Quit India

14^th August the day of Pakistan independence and the day before the Indian independence.

August also commemorates the August Kranti or the quit India movement. Every Indian and his family worth a salt was out protesting. Processions of people could be seen. Forcing the British to quit the country.

 Looks like we have not really forgotten it. It is the exodus time, the young Indians getting ready to quit India to sign up at the French, German or American universities for the fall term.(I hope I have got the term right.) doing their parents proud that they have achieved their place in a foreign university. You can see the processions now in front of the embassies forcing the authorities to let them quit India for what they imagine to be greener pastures.

Looks like they are converting their great grandparent’s words to reality.

”Quit India.”

country roads take me home

This was the days when I was a junior doctor at SDME Dharwad,


We had a student from the Mundgod Tibetan settlement. A soft spoken well behaved girl. But she did the forbidden that is she fell in love with an Indian boy.

I met her couple of years later; she was no more the exuberant girl that I knew. She was confused. After obliging her family and giving up on her love she spent time at Dharmashala, to her it was still more traumatic. Born and brought up in India, she was going through an identity crisis. Though Dharmashala was have reinforced her Tibetan roots meeting up with others with her problem made her question what she had accepted all her life.

Would she sometime in the future go back to Tibetan assuming she did, will she be able to live there after this cosmopolitan upbringing. The shops run by Tibetans at Dharmashala was like personification of the generation that grew in India, the shops sold old normal Tibetan household requirement that were not used anymore.

For want of another name I call her Tenzin, she is the victim of a country and culture that is trying to survive in another instead of flowing along.

I say this because, of the vast Chinese community that we come across. Not only in Calcutta, you have them at Beneras, at Bombay too. Ching mani was what my brother and his friends called Thomas Ching whose father ran a Chinese restraunt (actually a shack) at udupi. The family spoke Chinese at home, kept up Chinese traditions and cuisine but the kids were fluent in both Kannada and Tulu. Ching’s mother of coursed mentioned that with the kids eating at their friends house she has picked up lot of udupi cuisine. She makes a variation of Bisibele bath with Chinese blend!

For those of you watch the show High way on my plate, Mayur and Rocky did mention that the china town in Calcutta talked of adapting the basic Chinese cuisine to Indian palate how else would one explain the Chinese bhel?

Forget about china and mid-eastern cuisine and culture that exist harmoniously with the Indian traditions. Even the European horlicks has lent itself to Indianness by becoming horlicks burfee!

To-be Rai? Bacchan?

Sushmita Sen talks about Aishwarya’s pregnancy, Amitabh blogs about it.


It s only short of “behold the savoir is born”

If you look at the media or public appearance pictures it looks Amitabh-Aishwarya while Jaya and Abhishek are hangers on.

People are extensively talking about Amitabh’s emotions on being a grandfather, but he has already been a grandfather twice over courtesy daughter Shweta Nanda. After all this bitching I come to this cultural-legal issue.

No one talks to Jaya about this, even if they did, my mother once told me the first child that makes you a grandmother is most special. My grandmother reasoned daughter’s kids are more precious than the son’s after all the pain is your daughters. 

Aishwarya belongs to the shetty community a matrilineal society which would make her child Tobe Rai, while Amitabh is from the bhaiyyaland where it’s the question of the son and daughters are non-entities.

Indian law no longer recognizes the matrilineal structure, this to me is aryanization, that it inflicting the cowbelt culture and eliminating the individuality and not horsemen coming down for a war.

whats the party in honour off?

Let’s party,


It’s party time,

Plinky prompt of the day is the ideal number of guests for a party.

But what goes into making a party a success?

3-4 weeks prior to the event

• Decide the day and date

• Create a guest list

• Create a budget.

• Pick a venue and book it.

• Decide a theme.

• Make a supply list

• Decide on the cake design if needed.

Two weeks before the party

• Mail in the invitation

• Plan the menu

• Make a general grocery list.

• Take an inventory of the serving dishes and check if you need to beg, borrow or steal. 

• Call up the people from whom you need to borrow fix a date of pick up.

• Check your supply of camera, film

• Order your cake if you’re not baking it.

Week prior to the party

• Confirm venue

• Select party music

• Shop grocery

• Confirm head count—call in the RSVP’S

• Pick up event prizes

• Clean house

Two days prior to the event:

• Shift and label goody bags and prizes.

