Goa's football lover, Noel Lima Leitao passes away

Well known football commentator from Goa, Noel Lima Leitao passed away after reportedly suffering a massive heart attack in his hotel bathroom in Kolkata. He was 51 . Noel was in Kolkata to commentate on the 114th IFA shield matches and had last commentated on the final match at the salt lake stadium in Kolkata. His death has left a large void in the Goan football scenario in the state and has left his friends and Goans at large in a deep sense of anguish.

As per reports appearing in various newspapers, Noel was believed to have suffered a massive heart attack and was found dead in his hotel bathroom on Sunday afternoon after the hotel staff failed to elicit his response either through phone calls or knocks on his door, thereby breaking open the door to find him dead.

A director on the board of Vasco SC, Noel was known to be a jovial figure amongst the football fraternity in Goa and was a known voice on football commentary over various sports television channels.The entire football community in Goa was left numb with his death and visitors poured in at his Vasco residence to offer their condolences. People from all walks of life including politicians, friends, family members and the football community were spotted at the residence of the football loving former treasurer of the Goa football association.

Noel is survived by his wife Nayan tara , four daughters and a Son. Goa has suddenly lost one of its most lovable ambassadors of the game but can take heart form the fact that Noel passed away in the midst of his passion of commentating for the game he loved the most and is so close to the heart of Goans, which is football.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Now "Gomant Vibhushan" award for outstanding Goans

Goans who have done Goa proud with their efforts in various walks of life are on course for due recognition, thanks to an ambitious proposal from the Chief Minister of Goa, Mr Digambar Kamat who announced the "Gomant Vibhushan" award which would be awarded from next year to meritorious Goans who make Goa proud with their contribution both at the national level as well as the international stage.

The Chief Minister explained that the award would not be restricted to personalities from certain fields but would cover all fields, be it sports, art, culture, literature, science etc.

The modalities of the award are expected to be worked out by the department of art and culture and by next year the new recognition in the form of the "Gomant Vibhushan" award will be conferred upon the adjudicated recipient.

Goa tiatrist M Boyer bids adieu

Goa's most famous theatre personality and noted stage artiste, Padma Shree M Boyer passed away at his residence at Raia on Saturday morning after battling with a prolonged illness.The noted Goan dramatist, musician and singer was 78 and is survived by his wife Ms Martha, and five sons, Mr Sebastian, Mr Remus, Mr Stanford, Mr Errol and Mr Sywald.

Born in Raia on October 11 , 1930, and Christened as Manuel Santana Aguiar, he was a favourite performer in School. However the principal  of his school shunned his acting in tiatr and would penalise him with fines every time he was caught while singing on the stage. it is believed that he adopted the name M Boyer after the hollywood artiste Charles Boyer, in order to escape the fines.

Boyer had been a dominant figure on the Konkani tiatr stage for most part of the last century and was well awarded the Padma Shree in 2005 for his immense contribution to art and culture at the hands of former President of India, Mr Abdul Kalam.

To his credit are around 28 awards including the prestigious sangeet natak academy award in 1994 which he received at the hands of former President of India late Shankar Dayal Sharma.

At the age of 18, Boyer shot into the limelight with his very first tiatr titled " Rinkarri" ( Debtor) which he staged at the Mae de Deus Feast at Nuvem in Salcete Goa. The drama was well accepted by the audiences and since then Boyer never looked back.

A composer, singer, scriptwriter, actor, director and producer, in his long career Boyer has staged over 35 tiatrs and held out over 5000 perrformances in various dramas and around 1000 songs rendered in these shows which is a great achievement of this illustrious Goan.

A great writer of plays his own productions include famous tiatrs such as "Ekuch Rosto", which emphasised on social harmony, " Chintnam and Sopnamm" dealing with the evil of drugs, "Sounsar Sudorlo" which was critical of the dowry system, "Bhurguim ani Bhangar" which highlighted the evils of alcoholism, " Adim tem atam hem" which exposed superstitions, Dukhi Ganv Sukhi" dealing with student unrest, while " Mog Kazar Divorce" stressed on the importance of trust and love in the institution of marriage.

