UNDER 17 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

THE Under 17 Women’s World Cup is likely to be held on schedule (India, from October 11 to 30, 2022) October to 30 as the Supreme Court has withdrawn the committee of administration which it had replaced a government body with. However, NCP’s Praful Patel has been dropped from the managing committee.  The SC has taken strong objection to blackmail by the world football governing body FIFA

GOVERNMENT JOBS FOR MEDAL WINNERS!

A  MAJOR incentive for sports persons in Goa is that those who win medals at national or international level will be guaranteed government jobs. The first to benefit is chess queen Bhakti Kulkarni. Considering the obsession with government jobs this may actually encourage more young people to take to take sports seriously.

BREAKFAST CEREALS

A VERY wide range of imported breakfast cereals made by American Kellogg have become fashionable food for our Indian middle class. Muesli is a mixture of cereal flakes, fruit, nuts, seeds, etc, and supposed to be the best nutritious and fibre-rich breakfast food of them all. We bought a packet muesli with the claim on it stating that expiry from February 2022 would be in nine months, that is October the same year. It was already September when bought the packet with the expiry date running out rapidly.

We presume the expiry period of 9 months is subject to the concerned product being stored in a cool dry place or in the fridge.
We are not sure if this expire period apples to American and European conditions or Indian conditions. We have noticed how Cadbury chocolate made in the UK is better tasting and not as sweet as Cadbury made in  India for Indian sweet tooths. Food critics also say Indian chocolate has too much zinc in it for prolonging its shelf life outside refrigeration. You may suffer from mineral toxicity if you eat too much chocolate!

Curiously, amongst those manufacturing breakfast muesli is Patanjali which presumably offers an Ayurvedic formula to its muesli and probably has dry dates in it. We haven’t eaten the Ayurvedic muesli  yet but are not sure we can for we have difficulty chewing with our dentures. However, one question: Can all these sugary cereals stay edible with such a prolonged nine months expiry date in our tropical climatic and indifferent refrigeration conditions? Surely real time expiry should be within three months only! You are warned to be careful while buying both Indian and foreign company brands of cereals. Don’t buy if they are close to expiry dates mentioned on packages eco-friendly or not eco-friendly.

POTHOLE DEATHS

ACCORDING to Transport & Highways Ministry 2,300 lives are lost every year due to potholes on roads. The Supreme Court has raised concerns over the indifference of governmental authorities in maintaining roads. The Kerala HC calls potholes as man-made disasters under the Disaster Management Act. Now the Transport Department will have to explain if cause of death is attributed to potholes. Goa has the largest number of potholes for sure!

DRONES FOR FARMERS!

GOAN farmers will soon get drones to effectively sow seeds from the air as well as spray pesticides – so that agricultural produce may increase! The initiative has been taken by the Don Bosco Chinchinim Agricultural Club and the first drone of its kind will go on air on August 29 to show farmers the way to go. This will eliminate labour-intensive manual sowing of seeds and sprinkling of pesticides. Reportedly, this is a low-cost-high production alternative to existing farming methods.

SAHITYA AWARD FOR MYRON/ JYOTI

FR MYRON Barreto and Jyoti Kunkoliekar have been awarded Sahitya Academy awards for the year 2022 in the Konkani language. Fr Myron Barreto has been given the award for his literary work “Tailo” (The Voice), a compilation of essays. Jyoti Kunkoleikar who has 33 Konkani book to her credit has been given the award for translating two autobiographies of former Goa governor, Mridula Sinha. An unusual aspect of the Sahitya award for Konkani is that only books which are translated from Romi Konkani and Devanagari Konkani into English are considered for the award.