FOUNDATION STONE LAID TO GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL IN CANDOLIM.

Yesterday, on 10^th February, 2020, two major events have taken place in Candolim, one at Dando side where there is an existing Health Centre, where the Candolim Panchayat is going to build a new Hospital with all the modern facilities for any sort of emergency, the foundation stone has been laid today in the morning in the presence of a good number of people in attendance while seated at the dais were the main Guest the Chief Minister of Goa Dr. Sawant  along with other guests and special invitees namely the Minister and MLA of Calangute constituency Michael Lobo, Health Minister Viswajeet Rane, Mapusa MLA Joshua, Candolim Village Sarpanch and others. 

T                    The birthday Boy- the Candolim Sarpanch Blaize seen addressing the gathering 

What is the need  of Hospital in Candolim when there already is one as existing and it is  known as the Government Health Centre.  However,  in this same Health Centre due to the increasing number of population  in our locality there appeared a demand for a bigger and better Hospital having latest instruments and facilities to cater to the needs of the people.

Taking note of this need, Candolim Village Panchayat in close liaison with the local MLA and Minister Michael Lobo laid the foundation stone for the construction  of this new Hospital that has received a nod from the Jr. Rane.

Seen above are all the dignitaries namely Lobo -CM-V.Rane - Joshua

Let us see thru historical context how, when and under what circumstances the existing Health Centre was built. It was built about 50 years back.  In fact the government plan under the then Chief Minister of Goa, Dayananda  Bandodcar was for the erection of  one Health Center at Siolim.  All formalities were comleted only foundation stone date was to be announced.  However, during that particular time 5 MGP MLA’s withdrew their support to MGP government.  So to offset the loss of 5 of his MLA’s and to maintain the parity, Bandodcar started poaching for 5 MLA’s.  He started searching frantically 5 MLA’s from UG Party even by purchasing them for any amount and giving them anything they want in exchange of 5 MLA’s.  He found 4 namely from Benaulim Elu Miranda, from Aldona Orlando Lobo Sequira, from Vasco Abdul Razzak and one more.  When he fund difficult to buy the 5^th one, Bandodcar Approached his Saligao MLA Punaji Achrekar to approach Calangute Constituency MLA Valente Sequiera the resident of Candolim.  The persons who brought heavy pressure on Valente Sequeira to defect from UGP to MGP were the popular Sarpanch of Candolim Domnick Lobo a Gulf returnee and one Panch Krishna Naik also a Gulf returnee.  These two and Valente Sequiera all these three were the worst enemies of one local very prominent doctor who was the strong supporter and promoter of UGP.  Though all the three were in good terms externally with the said doctor yet internally they craved for his blood.  In order to make him lose his medical business and suffer heavy losses,  the three traitors agreed to to help Valente Sequeira to join with Bandodcar’s MGP on condition that Bandodcar allot Candolim one hospital.  For this Bandodcar immediately agreed and thus from Siolim project was transferred to Candolim though Siolim MGP MLA was not happy but Bandodcar succeeded in giving him a Lolipop in some other way. 

                                          Seen is the section of the attendees

What is the need  of Hospital in Candolim when there already is one as existing and it is  known as the Government Health Centre.  However,  in this same Health Centre due to the increasing number of population  in our locality there appeared a demand for a better Hospital having latest instruments and facilities to cateer to the needs of the people.

Taking note of this need, Candolim Village Panchayat in close liaison with the local MLA and Minister Michael Lobo laid the foundation stone for the construction  of this new Hospital.

                                              Yet another section of the attendees. 

Let us see thru historical context how, when and under what circumstances the existing Health Centre was built. It was built about 50 years back.  In fact the government plan under the then Chief Minister of Goa, Dayananda  Bandodcar was for the erection of  one Health Center at Siolim.  All formalities were completed only foundation stone date was to be announced.  However, during that particular time 5 MGP MLA’s withdrew their support to MGP government.  So to offset the loss of 5 of his MLA’s and to maintain the parity, Bandodcar started poaching for 5 MLA’s.  He started searching frantically 5 MLA’s from UG Party even by purchasing them for any amount and giving them anything they want in exchange of 5 MLA’s.  He found 4 namely from Benaulim Elu Miranda, from Aldona Orlando Lobo Sequira, from Vasco Abdul Razzak and one more.  When he fund difficult to buy the 5^th one, Bandodcar Approached his Saligao MLA Punaji Achrekar to approach Calangute Constituency MLA Valente Sequiera the resident of Candolim.  The persons who brought heavy pressure on Valente Sequeira to defect from UGP to MGP were the popular Sarpanch of Candolim Domnick Lobo a Gulf returnee and one Panch Krishna Naik also a Gulf returnee.  These two and Valente Sequiera all these three were the worst enemies of one local very prominent doctor who was the strong supporter and promoter of UGP.  Though all the three were in good terms externally with the said doctor yet internally they craved for his blood.  In order to make him lose his medical business and suffer heavy losses,  the three traitors agreed to to help Valente Sequeira to join with Bandodcar’s MGP on condition that Bandodcar allot Candolim one hospital.  For this Bandodcar immediately agreed and thus from Siolim project was transferred to Candolim though Siolim MGP MLA was not happy but Bandodcar succeeded in giving him a Lolipop in some other way.

