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'BONDERAM' AT DIVAR
With every passing year the crowd at the flag festival appears to be larger than the previous year. The six participating floats were: Vittozem Sports Club's "Goa by the Sea", Maddant Star's "Madd: Dhir and Adhar Goemkarancho", Primero's "The Beauty of Nature in God's Own abode, Goa", Divar Centre's "Bonderam in Peace", Jingle Bells' "Lakeside Romance" and Romantic's "Discover Goa". The last-named float bagged the prize for the best float, while Maddant and Primero took the second and third prizes respectively.
After the colourful parade ended, people were still arriving as so much more music was still being played by Forefront and Crimson Tide. GOA'S CHOVOTH
The festival of Chovoth or Ganesh Chathurti is an occasion for Goa's Hindus to return to their ancestral homes, in a grand festive reunion. One can't really believe that in all 450 families belonging to the same root celebrate their Ganesh festival together under one roof in the Vazekar Raikar family at Vaze village in Shiroda. The festival brings together the family members spread across the globe. Right from Karachi in Pakistan to St Francisco in USA, where the family members have settled down, they do not miss this opportunity to meet their dear ones.
One interesting feature we came across at Marcel, was a massive 15 ft Ganesh idol made entirely of elements from the coconut tree. The imaginatively designed idol comprised of 2001 coconuts. Since Liberation, in the cities and more urbanised villages, the sarvajanik (joint) celebrations have also been comanised on a grand scale. The comanisers engage expert idol makers even from outside the State. This year, a Karwar-based artist, commissioned to do the Ganesh idols for the Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav Mandals at Quepem and Sanguem, disappeared without completing his job. The Sanguem idol is estimated to cost over Rs.50,000 and the Quepem one over Rs.80,000.
This year, for the village of Satorlim in the remote region in the Gaondongrim, it was more than a celebration for the rustic population. Because on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi this year, the village was blessed with electricity, for the first time. The hamlet has just about 10 houses and a population of 150 people. "SANGODD" AT CUMBHARJUA
The major float comes from the temple village of Marcel, and until it arrives, the ceremonies cannot begin at Cumbarjua. Joel D'Souza |
THE Divar
island's wonderful festival of Bonderam was celebrated with a
big bang by the Piedade Youth Association on August 25 evening, with
plenty of colour, music and entertainment.
Teenagers
bearing the colourful flags of the various wards led the parade,
with a traditional brass band in tow. The leading troupe comprised
of quite a nostalgic mix with a bearded Arab, with a traditional
khanjar (dagger) at his waist, a man-size baby sucking a feeding
bottle, a dhoti-clad man, a nurse bringing along a blood transufison
kit, a bewigged brunette. A pistol-wielding cowboy hopped around
excitedly.
The stretch
of the road at Fetorim gets overcrowded, with the youngesters
spilling on the roads and making movement rather difficult. Perhaps
the comanisers could think of a slightly longer stretch. Missing
this time round was the traditional, popular sound of the
"fotash", which has been banned from the festival because
some youngsters tend to irritate the crowd by hitting people with
the "teflam" (small fruit) pellets. In fact, the Divar Centre's
float "Bonderam in Peace", displayed a large green fotash to
signify the end of the ethnic element in the Bonderam
festivity.
Each of the
floats tried to bring out essence of Goan heritage and the natural
grandeur of the emerald island to the best of their abilities. The
floats had groups of young dancers in colourful attire. Commendable
was the fact that quite a lot of native elements like the
fisherfolk, Goan Kunbis and cultivators were featured prominently.
Of course, the festival appears a bit too commercial but it is quite
an entertainment. It attracts people from all over Goa to the
picturesque island 10 kms from Panjim. Many come for the first time,
to behold the spectacular event.
Writing in a daily, Luis Antonio de Souza from
Divar, however, bemoans the fact that though "the festival of
Bonderam celebrates the bounty of a favourable harvest, in reality,
there is no harvest to rejoice about in Goltim-Navelim in Divar. The
bunds in Divar have created vast tracts of reclaimed land for
cultivation by the local farmers. However, due to neglect of this
unique agricultural and water harvesting system, an agrarian tragedy
is unfolding in Divar, causing an alarming socio-economic fallout".
Goa's most
prominent Hindu festival-Ganesh Chaturthi-called Chovoth locally,
took off on August 22, with people installing the colourful Ganapati
idols in their homes. The elephant-headed Ganapati is revered as the
leader of the people, remover of all obstacles and harbinger of
everything good. Of course, the feverish excitement one used to
witness once is not felt anymore, but the sound of crackers bursting
is heard almost in every city and village. The Chovoth lasts from
one-and-a-half day to 11 days, and even more.
Some of the
families set up "chitram" (colourful clay figures) beside the
Ganesh idol. These are generally five-day affairs and people come
from different parts of Goa to admire the decorations. As usual, the
Raneacho Zunvo (island), off the Revora village had their
traditional decorations with chitram at all the 25 houses. In
fact, in one of the housea there were two idols of Ganapati-they
said that one was the uncle and the other the nephew. The magestic
mansion of the Ranes, at northern end of the oval shaped island, had
the biggest clay image of Lord Ganesha. 
Eventually,
the mud images of the idol are immersed at lakes, wells and
riversides on the last day. The evening air was thick with the smoke
from fireworks and the sound of music and chanting of "Ganapati
Bap'pa Morya" as the colourful Ganesh idols were taken out for
immersion at various wells, lakes and riversides all over Goa at the
end of the one-a-half-day Ganesh festival yesterday. The immersion
ceremonies, which began after 7.30 pm lasted well past midnight in
some areas. 
On the eleventh day, the Mapusa market, for the first
time witnessed the otherwise crowded lanes cleared off hawkers and
other clutter, to allow the grand procession with the
bigger-than-life idol placed on a truck, with a band, dancers and
ceaseless bursting of fireworks. The idol from the police station
and the one from Khorlim had their own individual processions, which
met at the Tar beyond the bridge in front of the Mapusa
church.
The
Cumbarjua canal was agog with music, crackers and nearly 20 floats
on boats. The occasion was the traditional 'sangodds', on
which the people of Marcel and Cumbharjua take their Ganesh idols
for immersion in the river on boats tied together and decorated with
floats depicting mythological events and popular scenes. The boats
take seven rounds in the river. People, coming from all over Goa,
watch from both the picturesque banks. The bridge of the Cumbarjua
canal, connecting the villages of Marcela and Cumbarjua also gets
packed with crowds.
