UNIQUE: Real Café which was started 77 year ago by Gajanand Shirodkar has the distinction of serving hot Goan-styled snacks including the Goan mirchi or mirsang and the best sheera in Goa.
By Rajan Narayan
AND a few stray thoughts for yet another Saturday. For a Saturday following the week when the Real Group of Companies, turned 77 years old. For a Saturday following the week when an interstate call girl racket is operating for the benefit of those who visit casinos. For a Saturday following the week when Niraj Chopra became the first Indian athletic to win both the Olympic and world championship in javelin throw. For a Saturday following the week when a school teacher was fired for permitting his employees to offer namaz. For a Saturday following the week when Girish Chodankar accused an unnamed BJP minister of extramarital sex, a scandal which was hushed up. For a Saturday following the week when the number of industrialists were inuring to invest in cyber cons.
AND a few stray thoughts on the Real Group of Companies turning all of 77 years old. It celebrated its 77th anniversary on August 28, 2023. The mother company was founded by Gajanand Shirodkar who came from village Shiroda to Panjim with big dreams of making it good in Goa. Gajanand first set up the iconic Goan café called Real Café located in the heart of capital city Panjim. It was amongst the first Goan eateries serving hot snacks to the public working as employees in the offices around the area down town Panjim called Azad Maidan. The unique thing about Real Café is that all snacks from batatvada to mirsang bhoji were freshly made and served and the menu just kept growing. Even the Goan samosa is different from the Punjabi samosa and is served up with a tantalizing hallmark of a coconut chutney.
Café Real soon became the hub or a meeting place for all the business people who set up their offices around about, one of its ardent patrons was my old patrao AC Fernandes (owner of OHeraldo which I had come down from Bombay to turn into an English daily newspaper in 1983). Shopkeepers here also took a break at Café Real around 5pm. Over the years Cafe Real started getting a friendly ambience to meet and chit-chat over tea and mirsang bhoji (bhajia, pakora, fritter) and other hot snacks. The lawyers came and also the politicians. All were attracted by Café Real and its swift turnover of familiar snacks.
Gajanand would himself sit at the counter for a couple of hours to exchange notes and interact with his customers. Real was the first to secure the Kingfisher agency for beer post-Liberation. The add-on beverages came one by one beginning with a sparkling wine in small bottles beginning. Real also used to use to manufacture a sparkling wine in small bottles which were very popular.
I recall that when I first visiting Goa in 1979 to study the Ramponkar issue, my journo colleagues and I bought crates of this wine to take back to Mumbai. Gajanand Shirodkar was also the first philanthropist to promote the Carnaval or Carnival when it resumed after Liberation in 1961. The King Momo float was sponsored by Kingfisher courtesy Gajanand Shirodkar. I remember the warmth with which Gajanand greeted me in his Real Café on the ground floor of Mascarenhas Building in Panaji in the early 80s. He is one of the lesser known pioneers in Goan business and industry and the first Goan company to retail mineral water. After that there was no looking back and the Real Group added several aerated beverages to his portfolio of popular products to this day. Happy birthday Café Real and our late friend Gajanand Shirodkar. You live in our memory like a good memory!
GOA CALL RACKET!
AND a few stray thoughts on an interstate call girl racket operating for the benefit of those who visit casinos in Goa. Two women have reportedly been arrested for running an escort service for those travelling from Mumbai and Bengaluru to the off-shore casinos in Goa. It is not widely known that if we deposit Rs1 lakh for betting in the offshore casinos, they offered a free luxury 5-star hotel room for one night. The casino patrons are also offered an escort who stays in the hotel and often accompany their patrons to the casinos.
Indeed, you may spend the whole day at the casinos which are open 24 hours a day and enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the case of the women in their associates who have been arrested there is a twist. Apparently, the girls offered escorts who accused a gambler of rape and even filed a complaint at the Panjim police station. We gather that this call girl racket is also some kind of an extortion scandal.
The escorts demanded large sums of money from their casino clients which is shared by the facilitators. We now understand that the casinos have become a major hub for call girl scandals and rackets. In earlier years the freelancing call girls used to advertise their services discreetly over social media with their photographs. I have received several WhatsApp messages from women asking me if I’m seeking social company. The social media network has widened the scope of the call girl and prostitution business.
In Goa the majority of the massage parlors are also dens of prostitution. Massage parlors in the beach belt of Baga, Calangute, Candolim, enjoy the patronage of the local MLA. The police are willing to turn a blind eye for received kickbacks. Recently, an officer of the rank of DIG was arrested for attempting to molest a young lady in one of Calangute night clubs. Goa is undoubtedly now the sin capital of the country.