• Charge your camcorder

• Purchase last minute requirements

• Purchase perishables

• Pick up things to be borrowed.

• Make room in the fridge for the cooked food.

• Tidy the general areas of the house.

• Clean up the area used for party.

The day before:

• Bake and decorate the cake if you are doing it yourself

• Confirm cake order if ordering it.

• Get games and activities in order.

• Prepare food that that can be prepared ahead,

• Clean cooler if using one.

The big day

• Keep enough time for your dressing

• Pick up ice decorate

• Prepare remaining food

• Last minute tidy up.

A day or two afterwards

• Develop films

• Write thank you notes enclose pictures.

If organizing a party is so tedious then don’t you think the guest list is important?

So how many does it takes to make an ideal party?

Even before I made this list I should have figured what is meant by a party?

Party incidentally has its origin in 1250-1300 AD English and is inspired by the French noun parti.

If we consider party as a noun then

It’s a social gathering of invited friends and guess for conversation, refreshments and entertainment. The ideal number of guests here would be enough to have a comfortable conversation, which is all your guests, must be comfortable with each other; the cost of food and venue should be within your budget.

If it is a gathering of people for a special task say a hunt party—again the ideal number would be just enough for everyone to relax in each other’s company and carry on the purpose of the party. If it is a formal then all associated with that task, or all associated with the company would definitely be there.

If it is a squad, or detachment or detail of a troop—like a search party then more the merrier.

If my party was an adjective then

It takes only to be party to a secret. For here party is something shared or pertaining to.

If is something pertaining to a party like a leader then god forbid we have more than one, if is something like a party dress then well…

If my party is a verb then

It’s to participate in a series of parties; I guess the guest list here is bringing your own guest.

But what likes the best is verb—to enjoy oneself thoroughly without restrain hey then it’s more the merrier.

the speech

How do I feel about public speaking?


Confused.

The first time I participated in a speech contest, it was a story telling contest, and I managed to rattle it. I was in second standard then.

Then came a long a break, till standard ten, when our English teacher Mrs.Elivira D’souza had a Saturday activity class, one activity was delivering a speech, she used to have our science teacher Mrs.Indira Rao as the judge, me along with other smart Alec friends used sit at the last bench and ridicule the speakers. After one such achievement, Indira Rao turned to me said if you really have the stuff come up and speak.

She had thrown the perfect bait, the age was of testosterone kings, adrenaline high was on too, I walked up and spoke. After that speech it was interhouse, intercollegiate taluk level, district level and finally the state level. Of course my speech’s were not researched nor were they rehearsed it was just one adrenaline high.

Out of school, through college, and twenty years later public speaking had become a forgotten act. Until I joined Toastmasters international, I now learn that adrenaline has slowed down, so it’s time to work. Believe me after each project I realize I have three speeches’ the one I prepared, the one I delivered and one that I wish I had delivered.

ಪ್ಲಿನ್ಕ್ಯ್ ನನ್ನ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಭಾಷಣದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯ ಬಯಸುತ್ತಾಳೆ.

ಎನ್ನನಲ್ಲಿ?

ಮೊದಲಭಾರಿ ಎರಡನಯ ತರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕಥೆ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದೆ ನನ್ನ ಪ್ರಥಮ ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಭಾಷಣ.ತಿರುಗಿ ಪ್ರೇಕ್ಷಕಳಾದೆ ಭಾಷಣ ಭಿಗಿದವರಗಿಂತ ಎಷ್ಟು ಚನ್ನಾಗಿ ನಾನು ಹೇಳಬಲ್ಲೆಯೇನುದು ಕುಳಿತ್ತಲ್ಲೇ ಕೊಚ್ಚಿದೆ.

