smile was the fake smile to pretend to be happy but internally I was suffering.  When I was eating and drinking my wife and children were also doing the same and when I was starving they were also starving.  Looked like a “Bondol”. Not at all.  Good that Kuwait was liberated in 7 months only however if it took only one more month for its liberation time would come for us to commit suicide instead of facing the all round humiliation.  

        However, ultimately,  we have somebody to take care of us if we believe in  him and he is none other than GOD who made our way opened for us to go back to Kuwait and to enjoy the qualitative Value of the liberated Kuwaiti Dinar that doubled the rate what it was before the invasion of Kuwait.  See the benevolence of God and that gift of God’s benevolence is always is in stock with God who is waiting for us to approach Him and in this way God helped us.  In the same manner our Tiatrists will come out victorious.  Your victory is need of the hour, you are the supporters of rights  and justice in our land.  Many of  you will have demoralizing effect, your mind will not work as before but you will have to overcome all these deficiences with the help of God and He will surely help.

If you observe carefully in the past with regular intervals Tiatros faced bad periods, the first was 25-30 years after the inception of 1^st Tiatro, our Tiatros suffered a setback because people stopped patronizing it because in the words of Pai Tiatrist Joao Agostinho Fernandes, Tiatros gone into the hands of Rostad Tiatrists where Zupattis & vulgarity gained more prominence among the such limited audience and for this reason good and  decent  audience stopped patronizing our Tiatros.  Then like a God sent prophet according to the need of the time, God sent Minnguel Rod the genius Tiatrist to raise the standard of Tiatro and to revive the interest in Tiatro and then things settled down for the better.

Then again for some years Tiatro standard came down for people lose their interest in it but suddenly Alfred Rose appeared on the scene and he captured the Konkani anglicised audience thereby again reviving the interest of Tiatros  in Goans.   In between came many  prominent Tiatrists but when Lorna came there was no going back.  But now the Corona Virus  has created a fever into people who may not  patronise  tiatro for sometime but not forever.

A.Veronica Fernandes.