ARPORA SCHOOL SPORTS MEET.

Cibaria – Necessaria – Sumite – Et – Abite when translated from Latin it becomes: Take the necessary food and depart.

Seen at right seated is the Chief Guest Raymond D'Sa

That was the motto of the school then when it was established by Fr. Lyons a non Goan who got himself cured of his dreaded skin desease bcause of which he was thrown out of the Seminary where he was doing his priestly studies. When somebody told him to go to Goa where there are Springs whose curative water will cure you, he came to Goa and went to Sinquerim where after doing the needful he was cured.

Welcoming the Chief Guest with a Flower Bouquet.

Almost after quarter of a century I got an opportunity to witness the Sports Day of Arpora St. Joseph’s High School, where I studied up to my SSC  and won laurels for me during the School Meets by winning 100, 200, 400 & 800 mtres races and thereby winning individual Championship. Later on representing my School in the All Goa Inter-School Athletics Meets also winning individual Championship and even declaring as the fastest runner of  Goa. I am grateful to my Alma Mater for giving me so many opportunities in my life as a student  to develop myself not only in sports  but also in many other segments of my life.

Seen addressing the gathering is Fr. Urbano Menezes - Principal of the School.

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If  today what I am it is only because of the excellent discipline, coaching and guidance I got from my school. All my teachers were not only teachers for me but they were also fatherly figures to me, they were Gurus to me  and above all they were true friends to me.  I salute them all because they were sincere, devoted and genuine teachers. For this reason I still remember them. Of course those were the days of Fr. Mendonsa and Fr. Peter.

Seen above seated are 4 ladies - 2 at the right, one wearing the red dress, both compeered the proceedings beautifully with their charming mellifluent voices.

Who was Fr. Mendonca?  He was the great educationist interested in the development of Goan youth. Annual Sports Day of the school at Arpora was the greatest day for him and to make it successful he was devoting his more time. He would print Invitations and send to all his friends, ex-students, government officials and important personalities not only to those residing in the vicinity of the school but all over Goa. Separately he would make announcements thru the local media. The greatness of the Meet during Fr. Mendonca’s time surrounded on the Tableau of which type you don’t see anywhere in Goa now, leave aside at Arpora.  He used to display latest incidents and events taken place not only in Goa but all around the globe, the election of the Pope somewhere in 1959 was the most striking display.  The other was this: Somewhere in 1959 the renowned Portuguez  terrorist Galvao Pinto hijacked in the deep sea, off the Azores Coast, the Portuguez Ship Santa Maria  killing its Captain and creating havoc with the passengers.  This was very beautifully displayed by Fr. Mendonca.  

Seen is one section of the huge crowd attending the Meet.

The Chief Guest was none other than the ex-student of this great school, Raymond D’Sa who finished his Matriculation thru this school in  mid-fifties.  Raymond D’Sa was one of the best students of this school during his school days  excelling not only in studies but also in extracurricular activities and sports being his forte and even representing his school soccer team.  Then he went to Kuwait where he joined the prestigious Bank – The National Bank of Kuwait where he worked for about half a century and retired recently.  A father of 3 children all are based in USA and he settling down in Goa at Nagoa-Bardez in the absence of his beloved wife who expired a few years back in Kuwait, Raymond D’Sa’s love for Goa, Goan language Konkani, Goan culture, tradition, history, folk songs and folk tales is supreme.  

Seen above is the School building.

In Kuwait not only among Goans but even among Indians and other nationalities he earned name and fame for himself as a promoter of sports in Kuwait among the expatriates and promoting soccer was his unique especiality.  He was the founding president of one of the renowned Goan organisations the “GOAN OVERSEAS ASSOCIATION” that has created more ripples among Goans than anyother G.O.A. established by the overseas Goans.  Under his dynamic leadership which was based on his understanding carefully of the prevailing situation, patience and logic, he worked successfully as president for about 40 years.  G.O.A. Maroons was the renowned soccer team  of G.O.A. among the expatriates in Kuwait that was the force to reckon with for many years and this Goan team had a unique distinction of winning the “Forest of Dean RA” Throphy.  This team at that time played in the difficult conditions and time even at midnight and defeated all the hard opponents even from the Westerners.

Starting point of Hundred Metres race for boys.

As a president Raymond D’Sa whose craze and extreme love for soccer did everything within his capacity to help his boys to overcome all the hurdles to reach to the top and spent lot of money from his own pocket.  He was the most clean president among all the Goan presidents of Goan teams and associaitons. Besides, he was the unscandalised person among all the prominent Goans always preferring to be a simple, decent and unpompous.    He was even after shouldering the presidency of G.O.A. for such a lengthy period, never found committing a goof in his lengthy public life in Kuwait since the formation of G.O.A.Maroons by amalgamating two existing teams, one headed by Peter D’Souza and the other by Domnick Correia. 

