TRUE FRIENDS ARE INVALUABLE

WHEN our journey on this earth ends, we will not be judged by the wealth and property we have amassed but by our acts and deeds.
I have been enormously blessed with an armoury of outstanding friends worldwide. Even our detractors should not be considered our foes as they could awaken us when we err. True friends may sometimes be hard to find because they are rare and one of a kind. They lift you up when no one else has even noticed that you were down.
Making friends is great but keeping in touch with these soulmates is a bigger challenge. Within our time constraints and with the help of social media, we must endeavour to keep in touch with them because we must value every friend, and moreover also be concerned regarding those on the other page.
Cultivating friendship may be an easy task but harnessing that bonding and making sure it endures is a bigger challenge. Friendship isn’t always about whom you’ve known the longest. It is about who walked into your life and said, I’m here for you and proved it. A friend in need is truly a friend in deed. While identifying and nurturing friends, age or the social strata should never be a hindrance. It is their experience and wealth of knowledge that helps and guides us.
We live in a tough world where no man is an island. We are dependent on each other and reliant on true friendship to enhance our trust, peace, harmony and co-operation to safely co-exist with each other.
—Aires Rodrigues, London

EXPOSITION OR NO EXPOSITION?
THE Central BJP government and Goa state BJP government do not want the Exposition to happen in Goa. That is why Rs300 crore worth of funds which were promised for the infrastructure of the Exposition have not been sanctioned and neither is the Chimbel flyover being completed as promised.
Additionally, the Pope has intentionally not been invited to Goa and the patron saint of Goa St Francis Xavier, whose Exposition it is, is being roundly abused by Hindutva elements affiliated to the BJP.
—Vladimir De Monte Furtada, Panjim.

GOA, A LABORATORY!
GOA is being used as a laboratory of hatred by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to create divisions between different communities in the name of “patriotism” via its numerous allied organisations. Who will eat or wear what is nobody’s business. This is entirely unacceptable.
Every single citizen of India has Constitutional rights and guarantees. If anyone tires to limit those rights by force, coercion or threats, it is going against India and its Constitution. These people need to be schooled on what a democracy is and the rights it bestows upon its citizens.
Nobody has the right to hide behind freedom of speech and attack or target a section of the population based on religion, caste, area, age or gender. Period.
—Devsurabhee Yaduvanshi, Goa