The Majestic Mandovi Hotel

THE MAJESTIC HOTEL MANDOVI

(For an enlarged view please click on picture)

Getting back to nostalgia, Hotel Mandovi - one of the landmarks of yesteryear, was probably the only decent and prominent hotel in the city of Panjim in Goa, India. During the 1960's it was one of the only few modern buildings of the time.

I took this picture from the ferry crossing the River Mandovi at Betim. For me this diapositive makes quite an interesting and memorable scene. The camera was a 35mm Minolta with a fixed standard 50 mm, f2.7 lens. In analysing and judging from the shadows in the picture, I notice that they are falling at an angle across the balconies of the hotel. So it seems that the picture must have been taken on one very sunny April day, the time probably being 10 o'clock or so.

The photo was shot using Kodachrome 35mm transparency, 64 ASA film. It was sent to Kodak Film Laboratories at Hemel Hempstead, England, for processing from the Trucial States of Oman (now the U.A.E.) where I worked. It would have taken about 3 weeks to receive the slides in its trademark yellow box and transparent lid. Cost of processing was included in the price of the film itself, as was stated on the film carton.

Now, the date stamped by Kodak on the slide mount reads as 'MAY 69' which is the processing date of the film, in addition to 'Slide No.19' and 'View from this side' type-stamped on the transparency mount. So I assume I must have taken this picture sometime in April 1969 during my usual summer vacation times to Goa.

The reason and the opportunity to take a frontal shot of the Hotel from River Mandovi must have been due to the fact that the good old ferry (gajelin) was the sole mode of transportation to get across to Panjim from Mapusa via Betim - and it had to be a nautical kind. The first Mandovi bridge must not have been quite ready then - I think it must have opened to traffic the following year. Sadly it collapsed in 1986, just like the several elected Goa State Governments that collapsed in the following years!

On viewing the slide using a macro transparency viewer, next to the hotel I can seen two signboards on the first floor an old building, presenting itself in sharp contrast and appearance with reinforced concrete columns, laterite stones and unfinished plastering, probably awaiting the services of professional 'bhaillo' plasterer! Or it could have been a reconstruction of a much older building entrusted to a local who must have been taking his own time.

Again, on closer inspection of the diapositive with the aid of a magnifier the signboard on the left reads: 'The Syndicate Bank Ltd. Panaji'. The lettering on the other sign alongside, and to the right, is barely discernible. My guess is that it would be the signboard of head offices of the Life Insurance Corporation of India, but I could be wrong.

The slide will complete a cool 44 years in May 2013. The above picture of the very same slide was re-taken using my 30-year old 'Hansa' Bellows Slide Copier and Close-up lenses combination coupled with a Nikon D40X Digital Camera.

Tony Fernandes