And the Smt Mita Dey Award for Social Goodness goes to Victor R Vaz for his passion, dedication and deep commitment to empower special children through sports

FOR me it was a rare Sunday evening well spent! An evening filled with the nostalgia of listening to Hindi film songs of yesteryear — each song presented by young singers against the original film tracks. It was a very imaginative way of presenting a musical evening to entertain and soothe the heart of Hindi film lovers!
I imagine such musical evenings are always welcome for lovers of vintage Hindi cinema … for the songs of yesteryear have a touch of magical lyricism and poetry about them. Plus, it was an evening for a special cause. The Ganga Zuari Academy was celebrating its 18th foundation day by awarding its annual “Social Goodness Award” for selfless service to humanity, in memory of the late Smt Mita Dey, to Victor R Vaz for “his passion, dedication and deep commitment to empower special children through sports.”
It all took place at the ESG’s Maquinez Palace Audi 1 on May 26, 2024 and in between the musical interlude scripted and anchored by the very articulate Dr Lata Satyawan Naik. The singers were Rajesh Tarkar, Deepa Tarkar, Divya Chari, Shruti Sangodkar, Sarvesh Phadke, Urvija Nagvekar, Chiraag Tripathi, Manali Parsekar, Vineet Naik, Jasima Beig and all of them presented the selection of songs with amazing grace against the backdrop of full screen cine tracking …like I said earlier it was an unusual, very commendable presentation. The Kuch Dil Ne Kaha evening had Manali singing “Sisha ho ya dil ho…dil toot jata hai,” Shruti Sangodkar swaying to “Ees ankhon ki masti mai…,” there was also “Dil cheez kya hai, jaan li jiye…” and Chiraag Tripathi with his Kishor Kumar awaaz sang “one of my favorites, “Khil te hai gul yahan…” and there were more familiar haunting numbers, of course “Chaudvin ka chand ho” too. I’m just sorry I had to slip away early for reasons best known to me only! Otherwise I would have stayed longer to indulge in old world nostalgia coming from my Bombay days.
This is also to say the selection for the special goodness award was made by a Ganga Zuari Academy committee comprising of academy stalwarts comprising of Dr Rajiv Nigam, Somnath sarkar, Col Amit Goswami and Amitabh Moitro and nominations were invited from the public at large.
ON that note it’s avjo, selamat datang, poite verem, au revoir, arrivedecci, hasta la vista and vachun yeta here for now.

—Mme Butterfly

INDI ALLIANCE FELICITATES MP-ELECT CAPT VIRIATO FERNANDES

IT WAS sweet victory for Congress in Goa with its INDI Alliance representatives when it felicitated the victorious Lok Sabha candidate Capt Viriato Fernandes at a function held at the Hotel Fortune Miramar on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Led by GPCC President Amit Patkar and LoP Yuri Alemao various leaders expressed their best wishes with bouquet of flowers, boondi ladoo for a beaming Capt Viriato Fernandes, followed by a tea time session for media people and all present.
They were all there to endorse the common sentiment of “We’re all together” and happy with Capt Viriato Fernandes victory. If Congress president Amit Patkar said it was a month of no level playing field with the BJP pumping money for the victory of their candidate, several other party leaders observed that the BJP effect is fading in Goa because of arrogance and flaunting of power, “We should unite against money and muscle power and show them the door…”
Somehow Capt Viriato Fernandes proved to be the perfect match for the BJP’s candidate who had very little to say about south Goa and what the problems of the people were. As far as he Congress is concerned Rahul Gandhi is committed to unity and diversity and in Goa they want to work for local issues which thanks to Capt Viriato will now be heard without prejudice in the new parliament.
Fatorda MLA and GFP boss Vijay Sardesai said it was a victory of aam Goenkars despite pressure put on them down south Goa, the people were to resist the temptation of gifts. The “father of defections” himself has lost, he said. Altogether it was a different Goa down south and thanks were due all around to Team Goa. It’s victory over a corrupt government which is inefficient, the Goa government’s motto seems to be “a paisa karo model.”
The people of south Goa have voted against their candidate and they’re now behaving like bad losers. Defections, corruption and inefficiency have had their day. This victory redeems the people victory and a lesson has been learnt that there must be unity at every level with the next target in mind with 2027 election coming up.
MP-elect Capt Viriato Fernandes said that this time it has been a real people’s election, the people won. In the coming days they will meet everyone in south Goa and he will certainly raise vital issues in parliament which affect the people of Goa. Various other speakers added their sound bites in a spirit of bonhomie. All eyes are now on the 2027 assembly polls and GPCC president Amit Patkar said an AAP candidate will be contesting the Benaulim ZP by-election.