TAKE A BOW NIRAJ CHOPRA!
AND a few stray thoughts on Niraj Chopra becoming the first Indian athletic to win both the Olympic and world championship in javelin throw. Historically, India performs badly in athletics and field events like hammer throw and javelin throw. The javelin is about 8 foot long with a pointed end and the athlete has to throw the javelin to the maximum distance he can. Niraj Chopra is the only Indian athletic who has exceeded the 88.17 meter mark both at the Olympics and the ongoing world championship.
India has never secured a medal in sprint events. Sprint queen PT Usha, now the president of the All India Sports Federation, missed a bronze medal by a few seconds. In sprint events like the 100 meter sprint event even second fractions make a difference to the winner and runners-up. There are special recording devises determining who crossed the winning line first.
The only other sports events where India have won medals are in shooting, archerym wrestling and boxing. The North-East’s Mary Kom has won several medals at the Olympics in boxing. It is a matter of shame that a country with a population of 130 million cannot even win ten gold medals at the Olympics.
At one time India won the Olympic hockey championships several times. Incidentally, the Indian hockey team included a lot of Goans. But in recent years India has not even qualified for the Olympics and hockey. Goa with a lot of young people involved in water sports can attempt to get a medal in swimming and other sporting events.
The disgraceful reality is that our Goan aspirants do not even have coaches who are first class sports persons. The Sports Authority of Goa must appoint proper qualified coaches for upcoming Goan youth in sports in the years to come. Surprisingly, Goa has been doing very well in the Para-Olympics which is for the disabled fraternity. This is primarily due to the dedication of Victor Vaz who is in charge of this department at the national level too.
NO NAMAZ IN SCHOOL, PLEASE!
AND a few stray thoughts when a school teacher was fired for permitting his employees to offer namaz. In Uttar Pradesh, the Swami Yogi Aditiyanath government has been hostile to the Muslim community’s prayer rites and rituals in public places. The UP government has enforced a total ban on the slaughter of cows. Even those who are found storing beef are imprisoned and sometimes lynched by fanatics in public. There is overt and covert hate speech indulged in by the CM and his ministers and colleagues on the subject of the Muslim community. This encourages lunatic Hindus to harass and attack their fellow citizens if they’re Muslims.
Besides the recent incident of the Hindu teacher who was been arrested for encouraging Hindu schoolboys to slap their Muslim classmate, the latest atrocity is the sacking of a Muslim teacher who permitted his students time to offer namaz. The frustrated teacher committed suicide.
All over north India in BJP-ruled states there is conscious and deliberate marginalization of Muslim communities. Leaders of these Muslim communities have admitted that they are feeling increasingly insecure under the Modi government. The strategy of the Modi government is to polarize the country so that Hindus sweep the 2024 parliamentary election.
WHICH BJP MINISTER?
AND a few stray thoughts on Congress leader Girish Chodankar accusing a prominent BJP minister of being caught in a sex scandal. The social media post of former Congress president, Girish Chodankar, against a BJP minister for molestation of a Panchayat member, is acquiring the shape of an exploitative sex scandal. BJP Minister Mauvin Godinho has virtually admitted that he is the politician Girish Chodankar has targeted without naming names. In fact, a furious denying Mauvin Godhino has filed a complaint with the police for tarnishing his image as well as the deputy sarpanch of Chicalim Aishwarya Korgaokar.
Allegedly, photographs of Mauvin with Aishwarya have been circulated on social media with charges of outraging the modesty of the deputy sarpanch. Mauvin Godhinho’s police complaint has been filed by his private secretary. Incidentally, Girish Chodankar’s social media post did not reveal either name of minister or the lady molested. However, Mauvin claims that he was abused with filthy words on WhatsApp and Facebook.
Mauvin is not the only politician accused of sexual harassment and misbehavior with women. It may be recalled that in 1989, the then speaker Dayanand Narvekar, was accused of sexually molesting his secretary in his chamber. As editor of OHeraldo I had launched a daily campaign which eventually forced Narvekar to resign. In retaliation Narvekar allegedly hired the goons of Santa Cruz to assault me as the OHeraldo editor in the late evening of September 16, 1989 while I was returning home to my basement flat home at Dona Paula. The police took no action against the goons even though they knew their identity and nobody followed up the case while my health deteriorated from bad to worse the rest of my life and to this day. This is the Goa I know intimately well.