2ND DAY OF 49TH MANDO FESTIVAL IN GOA.

 

On 11^th of this month at Kala Academy Panjim, I attended the 2^nd day of Mando Festival at 5.20 PM.  Though not house full yet this audience was much higher than on the first day.  It was compeered like on first day by the 4 Compeers;  two males and two females, among them one male Dr.Bhikaji Ghanecar was the oldest.  

 

All the four Compeers

Dr. Ganecar started from the inception date 49 years back and since then he is continuously uninterrupted compeering this festival with an extra ordinary class even though he is ageing but not losing his control over his physique and mind. During the last so many years he entertained the Mando Festival crowd with much enthusiasm and lovely jokes. Some of the attendees earlier attended Mando Festivals only to listen to his Jokes.  That was the class and quality of his Jokes. May God give him good health to entertain the Mando enthusiasts for many more years.    

 

Youngsters

 

I was in Kuwait since mid seventies but I used to come to Goa on vacation to coincide my vacation with the date of Mando Festivals and like this I maintained my link with Mando Festivals after I left Goa for greener pastures.  According to me from the time of its inception in 1966 till the end of Nineties, the quality of Mandos  with dulpods in every category was superb having almost all the ingredients of the originality of this folk song. 

 

Beautifully dressed singers

But gradually during the last two decades persons having no Mando culture and tradition involved in this Mando Festivals thus lowering the body and soul of the Mando/Dulpods in traditional and original categories.   

One of the Adults group

 

However, to my total surprise, this year on both the days, I found the quality of the Mandos with Dulpods in all the categories vastly improved leading us back to the periods of Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. This is the good sign for better days ahead for the improvement of Mandos.

 

VIP seen with Souvenirs

The seniors in Original and Trditional categories excelled very well in all respects namely in presentation, costumes, music and of course in singing.  They not only sang but they sang in style.

 

Singing original Mando

 

The Teenagers also performed very well  by depicting their extraordinary talent at this young age, their musicians also performed very well especially the youngsters and girls.

 

 

During the interval, a special Souvenir was released from the hands of VIP guests, namely Dilip Parulenkar and Nilesh Cabral as seen in the photo above while other dignitaries are also seen in the same photograph.

 

I applaud the organisers and participants of this year’s Mando Festival for dishing out a very good performance.

 

                                                   Youngsters seen playing Music
                                 

A.Veronica Fernandes,

Candolim, Goa.

Tel:7507394349

MOUNT CAMPAIGN FOR JUSTICE FOR FR. BISMARK.

It is over a month now since Fr. Bismark was allegedly murdered with the ALLEGED approval of the most powerful higher-ups in Goa including the government machinery.  If government machinery is supporting the liquidation oF Fr. Bismark then is it easy to get justice in this matter? It is this same government machinery that liquidated all the traces of testimony they found at the site where Fr. Bismark was last seen. 

 

 

In the latest horrific revelations by Sudeep Dalvi in one of the Websites based in UK, some of the top people involved in this alleged murder are exposed.  In view of this the onus is on government now to go for further investigation with the sufficient clues Dalvi has provided.

 

 

Meantime, social activists must keep  mounting pressure on government to get justice for Fr. Bismark.  If yesterday their target was Fr. Bismark then today it can be me and tomorrow it may be you, he or she.  Hence everyone should participate in this campaign until government is relented.

 

 

It is surprising that the individual members of the BJP & BJP MLA’s who came to limelight and to power and were voicing their opinion on justice earlier are themselves silent on this issue.  In my constituency I expected from both the elected representatives of BJP, one MLA and the other Zilla Parishad, their voice on this matter to get justice for Fr. Bismark but their silence is intriguing. In view of this, I request the most popular figure in Calangute Mr. Joseph Sequeira to start a campaign in our constituency to demand justice for Fr. Bismark.

 

 

All those elected representatives who talk of justice at the time of their elections must know that to fight for justice you must be first just and thus  I conclude by quoting Mohammed Prophet who when asked when there will be justice in this world, replied, “when everyone of us will gather courage to fight against the injustice committed on to others as if that injustice is committed on to us only.  Then only there will be justice in this world". 

 

 

A.Veronica Fernandes,

Candolim, Goa.

Tel: 7507394349.   

49TH MANDO FESTIVAL IN GOA.

                                                       One of the Teenager groups

Yesterday, on 10^th of this month, I attended the first day of the 49^th Mando Festival in Panjim  at Kala Academy Hall, starting at 5.20 PM though officially it was announced at 5.00 PM and attendees were requested to occupy their seats at 4.30 PM.  The organisers must stop committing such mistakes next time because it inconveniences the attendees.

 

 

One of the adults group

 

It was a pity to see hardly around 100 persons attending this day’s proceedings in a mighty hall having its capcity to accommodate around 1000 persons.  The reserved seats around 100 were almost totally empty. This poor attendance created a very gloomy future for Mando culture in Goa.  Since late sixties I have been attending Mando Festivals in Panjim but never ever I noticed such a poor attendance even though now it is free while earlier it was high priced tickets of Rs. 7.00 while for Tiato first class ticket was 2.50 rupees.

Baby Musicians.

 

 Earlier the attendance had class in themselves namely in their dress code mostly the males in Suit and Tie while ladies with rich costumes and in presentable manner.  It was a great honour to attend Mando Festivals during those good old days and the Mando Moguis were eagerly waiting to see this festival with great pride and pomp. All these things are now gone to the winds.

 

One of the senior groups

 

The first Mando Festival was organized somewhe in 1965 under the leadership of Bernardo Fernandes from Siolim and since 1974 it was organised under the banner of Goa Cultural and Social Centre.  This year total number of entries counted were 40 items and on the first day it was 20 but some abstained at the last minute reducing the number. But the quality of first day proceedings was very good especially in senior category.  I could easily say that it was as good as it was earlier.  The children category also performed well so too the teenager category.  The groups from Sarzora, Cansaulim and St. Xaviers College Mapusa stole the show on the first day while others too performed well.

 

Yet another senior group

 

On first day the participants took part in all categories namely Children, Teenagers, Senior Citizens, Adults and Dance category. All performed well in singing, music and dress code. Talking of Musical part, there was a total change from what it was earlier.  Before you could see only the male adults playing music but now you could see with pride females and young musicians playing Violin, Gumot and Guitar and that too with top excellence.

A beautifully dressed group

 

Among the 4 Compeers, only one Dr. Bikaji Ganekar was the senior most starting from first Mando Festival and still going strong without any flaw.   

 

Senior citizens group led by 72 year old lady

 

It was a pity to see in the audience mostly the elders while youngsters shown diminishing interest. This is a very disturbing trend for the future of Mando and its survival. The elders and the organsers must devise some methods to woo the youngsters to Mando culture.

 

 

 

 

 

A.Veronica Fernandes,

Candolim, Goa.

Tel:7507394349.