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Title: Volume 64 - Issue 2
Date: 2012
Table of contents:
    p. 16-21: Viegas, Savia, Introduction | This thematic issue celebrates the syncretic culture of Goa beyond the guidebook. The unique historical influences – native, colonial, postcolonial – have inspired the writer, the musician and the artist, the culinary expert and the stylist to absorb the aromas of incoming winds, infusing them with flavours of their own. As is the case with most postcolonial societies, Goa is caught in the past and present.
    p. 23-25: Couto, Maria Aurora, Writing on Goa | Goa boasts of literary traditions in Konkani, Portuguese, English and Marathi, and this vibrant literary life was a characteristic of late 19th/early 20th century Goa. Writing in English came to Goa after centuries of Portuguese domination. Konkani literature in Devanagari script too was reborn at this time. Goan writers have begun to look at their past and issues of the present, expressing their angst with humanism, wit and irony.
    p. 26-29: Mauzo, Damodar, Notes of a Native Son | The use of Konkani was banned in 1684 and this was a blow to the language’s survival. Despite this the zeal of the people in keeping their mother tongue alive is remarkable. Exiled writers carried on their pursuits from neighbouring places. The liberation of 1961 gave Konkani the necessary boost and it received further fillip with its 1975 recognition by Sahitya Akademi as an independent literary language.
    p. 30-41: Colaco, Francisco C., The Sounds of Music: From Ghumott and Violin to Trance | The ghumott, a percussion instrument, is Goa’s musical symbol. It was in Goa that Indian musicians first began to compose in Western musical forms. Goa also pioneered an ethnomusicology, providing a model for preserving India’s folk music. In parish schools emphasis was laid on singing and playing instruments. Gifted Catholics earned fame in bands in Bombay and as far as Europe and Africa. Goans became leading jazz players and joined Hindi film music studios. More recently a subculture of music has burgeoned on the beaches: punk, hiphop and now Goa Trance, which has become a global phenomenon, being played in other countries and drawing people to Goa. For Goan society these beach parties with drug-taking have been a cultural shock.
    p. 42-55: Viegas, Savia, Destined Journeys: The Paintings of Angelo da Fonseca and Vamona Navelcar | The article traces the artistic journeys of two artists, Angelo da Fonseca in the 1920s, and the dusk of British rule in India, and Vamona Navelcar in the 1950s, the dusk of Portuguese rule in Goa. Issues of race and religion marked their entry into the art world, and their styles and themes reflect the exigencies of their times. da Fonseca’s work, radical for his time, centres on the reinvention of the indigenous iconographic tradition and modernism in church art. Navelcar’s work was influenced by Goa, later he studied but was discriminated against in Portugal and Mozambique where he taught in the hinterlands. An octogenarian, little known outside Goa, though his work is in collections worldwide, he continues to paint drawing on tradition, originality and nature.
    p. 56-63: Souza, Francis Newton with Baiju Parthan, Last Supper and Other Tales | In 2001, the artist Baiju Parthan shared studio space in California with pioneering and iconoclastic artist F.N. Souza shortly before Souza’s death. The author narrates their conversations on the strong Catholic influences of Souza’s childhood to the development of his style and the controversies that surrounded him.
    p. 64-71: Viegas, Savia, Revisiting the Colonial Archive | Photography came to Goa in the 1880s, four decades after the invention of the camera and its introduction in British India. The premier studio was Souza and Paul but lack of documentation on this Panjim studio makes it an enigma. The selection of panoramas here from c. 1890 are from the Central Library, Panjim.
    p. 72-77: Lourenco, Jose, Tiatr: Living in the Love of the Common People | Born of a marriage between Goan folk theatre and European operatic tradition, Tiatr has grown into the most popular and commercially successful genre of Konkani theatre. Its traditional format of a main story interspersed with side acts of comedy and song still holds sway, providing its audience with much needed catharsis and insight into their own world. Now in its 120th year, Tiatr continues to regale viewers across all classes and provide employment to writers, actors, singers, directors and other professionals. As Konkani grapples with its multiple communities, scripts and dialects, Tiatr transforms the same potentially divisive qualities into ingredients for a lively feast of tear-jerkers, heart-pounders and rib ticklers. This dramatic form’s survival and prosperity for over a century in nearly intact form defines it as one of the most stable symbols of Konkani communication and aesthetics.
    p. 78-87: Rodricks, Wendell, Clothes in Time: The Warp and the Weft | Fashion designer Wendell Rodricks looks at the politics of the wardrobe as it unfolded in time: the pudvem made way for trousers, the sari for the pano baju, and this was reversed in postcolonial times. Change in taste of apparel also created new styles in jewellery and overall attire. The designs and fashions were a blend of two prominent cultures and Catholic and Hindu practices.
    p. 88-93: Silva Gracias, Fatima da, Into the Melting Pot | Goan cuisine is an interesting fusion of several culinary cultures .When the Portuguese conquered Goa in 1510, this tiny territory was an emporium of trade, inhabited by natives and people from various countries of Asia – people with diverse cultures and culinary styles. The Portuguese carried with them foodstuff from their country, recipes and methods of cooking. They brought along a profusion of exotic plants producing luscious fruits and vegetables from the New World (Americas) and other places. Food habits developed via religion, interaction, miscegenation, and migration of Goans. These contacts forged radical changes in Goan cuisine. It contributed to processes of adaptation, assimilation and “westernization”. A few of the recipes brought in by the rulers retained their original form in Goa, many were modified to suit local needs. The history of Goan cuisine tells us how various regions of the world have left their flavours in the land and how these influences brought about a revolution in Goa's food culture.

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