ಹತ್ತನೇ ತರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿ, ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಕಲಿಸುತ್ತಿದ ಎಲ್ವಿರ ಟೀಚರ್, ಪ್ರತಿ ಶನಿವಾರ ಉಮೆಧವಿದ್ದ ವಿದ್ಯರ್ಥಿಯರಿಂದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಭಾಷಾಭ್ಯಾಸ ಮಾಡಿಸುತ್ತಿದರು, ನನ್ನ ಹಳೆ ಚಟ ಮಾಸಿರಲ್ಲಿಲ. ಒಮ್ಮೆ ತಿರ್ಪುಗರತಿಯಾಗಿ ಬಂದ ನಮ್ಮ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನದ ಟೀಚರ್, ಇಂದಿರರವರು, "ಅಷ್ಟು, ಸಾಮರ್ಥ್ಯವಿದ್ದರೆ, ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಬಂದು ವ್ಯಸಪೀತದ ಮೇಲೆ ನಿಂತು ಭಾಷಣ ಕೊಡು"ಅಂದ್ರು. ಪ್ರಾಯದ ಹುರುಪಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಷಣ ಬಿಗೆದೆ, ಅದೇ ಮೊದಲು, ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ, ಶಾಲಾ, ತಾಲುಕ, ಜಿಲ್ಲ ಹಾಗು ರಾಜ್ಯ ಮಟ್ಟದ ಇಂಗ್ಲಿಷ್ ಹಾಗು ಹಿಂದಿ ಭಾಷಣ ಸ್ಪರ್ದೆಗಳನ್ನು ಗೆದ್ದೇ. ಮತ್ತೆ, ಸುಪ್ತ ಸಾಗರವಿಳಿದೇ ಮೇಲೆ ಬಂದಾಗ ಇಪತ್ತು ವರ್ಷಗಳು ದಾಟಿದವು ಆತ್ಮವಿಶ್ವಾಸವು ಕುಂದಿತು.

ಈಗ ಅಂತಾರಾಷ್ಟ್ರೀಯ Toastmaster ಸಂಸ್ಥೆ ಸೇರಿರುವೆ, ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಭಾಷಣದ ಮೊದಲು, ತಯಾರಿ, ಅದರ ಅಭ್ಯಾಸ ಎಲ್ಲ ಕಲಿಯುತಿರುವೆ.

ಸಾದಾ ನನ್ನ ಭಾಷಣವು ಮೂರು ಪ್ರಕಾರ, ತಯಾರಾದ ಭಾಷಣ-- ಹೇಳಿದ ಭಾಷಣ -- ಹೇಳಭಾಯಸಿದ ಭಾಷಣ.

tinil-battali-paper

28th June is the day that honours the fake lore hero called Paul Bunyan? He is a giant lumberjack. His minimalistic life and lumberjack tales have become folklore.


But he could never take the place of Johnny Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed the pioneer environmentalist who introduced apple to Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. He was also a missionary.

The legend has it that this environmentalist wore a saucepan for a hat and wore rags for he gave away better clothes. He threw apple seeds to create an orchid.

Somehow Johnny Appleseed reminded me of the bent old man who used to collect trash from the trashcans of Manipal I wonder how many of us remember him from our childhood. We called him “tinlbattlipaper” after his Yodelling call for tins-bottle and paper that were to be thrown away. Many of our mothers gave away old clothing.

He used to quite often followed by the dog Jimmy who had adopted all of us.

world envoirnment day

Is like the earth day, it is supposed call political attention and public action towards environmental issues. The theme for 2011 is Forest-Nature at your service with one third the earth’s land mass being covered by forests and 1.6 billion people dependent on it for their living.


The various sites suggests

• Talks,

• Exhibitions

• Bicycle rally

• Tree planting

• Green concerts

• Recycling

As ways to celebrate the environment day.

We see NDTV and other channels talking of greenathons and whatever is this where our responsibility ends? The celebrities who run these greenathons have houses round the world; this is definitely eating into the forest space to make space for habitation. I see flats in goa closed for the entire year except for that one week during the Christmas to new year, this is again a strain on the resources. Of course there are people who claim that these holiday houses give employment to the locals that is the local yokels/fisher folk housekeep for the owners.

Let’s not talk about others, are we willing to give up cars and bike to take public transports?

We have no college or even a vocational course that will allow us optimize our forest wealth without damaging it. We have architecture colleges, we have civil engineering courses that teach us to build buildings depleting land resource, polluting water resources and demolishing forest resource. We already massacred the wild life.

Maybe we the middle class citizens need to look at ourselves before chase the urban dream.

The great indian tamasha

There is a lot of reporting going on TV about corruption, Anna Hazare’s fasting, Baba Ramdev’s fast.


The ridicule of a Yogi’s political ambition is also there. Well that is his trip though his agenda sounds fine. If we call patriotism a religion, dedicated to the nation with the National anthem and flag being its symbol why not a Yogi with a political agenda. From chankya to Vivekananda, Sri Aurbindo have all being spiritual men with political idealisms. Of wanting a country that has achieved its potential. Yes Chankya too.

