I AM a life-long learner. Life’s lessons keep me grounded to submit to the aperture of life. The lens we view it through is the life we carve for ourselves. To put success in perspective is unlearning, one balanced by humility in thought. It enables you to find your path and transcend beyond the mundane. You fall, acknowledge it, and pick yourself up to stay the course. That is my learning. There is no other way to go forward. It leads to my dedicated belief in the arts and performing arts. They are the mindful catalysts in our journey.
The pleasant month of January has now turned to February, and none of us are in a hurry to reach the intense months ahead. It’s the spring time season and we are ready to romance the month crowned with culture and music like never before. This is the celebration of life.

Shape Shifters
THE recently concluded debut of India International Music Week IIMW was a first for India. An initiative of India Music Exchange IMX which positioned South Asia on the global music world map, it brought delegates and performers from 30+ countries to Goa. The inaugural IIMW 2025 has ushered in the conversations leading to the future of music “glocally.”
Said IME Executive Trustee Rafael Pereira, “The IIMW music showcase festival is a format that exists around the world. A showcase festival typically brings in key music industry stakeholders such as record labels, festival programmers, and venue owners in a common space to witness and assess artists they’d like to work and professionally engage with. It is a highly curated matchmaking process. One of the success parameters for us is for artists performing at IIMW to find a partner in their growth and journey. Our success is in their success.”
Rafael emphasizes, “We are conscious of our carbon footprint and have partnered with Swordfish that produces the country’s most sustainable festival- Echoes of Earth. Echoes of Earth was our, ‘Festival in Spotlight’ this year. We are implementing their learnings and hope to set and achieve goals of sustainable events.”
While IME’s overarching objective of establishing India as a trade hub for the global music industry stays as a constant, says Sushil Chhugani (executive trustee, IME, IMX, “We aim to highlight the musical and cultural diversity of India for the global music industry. To enable and facilitate tourism for events such as IIMW and to highlight the potential of music, with tourism is an objective. It is something we’re well underway in achieving and will stay on path for a long future ahead.”
He concludes, “The challenges have been many. However, it’s been a learning experience and that is what we harbour as a philosophy at ‘India Music Exchange’. It’s all a learning experience.”
On a human network connect it was beautiful people, from across the globe, who created wonderful memories as flag bearers for what is intrinsically part of our lives. Music.

It’s About the Stories
MY friends have had to put up with my press a button and you will get a story. An art story. It is a disclaimer that my family puts out for me when they see an unsuspecting ear hover around. They also allege that I draw everyone to my agenda of rounding up another art gallery walkthrough. It works both ways. No matter how innocuous my plan, like on the Latin Quarters walk with Make it Happen, art happens. Art now has begun to stalk me and I’m loving it.
I was content to view the frescos on the facade of Goan houses, by Solomon Souza. They depict the affable characters that stand out as representative of the fabric of each village, the latest being our Padma Shree Libia Lobo Sardesai, the first director of Goa, Daman & Diu. Vimala, the MIH storyteller, took us to Fundação Oriente India, Panjim to soak in the vintage paintings. This is a dream collection that draws the Goan lifestyle through portraits. Those who revere the realistic Raja Ravi Verma-style are sure to be captivated. Life only gets better.

Cry, My Beloved
It’s time to bid adieu
to the land of my ancestors.
Heavy lies the heart as it did
each reluctant year,
I left your pristine shores,
You are part of me,
will always be,
my dear beloved Goa
I have the melancholy lyrics playing in my head of my growing years listening to Mom sing….”Oh Goa you are the mother of beauty….” It expresses longing for a state of mind that describes the Goa I knew.

Ghoom Firke ART
GROUNDED in amchi Mumbai, it’s sniffles time. Back in Goa, the 13th Goa Arts & Literature Festival (GALF) 2025 takes over on February 13. On the heels of World Peace Music Festival — Sur Jahan 2025. Over two days audiences in Goa were treated to The Ghumot Project as well as Folkcorn from the Netherlands. I did get the distinctive all-women Umbra Ensemble from Iceland which has no military and the lively Ale Moller Trio from Sweden at Kala Academy, Panjim.
You need to be omnipresent to savour this soul food in its abundance. Meanwhile, Gateway Litfest scheduled this month gets postponed to July 4 at the same venue, Royal Opera House. I am elated to hear that Celebrate Bandra is back this weekend. It was a holistic staple for all dimensions of art and culture for the community held at different venues across the Queen of the Suburbs.
I am craving to catch up with Cartographies of the Unseen by the super talented Reena Saini Kallat at Bhau Daji Lad Museum This is scheduled for my Byculla circuit of Nine Fish where Arzan Kambatta is showing along with five other artists. Again, have to view Arzan’s suspended animation at Art & Soul, the western circuit of Worli.
While I drag my feet to catch up with ANT on a quieter scale (again on Feb 13) after a massive banger of Mumbai Gallery Weekend (MGW), I take a walk to Pali village. Art and Charlie has a well-strung show by Khushboo Jain – “Land that Lives Through” showcasing artworks of over 11 talented artists. I suggest you catch up with all things art in person. There are some experiences wherein words are mere rhetoric.

To Do
I CALLED Bardroy Barretto, and in the course of conversation was the same lament. I have yet to catch up on his film “Nachom-ia Kumpasar”(Let’s Dance to the Rhythm). The film’s the narrative that pays tribute to Goa’s nightingale, Lorna Cordeiro, has a vignette of my dear cuz Pupul playing matchmaker. I chanced upon this clip through Frederick Noronha’s Goanet and have yet to see it, though I have been to the sets during the filming at Raia, South Goa.
Bardoy quips, “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe!” One more beatitude to fulfil in person. Here’s wishing you all the spirit of love and life as we stay Valentines of the art world!