Boyer had received a golden corn from the late chief Minister of goa Mr Dayanand Bandodkar for his song "Japanese Okol" which was based on the hybrid variety of rice brought to Goa by the government in those days. Boyer being a favourite of the crowds was repeatedly called on stage to repeat his comedy songs and often used to compose the fourth extra verse on the spot which is a great talent that this artiste possessed.

M Boyer was suffering from Parkinson's disease  for a long time and was recently admitted to a hospital after he was infected with typhoid. After discharging from hospital the artiste was recuperating at home when suddenly the end came

Great Goans : General Sunith F. Rodrigues

Today this blog features General Sunith F. Rodrigues , a Goan who shone outstandingly in the Indian military services as also public service in the country. He is currently the governor of Punjab.

A Goan by heart, General Sunith F. Rodrigues made Goa proud when he was elevated to the highest position in the Indian Army after he was appointed a s the Chief of Army staff in the year 1990 and went on to serve in the position for three years before retiring.

After signing off as the chief of the Indian Armed Forces in June1993, General Sunith Rodrigues, decided to get back to his original roots and therefore decided to settle down in Goa, his native land.

Before calling it a day, his long innings in the military spread over several decades saw him display exceptional bravery in countering numerous testing situations for the country.

He was naturally bestowed with befitting laurels , the most prestigious of them being the Param Veer Chakra award. Now in retirement, he is well and truly on the go in Goa.

Military Service
Born on the 19th of September 1933 in the city of Bombay, he received his education from St. Xavier's High School in Bombay and subsequently attended the joint services wing of the Indian military academy in 1949. Later he was commissioned in the regiment of Artillery in December 1952.

He attended the Defence Services Staff College and took over as GSOI operations in a corps Headquarters in the year 1971.

His bravery came to the fore in the India - Pakistan war of 1972 and was therefore decorated with the Vishist Seva Medal for his exceptional performance.

Between the years 1973 and 1975 he served as a GSOI operation of a division.

From 1975 to 1977 General Sunith Francis Rodrigues led a mountain Brigade in a high altitude terrain. and later attended a course in 1978 at the Royal College of Defense Studies in the United Kingdom

From 1979 to November 1981, he served as the  
Chief instructor of Defense Services Staff College.

In the year 1982, General Sunith Francis Rodrigues secured a Masters Degree in Defense Studies. From 1983 to September 1985 he served as the Chief Staff of a Corps and subsequently was appointed as Director General Military Training.

He continuously held several responsible and prestigious positions in the army. He commanded a corps as GOC in the Northern Sector in 1986.

From November 1987 to April 1989, General Sunith Francis Rodrigues served as Vice Chief of Army Staff and then GOC-in-C of Central Command from April 1989 to October 1989.After that he Commanded the Western region from 01 November 1989 to 30 June 1990.

General Sunith Francis Rodrigues eventually assumed the charge of the Chief of Army Staff in 1990 and served in this post the next three years. He retired on 30 June 1993 after in 41 years of distinguished service to the nation.

During his tenure, General Sunith Rodrigues was known among his compatriots as a thinker and a strategist.

PUBLIC SERVICE
Soon after retirement General Sunith Francis Rodrigues started his sojourn in public service. He was appointed as the Director of the International Centre, Goa where he served for about six years.

Since his retirement, he has been engaged in social and literary pursuits and has also been delivering lectures on strategic issues. He takes a keen interest in education and strives to empower children to achieve their potential.

He was appointed as the advisor in the National Security Advisory Board for two terms and was also associated with various types of social works and used to deliver his valuable speech in different strategic issues. He gave his time for expanding education and inspiring children to achieve their ambition.