But let me get to what is bothering me, when say corrupt politician we need to see who is corrupting them?

My maid I have not changed her name because someone might take up this cause—Amina is a migrant worker at Goa from Dandeli. Her husband came first she followed him then the rest of the family. Fine enough nothing wrong, in a sense my husband and I are migrant workers too.

But what is interesting is she has an uncancelled ration card at Dandeli so does her family. They have paid Rs.5000/- per card and got new cards made here. This allows them twice the ration and twice the facilities. She and her family are very particular when it comes to elections exercising franchise both at Goa and Dandeli. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Most migrant workers have this dual ration card. Most of them I am sorry to mention and sound communal but are Muslims.

The issues are many, how many of us have the moral courage to stand up and say this is what we believe in, we don’t because the great Indian dream is to go the whiteman’s land and slave it out there. So we ridicule our Baba Ramdev, and protest about racial discrimination in the Land of Oz

penny day

A penny saved is a penny earned


A penny for your thoughts

To put my two cents in,

A necessity for penny pitchers

Haven’t heard so many penny focused saying. Remember the days of 1paise,2paise and 3paise. Well they are all gone now enough for the reserve bank to think of pulling out the coins. This is a world wide syndrome yet it is still lucky to find a penny on the ground.

23rd may is also the Penny day.

Chanakya's chants

Chanakya’s chants


Author: Ashwin Sanghi

Publisher: Westland ltd.

ISBN 978-93-80658-67-4

The author Ashwin Sanghi, an entrepreneur by profession, publishes this novel in his own name unlike his first The Rozabal Line which was published under a pseudonym Shawn Haigins.

The books swings in time between the Chankyan Era and Modern India politically. He draws parallels in between the lives of the modern day King maker Gangaprasad and the ancient Chanakya Vishnugupta.

The book is fairly interesting, though the author is not able to linguistically create the swing in time. He has Gangaprasad’s protégée Chandini Gupta to match Chanakya’s Chandragupta. The twist being a romantic angle of Chanakya who lands up being Rakshas mistress her curse will allow the chant of Chankya to succeed only if the protégée is a woman. He also attributes the success of chanakya to his Shakti mantra.

What I now do is a taboo, but after the refined time swing of Asoka era by Amita Kanekar the book seems a little crude.

An interesting book to borrow and read.

Osama-Obama-Oh! a drama

Obama-Osama-O a drama.


Osama with this tranquil face has become icon of terrorism, and it was necessary of Obama to amputate his Islamic roots in the phase of Islamic phobia.

Yet I wonder how much American media has contributed to creating the Osama image. Movie star Jim Carrey calls Osama a boogieman.

His death has heralded an end and a beginning, it’s like “the king is dead long live the king”” as the Goan thinker Tomazino Cardozo observed “Bin laden maybe dead but not his though.”

What is unacceptable and shocking in the whole operation is the way it was done!

The Americans sneaked and sized into Pakistan, it violating the sanctity of the country. To me it sounds like proving the American sovereignty, and an indirect invasion of Pakistan.

Shekhar Kapur observes –Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan all wounds opened in the name of Osama. If you note it’s like the invasion of the east, next boogieman will be created in India and it is only a step to china which was what really worries Uncle Sam.

Though Osama’s bombing of the twin towers is unacceptable to the civilized mind it might be the only way to handle Uncle Sam who thrives on arms selling. Bully the Bully and he will back off.

the zipper day

Ha! If you thought a zipper was a person who zips by well you are not really wrong. The dictionary also has that definition. But zipper in its true form is—is a device used to fasten clothing or valises


It consists of two tracks together or spiral metal or plastic coils each bordering one of the two edges to be joined, these interlock or open when pulled with an attached tag.

Incidentally today was the day the zipper was patented after invention.

The zipper has gone through many inventors before it has attained its today’s form.

Elias Howe who invented the zipper in 1851 also invented the first zipper as he was busy with the sewing machine, he missed the bus on the title father of the zipper 

Forty four years later whitcomb Judson who invented the pneumatic street railway patented it calling it the clasp locker. 1893 the zipper debuted as the clasp locker. Judson is generally credited with inventing the zipper.

In 1913 a Swedish Canadian called Gidean Sundback reinvented the zipper in its current form.

It was the Goodrich company which gave it its current name zipper- when it used it on boots and Tobacco pouches.

