I was loitering in Korgaon one evening, taking in the languid rhythms of this rural corner of Goa, when I first spotted Ganulo ambling along on the village street. I trailed him firing off several frames without his knowledge before striking up an acquaintance. Ganulo is the nickname of Ghanashyam Dhond, a lifelong denizen of…
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva constitute the Trimurthi of the Hindu pantheon. Of the three, Brahma the Creator is the odd one out: He has less than 10 temples dedicated to Him alone in the whole of India. The puranas ascribe this anomaly to a curse inflicted on Him by Lord Shiva. The Brahma temple in…
No visual symbol distinguishes Goa from the rest of India quite as tellingly as its capital city of Panjim, perched on the banks of River Mandovi. Panjim attained prominence in 1827 when the Portuguese transferred their capital from Old Goa. In 1843, it was elevated to a city, awarded upgrades befitting the capital of Estado…
This entry is motivated by the following news item in the January 6, 2010 edition of the Goan daily Herald. This willfull destruction of Goa‘s cultural heritage has become commonplace now that the disease of mindless ‘development’ and ‘modernization’ has firmly taken hold. Exquisite old temples built by our traditional gavandis (masons) are…
My little nephew Yash insists on accompanying me on my photo shoots in Goa. The joy of having him around is tempered with exasperation for he follows me like a shadow, replicating every single move of mine. If I bend he does likewise, if I crouch he follows suit, and if I take a piddle…