In this way the Health Center of Candolim was erected but that doctor whom all the three local tin-pot politicians wanted to teach a good lesson purely out of jealousy for the good doctor no negative effect was created.

                                           Mapusa MLA Joshua

The reason to lay the foundation stone for this Hosital yesterday 10^th of this month was  to mark the birthday of the local Candolim Sarpanch Blaize.  Taking advantage of this write – up, I wish Blaize a very happy birthday and pray to God to give him wisdom and guidance to rule our village nicely without any bias towards anyone. 

Once again, Blaize, I wish you a very hapopy birthday on behalf of me, my family and all the like minded people of Candolim.

A.Veronica Fernandes.

TIATRO "UTT ... ANI CHOL" BY BENEVANGELISTO.

Seen above is beautiful Jolita singing her tital song

On 7^th of this month in Panjim at Kala  Academy Hall, at 7.45 PM, I saw the Tiatro “UTT ani CHOL” written and directed by Ben Evangelisto. This Tiatro of Ben is coming after 14 years since he was afflicted with sickness that made him immobile to act on the Stage for such a long time. During his so many years of sickness, he faced lot of trauma and difficulties in life even though many of his friends and well wishers were praying very hard for his recovery.  When he was ok before falling sick he was very jovial, disciplined and friendly that created a big friendly circle of his.

The beautiful solo comparing the work of elder Tiatrist with current ones

What made him sick suddenly when he was otherwise so well?  From my childhood I was told that the most dangerous and jealous people among Goans are the Tiatrists because they don’t like to see their own colleagues coming up, prosperous and gaining name and fame.  This does not mean that all the Tiatrists are like that, no, but some are among their circle and these some are creating a very bad image of their entire segment.  But when Ben indicates in his Tiatro how his own fellow Tiatrist whose role Anil Pednekar performs so well, tries to poison Ben to kill him and finish him from the Stage purely out of jealousy because he could not bear to see Ben gaining celebrity status.  And hence, he goes ahead with this nasty plan but it failed to create the required effect. 

                           Seen above is one Scene where Tari & Rosy Alvares are seen

What does this indicate?  Doesn’t it show that there are Bastardised Tiatrists among us who want to destroy some among them? When Rosary Ferns died a few years back after acting in one Tiatro that night, there were so many stories circulated that he was the victim of jealousy among his colleagues not only in Kuwait but also in Goa and they must have poisoned Rosary.

                                  Seen above in another scene Tari and Anil Pednekar

It was about 45 years back, H. Briton was shining on the Stage, hence he acquired some jealousy from his colleagues. One night, in a Tiatro of C. Alvares after finishing his song with 3 encores, one unknown person congratulated Briton through a small opening of the fence behind the Stage and gave Briton a Chocolate which he displayed as a great honour, to his colleagues, then broke it into two pieces and while about to put one piece into his mouth, suddenly from nowhere C. Alvares came there and snatched the Chocolate from Briton’s hand. Briton got angry, then Alvares took Briton and a few more artistes outside the Mattou, called some dogs that were frequenting around there, threw one piece to the dog and when that dog ate it, within a few moments the dog collapsed.  This is to prove how the Basterdised Tiatrists are finishing the life of some of the shining Stage artistes purely out of jealousy.  Have you  any time noticed one Tiatrist speaking good of other TIatrist? Either never or very rarely.

                                              Seen above is Fr. Isibio singing his solo.

Coming back to the Tiatro “Utt ani Chol” which has Biblical connotation that indicates how a sick man with the power of God getting up from the bed where he is lying down due to sickness and starts walking.  In  another word, Ben was bed ridden and when everyone deserted him, no doubt some were very close to him namely his wife and a few others but the almighty God remained closest to him and only thru His love for him, God cured Ben of his sickness. 

            Seen above the attractive pair of Konkani Stage Olga & Anil singing their song.

