THIS old Caranzalem park-cum-children’s playground is in need of civic and human love…even as children and seniors spend time here for some rest and recreation, the beautiful mosaic benches need cleaning regularly and look at the shocking amount of garbage all around, even at the peripheries. The playground needs a real good clean-up, salvaging and restoration from civic fathers, political godfathers and godmothers, local councilor, CCP supervisor and whatever NGOs there be whose hearts beat more for down-market Panaji localities!

By Tara Narayan

PANAJI is called the garden city of Goa. Gardens little or large are the lungs of any urban place and especially one like capital city Panaji which is in the throes of construction activity here, there and everywhere. Actually, in the old days Goans used to think of Panaji as a town of pretty gardens and look forward to visiting it.
Panaji has gardens and parks, some well looked after if they’re located in posh upmarket areas and if there is a sponsor like the Dempo’s (the one at the La Campala Colony)! But some are little lost pocket gardens or parks neglected and badly treated (some surreptitiously grabbed by residents if they can do it, make them more private than public if they can).
Downmarket areas have the saving grace of a few pocket gardens and parks but these need to be restored urgently. Take this old Caranzalen children’s park near Our Lady of Rosary Church down the inner road going to Dona Paula circle.
Here is where the children of the poor play but it is in a shoddy state of maintenance, forget tender loving care. This playground is a broken down affair crying out for some attention! Yet it is a charming sit-out for many at any time of the day, children living in slum quarters nearby practically haunt it for a bit of escape.

There is a kind of lovely gateway but it’s crying out to be restored and given a name! Flowers burst out here and there but the parapet running around is in a sad state of shambles with rubble and heavyweight stones to stumble over here and there. Pretty swings and slides and other playing ground equipment need a clean-up.
Just flush in the background is a huge jungle of debris and collected rubbish with a pit of water, nobody knows what the problem is here but it’s a hazardous background for any child or senior citizen taking a break here. Needless to say the playground buzzes with mosquitoes and other critters of a badly looked after play park even if it is more utilized than better gardens elsewhere! Nobody comes and plants trees here, nobody comes to have a farmer’s market here!
Nobody is interested in places where the children of a lesser god grow up! Not the Corporation of the City of Panaji, not local councillor Nelson, not local MLA Jennifer Monserrate, not Commissioner Agnelo Fernandes, not Mayor Rohit Monserrate, nobody from the CCP’s gardens and parks department. Panaji’s collection of gardens and parks have a hierarchy when it comes to maintenance but few are public-friendly or inviting enough to make one feel like stepping in to spend some time there.