An Emerald fleck on India’s western shore…. A 50-minute flight-out south of Bombay…GOA ! A holiday –maker’s paradise …sprawling hills, meandering rivers, lush green fields…miles and miles of virgin beach…Goa has it all! ! !

With its sunlit beaches, green hills, silvery waterways, waterfalls, and lakes, Goa has always been a unique spot with vast tourist potentialities, which are now being re-discovered continuously. The gift of nature has endowed Goa with enchanting loveliness and idyllic serenity. It’s culture… a unique blend of the Indian and Portuguese, laced with ‘Alegeria’, and the Goan spirit of laughter, good fellowship and song. Besides a long and checkered history, Goa reflects in its monuments, churches, temples, forts, its colorful festivals throughout the year, music, cuisine, and even a distinct style of living—a harmonious blending of the East and West. (continued)

Goan Food Not Limited To Fish And Feni

PANJIM: Goan food and drink is not limited to "fish and feni". There are tonnes of other variants and options that most visitors, and even locals, are often unaware of, says a new guide to Goan food and beverages.

Food Stop, a newly-published comprehensive guide to the traditional food of Goa edited by former Herald journalist Melanie Sequeira lists some 350 recipes.

Focussing on age-old culinary art of Goa, this guide also offers an insight into the equipment handed down over generations -- from the adoi (grater-cutter fitted on a wooden platform), to the budkulo (circular mud pot), chaalan (sieve), and the combo (earthern water cooler).

Also introduced to those who may not know are kitchen-equipment like the dovlo (ladle), faatan (flat grinding stone), gainem (strainer), kadai (deep-bottomed pan), kholboto (small pounder), kisnem (grater) and similar equipment. (continued)

The first 24 hour live Konkani Music station, 365 days of the year. Classic songs from Goa, which will bring back memories while you sip on your glass of feni. Song from Lorna, Chris Perry, Remo and popular Goan Masala's can be heard.  (click here)

Also Doutrina Christam em Lingoa Bramana Canarim of Fr. Thomas Stephen was printed at Rachol in 1622. There are copies of it at National Library of Lisbon and at the Vatican Library. Prof. Mariano Saldanha reprinted it with notes in 1945.

There is Arte da Lingoa Canarim composed by the same Thomas Stephen of 1640, and copies are found at the National Library of Lisbon and at SOAS, London.  (continued)

The Konkani tiatr, a dramatic art form, unique to Goa has flourished and thrived for over a hundred years. Tiatr has been sustained entirely by popular support as it has never been extended any patronage and help either by the Portuguese colonial regime or successive governments in post liberation Goa.

The Kala Academy, which is the premier institution in the State for the promotion of performing art has historically ignored tiatr. The Chairman of the Kala Academy was present on the occasion of a function associated with the tiatr recently for the first time probably because the Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha, an avid tiatr fan was the chief guest. Not just the Kala Academy, but even institutions like the Konkani Academy set up with the primary objective of promoting Konkani language and culture has tended to regard tiatr as a low brew form of popular entertainment rather than a distinct art form. In the highly casteist Goan society, tiatr has been looked down upon as a popular form of entertainment of the lower classes. So much in the so-called elite sections of society tiatr is virtually looked upon as taboo and unsophisticated. (continuted)

The present paper gives a brief historical perspective of Goan migration. It attempts to examine the push and pull factors that have contributed to Goan migration to the Middle East in recent times. The paper will show also how a Goan abroad attempts to preserve his heritage in terms of culture, which includes religion, food, dress, attitude, habits and other influences.

Goans have been migrating through the ages from their land either to settle permanently or for short period of time. There is a reference to sporadic migration of Goans from early period. M.N. Pearson says that “ Goa had always, even in pre-Portuguese times, been open to the Arabian sea and its littoral ”^[1]. The first recorded wave of Goan migration can be traced back to the sixteenth century – the first century of the Portuguese rule in Goa.

Goan migration has never been uniform. It took shades. We may classify Goan migration into three main phases : The early initial migration to the neighbouring kingdoms, migration to British India and Africa, and the postcolonial migration to the Gulf, the West (Europe and America), Australia and New Zealand. More

GOAN OVERSEAS DIGEST