Hard work, the Goan way.
Pre-siesta siesta, in the salt pan near Ribandar
5D Mark III, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II
Mid-morning tonic
5D Mark III, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II
Leisure, the Goan way.
Scenes I picked up over the past few days in Goa.
In St. Estevem
5D Mark III, Zeiss ZE 50 f/2 MP
By the bridge in Akhado
5D Mark III, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II
Sea breeze in Siridona: my father Motilal Parrikar (centre) with Bernard Pires (l) and Valent Rodrigues (r)
5D Mark III, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II
PS: Some days back my MacBook Pro suffered a drop resulting in a damaged display. Fortunately, a friend helped arrange a loaner external monitor. Since it is an uncalibrated display I will have to hold off doing any colour critical work until I get back to California.
Always enjoy your pictures, these specifically speak volumes if one can hear it.
Thanks for Sharing.
Nice pic of the laterite stones and of the village folks. Good to see your Dad. Thanks for the pics.
Lovely, poignant series. This is good stuff indeed.
Catch ‘em young.
Candids of my understudy.
My niece Saraswati in Saligao, Goa
5D Mark III, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II
What beautiful pictures, Rajan! Besides, she is a true niece of a true Mama.
I thought the Parrikars had banned “point and click”?
And she has superior photographic genetics working in her favor.
Pure joy.
My lens tracked this little boy gamboling on the beach with his father in tow yesterday in Siridona, Goa.
Little Pushkar with his father Prashant Mandrekar
5D Mark III, 70-200L f/2.8 IS II
Amazing pics these, Rajan. And Pushkar needs to be on the cover of a global “cuties” magazine!
Lovely pics…! but I’m quite certian little Pushkar is a girl… 
Homage to a great Goan tradition.
(Gone are those legendary bakers and with them their loaves)
Growing up in the Goa we had no use for the alarm clock. Our wake-up call came at daybreak in the form of Ponk! Ponk!, the horn announcing the arrival of the neighborhood baker on his bicycle. Piping hot bread delivered to our doorstep was something we took for granted. It was part of being Goan. The tradition still continues, although the quality of bread has considerably diminished (to keep up with the Goan taste).
The art of breadmaking is a legacy vouchsafed Goans by the Portuguese. The Goan pão is (rather, was) a culinary masterpiece. Pão is Portuguese for bread, and the Goan breadmaker is known locally as poder, an adaptation of the Portuguese padeiro.
Breadmaking in Goa has for centuries been the province of the Catholic community. It is a family tradition handed down over generations with the entire clan involved in the operation. Every village has its own bakery or two where you may drop in unannounced, reel in your pão straight from the furnace, deposit money, and be on your way, all in a matter of a couple of minutes.
The three main varieties of Goan bread are the soft and chewy pão (cube), the crisp undo (round), and the poie (whole wheat pockets). The undo is delicious dipped in hot tea, but it goes especially well with xacuti. Another intriguing form is what is known as katricho pão (lit. scissored bread) where the dough is shaped with scissors. Then there is the kaknam (lit. bangles), rings of crusty bread, so called because they tinkle like glass bangles when fresh out of the oven. The practice of leavening dough with toddy has been retired, alas.
The occupation has come under stress in recent times with the changing social and economic patterns. See Dr. Nandkumar Kamat‘s tribute to the Goan poder.
In 2007, my wife Veena and I spent time at a couple of poders’, one in St Inez near Panjim and the other in Saligao. Following the photographs is a slideshow.
Goan pão
5D, 24-105L
Piping hot and crisp unde
5D, 24-105L
Demonstrating katriche pão (scissored bread)
5D, 24-105L
Finished katriche pão
5D, 24-105L
Goan poie (whole wheat pockets)
5D, 24-105L
Prepping for poie
5D, 24-105L
Out for delivery
5D, 24-105L
Click on the image below to fire up the slideshow lightbox.
I feel sorry when I visit a traditional poder. I feel like crying when I see the way they live and work. Tried to liase with their associations closely to get a welfare package. They are not really making profits on bread. This may be last generation of Goan poders with branded products slowly taking over. Your effort therefore is “true to goencho pav’ Rajanbab…noble and commendable. I feel hungry after looking at all these aromatic photographs
Great pictorial homage to the common daily bakery products of Goa. Trust this traditional occupation is preserved through institutional encouragement.A MAC VAZ( Goan Feni Distiller) amongst bakers is needed ,to get geographical indication for ‘kundeache poie”- a speciality Goan Bread.
Fantastic!!
Thanks for documenting traditional goan occupations
Its a pity that their umbrella organization does not make efforts to upgrade the knowledge base and technical know how of its members. The All Goa Bakers Union comes alive only when they want an increase in the price of bread.
In the old days, the bread was tasty because toddy was used as a leavening agent. While toddy is difficult to procure today, perhaps some research may find a leavening agent that could help produce better tasting loaves. Often times, the yeast leavened bread tastes like cardboard.
Rajan, you say that these pictures were taken in 2007. Ten years from today they will be used as evidence of a dead profession.
I was in Goa in 2012 and the young person on the bike selling bread early in the morning could not speak Konkani. He was insisting that all the Siolim villagers speak to him in English, which he had only a rudimentary knowledge of. I later learnt that the village bread-maker could not find people to do the tough work in his bakery and could not sell the business either, so he leased the bakery to people from a southern state. I would like to be unbiased but the bread was dry and did not taste anything like it did 10 years ago.
Lovely documentary and already, sadly, history. Flashed me back to my childhood in London when the Express Dairy milkman would ring the bell with fresh milk in hand while picking up the ‘empties’. We kids would rush out to feed his horse an apple ….
Thanks for publishing these photographs here.
Hi,
Just a couple of days back I was composing a poem and here is the first stanza (unedited:
WHERE IS MY GOA
THAT SOSSEGADO LITTLE PLACE
OF SIMPLE SOULS BUT WELL-LIVED RACE
IN MY GOA THERE WERE GOAN BAKERS AND BAKERIES
TAUGHT BY THE JESUIT ‘MESTRES’
THE BREAD WAS WELL BAKED AND GOOD TO EAT
TODAY’S BREAD MADE BY THE KARWARIS
IS HALF BAKED AND SOGGY JUST LIKE THEIR OILY PURIS
Richard Cabral
Thanks. Pics drove me crazy. In Kapileshwarim as young unmarried professionals, the Pao made our day. Staple food even in remote villages. We miss it in Bangalore. Even in Mumbai where it’s poor cousin ‘Khadak Paav’ was available a decade ago, is now available only in select bakeries. Gen x hardly recognize it on their own and market is shrinking. May be some new age entrepreneur would reinvent it and introduce as ‘Goan Unde/ Katri Pao’ a la ‘Goli Vada pao’ now making quite a business in Bangalore.
There are still a few small bakeries left in some of the smaller towns, I have seen one as recently as 2012.
Maybe these loaves need to be re-invented as artisan breads.
They do have health benefits, I remember my mum, who was a diabetic, would always prefer to buy the poie
Took me on a trip down memory. Remember the humble Poder with
great affection. Thanks for those “tempting” pictures
by Rajan P. Parrikar
Great photos! You captured the spirit of a disappearing Goa….
I love the way you have infused humor in these warm and gentle images, clearly evincing the deep love you have for your beautiful Goa.
Oh, to be in Goa again and savor that mid-morning tonic!
Mervyn Maciel(U.K.)
From a distance, that mid-morning tonic looks like IMFL ….probably a “whishk”. I would have titled the pic ” STRABISMUS’ (;-)
Best
jc