General Sunith Francis Rodrigues was appointed on the Executive Council of Goa University for 7 years. He was the member of the Managing Committee of the Goa Chamber of Commerce, Member of the Goa Planning Board and the Board of Governors of the Goa Institute of Management.

Gubernatorial  Position
General Sunith Francis Rodrigues, was appointed as the Governor of Punjab and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh on 8 November 2004.

Goan Natalie comes up with bacterial battery power

With the world looking forward to more greener energy sources, young Goan student Natalie D'silva, a student of Dhempe College of Arts and Science Miramar has spent months in research to come up with a discovery of a means of power generation which promises to help clean up cities.

Working under the guidance of Ms Arina Frank, Lecturer department of Biotechnology and sponsored by the Dempo charities trust, the invention assumes significance in view of the fact that bacteria neither produces any toxic material nor pollutes the environment.

The electricity we normally get is by the burning of fossil fuels. However with the earth's reservoir of fossils depleting continuously, and with rise of pollution being another threat, there is an imperative need for clean energy sources to be found. Currently the world is doing extensive research for an alternative means of generating electricity and Natalie's research is therefore a welcome step in this direction.

The basic principle under which Natalie's research revolves is analogous to that of conventional fuel cells which is an electrochemical energy conversion device that produces from an external supply of fuel.

The research is based on harvesting electricity with the help of microbes which are generally bacteria, which feed on biomass for their respiration. This is referred to as Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) also known as bacterial battery.

The MFC converts chemical energy to electrical energy by the catalytic reaction of microorganisms. A typical microbial fuel cell consists of anode and cathode compartments separated by a cation-specific membrane. In the cathode compartment, substrate is oxidised by microorganisms generating electrons and protons.

Electrons are transferred to the cathode compartment through an external circuit and the protons are transferred to the cathode compartment through the membrane. Electrons and protons are consumed in the cathode compartment combining with oxygen to form water.

Natalie and Ms Arina Frank explored  a marine sponge from the Betul waters and were able to screen about 40 different bacteria from it. Among these bacteria they identified one that could generate a voltage of about 0.47 volts which was higher than reported in scientific papers so far.

Although the project is in its initial stages it seeks to source a cheaper and portable rechargeable source of energy that could be used to power gadgets such as calculators or mobile phones.

As MFCs can use any organic material sources, they can well be installed in water treatment plants to produce electricity from waste and in addition consume the waste material. MFCs also are very clean, efficient and the emissions are below regulations.

The electricity generated by these cells can be stored in rechargeable batteries or capacitors and be utilised whenever needed and is therefore a very potent energy source. MFCs can also be used for  a power source of pacemakers in the body.It would utilise glucose from the blood or other substrates in the body and generate electricity to supply to these devices.

In memory of the father of Goan Tiatr

If one goes to the auditorium of the Ravindra Bhavan complex in Margao, there is a large picture of a man named Joao Agostinho Fernandes , the doyen of Konkani tiatr for Goans. The Chief Minister of Goa Mr Digambar kamat has been instrumental in ensuring that by  fullfilling the promise made to the tiatr fraternity in Goa by honouring the late Joao Agostinho Fernandes, he had successfully won the confidence of many tiatr lovers in the state of Goa.

The naming of the auditorium after the founder of Goan Konkani tiatr, was a long standing demand made by the Dalgado Konknni academi (DKA) way back in 2005 among a charter of fourteen demands.

The reverence for Mr Joao Agostinho Fernandes stems from the fact that his contribution to the development of tiatr has been cherished in the hearts and minds of Goans worldwide.

Goan tiatr as many would not be aware, was actually born in the city of Mumbai around 116 years back in the year 1892 ad a young man called Lucazinho Ribeiro hailing from Sokolwaddo Assagao in  Bardez Goa,  could be traced as the earliest innovator of the modern day tiatr. Lucazinho along with Joao Agostinho Fernandes hailing from the city of Margao and others, staged the first tiatr performance on the occasion of Easter on April 17 1892. This first tiatr was titled " Italian Bhurgo" which was based on an Italian Opera called " Italian Boy". Due to his die hard and sincere efforts to produce tiatrs of better standards, Joao Agostinho Fernandes is identified as the Father of tiatr in Goa.