Starting point for 100 metres race for Girls.

This man has got vast potentials to do something for Goa in different fields and he is still having his youthfulness, someone must avail of his talent and experience.  He worked as a high profile executive in the Bank holding the top managerial position of which type none of the Goans in Kuwait held.  He brought great honour for Goa and Goans.

One of the Drill items based on Yoga - all girls displaying their talent .

In his scholarly speech during the sports Meet, with his beautiful eloquence, appropriate vocabulary and perfect clarity he expressed the greatness of this school, his memory of those days’ Sports at Arpora and of course not forgetting Fr. Mendonca who brought honour, respect and dignity for this school. Will we ever get another Fr. Mendonca again?  I doubt, because such personalities comes in our society only once in centuries.

Seen above is Relay Race for girls in progress, 4 x 100 mtrs.

No doubt the level of sports was not as good as it was during my days but during my days we were different type of boys while currently they are like tiny tots dotted with innumerable Allappas, Chalappas, Bassappas.  The meet was well attended by a huge crowd of spectators. At the dais one could see occupying the strategic chairs by the Chief Guest, Principal of the School and Manager of the Meet Fr. Urbano Menezes, Head Master of the school Rodney Pereira and others.

Seen above is my teacher Lino D'Souza.

My nostalgic feelings aroused when I  stepped on the ground and especially when I met some of my old school colleagues and teachers especially Mr. Lino D’Souza from Guirim who was my teacher and the best friend, best guide and best tutor.

Seen above is one of the Drill items

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If I succeeded in finishing my SSC then it was partly because of him who was constantly after my studies knowing well that being the topmost athlete of Goa and one of the best foot-ballers of Goa representing the then mighty SESA GOA, I am having lot of obstacles.  Sir Lino, I am grateful to you for all what you have done to me.

The most dangerous item performed by the most courageous young boys. 

A.Veronica Fernandes.

I OPPOSE THE NAMING OF 3RD MANDOVI BRIDGE AFTER BANDODCAR.

In the Times of India dated 09.01.19, there appeared a news item saying “Name 3^rd Bridge after Bandodcar” and further elaborating that “Maharastrawadi Gomantak Party’s Mapusa block committee has written to PWD and Transport minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar stating that the third Mandovi bridge be named Bhausab Bandodcar Bridge.  The MGP block committee has passed a resolution to this effect”.

I, on behalf of all the like minded Goans strongly oppose this naming business of third Mandovi Bridge after the most disgraceful anti-Goan and Maharastra/Marathi inclined Dayananda  Bandodcar.  This man was nothing but a curse on Goa and today we are suffering the disease of “bhaile” dominating in Goa it is mainly because of this originally “bhailo” Bandodcar who or whose elders settled in the village of Bandodda from where they derived their Surname for them.  The ”bhaile” who are settled in greater number in the north Goa created a vote Bank for MGP because they inclined towards their ancestry originating in the neighbouring parts of Maharastra. For this reason Bandodcar counted on them vowing to reunite them with their ancestral land and they too were happy about it because they were interested in robbing the Goans of their genuine culture, tradition, language, folklore and everything that is Goan and imposing on Goa everything “bhailem”.

During the Portuguese regime Bandodocar was living as a slave of Portuguese saying every time “Sim Senhor” to the Portuguese personnel and even giving in writing as per one source, his total allegiance to Portugal but once Portuguese were ousted from Goa he indicated his hidden anger not only on genuine Goans but more on Goan Christians by forming MGP to merge Goa with Maharastra and thereby to strip Goan Christians of their culture, tradition, history, language (Konkani in Roman Script), their folk songs, folk plays, folk tales and everything Goans that was protected so tightly by the Goan Christians.   He wanted to make Goan Christian as second class citizens in Goa.  He created an impression that Goan Christians have enjoyed better life in Goa during Portuguese regime and they had better rapport with the Portuguese.  This thought of Bandodcar was wrong.  In fact it is the Hindu community in Goa including Bandodcar himself that enjoyed better facilities and better life in Goa because it is they who held full control of the Trade and Commerce in Goa.  Who were the Chowgules, Dempos, Salgaocars, Shantilals, Caculos, Timblos and so many others?  No doubt a good percentage of the lower strata of Hindus have faced lot of difficulties but the Christians were not responsible for this plight of theirs, along with them even the lower strata of the Christians also suffered. However, Christians always took care of them when charitable food items were distributed to them along with poor Christians at regular intervals in the Church. These items were sent from abroad by the Christian organizations for the poor in Goa. Now,  to improve the quality of these poor Hindus what have all the top millionaire businessmen have done?  To alleviate their financial and social standing all these top businessmen could have done so much but they were crook, they were selfish, instead they on the contrary, at least many of them, told the lower segment of Hindus that their prevailing financial and social plight was due to the step-motherly treatment given to you by the Portuguese affording preferential treatment  to the Christians.

