The Wagle's Goan Jaunt - excerpt from Mango Mood By Sharmila Kamat, Rupa Books, 2010

The Wagles' Goan Jaunt - a spoof written during the airing of the original Wagle ki Duniya that was shown on Doordarshan from 1988-1990.

This is a fictional account of the Wagles' going to Goa for a vacation. This is when Raju and Manoj, the Wagle sons, were young boys. 

In the new Wagle ki Duniya - Nayi Peedhi, Naye Kissey, Raju, now a householder with two children of his own, wants to go to Goa for a holiday with his parents, wife and children. His plan is stymied when he injures his foot. 

 Still, what if things turned out different and the Wagles travelled to Goa for sun, sea, sands and serenity?

Would things be different this time around?

Here is a look at what happened on the last Goan Holiday:

 

 

Illustrations: Naguesh Sardessai

 

It's all about making a choice - Sharmila Kamat

https://www.deccanherald.com/sunday-herald/sunday-herald-articulations/it-s-all-about-making-a-choice-815676.html

Underdog Day Afternoon - Sharmila Kamat

Tongue in Cheek Satire on People, Politics, Pecul

iarities, Offbeat stories of Offbeat places

The Power and the Passion - Kishori Amonkar on her music and her life

Interview by Sharmila Kamat
Femina Magazine (March 15, 1998)
http://www.femina.in/celebs/indian/the-power-and-the-passion-43938.html

A rare interview with Kishori Amonkar by Sharmila Kamat (Femina Magazine, March 15, 1998)

Story on femina.in: A rare interview of Kishori Amonkar with Sharmila Kamat

Bleeding hearts in free fall - The HIndu, Open Page by Sharmila Kamat

2016 - the year liberalism went out of style - The Hindu Open Page, Jan 2, 2017

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article16979270.ece

Short Takes Long Memories available in the Library of the Indian Parliament, New Delhi

Short Takes Long Memories (http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx) available in the Library of the Parliament of India, New Delhi under Social History / Biographies
http://164.100.47.132/pdfload/MyFolder%5CEnglish_Jan_2012.pdf

Are you a medical mystery

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/272518/medical-mystery.html

Three Speeds - Slow, Slower, Stationary

In the summer, I took the caminhão from Margão to Ponda, a major commercial centre in central Goa, to spend a few weeks at my uncle’s estate in Khandepar, a picturesque village five kilometres from Ponda. Today it takes less than ten minutes to drive down from Ponda to Khandepar. Then, it took more than an hour of brisk walking before you reached your destination.
With other residents preceding, and following in, my footsteps, I did not lack for company during my trek. As I walked, I met villagers on their way to Ponda either to catch the caminhão to Panaji or Margão or to sell their produce in the market.
The trees lining the roads would offer a shady place to rest when I felt myself wilting under the summer sun. The thought of diving into the cool waters of the Khandepar River in the company of the other village boys spurred me on. That and the prospect of participating in the evening soirées on my uncle’s porch.
Just before sundown, a group of his neighbours would converge around the red-cemented seats lining my uncle’s balcão. He would be seated in a rocking chair in his favourite spot by the door, a tiny gold-coloured snuffbox in his hand. As each friend arrived, he would pour a small quantity of snuff onto his palm and offer it to the newcomer.
Taking snuff, they say, is one of the rare occasions when the hand that giveth rests beneath the hand that taketh. Each villager would take a pinch of snuff between his thumb and his forefinger, put it in one nostril and then the other and sniff deeply. I would watch the exercise fascinated, hoping for a chance to mimic their actions.
One evening, I summoned the courage to ask my uncle to allow me to sample the snuff. I had watched the three-step sequence so often I felt I could do it with my eyes closed. At first, my uncle demurred, contending that I was too young for these adult indulgences. When I persisted, he relented and let me sample the powder.
I pinched. I pushed. I sniffed. I began to sneeze loudly, uncontrollably. My throat was on fire. My face hurt. Water poured out of my eyes. As the mist before my eyes cleared, I caught a glimpse of the expressions on the faces around me. They oscillated between concern for my well-being and amusement at my predicament.
I never went anywhere close to a snuffbox again.
...............................


Experience life as it was lived in Goa, India just before its Liberation from Portuguese rule 50 plus years after Goa became part of the Indian Union in

Short Takes Long Memories by Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat

Available at:
http://www.amazon.com/Short-Takes-Long-Memories-Kamat/dp/8129118211
http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx

after reading some of the reviews like

http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/short-takes-long-memories/13/18503/s

and elseqhere in this blog

Replugging Short Takes Long Memories by Sharmila Kamat and Prabhakar Kamat

http://southasiabooks.com/short-takes-long-memories-p-71611.html

The Doctor is In - Times of India by Sharmila Kamat

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/The-doctor-is-in/articleshow/12598587.cms

Short Takes Long Memories by Sharmila Kamat and Prabhakar Kamat now available in Canada

http://www.amazon.ca/Short-Takes-Memories-Sharmila-Kamat/dp/8129118211

For the Francophone World and where Deutschland is Uber Alles

http://www.amazon.fr/s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-fr-intl-us&field-author=Sharmila%20Kamat

http://www.amazon.de/s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-fr-intl-us&field-author=Sharmila%20Kamat

Goa - What Happened Then - Learn about Goa pre and post 1961 in Sharmila Kamat and Prabhakar Kamat's Short Takes Long Memories

Fifty years later, we wonder what was life back then? Was it a ‘golden Goa’, as the discourse sometimes suggests? Or, was our tiny region dominated by everything negative, as those allergic to everything Portuguese today suggest?

A book review of Prabhakar and Sharmila Kamat's Short Takes Long Memories by Frederico Noronha in Planet Goa

http://www.planet-goa.com/content_details.php?id=489

On Amazon: Short Takes Long Memories by Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Takes-Long-Memories-Kamat/dp/8129118211

Short Take Long Memories in Pudhari newspaper (Marathi)

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 at the Goa Lit Fest December 17-21, 2011

http://www.goaartlitfest.com/galf2011/participatingauthors_2011_III.htm#Sharmila

http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Takes-Long-Memories-Kamat/dp/8129118211