The Tiatro started at 7.45 PM while the attendance was more or less half the capacity.  Most of these attendees were very sympathetic with Ben because they know the greatness of this Stage stalwart.  The role of Ben Evangelisto performed by Tari was so good that even if I am given whole day and the whole night to write Hosanas of Tari, I will never get tired.  That is the strong point of Tari who is the great gift of God for Konkani Stage.  Opposite to Tari the role of Ben’s wife played by Rosy Alvares was superb, this is the greatness of Alvares Families.  Stage acting and singing comes outomatically for them, “Tiatristpon”  is  in their blood and Rosy Alvares being a member of Alvares clan she should be smart as she indicated her smartness.  One Canto that she rendered was so beautiful that I can easily call it the Minguel Rodan type of Canto, so sorrowful words, so sorrowful tune and moreover her singing it with her soft and serene voice brought an extra beauty to this Canto.  Such Cantos are not heard nowadays, normally. Jolita too played her role well along with Cajy de Kakoda, some attendees were expecting a solo from his mouth as he is a very good singer. The role of a priest was nicely played by the real priest Fr. Isibio.

Seen above is Ben offering his thanks for the audience.

While on the subject of priests involving in Tiatros, it was some years back in Kuwait, Fr. Freddy de Costa came to Kuwait to stage his Tiatro  in the Church Hall in Kuwait.  When he went with the recommendation letter of the Bishop of Goa – Rahul Gonsalves – to the Bishop of Kuwait Monsg. Frances Mechallef,  the Kuwait Bishop got so annoyed on Fr. Freddy that the same Bishop of Kuwait not only denied the facility of the Church Hall to Fr. Freddy but on top of it he went a step ahead and fired a letter immediately to the Goa Bishop asking the Goa  Bishop Gonsalves this, “WHAT PASTORAL SIGNIFICANCE THIS VISIT TO KUWAIT WITH HIS TIATRO HAS?”  Later on when I spoke to the Kuwait Bishop, he felt Goa priests are not taking up the issues concerning more urgent needs of the people in Goa.  Tiatro is not the right choice of the priest, instead the Goa Church which according to Bishop Mechallef is so rich that with the help of this wealth the Bishop of Goa must utilize the talent of every priest for the development of Goans in general and Catholics in particular.  

Seen above are in one scene both Ben & Fr. Isibio

The Side Show songs were good but still there was more space to improve, however, inspite of this the songs a political solo by Olga Vaz was so piercing against Michael Lobo that he is depicted as a shameless man who loves to lick the Lamanis.  If this tirade mounted by the Goan political singers go on unstopped  then it will be “Perig” for Lobo in the next election in Calangute constituency where approximately out of about 9 thousand voters aqbout 3,500 are Lamanis. To defeat Michael Lobo the opposition should have to field only one candidate, as one against the other. Her duet with her husband Anil was also powerful where Anil beutified it by rendering a nice “Segundo”. The title song rendered by Jolita was very nice so too the comedy solo on Garbage by the unvulgar comedian Cedrik. The duo  rendered by Starcy and Jolita was beautifully sung so too the trio on Airhostess and Pilot. The solo that Ben rendered on handicapped children was very good and he sang it too very well.

                                           Seen in another Scene are Jolita-Kakoda-Tari

                                    Seen above Jolita & Starcey Mesquita sing their song

The comedy part was not up to the mark though all the commedians performed their roles, however,  inspite of a few vulgar patches which should not be there when the God is eulogized so well in this tiatro,  how on the otherside there can be vulgarity which is the Satanic work?   Ben should apply his mind on this because his image and character is at stake and since a greater number of attendees came to see him, his role and his story penned down by him, the same audience must be satisfied first. The current status of Ben on the Konkani Stage is like that of ‘FIDALGO” and this ststus he must maintained if necessary even by dropping the vulgarists who not likely to change for the better.

                      Seen in above Scene are Tari - Bust of Jacinto Vaz - Rosy Alvares 

Whille concluding, let me congratulate Ben for this Tiatro and wish him good health.

A.Veronica Fernandes.

TIATRO "LION KING" BY FRANKY GONSALVES.

On 6^TH of this month at Kala Academy in Panjim, I saw the Tiatro “LION KING” starting  at 7.40 PM,  written and directed by the young and energetic man Franky Gonsalves who has been acting since a long time now for some of the leading Goan directors and earning a name and fame for himself.

           The above singer singing the Title Song very beautifully with her beautiful voice.

This being his first Tiatro, it was assumed before hand only that it will be just an ordinary Tiatro  of ordinary Tiatrist but when seeing this Tiatro it was proved to be an extra ordinary Tiatro  of extra ordinary Tiatrist with something new introduced on the Konkani Stage purely in  a Prem Kumaran style. In fact after a long time some “novidade” has been seen on the Konkani Stage and this Novidade was the short stature of the director himself potrayed in a very intriguing way of his size as half, that means he is shown on the stage as dwarf since his both the legs from the knees are shortened, he is shown even wearing his shoes and walking as normal man walks.  In this pose Franky Gonsalves looks excellent and the role that he plays is also excellent.