Goaan Christians from the lower segment have  not received any preferential or special treatment from the Portuguese.  In fact they put in extra effort to develop themselves by taking risks and going abroad, first to Bombay, then to  Karachi and then to “Tarvar”, Gulf and many other places in the world. By journeying to the outside world for the sake of their livelihood they made lot of sacrifices facing lot of risks.  Their Church supported this move of theirs and not opposed them in the name of their Gods and Goddesses. By being Christians means to bind oneself by his religious belief to help others, to co-operate with others and to live in harmony and peace with his fellow being and above all to love his fellow human beings.   Because of their iconic principle of Love, Christians are acceptable by anyone, Christians are not much known to own the houses of Bhattkars and of others, Chritstians are not much known to usurp the land of others for them, Christians are not known much for duping those from whom they received loans to purchase Buses, Cars, Bikes and to construct houses and to do the business.  Christians in the greater sense were accepted by anybody because by virtue of being Christians and the followers of Christ, to a much greater extent they are sincere, faithful, truthfull and not crook.

The name for the 3^rd Mandovi Bridge should be given from anyone Goan from any community who has done great service for Goa by being a perfect secular, perfect lover of Konkani, promoter of Goan Culture, tradition, history and other aspects of Goan life. Dayananda Bandodcar was not a true Goan, he was a fake Goan, he worked against the interest of genuine Goans. He worked for the destruction of Goan language Konkani and instead tried to impose a foreign language Marathi on Goa from nowhere. This was the game of lying and cheating which he played well but ultimately failed to win because of our victory in the historic Opinion Poll.  He made open distinction between Hindus and Christians by leaning towards Hindus mainly the lower segment of Goan society, in fact he believed and acknowledged only the “Bahujan samaz” from the Hindus as if among the Christians there was no Bahujan Samaz.  His hatred and disliked for the Goan Christians was open and clear. And for such person to bring him to the pedestal by naming the Third Mandovi Bridge  after him will be doing injustice to Goa and Goans. 

A.Veronica Fernandes.

WARNING TO CONGRESS PARTY IN GOA.

The greater number of Seats the Goan voters gave to Congress in the last Goa Legislative Assembly election was definitely not for the love of Congress but it was surely for the dislike of the BJP. However, inspite of this fact, the Congress Party failed us in forming the government thereby defeating our purpose of giving them on silver platter the highest number of Seats.  In fact because of their Sins they deserved not even 25% of what they received. Now, what guarantee is there that they will not repeat the similar types of occurrences in the coming election if they  get the greater number of Seats again?  For this reason much in advance I suggest to the Congress party first only to put its house into order and declare its Chief Ministerial candidate in advance.

The Congress party in Goa is in the hands “Chors” otherwise let them all headed by my locality “bhav” who is the master crook of extorting bribe from the people and instill fear into their hearts by taking personal revenge against them, disclose their source of income to build their business empires. Congress Party is currently in the hands of “Rostad” who got no love for the party nor for its principles but in the name of Congress Party they want power in their hands.  And on top of it, our cunning “bhav” who is the most corrupt politician of Goa, when he was in power he was acting like a member of Czarist clan dealing with his opponents in his locality ruthlessly even with his relatives and neighbours. He refused to accept the dissent from anyone in his locality preferring whatever he wants it must be done. When he was in power local people were living in fear because this rascal was harassing the locals especially his adversaries, demanding bribe heavily for any work in the local Panchayat that made him super hero of the type of Hitler.  According to his command, all the files should be sent to his house and when he finished his job of obtaining from the owners of those files his bribe, then only he used to release the files of course by distributing the “quota” of all the Beggars ruling the Panchayat.   In fact his Panchayat administrative power he usurped in such a manner that he was acting as “de facto” Panchayat that means no file  could move forward without his approval. This is the class of very many Congressmen. In fact during his hey days mothers from his locality used to put their children to sleep by taking his name, saying “baby, go – go to sleep, he is coming, go to sleep quickly otherwise he will take you in his sack and put you in the jungle because he is the king of jungle raj”. For this reason he got a royal kick on his back in the last election.