JA Fernandes was a true artiste of high talent and believed in doing things through hard work and perfection. While most dramas of those days were imitations of English and French theatre, JA Fernandes was unhappy with them because they did not reflect the Goan way of life.

His desire for the Goan touch to the tiatr, brought out his creativity and he decided to write original scripts which include Cavelchi Sundori (Cavel is a place in South Mumbai near Dhobitalao and Sundori means beautiful), revolta de Satari ( based on the Revolt of Sattari in Goa), Bhattkara ( Goan landlo

In 1943, on the occasion of completing fifty years of Goan tiatr, Joao Agostinho fernandes demonstrated his selfless humility when he, despite being the tallest tiatr personality himself, paid rich tributes to Lucazinho ribeiro in an article in a Konkani Weekly called "Goa Mail".

It is indeed a pride for all Goans to see this great Goan inscribe his name in the main auditorium of tiatrs hotbed of Salcete in Margao at the Ravindra Bhavan.

Goa opinion poll hero, still unsung.

The 42nd anniversary of Goa's opinion poll was silently observed on Friday, the 16th January 2009. Barring the fervent desire of a few Goans from Calangute to observe it more gracefully by organising a function, the rest of Goa continues to lap up all the goodness that is available for Goans today by simply ignoring the day and more impo rtantly failing to give due respect and credibility to the die hard resolve of one man who had given Goa its second freedom. The charismatic Jack de Sequeira.

While freedom fighters in Goa are well aroused from their slumber at the very mention of Portugal and come out with their knives to search for probable singers of that song, they have joined mainstream Goa to conveniently forget Goa's greatest hero ever. Jack de Sequeira. But for him, Goa would have been lost in the din and clatter of a gigantic state like Maharashtra and be emptied of its identity and colour by the self styled pride of the Marathi Manoos.

It took ordinary citizens from the state of Goa, to pool their own resources to build a statue of the "Father of the opinion poll" in the village of Calangute where he belonged, simply because his fellow villagers couldn't bear to see the sense of disregard that the Goa government was heaping on their repeated requests to honour the late leader.

The Goa opinion poll was the only such poll from the public held in India due to the initiative taken by Sequeira though many other Goans also worked towards achieving the objective. The present government of Goa exists only because we had an opinion poll and kept us united as Goans. All our 40 MLA's who love their political chaos and who are able to mint their self glory can do so only because of that historic opinion poll. If not there might have been one or two MLAs from Goa representing two districts of north and south Goa in the Maharashtra assembly and their voices would have been stifled with the might of  a huge legislative assembly. None would ever see the Minister's chair either and Goa and its beauty would have been lost in the myriad ambitions of a greater Maharashtra.

The callousness of the Goa government over according due respect to Jack de Sequeira is therefore shameful and condemnable. Despite plenty of demands from various people in Goa to erect statues of the great leader in places such as Panjim and Cortalim, the government turned a blind eye to all such requests. There is no official function to honour the great leader and his great deeds either.

Instead we have statues of all and sundry in Goa, some of whom have never visited Goa. Pleasing various lobbies and appeasing strangers seems to be the political wisdom of our current lot of politicians in Goa. Festivals such as IFFI seem to be the gleeful attraction of the Goa government but honouring its own citizens for their immortal actions seems to the last thing on their mind.

Will Goa ever see the due honour and respect befitting a leader of the stature of the great Goan, Jack de Sequeira? Will January 16th ever be the most cherished day for Goa? Will the curtain of blindness drawn on the eyes of the Goa government for 42 years, ever be swept aside? Will Goans stand up and claim their lost pride?

 

Xittuk Goencar