Celebration of Christmas

The writer Benyjane with her husband Anthony, and daughters Charlene and Darlene

BY BENYJANE FERNANDES KUWAIT / BENAULIM, GOA

How do we celebrate Christmas?

Christmas is not only decorating the house, making sweets, buying new dresses / shoes, going for parties, but the celebration of coming of Jesus Christ the Lord our Saviour in the world as an Infant to save us from sins / other evil things. We have to turn away from the sins, pride, Jealousy and other evils to welcome him in our hearts and home. This is the true celebration of Christmas.

How we prepared for this Christmas?

At the beginning of the Advent, we cleaned ourselves spiritually by going for confessions and prepared mentally and spiritually for the coming of our Saviour Lord Jesus Christ.

Two weeks ago we started decorating the house. Its takes a lot of time atleast 2 to 3 days to put the things in its place. One can feel the real joy specially the children while putting the colourful ornaments on the Christmas tree and other decorations too. You can see a complete change in the hall. O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Your decorations are of history. It is a tree of knowledge and each decoration has a deep meaning.
A week later we started preparing the Christmas sweets as we do in Goa . These Goan sweets are not available in Kuwait as it takes a lot of time and hardwork, as we are normally busy with our day to day routine work. Goan Christmas sweets are unique and quite different from other Indian states and other countries too. In Goa the main Christmas sweets are neurios, vodde, kulkuls, marzipan, bebinca (the queen of Goan sweets), dodol (made out of coconut juice, rice & coconut jaggery), bathe, doce de grão (gram dal sweet), bolinhos de coco, gons (cobwebs in English), perada, mandare (Pumpkin & Rice sweet). It is a tradition; in each and every Christian house in Goa do not celebrate the Christmas season without these sweets. During Christmas season Christian folks in Goa distribute these sweets “kunswar” with their neighbours, relatives and friends as a token of love for each others.

As I said above, it is very difficult to prepare the above sweets in Kuwait , but still I find time and make an attempt at every Christmas, to prepare these sweets as I feel Christmas is not enjoyable without these sweets. Besides these sweets I also make some unique and special cookies of all sort of Christmas symbols such as Christmas trees, Wreaths, Snowman, Stockings, bells, stars, rocking horse & musical notes which you can see in the below pictures. Children like to eat these colourful cookies. I also make the smallest and unique neurios which measures only 1and ½ inch which our relatives and friends love to eat. It consumes lot of time to prepare these types of neurios. You can see these neurios in the below pictures.

My Grandmother used to tell me that in olden days how they were celebrating the Christmas. They used to prepare the above sweets well in advance except the neurios. After the midnight Christmas Mass, they used to come home and prepare the neurios and eat it hot with a cup of hot black tea. There was no electricity in Goan villages then. People used to make star of bamboo sticks and with different colourful fine papers and hang the stars on a tree infront of their houses with a small kerosene / oil lamp inside the star. There were no ready made stars available in the market in those days. In the evening, the Elders used to tell Children different stories of Christmas by sitting under the dim light of the hanging star in the courtyard. This used to go throughout the Christmas season.

Definitely, there is a lot of difference of celebrating of the Christmas during the olden times and now.

Photo Courtesy: Simon Dias thelensmen@yahoo.com

RANADE & KHASAB.

RANADE & KHASAB.

One captured alive Pakistani surviving terrorist Khasab by name in Mumbai is like a prize catch. He was one of the 10 terrorists terrorized Mumbai a month back. It is thru his arrest only so many secrets have been exposed. That he was caught alive is a miracle. According to information he is now under heavy police custody in Mumbai with best of medical treatment to keep him alive. Normally such terrorists instead of falling into the hands of enemy hands and suffer torture and exposure of their secrets, prefer to die. In Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers carry around their necks hanging “Cyanide” capsules which they swallow immediately when they fall into the hands of their enemies. Some Palestinian terrorists told me how they take their lives instead of falling into the hands of Israeli security.

