Picturesque Goa

Picturesque Goa
NOSTALGIA - Articles,Poems & Photos

TONFERNS CREATIONS

TONFERNS CREATIONS
TONFERNS CREATIONS - Tony's Art & Hobbies

Tuesday, April 30, 2013


PICTURESQUE GOA


Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo
(Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel),
 Arambol, Goa - India
Founded : 1780, Feast : 9th January

"Have confidence. Return. Invoke our Lady and you'll be faithful."
- St. Josemaria Escriva

Sunday, April 28, 2013

GENTLEMAN JIM


In the 1960's and 1970's, many people in the Indian Sub-continent owned gadgets what were known as 'Radiograms' that played LP Records, 78's and 45's in addition to receiving radio programs on Short Wave and Medium Wave Radio. Walk into any well-to-do Goan home in Bombay, from Colaba to Bandra, Byculla to Dhobitalo, or Mahim to Worli, you would invariably hear Jim Reeves playing in their home. Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley, Cliff Richard, Engelbert Humperdinck or Billy Vaughn and Bill Black Combo were also popular among many record collections of those days.

Incidentally, the radiogram was considered a luxury by any standard, and consisted as a piece of high-class furniture in many well-appointed living rooms of homes and music salons of that era.

In Goa, during the Portuguese regime, in the 1950's and 1960's the radiograms were less common, perhaps an entire village having just one or two of these prized possessions and other top-notch luxuries of that time. Just owning a radiogram was not enough. This sort of enjoyment was expensive and came with an extra price tag, as one had to keep up with the times by adding and collecting more LP's that were costly. 

Although during the time when I lived and worked in Dubai in late 1960's and 1970's, Jim Reeves' records, being an RCA label, were then not available in the Trucial States of Oman (now U.A.E.), folks who travelled to India on their annual vacation, often purchased them there. Jim Reeves' LPs were pressed in Dum Dum, India. Jim Reeves' Christmas Carols Album was very popular then, and is popular even now. 

Please relax and listen to this great number by Gentleman Jim, one among his other great hits, "He'll have to go" that he was famous for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smlaq1ezQRM

Thursday, April 18, 2013

ALL JOKES ASIDE

JUST-A-LOOKER AND HIS WALKING TRAITS

·    Walks straight in the centre of the aisle looking both ways; giving one the impression of a rooster watching a tennis match.

·    Ignores you and other potential buyers, tasters, etc. completely. His eyes are set only at new products.

·    Avoids eye contact.

·    IF ITS’S A SINGLE ROW OF BOOTHS, he walks furthest away from the aisle, on the far side. If I may put it this way: Totally noncommittal!

·    His gaze is high above the ground. Looks only at everything that is 5 ft. above the ground.
On accidental eye contact, he hastens his pace.


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

PICTURESQUE GOA












Cross opposite St. Anthony's Church

Siolim, Bardez,Goa.

Whatever your cross,
whatever your pain,
There will always be
sunshine after the rain,
Perhaps you may stumble,
 perhaps even fall,
But God is always there
to help you through it all.

Monday, April 15, 2013

PICTURESQUE GOA - Panjim Wharf


May 1972: Panjim Wharf, Goa.
Passenger Ship Terminal

Photo by:  Tony Fernandes
Taken from on board the s.s. Konkan Sevak
about to dock alongside the apparent peaceful Panjim Wharf.
Picture reproduced from original Kodachrome slide.

40 years ago - taxis, porters, etc., patiently waiting for the imminent arrival of the big Bombay steamer; and my vacation in beautiful Goa is about to begin. Picture taken on board passenger ship nudging in to dock.

In the picture 'foreign' taxis still in use at the time are neatly parked, waiting for passengers to disembark, somnolent porters whiling their time away and in no apparent hurry - one precariously perched on the railing, chatting with other khaki-clad taxi drivers.

This was the grand old picturesque Panjim of yore. The major landmarks, then and now, being the statue of the Abbe Faria, the famous hypnotist, and the old Secretariat Building. On the right are shops, a restaurant, bar and a liquor shop where one could have one last peg before leaving Goa. On a macro inspection one can even spot the Goa Medical College bus in front of the V.P.Sinari Record Shop on the first floor.

Please click on the following link
to read my poem
The Little Odyssey
from my book GOA - Memories of My Homeland
(Poems, Stories and Photographs)

Rolling your R's

ROLLING YOUR 'R's

I've learned to roll my R's well over the years. If you want I can even put an R in a word and roll it for you even if it does not exist in that particular word. I can put an impeccable accent if I want to, depending upon who I talk to. When I once called and asked to speak with my wife at work, the person who handed the phone over to her said that there was a Canadian on the line.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

St. Anthony's Church, Siolim, (Legend of the Statue of the Saint and the Snake)


Church of St. Anthony
Siolim, Bardez, Goa, India.

Legend of the Statue and the Snake 

Legend has it that in the early stages of the construction of the church dedicated to the Saint, a huge python snake every night destroyed whatever stone masonry that was laid during the day. This is believed to have repeatedly happened over a period of several days. Finally, one day, before winding up work for the night, the faithful workers placed a statue of St. Anthony at the site along with a noose at one end of a rope and the other tied to the hand of the statue. The very next morning they were surprised to find that the snake had placed its head into the noose thereby stopping to obstruct and hinder the work.



Saturday, April 13, 2013

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Monday, April 01, 2013

HOW MANY TIMES - EASTER ON APRIL 3RD



How many times has Easter occurred on April 3?

Easter Sunday has fallen on April 3 in the following years:
1763, 1768, 1774, 1825, 1831, 1836, 1904, 1983, 1988 and 1994.

Easter Sunday is again due to fall on April 3 in the year 2067.