This was then picked up by the children’s cloths manufacturers as a concept that rendered the children independent.

It was only in 1930’s that the fashion industry discovered the zipper.

The hoarding industry named the fast moving flash boards of upper stories zippers to honor the quick closure that zippers allowed.

Lok-Otsav

0017First week of January goa along with west zone cultural dept. hosts the Lokostsav where artisans from all over India come. It’s the time when most of us pick handicrafts and other things.


Along with this there are also food stalls that serve authentic flavours of their state.

 this stall belongs to the state of Rajasthan, this family has been coming down to goa for the past 10yrs. They serve Rajasthani chaats, moong ke halwa,Panipuri, and other snacks. But their best seller is the Rs.80/- Rajasthani thaali with daal Bhatti,and traditional pickle and sweet.

 the vendors from awadh bring the Awadhi gulab jamoons, rabdi, kesar-badam milk and a matri kind of namkeen

Daffy duck

1937 April 16th daffy duck made his debut on the world comic scene.


This character from loony tunes is the frenemy of Bugs Bunny.

Ranging from a greedy guy to vigilant lunatic. An exaggerated mandible gave him a hint of lisp.

1941-45 saw Daffy Duck as Draftee Duck attacking the Nazi’s to the extent of banging Hitler’s head.

1951-64 Daffy was paired with Porky the period was the golden period Daffy and Porky.

1965-68 he became an inconsistent friend to speedy Gonzalves .

singara -- the flower of the arcanut.

Along the coastline worship of the idols or any special austerities gets multifold when the flowers of Arcanut are used.


The flowers are beautiful and casacading, so much so they are called sringara hoovu or the beautifying flowers.-- ಹೂವು ಚೆಲುವೆಲ್ಲ ತನ್ನದೆಂದಿತು

Women are known to tuck this flower into the hair.— ಹೆಣ್ಣು ಹೂವ ಮುಡಿದು ಚೆಲುವೆ ತಾನೆಂದಿತು

The pingara or singara flowers .
The photographs show the flower vendor at Udupi rathabeedi stringing the singara flowers.

nothing day

Hustle bustle, rush lunches to be packed before 7 am, deadlines to be met, aren’t we busier and than the beavers? Sometimes I think we are like the ants going hither whither filled with our self importance. It took Harold Pullman an  newsman to rescue the Americans, but there seems no respite for the Indians in India!

In 1973 Harold Pullman coffin decided that Americans needed to have one national day when they could just sit without celebrating, observing or honoring nothing. Various groups claiming calendar days had become a cliché. So a need for a day without formalities and focus on self was essential. In 1972 the day was born and since 1973 it is celebrated.

Habitually activities are listed, but essentially nothing is done. So obviously it has not been passed as an act of the congress.

Intellectuals have condemned it as laziness. But psychiatrists recommend that it should be honored once a month.

Yet doing nothing is a challenge. And to a lot of extent uplifting to the soul, wake up late, watch the birds, laze!

So shut off your computers, turn off the television, do away with your to do lists, and hide your mobiles.

Have a happy nothing day , tomorrow we shall consider having our congress pass an act on this for us in India! The Babu’s will be officially doing their duties then. J

clean your desk day

Mr. Chase who published the annual events a book of special events, had a messy desk.


His daughter who had no place to work would spread a cloth work and then wind up.

It was she and not a card designer or a florist who came up with the national clean your desk day on the second Monday of January. Though the About calendar for fundays lists on Jan.12th.

This is now backed, by the National Association of professional organizers in America.

The steps are simple

Take a toll of your desk, all that does not belong there should be thrown out. The best way to do this is to have your shredder and the refuse bag.

If you are novice then maybe you should opt for a community shredder or host the campfire.

Do it in small instalments so it is not overwhelming.

So file it or junk it.

An Some reactions were

• 85% believe that clean desk says someone is on top of things

• 48% believe messy desks are pilers when it comes to work.

• 38% say they have clean desks as they are filers when it comes ot their work.

• 14% say they are tossers and have a clean desk they toss out things routinely.

• 40% admit loosing paper work because of messy tables

• 57% of men admit eating snacks, meals off a messy or dirty desk

• 43%women admit eating snaks or meals off a messy or dirty desk.

It was as if letting go was more difficult than organizing. For those of us who have decided to turn around we could dedicate January as clean your act month.!

