A Lawyer Who Plows Paddy Fields in Goa

He dons a black suit in the court room and forcefully pleads his client’s cases before different judges in Goa. But back home in his village Ambaulim in Salcete Taluka of Indian state of Goa, the advocate discards his fancy court room clothes and soils his hands and feet, plowing his paddy fields.
Yes, while paddy cultivation is looked down upon many educated youth of Goa, this practicing lawyer John Fernandes, has no qualms about lifting his plough and march into his paddy field.Given his multi-faceted personality, John is involved in many social activities and campaigns for the eradication of problems which affect the youths of his locality. Chronic alcoholism and gambling are two such evils which have plagued his locality for a long time and he has been involved in the fight against them.
“When I was a parish youth member of Our Lady of Lourdes church in Ambaulim, I put forth the idea of fighting against gambling which were going on at the bars. It may be about 18 years back. And gambling is coupled with alcoholism,” recollects John.
John has launched an awareness campaign in the area in which he is trying to convince individuals from his village and those who are into chronic alcoholism to kick the habit.
“I also constantly motivate the member of Alcoholism group that are functioning in my village. I also celebrate my birthday with them. We have filed complaints before the concerned government departments over the illegal bars flourishing in the village. I try to set example to the villagers by celebrating my marriage, baptism and first birthday of my son without serving any liquor."Apart from the Alcoholic Anonymous group there are no other groups that are involved in the fight against alcoholism but the villagers have gotten together under the banner “Villagers of Copelabhat”.
John is concerned that the Goa Excise department are flouting the rules to give permits for new bars near religious institutions and schools.
“Licenses are given to bars close to schools and religious institutions by manipulating laws. Few years back the education department of ADIE Quepem opened a primary school next to bars in ward Bamnabhat. The bars belongs to an ex-sarpanch of the village. In spite of press coverage of the irregularities, the ADIE did not bother to shift the school. So finally I had to file a writ petition in the High Court in order to have the school transferred.”
John attributes the reasons for addiction to alcohol to lack of guidance, availability of money at younger age, lack of active social groups and the existing social conditions of the village are some of the reason. He says that in his village, the political clout is equally responsible because for many years those with the political power in the village were directly or indirectly linked to bars.
John says the church is not doing much to fight the menace and suggests that the church should constantly attack alcoholism through sermons, try to educate the younger generation about the evil effects of alcoholism in the catechism classes, preach to the followers to celebrate festivals without liquor and concentrate on individual counseling with those who are addicted.
John believes that he born to fight; for people’s cause in court room and outside it.
“I believe there is a need for me to my village so the almighty had sent me at the right time and prepared me for the cause. I have not specialized in any particular field of law but I take up both civil as well as criminal cases.”
Besides alcoholism and gambling, John devotes his time to protecting the environment. He is one of the campaigners against mining.
“I am fighting against mining because unplanned mining is destroying Goa and its people, particularly villagers from the hinterland. This one will see in the years to come. The fight is to preserve environment, our water resources, agricultural land, forest land, rivers, nalas (small rivulets). I am an environmental student. As a lawyer I am helping those who are fighting against mining to protect environment and Goa. About two years back I got involved in the mining fight. It is the villagers of Colomb who motivated me to fight against the onslaught of mining.”
One of the reason for keeping the land fallow in Goa is due to the problem of stray cattle, says John.
“If the stray cattle menace is solved, then the people will certainly start cultivating fallow land. People should follow the multiple cropping system. Everyone should engage work in one’s own field to meet the shortage of labor. As for me, I go to plow my paddy fields early in the morning or on Sunday.”
And he has a message for the educated youths of Goa.
“Inculcate the dignity of labor, keep away from vices and contribute to protect rich environment of Goa, our motherland any way they can.”

