Picturesque Goa

Picturesque Goa
NOSTALGIA - Articles,Poems & Photos

TONFERNS CREATIONS

TONFERNS CREATIONS
TONFERNS CREATIONS - Tony's Art & Hobbies

Monday, October 06, 2008

MAPUSA TOWN


MAPUSA TOWN 1976

Now let's go to Mapusa! Let go to the fish market, and the great Friday Mapusa Bazaar of once upon a time!

The attached picture is scanned from an original photographic print that was taken from the first floor of the Camara Municipal de Bardez Offices in Mapusa in 1976. The view shows the road up the steep slope of Mapusa, Altinho, proceeding towards Duler. The steep incline posed a real challenge for a cyclist to make it to the top without alighting. My bicycle had no gears.

My friend and I often competed when we used to go to watch football matches in Duler. And once we got to the top it was a great feeling to just let go of the brakes and enjoy the cool breeze blow in your face. Very often I thought about the good old saying "Dukh kaddlear, sukh meuta" which was very applicable and true in this case.

On the right of the picture are the offices of the erstwhile Banco Nacional Ultramarino, later State Bank of India. Further up to the right is the building where the famous Kamat Studio was located.

On the left of the road going up (opposite Kamat) was Registo Civil of the Portuguese era and even later. The offices have now been moved to a dreadful place, a poorly maintained building, where all the old hand scripted record books and registers are simply going haywire. These old manuscripts are not stored properly and before any action is taken these important data will be lost forever.

Year : 1976 (the date can be clearly seen on the left side of white-bordered prints of that era. Printed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Camera: Asahi Pentax, with f2.0 50mm standard lens.
Film & Print: Kodak
This picture is scanned from an original print.
© Tony Fernandes