Saturday, December 24, 2011

Short Take Long Memories in Pudhari newspaper (Marathi)

Goa Lit Fest: Meet the authors of Short Takes Long Memories with Gulzar



As well as Lokmat Goa edition

And Navprabha

And in the Navhind Times - Buzz

Coverage in the Gomantak Times

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

At Goa Lit Fest - Short Takes with Gulzar

Photos: Galileo Fernandes


Mr Damodar Mauzo, Sahitya Academy Award winner speaks introduces the book and the authors



Sharing with the audience his views on Goan literature, the changes in Goan society over the past decades and how a book like Short Takes Long Memories serves as a chronicle of a land that moved overnight from being part of the Estado da India to a part of free India.


A view of the audience




Damodar Mauzo speaks in admiration of Prabhakar Kamat's photographic memory and how it helped Short Takes Long Memories become such an accurate, almost photographical, account of Goa over the years. He also finds the snippets of life in Portugal in the 1950s enthralling as recounted through the author's experiences



Goa - served sunny side up.
As Goa enters its Golden Jubilee as part of free India, Sharmila Kamat takes the audience on a tongue-in-cheek tour of Goa- past and present by reading extracts of her first book, "Mango Mood"


Fun and frolic, music and dance.
Fish and feni, a little romance. 
Where life is soçegado, the pace is sedate.
And every bridge has a duplicate. 
MANGO MOOD - serving Goa Sunny Side Up
 






The book reads like a film observes reviewer and academic Augusto Pinto as he allows the audience to get a flavor of Short Takes Long Memories by relating some choice passages from the book.





Goa University Professor and noted writer Dr Kiran Budkuley shares some of her thoughts on the changing face of Goan writing in English.





What a wonderful occasion to release the book comments well-known lyricist, writer and Oscar winning songwriter Gulzar referring to the connection between the day being the Golden Jubilee of Goa's Liberation from Portuguese colonialism and the theme of Short Takes Long Memories being the tale of Goa's passage to Indian after 451 years adrift in the Ultramar Portugues


Ladies, gentlemen and gentle readers...... SHORT TAKES LONG MEMORIES


Lyrical prose from the author of Jai Ho!



IAS Officer and diplomat Mr Prabhakar Kamat autographs a copy of Short Takes Long Memories for the award winning lyricist, writer and director Gulzar


Goa University History Professor and writer Dr. Pratima Kamat  reading choice extracts from Short Takes Long Memories


Director of the International Centre, Goa, Nandini Sahai speaks on the occasion

More pictures of release of Short Takes Long Memories by Gulzar on 19 December 2011 at Goa LitFest, International Center, Goa

Photos courtesy Pratima Kamat

The release of the book Short Takes Long Memories by Gulzar, noted lyricist, Padma Bhushan and Oscar awardee

Mr Damodar Mauzo, Sahitya Academy Award winner speaks introduces the book and the authors

As Goa enters its Golden Jubilee as part of free India, Sharmila Kamat takes the audience on a tongue-in-cheek tour of Goa- past and present by reading extracts of her first book, "Mango Mood"

Dr Kiran Budkuley, author and academic, presents trends in Goan writing in English


The book reads like a film  observes reviewer and academic Augusto Pinto as he allows the audience to get a flavor of Short Takes Long Memories by relating some choice passages from the book.
Gulzarsaab, maybe that is a suggestion for you!


The unfurling.....


And here it is ... Short Takes Long Memories

The author taking tips from the award winning writer and Oscar winner on how to wield the pen





Short Takes Long Memories released by Gulzar at the Goa LitFest on Golden Jubilee of Goa's Liberation

On the Golden Jubilee of Goa’s Liberation, Short Takes Long Memories, a ringside view of Goa’s passage to India from 451 years of Portuguese rule, was released by noted lyricist and scriptwriter Gulzar at the Goa LitFest being held at the International Centre, Goa. The book, a memoir of Goa’s first IAS officer and diplomat Prabhakar Kamat, is co-authored by Prabhakar Kamat and Dr. Sharmila Kamat and published by Rupa Publications, New Delhi. In addition to a reading from Mango Mood, a tongue-in-cheek look at present-day Goa by Dr. Sharmila Kamat (Rupa Publications, 2011), there was also a discussion on literary trends in Goa. Eminent writer Damodar Mauzo, Goa University academic and noted writer Dr Kiran Budkuley, well-known reviewer and academic Augusto Pinto and Director, International Centre Nandini Sahai, participated in the discussion.
Picture courtesy: Galileo Fernandes

Monday, November 28, 2011

Featuring in the Goa LitFest - Mango Mood and Short Takes Long Memories

Sharmila Kamat's Short Takes, Long Memories and Mango Mood will released at the art-and-lit fest.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1111127/jsp/7days/story_14804236.jsp


A ringside view of Goa’s passage to India after 451 years adrift in the Ultramar Português:  http://tinyurl.com/7lcux2o
Of men, matters and madcap capers in the part of India that once spoke with a Portuguese accent: http://tinyurl.com/6o53eby


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Growing up Goan in a land buffeted by newly free India and a Salazarist dictatorship