Volunteer fire fighters

The US of A has a list of funday’s that honour various events, thoughts beliefs, and people. Yesterday was also the day to honour the volunteer fire fighters.


The scenario in the states is the same as everywhere, the govt. funds are not enough to have an effective fire fighters department.

So the communities have taken on to ensure their safety by chipping in as fire fighters. This is voluntary, so they do expect to be paid.

What makes these people volunteer?

• A need ensure security.

• In younger kids a thrill

• A give back time to the society.

• Of course youngsters pick up career credits.

These people go through the regular fireman’s training and drill. They are certified too. They accelerate into action when their radio’s buzz, yes, most of them are on citizens radio. Those who cannot actively participate help out in fund raising and first aid care.

In India post Tsunami, and Lathur we have NGO’s who are into disaster management, that deals with earthquakes, tsunami, floods, but no voluntary fire fighting here.

Vajra security services at Delhi offers this service but it is not free, it comes at a cost, still something when the fireman is not accessible.

For despite the rules that every municipality should have fire fighting services this code is not met.

When I say abdicated our responsibilities as citizens, we complain about the lack of service, but would we dare volunteer?

This is an ode written by someone dedicated to the “Brotherhood of dance with the flame”

You fight the fires, you smell of smoke

Your bones are tired your are soaked

You do your job the best you can.



citizen

We are like the blind men we are in any case from Hindustan.


When I wrote the article on media boogie my point was to make us aware that we have abdicated responsibility as citizens. Somehow the point seems to have lost. I have interesting responses to how the media has not:

• Hauled the govt for lack of development activities.

• Ill equipped hospitals

• Bad roads

• Quality TV products—how TV is the outlet for loneliness or a mode of relaxation.

• Corruption

• Crime rates

My point still remains the same; we need to take responsibility as citizens. If you are worried about the development activities. Let’s look at this honestly.

How many of us have exercised our franchise?

Do we really know the manifesto of the candidate who volunteers to represent us? Do we know his antecedents? His capabilities. These information are available if not RTI can be used.

Every locality is assigned a municipality or a grama sabha; these grama sabha’s have 8 meetings. Of which 4 are fixed april-july-sept and the other I am not sure. 4 are announced. These are the meetings of the voters which mean you and me. Have we ever attended this? Do we even know that this exists?

The attendances at these meetings are something like 4 to 8 individual on a very enterprising day it is 10.

These meetings discuss

• Issues related to the Gram

• The Budget,

• The audits are presented.

Every village has to have a health a centre, but most of them get closed for if a facility is not used it gets shut down the budget gets either relocated after a stipulated period or goes missing from action into someone’s kitty.

About Media, the TV there is a panel that has been set for TV broadcast guidelines have we lodged our displeasure there? How many PIL’s are registered against offensive televisions shows?

Think about it Gandhi had to plead the case of India to the Indian!

With great power comes great responsibilities.

pilots

Part of the tourism attraction in Goa is the availability of two wheelers on hire.


This works on the similar lines like the bicycle for hire when we were kids. The stakes are higher though.

Goa has a very unique geographic constrain and it is further handicapped with very poor public transport system. But obstacles as usual are overcome and here the visionary entrepreneur is the local Goan.

Asking and giving lifts were a way of life until the influx of the Konkan Railway immigrants.

Then are the “Pilots” or the two wheeler taxi’s which are very convenient if you are a single passenger.

Then are the owners of two wheelers who give their bikes out on rent.

The charges for tourists are different they also need to submit their license for verification and a photocopy of it is filed with the person who rents the two wheeler out. The bike is given on rent with a litre of petrol and the rest is for the user to top up.

For locals the rate is rs.250/- for 24hrs off season.

If you are regular then concessions with monthly payment facility is also available. The vehicle owner also provides you the helmet if required.

The onus of maintaining the bike is the owners so it really works great.

Just like you have a monthly contract with the cab guy or a bus pass many people have running accounts with the Pilot.

Cribs

It’s like a crescendo being built, from deepavali the festival of lights, advent, Feast of St. Xavier, Christmas and finally New Year.


The tourists have gone back Goa has once again become its normal peaceful self. Thank god for exams we have a little spell of sanity.

One major activity during Christmas which gets eaten by Santa’s bulk and laughter and the sparkle of the Christmas tree is the crib making. The scene of nativity is reconstructed in most houses sometimes it is a community or a society activity.

Crib making contests are held too.