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 1st 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.