According to the news in circulation in my locality he is clamouring to contest the next election though he knows his chances are very bleak because of which he was for the last election uprooted from his own constituency and implanted elsewhere where he suffered the most humiliating defeat from his opponent. Earlier in the previous election from his own constituency he also suffered the most resounding defeat because people have realized how corrupt he is and because of this he was voted out and even in the coming election if at all he ventures to contest, all the locals with whom he acted like Hitler must join together to unify their efforts to give him a very nasty defeat.  Such rascals are not meant to become the MLA’s nor Sarpanches neither Panch Members because they are revengeful, traitors, bribe extortionist and sex maniacs.  They don’t possess any virtue to impress upon the voters. In one word they are worse than Barberians. Election is the right time for the common men especially to those who were earlier treated badly by their elected representatives, to show the power of their votes.  That he will receive the defeat is a sure fact even if he contests from the most safest constituency because people from all over Goa recognized his modus operandi of “once got his work done then discard the person from whom he received the benefits”.  I hereby caution Mr. Girish the Congress President as I warned last time Luizinho Faleiro that beware of this Saddam Hussein, in his mind there is nothing but “Kande & Bottatte” which helps him to be aggressive and revengeful. Let all who faced his persecution join together and throw him out of the reach of Ccongress Ticket in the coming election.  Now if gets thru then like a wounded Lion he would do nothing but act as a revengeful man by going after his adversaries to quench the thirst of his anger. This type of job these people are good to do because they belonged to the “Gharanne” of hoi-polloi parents who are not intellectually advanced nor educationally good.  Those children coming from the hoi-polloi domestic parents, what good they will normally acquire even though there are very many cases where children of such “Gharanne” and Parentage acquired much higher laurels because of their good character.

Then there are many oldies there in the Congress party who are so dead physically and mentally yet they are still aspiring to become the CM once again when their one leg is already in the grave.  The craze of Prataphsing Rauzi Rane to become the CM of Goa again is so strong that he as per one source, even refused his son’s coaxing him to join the BJP.  Many times luck favours him as it happened when he became the CM of Goa for the first time by bypassing Dr. Wilfred D’Souza who otherwise deserved to be the CM of Goa but Narshinva Naik (Babu) being anti-Christian suddenly proposed the name of Rane who was anti-Goan, anti-Konkani, anti-Christian and anti-everything that is pro-Goa and pro-Goans.   Goa and Goans suffered more during his CMinistership.  People must campaign hard to deny him any portfolio if Congress forms the next ministry. Physically he looks to be in Congress but soully he is with his son in BJP for this reason he keeps his silence over all the ills bjp creates in Goa.

Then there is Ravi Naik whose son has brought such a disgrace on him that he even not feeling shy to own him as his son.  If he was Mahatma Gandhi, he would disown Roy instructing the authorities concerned to deal with him as per the law.  I cannot understand why Ravi Naik is so ambitious to become the CM again when he lost his capacity to do any constructive work. His silence over the nonsense BJP is creating in Goa is very disturbing.

Then comes our Luizinho Faleiro who is only praising Sonia Gandhi calling her Madam Sonia Gandhi told me this and that. What is that Sonia Gandhi?  What extraordinary she an Italian waitress in England is capable of doing?  Just because she got married to Rajiv Ghandi she came into limelight otherwise she is a just house wife good for taking care of their children and daily chores in the house.   She is not meant to rule the country but the shameless Indians without who are good to give hero worship to the white skinners and with the blind allegiance to the Nehru Family raised her to the pedestal. It is intriguing that he and Digamar Kamat another aspirant of CM’s Chair are not raising their voices against the mess BJP is making in Goa.

These unfit oldies from Congress Party could be told clearly and loudly that they are a big liability on the party because of their greed for the Chief Minister’s “Kodel”. They must now only decide whom they will prefer to be their CM but one thing they must know that we will not accept from their mouth the statement that “we have put this matter into the hands of High Command in Delhi”.  Just as we are responsible to elect them so also these elected representatives should be made responsible to select their leader and not those pigheaded Delhi Babus who know nothing of Goa. The Congress Party must shed its wings of feudal lords. The Congressmen loves to act as feudal lords which they imitated from British Monarchy and because of this they want to be as Monarchs in India. The British at the time of handing over the political power into their hands headed by their Indian King/Monarch Jawarhalal Nehru thought that Congressmen will be suitable to keep the image of British Monarchy going in India because these Congressmen love to act as Monarchs as long as they hold power in India.

Secondly, Congress lost many of its sure seats in the last election only because of the tickets given to the earlier defeated candidates most of them were corrupt, acquirers of disproportionate wealth thru illicit means, arrogant and proud as I have one below my nose having all the bad attributes and who love to act as Czar.  Most of the Congress personnel sitting in their headquarters in Delhi and Panjim are unaware of the realities that we grassroots level supporters of Congress are aware. In fact people in their constituencies hate these types of candidates and as such in the coming election they should be told  to stay out.  Otherwise, all the supporters of Congress must oppose the candidates imposed on the voters by their headquarters.

It is time now for all the Congress supporters and workers to be assertive of their rights to put the house of Congress into order by taking law into their own hands while dealing with the Congressmen. The Congressmen will have to do what we want them to do, they cannot treat us as “GHANTTA BOIL”.  

A.Veronica Fernandes.