Short Takes Long Memories
By
Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat
(New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2011).
Price: Rs. 195/- ISBN_PB: 9788129118219
Short Takes Long Memories is a ringside view of Goa’s passage to India after 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule. Published by Rupa Publications, this is based on the reminiscences of Mr. Prabhakar Kamat, a retired IAS officer and diplomat based in Goa. The book is an account of Growing up Goan in a land buffeted by the conflicting claims of newly free India and a Salazarist dictatorship unable to reconcile itself to imperialism’s waning appeal.
A set of evocative images characterise Goa in the 1940s. As the global conflict rages on, in Goa the caminhão lurches along narrow lanes even as the funcionário público sips his ardha single in a safed cup of tea and the bhatcar berates the local layabout in pidgin Portuguese.
The end of the war allows the narrator to travels to Europe for graduate studies. In Lisbon, he adjusts to life under Dr. António Salazar, the Portuguese strongman as famed for his tight fist as for his tightfistedness. He learns why the Portuguese love coffee houses and is reminded that stepping out sans necktie is an egregious breach of etiquette. His interaction with freedom fighters from the larger Ultramar Português makes him privy to the unswerving resolve of men like T.B. Cunha, Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos Santos.
As the 1950s proceed, he returns to Portuguese Goa and joins the colonial administration. Indian efforts to dislodge the Portuguese culminate in a blink-and-you-miss-it Army action. As Goa joins India, he gets to contrast the administrative styles of a colony with a free land.
The loss of the ‘swaggering capital of the Portuguese Empire of the East,’ to quote William Dalrymple leads to momentous changes in Portugal. Democracy is ushered in by the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Restoration of diplomatic ties between India and Portugal allow the narrator to return to Lisbon as an Indian diplomat. He gets to witness Portugal savouring freedom after 40 years of dictatorial rule - right around the time Emergency is imposed in India.
Humorous and thought provoking, Short Takes includes rare photos from Mr Kamat’s private collection. Priced at Rs 195/-, it is available in major Goan bookshops, online and at Rupa’s site: http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx


Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Two prisoners...One jailer .... a ringside seats to both releases

"It falls on but a few, to put it quite immodestly, to be on hand for the release of two prisoners, shackled by the same jailer, on opposite sides of the globe," as Short Takes Long Memories grabs a ringside seat first at the Liberation of Goa in 1961 and then, 13 years later, at the Carnation Revolution in Portugal as a colony and its coloniser are freed from the same jailer - the dictatorial Salazarist regime of Portugal, on opposite sides of the globe.

A ringside view of the passage to India of Goa from prized jewel in the Ultramar Português. It chronicles the tale of a land caught between free India and Salazarist Portugal based on the reminiscences of a civil servant and diplomat.

Babi, Shabi, pouca diferença

A popular Konkani (well actually, Portuguese) version of that English expression- one and the same thing.

Glance through Short Takes Long Memories to find out the antecedents of this expression and, in the process, learn of the Keystone Cops nature of the law-enforcers in Portuguese Goa

Growing up Goan during its passage to India after 451 years adrift in the Ultramar Português- a rollicking journey in time in the company of serendipity, Salazar and the spirit of socegado
http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx



Penny Pinching unparalled - with fascism as a side order

Take up #ShortTakesLongMemories to learm more about the dictator Salazar who, as P.G. Wodehouse so eloquently put it, "would walk ten miles in tight shoes to pick up tuppence"


Available at:

Monday, October 17, 2011

Seasons in the Sun: A sneak peak into the land of sun, sand and socegado

Seasons in the Sun: By Sharmila Kamat in the Smithsonian Mag


Think of Goa and the following images spring to the mind - miles upon miles of sun-kissed beaches. Palm trees swaying gently in the mid-morning breeze. Narrow country lanes weaving their way through vast stretches of lush, green paddy fields.

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/departments/my-kind-of-town/your-kind-of-town/Goa-India.html#ixzz1b0Z8Jxpw




Saturday, October 1, 2011

Different shades of the Indian mindset - Mango Mood Book Review

Sunday Book Review

Filed Under (Books) by siteadmin on 22-05-2011 and tagged , ,

“On the first day, he is not unduly perturbed, the taste of yesterday’s fish curry is still fresh, on the second day the memory persists-but only just.
On third day, no sooner is the idol of Lord Ganesh given a ceremonial immersion than he’s back to where he belongs – in the fish market, making up for the lost time.”
-from the book ‘Mango Mood’
The most common problem with reader is that he used to get addicted to a particular mood. Though there may be different kind of claims by author or publishers or readers of a book or author but the central theme of most of the books is generally one. Love or affection, technology or science, horror, conspiracy, corruption or any other the central theme moves around the one theme whether author does it unconsciously or deliberately.
Bringing out different shades and colours of life and society in a book through writing requires serious observation and presentation skill. When the book comes as a collection of writings the reading becomes more interesting. ‘Mango Mood’ is one of the books falls in this category.
Though the book heavily talks about Goan culture and society but despite it the writings presents different shades of Indian mindset. From fish curry to Ganesh Chaturthi, Wagle ki Dunia to modern politics, Bapu to Las Vegas, common family and social issues… author tried to talk about everything though in a lighter vein.
Book: Mango Mood
Author: Sharmila Kamat
Publisher: Rupa Publication
Category: Non-Fiction
Price: Rs. 195/-