Art, Literature, Culture · Culture · Dams · Goa · Rivers and Culture

The magic of 24th June: Water Worship around the World

“Sao Joao, Sao Joao, Viva Sao Joao!”

The shouts were followed by unbelievably loud splashes in a red laterite well. The well itself was decked up like a bride. All along the way to Siolim in North Goa, on the banks of river Chapora, the road blossomed with people wearing big smiles and bigger floral wreaths, ‘Kopels’.

At Siolim, flows a tiny river called Anjuna. The ivory white church of St. Anthony overlooks a small bridge across Anjuna which was festooned extravagantly with ribbons, balloons and flowers. On the grassy riverbank, hundreds of chairs were laid out and a makeshift stage creaked under the weight of musicians, dancers, announcers, and impromptu performers jumping up from the audience. Continue reading “The magic of 24th June: Water Worship around the World”

Goa · Rivers · Waterways

Surest way to defeat Solastalgia: Zuari River Fishing Community

Guest blog by Sebastiao Anthony Rodrigues

A dozen years has passed by ever since Glenn Albrecht has defined home sickness suffered at home as ‘Solastalgia’. In an article published in a Journal ‘Australasian Psychiatry’ in February 2007 issue he liked up human distress to eco-systemic distress. Healthy home he argued leads to healthy human lives. Home refers to the ecological well being of the surroundings of Human. Even though his article provoked in the context of Australian Indigenous and non-indigenous people’s response to the companies engaged in open cut coal mining the concept makes sense in other parts of the world that experiences ecological distress as well as human distress. There is hardly any place in the world today that is not faced by eco-systemic distress due to natural or anthropogenic factors.

Due to my engagement with Zuari river fishing community in Goa over the past few years its possible to share certain Solastalgic points involving life with fishing and beyond fishing. Certain development came to my attention that were viewed by fishing community as threat to their lives and has potential to escalate into ecological and human stress. Continue reading “Surest way to defeat Solastalgia: Zuari River Fishing Community”