Mohan Ranade was a non-Goan Ghantti, a Marathi teacher teaching at Verem Bardez in Marathi Xalla. He was anti-Portuguese and working clandestinely against Portuguese interest in Goa. Being a "Ghantti" he had no right to interfere in our affairs yet he did. He wanted to drive Portuguese out from Goa and hand over on silver platter our Goa to Bharat. With the help of few of his supporters, somewhere in 1957 Ranade carried out an armed attack on Betim Police Station in which one or two Police personnel were shot dead, I think one of them was a Portuguese Paklo. There was casualty on the other side too. But Mohan Ranade was caught alive inspite of suffering from the gun shot wounds from one of the Goan Hindu Policemen from Betim Police Station. When he was caught alive by Goan and Portuguese policemen, Ranade was about to breathe his last but to prevent him from dying, immediately he was rushed to Panjim Medical College Hospital where he was given VIP treatment to save his life and finally his life was saved. His life was very precious for Portuguese Government of Goa to get all the necessary information of the working of Ranade and his group and also to know where it was originated. After getting important clues and information, many such persons in the garb of freedom fighters were arrested. Mohan Ranade was finally sentenced for long term prison and deported to Portugal to serve his sentence in Portugal.

Coming back to Pakistani terrorist Khasab, by keeping him alive Government of India got lot of information of the origin of the attack in Mumbai a month back and who was behind this attack. If Khasab was also caught dead the situation would be different. Government of India to keep him healthy, physically and mentally alert and alive after his arrest must have done so much. And then only Government of India got so much of important and decisive information as Portuguese Government of Goa got from Mohan Ranade.

Pakistani Government is refusing to acknowledge the statements of Khasab and asking for more transparency in this matter. I feel Indian Government should agree to it and conduct a joint proceedings of the testimony of Khasab so that both the sides are convinced, mainly the Pakistani side. In this matter India does not stand to lose anything, on the contrary India stands to gain. Pakistani side feels Indian statements are not correct and they are forcibly and thru artificial means extorted from the mouth of Khasab. To make it transparent, India must accede to the demands of Pakistan and conduct joint investigation of Khasab confession and his identity as Pakistani national which Pakistan is denying.

Was the last month Pakistani terrorists attack in Mumbai the last such attack in India? I doubt very much. India’s vulnerability for such terrorists attacks from outside India is exposed beyond any doubt. Internally India is too divisive and weak because our enemies are within ourselves only. We are devided on the basis of religion, region, caste and many other factors. By enacting new laws and revamping the old laws nothing will happen in India and no change will come unless the entire ruling and administrative system is overhauled. To change this administrative system we must have patriotic people in our Parliament and State Assemblies. On the contrary we have in these august law enacting Houses “Chors”, criminals, smugglers and anti-social elements whose greed for money and power supersede their patriotism towards India. There must be some rigid laws to disfranchise anti-social elements and those who are convicted by the court not only from voting but mainly from contesting elections. Without the help of Indian elements from top ladder no terrorists can come all the way from Pakistan to India and create havoc in Mumbai. Where were our Coast Guards and Coastal Intelligence when Pakistani terrorists were coming to Mumbai? Were they sleeping? The important tips provided even by the USA for our Intelligence Service was ignored by Indian authorities. The personnel of these Indian authorities should be punished for being part of terrorists’ gang from Pakistan.

The Gun wielding Policemen at Railway Station should be punished severely for not using their Guns at the right time when terrorists were firing at innocent commuters. There must be thorough investigation on this issue. Our Police system should be changed first. Our Police system is prone to receiving “Apta”. Our Policemen wearing “Chappals” and wielding “Danda” are not meant to guard and protect our citizens. These big bellied “Sakarams” are not matched to confront the blood thirsty athletically built Pakistani terrorists. These Indian Sakarams are unfit to guard India and Indians. Sacking of the Chief Minister of Maharastra and Home Minister of India will never solve the problem. The Government of Maharastra should have been sacked by the Governor and the entire Cabinet in Delhi should have been forced to resign including Premier for dereliction of their duty towards the nation. What 10 Pakistani terrorists did in Mumbai in the last month was not an act of ordinary terrorism but a “War Against India” and the rulers of the nation should be held responsible for this war.