Time for Change at Goan Inter-village football

Inter-village football was once Goa’s lifeline. Not anymore. Some agree some disagree. But what has not diminished over the years is its importance and the entertainment value it has in all the Goan villages. It still thrives in the villages, thanks to the passion and generosity of Goans who would go at lengths to keep it kicking around. Having an inter village final on the village feast day of the patron saint has been a long established tradition in the former Portuguese colony.
Over the years the nature and composition of the inter-village tournaments has undergone several changes over the years. Some for the good , some for the worse. Time to weed out the bad and retain the best. Is Goa football Association ready for the much needed facelift which the Goan Inter-village football cries for?
An in-depth perusal of the functioning of the inter-village clubs and tournaments suggest that the arrangements in place have become outdated and long lost its value in terms of grooming the next generation of youngsters. Most Inter-village tournaments and inter-village clubs are not ready for the next generation leap.
If Goa takes pride in being one of the leading lights of football in the country then the basics have to be strong.
WHAT CONSITUTES GOAN INTER-VILALGE FOOTBALL
A Goan inter-village team was earlier a purely village team – players born or brought up from a particular village only could play for the village, others were termed as hired bulls. The tournaments frequency was more during the summer months when Mumbai-based Goan families descended into Goa for vacation. Some of the Goan based in Mumbai and those studying in different schools and colleges in Belgaum, Mumbai, Karwar also got their share of opportunities to turn out for their village teams on the recommendations of some of the senior players during that period.
Mind you there were no identity cards and the player’s identity and affiliation were all based on honesty. The entire village use to come in full force to cheer the boys. If Mumbai-based Basilo Menezes, a former Tata Sports Club player was a craze among the bare footed footballers of his generation playing for Cuncolim team, there were many other heroes for young Levino Dias and Menezes was one of them. The short-stature Cuncolim-born coach who went to win many laurels as a player and coach.
Yes ,if my village Cuncolim abounds with stories of valour and courage in the fight against the colonial rule, in the same vein it was notorious for being bad losers, especially to neigbouring villages of Assolna and Chinchinim.
Coming to the present age, violence and crowd disruption has no place for it and adequate sanctions are in place to take care of that.
Thanks to GFA the mayhem and confusion has been given a back seat in the 80’s when the bad blood of inter-village football, floodlight tournaments were banned. Events which had a history of fights and a lot alcohol related problems for the players, coaches, and officials.
That was some fifteen years back. Thereafter the village lines were redrawn and a number of villages or an entire Taluka was considered as one village in a bid to give players not getting a chance to play for a particular village having now multiple options at his disposal. Some villages clubs took advantage of the rule, which is still prevalent even today.
But the multiple options has not satisfied the ego and greed of certain club officials, they have started restoring to dubious means to registered non-village players, as players of their village.
Some of the club officials are holding top executive posts in GFA.
Take my village Cuncolim as an example, a municipal town, under the present inter-village rules, players from Balli village and Fatorpa village can play for Cuncolim inter village clubs, but instead what we find the village team is a mixture of players drawn from Navelim, Ambaulim, Velim and Betul villages and I see a day not far off when the original Cuncolim players will be wiped away from the team rooster in the coming years. Talent abounds, but how to tap and groom them, only a few know how to handle it.
If some Save-Goa activists are crying foul that village demographics are changing, due to mega-housing projects here in my village, the so-called football promoters are digging trenches and hurdles of a worst kind for young footballers.
The process of circumventing the legal provisions is with the full knowledge of the administrative hands at GFA. Turn a blind eye. Yes indeed they have to turn a blind eye not to just to their own officials doing but also to several other clubs who have now picked up the dubious ways. What I find absurd is GFA officials are still insisting on Ration Cards as proof of residence.
The same document which is tampered and manipulated with the aid of the government officials. It is high time the GFA makes a secondary document like Election Card (EPIC) necessary document to put an end to the practice which is ruining Goan football.
So the Goan inter-village football is no longer a true picture of the olden day inter-village team but one would say a Goan club like the big names Dempo’s , Salgaocar, the only thing which survives is the village based name which it carries.
In the next post we will discuss how floating the rules helps the inter-village clubs officials -PRIZE MONEY AND ECONOMICS OF INTER VILLAGE FOOTBALL.

