Glimpses of the Matiechen Fest in Pilerne…A outing like no other to beguile the senses and catch up with a slice of Goa of begone days, still existing in village Goa and worth reviving and showcasing for locals as also tourists…see the best face of Goa!

THERE is so much to Goa’s blend of Christian and Hindu cultures even if there as many commonalities and differences! Both celebrate the fruit of the earth and our friend festaker has now made a fine art of curating or showcasing the integrity of a people who have seen much traumatic history come and go (depending on through whose eyes you see it of course)…the one common link between Hindu Goa and Catholic Goa I have seen over the years of living in Goa is – a love for the land, mother land. Both communities steeped in their various religious and cultural histories which synergies weaving in and out love the land and want to make it bloom and bear fruit for love and for money!
It is a good idea to bring the churches of Goa alive with festivals of manus and mati (as I suppose Mamata-didi of West Bengal would put it) and last Sunday out at the grounds of the St John the Baptist church in Pilerne one saw anew Goa’s biodiversity being showcased along with education and enlightenment of the ways of a people who’ve learned to live with one another in peace and harmony.
Today’s fight is to save the earth, or the soil, from being depleted of its rich life-giving nutritious microflora – in the last hundred years our so called civilisation of human beings have so compromised with the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides while dealing with the soil of the earth that even the so called fresh food we eat in grains, cereals, seeds, vegetables, fruit may look big and gorgeous and seductive but is empty of fighting fit nutritional values which keep our immunity system strong alive and kicking.
Large scale industrial chemical farming for the processed food industry means we are no longer eating from farm to table to floor any longer and especially so in urban homes which are flooded with not so cheap junk foods in plastics and other packaging vile or not so vile. We are not even aware of it to take cognizance of it enough to make the connections between what we put in our mouth and the obesity we suffer from first, then the blood pressure, cardiovascular degeneration, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and all other related diseases which take a toll on health and a desire to live some more…
Well, this is to say it is at these cultural festivals of biodiversity like the Matiechem Fest our eyes re-open to the bounty of Mother Earth and how we need to respect it for our own perennial good. The festival was hosted by Fr Derrick Fernandes and curated by Marius Fernandes from Divar and Dr Gwendolyn De Omelas and of course it was one jam packed affair with the heat hitting a blue sky above and mercifully there were some shamiana put up but the inner recesses of the St John, the Baptist Church of Pilerne made for a cool retreat and it is here that a sought a central pocket garden corner to enjoy my fried mackerel or bangda-country red rice meal on an eco-friendly platter (Rs10).
That is if you had forgotten to take your own plate and cup along (every festakar going had been advised to come with their own plate and cup to enjoy the lunch; alas, there were as many like me who forgot and were told to wait out of queue until we begged, borrowed or found a plate to relish the fish fry, fat Goa rice, prawn curry, sweet pumpkin curry, chana ros, and a couple of the most enticing chepnim mango slivers plain and spiced mildly but ever so memorable.

Hey, I can make a meal of chepnim mango slivers even if the salt may make my blood pressure go up and further calcify my arteries, veins, capillaries – you must know salt and oil pickle our arteries unless you are doing something right which I am not and know not about. Either quit or go very, very lightly on refined oils and hydrogenated fats and salty foods or pay the price for it with a scowl or a smile when you land in a hospital for overconsumption of the bad things of life and lifestyle!
Before I forget the sweet of the fest was dodol and soft, silken doce de grao and for lunch this hot rich pudding porridge called “authentic vhonn dessert” It was too rich for me to eat after lunch and so I just tasted a little on the palm of a banana leaf…a dark gooey coconutty treat.
TO STAY with the Matiechem Fest don’t know about you, but I think we can do with more of them in life in Goa, it’s like going for a long day’s picnic of the very best kind for the mind and body, heart and soul. Inevitably, there was the line-up of Goan singing and dancing (even the podder’s or bread folk of Goa had a dance to highlight their poie and unde and cankon and pau in baskets of bread. For shopping there was terracotta ware of the old-fashioned kind for the kitchen or dining table, I’m still pining to own one of these rooster-styled “gurguret”…one was going for Rs600 but I didn’t buy. No more shopping on the cards for me and in any case I have these other jugs I should give away one of these days!
As I was leaving soon after lunch when it was searingly hot and there was too much musical noise going around and I was going stir-fry crazy without a sun cap on….although Pilerne is a cool oasis with a lake which I was advised to go see, but I got lost on my two-wheeler and then found myself on the Porvorim highway headed straight back home across the Mandovi bridge to Panaji.
Pilerne is infinitely worth exploring some more and how many desirable homes there are out here which I couldn’t resist stopping before to look at for a while; it’s an old habit of mine to automatically come to a stop before an old world home to feast my eyes on…before moving on. One had a whole wall full of pea blue flowers and I thought I’d get off bike and steal some flowers, but thought better of it, next lifetime now.
ON that note and the wish that this Dassera there is some real victory over evil so that we move on to more satyayug times, it’s avjo, poiterem, selamat datang, au revoir, arrivedecci and vachun yeta here for now.

­—Mme Butterfly