Bindiya Chari

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

In India’s tiniest state, Goa, with the country’s second-highest per capita income, where beach villas sell for crores, and the GDP charts shine, a man’s body lay abandoned for a night because his family could not afford firewood. In a state that boasts of being India’s richest on paper, Ashok Palyekar’s final journey needed charity for firewood and in the tiniest, richest state, dignity had a price the poorest could not pay.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

He shot down a Pakistani F-16 in a dogfight over the LoC, ejected in enemy territory, was held captive for 60 days. He returned to a hero's welcome in 2019 and attained cult status for his handlebar moustache has done the quietest thing a war pilot could do: taken premature retirement, moved to laid-back Goa and signed up with a regional airline to fly holidaymakers on a turboprop. This is the story of Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman (retd), Vir Chakra recipient and the hero of Balakot air strikes.

[SP Traffic, Goa @SPTrafficGoa]

TRAFFIC ADVISORY

Demonstrators have blocked the Old Mandovi Bridge on the Panaji side. Consequently, the Old Mandovi Bridge has been temporarily closed to vehicular traffic from both directions.

All vehicular traffic is presently being diverted via the New Mandovi Bridge.

Motorists are requested to take note of the traffic diversion, plan their journey accordingly, and drive cautiously.

[DIP.GOA @dip_goa]

District Magistrate South Goa, seeks information regarding missing people in Nepal.

@Coll_SouthGoa

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

In our continuing Tinderbox series on Goa, we look at how Margao's New Muncipal Market is sitting on a powder keg. A fire safety audit has flagged serious risks including blocked passages, inadequate firefighting infrastructure, low hydrant pressure and no dedicated water supply, leaving over 1,000 traders and shoppers vulnerable

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

13 years after he allegedly raped his colleague in the elevator of a hotel and 5 years after he was acquitted by a trial court in Goa, Bombay HC found Tarun Tejpal guilty and sent him to jail for 10 years. In a scathing indictment of the trial court, Bombay HC came down heavily saying the trial court gave Tejpal the benefit of doubt where none existed. From misreading crucial evidence to relying on how an “ideal” rape survivor should behave to ignoring “binding Supreme Court guidelines on assessing sexual assault evidence”, the trial court “resorted to hyper-technicalities” in granting Tarun Tejpal the benefit of doubt “where none reasonably existed”, it said in its order overturning Tejpal’s acquittal on Thursday. The HC said the trial court’s findings were “directly contrary to the evidence on record and thus per se perverse”,

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

On Sunday night, when India's rock-pop icon Remo Fernandes took the stage in London, it was for his last stage performance. Remo who fuelled his career with restless energy, cross-language hits and stage presence that couldn't still, had his closing act, sitting on a high chair with guitar in hand. The 73-year-old brought curtains down on his 6-decade career saying he could not give his audiences "100%" of himself. Take a bow Remo

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

For over 1,500 years, Goa’s salt pans glittered along the Mandovi and the Zuari estuaries. Salcete, Tiswadi, Bardez and Pernem talukas lived by the sun, wind, and tide. Each summer, salt workers channelled brackish estuary water into earthen pans, raked it for a few hours, and harvested coarse crystals that fed Goan kitchens, fish curers, and prawn farms. This was ‘Goa salt’ — unrefined, mineral-rich, sharp on the tongue. But today, it is slowly fading into memory.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

Where blindness is a recipe.  At Avo Betty’s Cafe in Raia, housed in a 1908 heritage home, 10 blind hands now knead dough, brew coffee, and serve dignity. Goa’s first cafe run almost entirely by the blind brings hope and vision to people who can't see.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

On the fifth Monday of Lent (this year it was on March 23), the Saint Andrew’s Church in Goa Velha hosts the unique Procession of Saints, a practice dating back to the early 17th century. Started by the Franciscans – the first Order to reach Goa in 1517 – after the Portuguese conquest of Goa, the Procession of Saints is one-of-its-kind and, besides Rome, happens only in Goa. When it started in 1617 as a Lenten penitential practice from nearby Pilar, where the Franciscans had their monastery, there were 65 statues in the procession, but now there are only 31 life-size statues of saints with many of the earlier statues being destroyed. The statues, all numbered, are taken out in solemn procession around the village with thousands standing along the way for a glimpse. Devotees duck under the palanquins – some weighing as much as 200kg – believing they’ll be blessed.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

It is a salami slicing Goa's eco-sensitive land. And the scale of reclassification, largely from orchards, agricultural and natural cover to settlement for constructions, is unprecedented. Over 530 hectares have been unlocked under Section 39A of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act. And this is just the beginning. Read on to know more

[Bindiya Chari @BindiyaChari]

Mandrem police arrested 37 Year-old Aleksai Leonov, a Russian national for allegedly killing a fellow citizen Elena Kasthanova.
Police found Elena's hands tied and throat slit in her rented room in Arambol. The accused and victim were acquaintances. Motive not known yet.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

It has been two weeks since they set sail from Porbandar on Dec 29 on a 20-metre wooden ship stitched with hands. The 16-member crew of INSV Kaundinya has crossed more than two-thirds of their journey and is set to arrive at Muscat around Jan 15, reliving the ancient trade routes between India and Oman. We take you through the journey
#INSVKaundinya

https://t.co/jaw7ug7NAU

[Bindiya Chari @BindiyaChari]

Now foreigners use their children to make money on Arambol beach.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

Let us get this clear that an event like the 'Tales of Kamasutra' is not the first time that it has been held in Goa. The organisers call it "meditation retreat" and they have already held it twice. In their own words, the only mistake they made was put Christmas on the posters. This isn't the first and this won't be the last. For now, the event has officially being cancelled.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

Konkani theatre has undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving from a landscape of hostility and mockery in the 1970s to a celebrated art form embraced by audiences throughout Goa

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

RAPE OF THE HILLS: Goa’s lush green hills and its verdant landscape, which have been the defining characteristics of the tiniest state, would soon be relegated to postcards and sepia-toned memories. From the fast-urbanising hills of Siolim and Mayem to the once green slopes of Cuncolim and Loliem, Goa’s hills have been steadily gouged and flattened, often illegally.

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

SLUMS OF GOA: What began as 135 plots for the rehabilitation for 70-odd migrant families has mushroomed into a settlement housing nearly 1,500 registered voters. Once a cramped locality, comprising tiny huts, it has evolved into a thriving commercial hub, technically, an illegal settlement on Konkan Railway land, with road-facing residential spaces doubling as shops and kiosks selling everything one can imagine. But behind all this is alleged systemic manipulation of electoral rolls. While nearly 1,000 people are enrolled as voters from the slum, only about half reside there permanently. The rest, according to various sources, are "ghost voters".

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

These potholes have become so common in Goa every year that people have become numb to these hardships. And every year, we hear empty rhetoric of how Goa will have pothole-free roads and with a deadline too. Travel to the interiors of Goa, and you will find absolutely smooth roads. One wonders if it is actually a deliberate attempt to push tourists away from Panaji to the hinterlands. But in the process, it is the Goans who end up risking their lives and vehicles. Can we at least get our basics right or is that asking for too much 😕

[Rajesh Menon @RajeshMenon70]

The story speaks for itself. Blatant misuse of govt machinery, a sense of entitlement and privilege that doesn’t go even after retirement. One can imagine what would have been the case when in service.
@IASassociation