Missing Coffee at Margao's Marliz

The closed shutters of Marliz restaurant, once Margao’s much-sought after eating hole and a meeting point for Satiskars (resident so Salcete taluka in Indian state of Goa) points out to yet another grim story. A sad tale of yet another Goan enterprise crashing to the vagaries of time. A place which had become synonymous with the high and the mighty of Salcete as they discussed the day’s hot stories over coffee while enjoying the fragrance and greenery of the Margao Municipal garden.

If miles away Mumbai’s once famous and now closed Bastani restaurant was a perfect place for Goans to start their day, back home Satiskars craved for more and more for Marliz’s coffee. If Basanti’s meat mince was once item Goans eat till the last bit of it, here in Margao it was coffee which ruled the roost at Marliz.
There are many stories of marriage, business deals, jobs, career options and land deals interwoven around Marliz. But the name Marliz, has a story of its own. Like the Taj Mahal, here was a man inspired by his love for his wife to name his business venture combining the names of his wife Maria and Luiza, and too not after she had died but during her life time.
For many Salcete residents it was not just a point to have their first morning coffee while reading the newspapers, it went much beyond that. Its ideal location, a few meters away from the old Margao Bus Station, meant that it drew its customers from varied fields. It served as link to many professionals, teachers and government servants. It was virtually a place and a whirlpool where the creamy layer of Salcete met over a cup of coffee.
Having your morning coffee at Marliz was just a excuse for the gossip happy Goans to make their way to the restaurant. There were many items on the menu you could pick up for your breakfast but there were are others which were not served by the Marliz staff, but they came as side “assortments”.
The morning newspapers had all the news that the Satiskars asked for. But some craved for news which did not go into print – the untold stories of affairs, bribery scandals, and more hot news.
The client based it drew came from far from different villages, Cavelossim to Cansaulim, Curtorim to Cuncolim, Quepem to Raia.
Ask Assolna-based Panchayat Secretary Theophilo Almeida or his Politician-cum-businessman friend John Baretto from Benaulim and they will have numerous stories to tell, related as they were to Marliz.
It was here that land deals, engagement proposals, career options, job opportunities and business options were discussed and fine tuned with success.
If you wanted to bribe some government official then there were people to guide you to that effect. The collector’s building a stone throw away from Marliz. The high and the mighty from the collector’s building came to Marliz to have coffee. They needed the caffeine dose to give them the adrenalin rush for their routine work.
As college students, we sometimes ran into our professors here. In the college canteens we did not had a chance to share the same table with our teachers and have coffee. Here at Marliz we did.
If the high and mighty strengthen their professional, social and business links with their association with Marliz, there is another untold story about Stanley Coutinho, a newspaper vendor , who did business from his counter outside the restaurant , until the High Court decision to clear all building passages led to his doom.
He was evicted from the place like many others during the last 90’s in a drive enforced by the Margao Municipality in conformity with the High Court orders. Others who were evicted slowly returned to the place but Coutinho had lost many a time in his fight for survival. The high and mighty who were once so good to him, failed to bail him out of the situation, thus Coutinho shut the business forever.
His place has now being taken over by a Non-Goan newspaper vendor who sells newspapers from the footh path a few meters away from Marliz. Yet another non-Goan doing business at the expense of a Goan.
But the story of Marliz has not being entirely wiped away from the Goan radar, another sister concern stills operates in the same building of Margao’s Grace church, selling Cakes and Goan sweets. Hope is round the corner and not everything is lost, are you listening, Arwin Mesquita, a Goan based in UAE concerned about protecting Goan identity. It’s time Mesquita and his like-minded Goans put principles into practice, to protect and safeguard the business interests of the Goans.
Viva Goa! Viva Goenkarponn! Viva Marliz!