Seen above is innovative director Franky Gonsalves with short stature

Also purely in a C.Alvaresan style, the playwright Franky Gonsalves introduced a few beauties on the Konkani Stage not of cosmetic value but of real worth as they proved to be very good singers and excellently excelling in acting too. The director deserve high compliments for training them nicely and thus tuning them to face the audience and play their roles perfectly well.  During those days the late father of Duets, was responsible to introduce new – new female faces in our Tiatros and because of this the base of our Tiatros has been enhanced. 

One Scene of the Play

However, the base that was so strongly put from the time Lucazinho Ribeiro intiated the  Tiatro and staged it first time about 150 years back, is now received a big jolt that due to its impact I am afraid that this art which was protected and promoted and patronised by the innumerable Goans and other Konkani people, I am afraid it may suddenly collapse like a pack of cards due to vulgarity introduced by a few vulgar Comedians who are backed by their equally guilty directors.  And those who admire them among the audience are also equally vulgar.  Earlier, because of such audience, decent people never used to be a part of audience.  During those days, elite Goans never used to patronize Tiatros because the “Mattou” used to fill with the third class audience. This dirty and hoi-polloi audience was the support of all the Vulgar comedians who are nothing but a curse on the development and promotion of Konkani Stage.

                                        

                                               Xavier Gomes sings his solo 

Coming back to this Tiatro, the comedy was not fully clean, usage of the word “Pad” “Farting” is not proper in the public platform,  it sounds not palatable, using the word “Pad” lowers the dignity of the Tiatro, the director should not make use of such words from the stage.  Even at few places double meaning words were used.  This is the work of stupid comedians.  The director how he tolerates this unpalatable actions is itself a big question mark.  Not only in this Tiatro, if the vulgarity is flourishing is so rampantly nowadays it is only and only because of those few Directors who are inducting the vulgar Comedians into their Tiatros knowing that they are degrading their comedy roles and the Tiatro as well.  The great directors of yesteryear namely JP Souzalin, Saib Rocha, Prem Kumar, Alexinho  de Candolim, Airestedes Dias and many others like them first of all will never induct these comedians into their Tiatros and even if they get a  chance to act in the Tiatros of the great Directors,   they would never be allowed to use vulgarity in their Tiatros.  This is the diifference between those directors and the current tin-pot directors.

Marcus Vas sings his solo                              

It is my suggestion to the directors now that when they write the play, they must also write the comedy roles as it was done till recently.  Nowadays the current directors are not full fledged writers of the Tiatros because they are not full fledged writers, they are ‘LANDDE” writers because they lack intelligence to write comedy also which is the part of the Tiatro as well.  Many of the current script writers are buying the comedy  part from the unfit "Baddeache" Comedians, it is like that they getting “Baddeachi Comedy” . 

Francis de Tuem

The side show songs were excellent but the main ones are mentioned here namely “Zantteank Eksure Sanddinakant” by Lawry Travasso a very matured and wisdomatic solo;  “Aum Hospitalan” by Marcus Vaz who indicated thru this high calibre song how matured he is become; “On Biblical Statements” by Rosario de Benaulim who has been seen since a long time now  promoting Biblical philosophy.  

Marcus Vas on his Duet

Seen above in one Scene are all the latest beauties of konkani stage

Seen above are singing their Quarter

It is to be noted that what in one song based on Biblical teachings he gives the lesson of Christianity  even a Roman Catholic priest cannot give on one sermon during the Mass he offers. The song that Francis de Tuem on  Citizenship Act. Amendment was excellent with a deep study of the subject like a Professor of Political Sience lecturing the College students.  I don’t think anyone else goes so deep in giving detailed explanation of the subject. Xavier Gomes solo on “Ghorabo”.  The duet Marcus Vaz rendered with T. Fernandes was not onloy well composed but more than that very well rendered by the female partner of Marcus especially when sang it in a melodious “Segundo”.

Lawry Travasso seen singing his excellent solo

Seen above Franky holding his friend in protection

 The story of this Tiatro is based on Franky who plays the double roles first as handicapped with his short legs and later on as normal.  Since this Tiatro is going on all over Goa, I will not touch the subject but request the audience and Tiatro lovers to patronize this Tiatro which is the first of the young director. While on this topic, I must give best credit to Vashal Gawas for playing the eole of the villain so excellently. 

One more Scene is seen above

                                                             Yet another scene seen above

Well done Bab Franky Gonsalves and your troupe including the musicians who played their part very well.  Let me now wish you all the best while concluding.

A.Veronica Fernandes.