Only 10 terrorists humiliated such a big, populous and mighty atomic power India. As tax payers we have all the rights to demand justice from our leaders and rulers. To do their duties properly they are financially supported from A – Z by the taxpayers’ money. They proved to be unfit to rule India. They cannot shift the blame on our enemies and blame them. Our enemies will never give us peace. Our enemy came into being to punish us and since 1947 our enemy is punishing us directly and indirectly and yet we are still pleasing our enemy in one way or the other. After Mumbai attack our enemy is laughing and mocking at us and our security apparatus. Our enemy has made a big joke of our security apparatus. To please and pacify our enemy we are still retaining a part of Kashmir under our control not as full-fledged part of India but with the surrender of many of Indian powers to that place. Our enemy thru remote control is punishing us in Kashmir, so also in Mumbai, Delhi and other parts of India. Are we blind to this fact? If not, then why are we sleeping and why are we not alert? Can we expect a kiss from our enemy? Surely no. Omly KICK we can accept from our enemy otherwise our enemy is not our enemy.

A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.

In Kuwait New Tiatro "KUWAIT SODDUN VETANA"

TIATRO: "KUWAIT SODDUN VETANA"

Seen in the picture: Left: Laurente Pereira.

Middle: Writer & Director of the Tiatro - Rosary Ferns.

Right: Cajetan de Sanvordem.

Laurente Pereira came into limelight on Konkani Stage at an early age in Goa. First time in Kuwait he was seen in the Church Hall about 25 years back when he acted in Mestiri Epa de Utorda's Non-Stop show where Laurente a handsome young man dis extremely well his role of a hero. Thru this role he gained lot of fame for him. Later on he acted in many of the Tiatros and also staged his own with lot of success. In "Kuwait Soddun Vetana" he will surely dazzle the audience with his superlative performance.

Cajetan de Sanvordem is one of the prominent seniormost Tiatrists in Kuwait amongst Goans. Over 3 decades working in Kuwait he has acted in many of the Tiatros performing different roles to the satisfaction of the audience. His first appearance in Kuwait was at Keefan Hall where he rendered a beautiful solo which was very much liked by the hall packed audience and he was called twice. Later on he joined hands with Marcus Vaz & Xavier Gomes to form their trio which created lot of ripples in the tiatro circle. Both Marcus Vaz and Xavier retired from Kuwait, Cajetan de Sanvordem is the lone surviving member of that famed trio still going strong individually in Tiatro circle in Kuwait. During his earlier days he was a natural choice to play the role of a hero which he used to perform perfectly well. In "Kuwait Soddun Vetana" he will play one of the major roles and sing a quintet along with Marcus Vaz, Francis de Tuem, John D'Silva and Selvy.

Script writer and director of this Tiatro "Kuwait Soddun Vetana" Rosary Ferns a youthful in looks but seasoned in maturity in Tiatro business vowed to give the audience total satisfaction in delivering a good story based on genuine happenings amongst us and also in good direction. Those who have witnessed Rosary Ferns' earlier Tiatros will surely accept this fact and will throng at Hawally A/C Hall on 16th January 2009 at 3.30 to watch the season's first and season's best Tiatro "KUWAIT SODDUN VETANA".

Musical score will be provided by famed musician Shahu and his troupe.

Gate Passes are available with Tony's Golden Goa Shop at Maliya, Kuwait City, Tel. No. 99581491 or from the organisers on Tels: 99778995 (Ahmadi), 97193605, 66533229 (Benny Vaz), 97643017, 97543017, 99531863 & 99745291.