VILLAGE WAYS:
Though this scene is from Saligao, it could be seen in any Goan village during this season, when people grow onions, chillies, sweet potatoes, water melons, etc. It's the traditional way for villagers to draw water to irrigate their plantations from a shallow, temporary well. A bucket dangles at the lower end of the vertical pole, which the women pulls down to dip in the well. She just has to release the grip to get the filled bucket up. The bucket is emptied in a furrow, which takes the water all over the plantation, without any electrical power, pollution or pulling.

PRO BONO PUBLICO:
People habitually complain but rarely resort to the right methods to solve their grievances. Soter de Souza, an upright, dynamic panch of Socorro says that citizens should know their rights and duties first; then only it will be easy to make the village panchayat or government work in public interest. He was addresing the Friday Balcao of the Goa Desc Resource Centre, Mapusa. It's an ideal forum to listen to well informed speakers on a variety of topics and to air one's own views on matters of public interest.

LATEST LAYOUT:
The final resting place for Christians will no longer be mounds of mud and weeds growing all around. Fr Simon Diniz, chaplain of the Duler Chapel in Mapusa, gave the lead to build a better burial ground. The 3000-odd parishioners lent their wholehearted support. Mapusa city needs another parish for the far flung Duler area, and it will be a reality soon. For the ideally patterned, modern cemetry, a neighbouring politician raised hurdles but the people jumped over them handsomely.