One (Tamba) flu over the cuckoo’s (Vishwajeet) nest!

Just the other day, I bumped into my friend Dr Porobo, today retired but a decade ago the man who was in the hot seat when malaria was as big a headline as swine flu is today. And coincidentally, Porobo was in a strikingly similar predicament as Dr Rajendra Tamba, until a week ago the State's nodal officer for swine flu, was. Both were not only battling an epidemic, they were also with their backs to a wall called Vishwajeet Rane. Only difference was that Rane junior was then an 'unknown quantity' and meddled in affairs of the state in an 'extra-constitutional' avataar as the 'CM's son' but today, he is the health minister, and his writ runs in the health ministry. Of course there's another little difference, Tamba's head rolled, Porobo's didn't.

In the fight that he led against malaria in the mid-1990s, Porobo, like Tamba in the current battle against swine flu, was saddled with a collosal task and just a few dimes, so to say, to handle it with. And in the midst of his marathon duel with malaria, came this fiat from the 'CM's son' to employ that pesky pesticide called 'deltamethrine' to eliminate the mosquito, apparently emanating from Rane Jr's not-so-secret affection for Pharma majors. Delthamethrine was being produced and marketed by Hoechst Russel Marion. Deltamethrine would have been ordered by the tonnes if Porobo was a mere babu. But the doctor in him just didn't permit him to obey the fiat because the Union health ministry had specifically barred its use so early in the fight against malaria fearing that resistance developed by the mosquito to it would render this last weapon in its armoury impotent sooner than wanted. So, Porobo dashed off to the cabin of another doctor, Wilfred de Souza, who incidentally happened to be DyCM and also the health minister. Together, the two doctors cooked Piqueno's goose. In the end, Porobo survived and so did Deltamethrine, to be used to save another day against malaria.
Such was not the luck of Dr Tamba. Not one, who calls himself a 'doctor' in the Directorate of Health Services gathered the wits to back him and so the only epidemiologist in its ranks is no longer the state's epidemiologist. But time I feel will heal, and Tamba will live another day in the Health Services, to have his last laugh.

FOOTNOTE: Dayanand Narvekar, who is presently roaring like a tiger merely mewed like its domestic cousin, then. Perhaps to please Rane junior who seemed to have all his father's ears, Daya released some one-odd million rupees from his Urban Development ministry for then PMC-now-CCP to buy three tonnes of Deltamethrine. It's another matter that Panjim's citizen's kicked the PMC in its butt and the stuff rotted in its godowns, used only at the then Ranes-occupied CM's official bungalow and a military barracks at Altinho!

Who says politicians always win?
It was meant to be a show to demonstrate the villagers' united might. And thanks to the alertness of the villagers presence of mind, it remained thus despite an attempt to give it a political twist and turn the tide against present Tivim MLA, Nilkanth Halarnkar.
It was on Sunday that villagers gathered to voice, unitedly, their opposition to the plans of Vedanta-owned Sesa Goa Ltd to revive a pre-Liberation mine at Nadora-Pirna.
President of the Pirna-Nadora Nagrik Kruti Samiti, Yoganand Gawas, was leading the villagers with slogans against Sesa Goa and the government.
To drive home his point that the government was pitted against the villagers, Gawas chided the local 'amdar' (Nilkanth) for not taking up the issue in the recently concluded assembly session.
Thankfully, the villagers had their heads on their shoulders and the cat was soon out of the bag. Some from among the audience called his bluff and pointed out that the whole process of reviving the mine had began in 2001, when Sadanand Shet Tanavade of the BJP was the local 'amdar'.
Why do you not question him for all his inaction?, shouted out one villager. Tanavade, who was also amidst the gathering, had this 'I-have-an-excuse-ready' look on his face. But fortunately, he was not asked for his comments, Gawas had to abruptly halt his fiery speech and another equally fiery speaker took over.

Rent two take one free, Anil style
Ferry boats were hotly debated about in the House in the recently concluded, rather long session of the Assembly. And at the crux of the matter was an unusual offer from mining magnate Anil Salgaocar -- a free ferry boat to the government.

Anil claimed the RND was still using the same ferries with an archaic pre-liberation, Portuguese design. Instead, he suggested he will design one atuned to present day needs and gift it to the government. Instead of a two-engine craft, he's would have only one for better fuel efficiency and would be meant only for two-wheelers and passengers which forms the bulk of Goa's ferry commuters. Indeed a refreshingly innovative idea, coming as it did from our otherwise boorish netas! Only, it took us in the media another 24-hours to learn that Anilbab's offer had an interesting twist -- a rider. The mining magnate had turned on its head the buy-some-take-some-free marketing funda. Instead, his offer to the government wasn't merely 'take a free gift (ferry) from me. Instead, it was: Take one free, then rent two from me. No wonder Anil is touted by most who know him to be the shrewdest businessman in the Salgaocar clan. Yet, the mess that the RND currently is, Anil's offer is worth giving a try!

Save Goa: Another front opens -- August 4

At Lohia Maidan on Sunday, another front has opened up in this fight to save Goa and Chief Minister Digambar Kamat could not have been in the dark. Farmers, a long ignored section of Goan society, finally got organised and raised their voices from close enough to Diggu for him to hear all the swearing at him and his government, from within the comforts of the balcony of his home.
The immediate provocation for the assault on the government by the ryots was the rehab of displaced kiosk-owners in prime farming land at Davorlim, ironically the pocket burrough of Churchill Alemao the former supremo of 'Save Goa Front'. But it's not Davorlim alone that hundreds of protesting farmers cried out for at Lohia Maidan. It's for the whole of Goa, and the indiscriminate acquisition of agricultural land by the government, was the first target of the new-born Goenchea Xetkarancho Ekvott.
CM Digambar Kamat has a job on his hands. For, this little fire that demonstrated its ferocity on Sunday, possesses the potential to engulf the state's political establishment, much on the same lines as the Goa Bachao Abhiyan's movement against the Regional Plan 2011 did.
Going by his past record, Diggu could soon take to spinning another one of his pro-people moves, some government decision like 'No more acquisition of agricultural land' like he said 'SEZs Scrapped', and of course the Task Force for RP 2021, both of which are yet to see the light of day!
No ‘bhendo’ for Lord Ganesha? Going by Manohar Parrikar’s definition of the ‘mother tongue’, I just discovered I have a new mother tongue - Konklish. It’s this lingo that most people I meet communicate with me and I with them as did this Goenkar bhav, who I met for the first time somewhere around Panjim's brand new market.
Last weekend, this man who I don’t know at all and suspect is in his seventies, walks up to me and asks me: ‘Sir, thum marketing korpak bazaaran pao ghatla?’
For those, not too familiar with amchi bhas, it means: ‘Sir, have you set foot in the market?’
As he spoke to me out of the blues, he sported a smile but only for that fraction of a second. The man’s face instantly changed colour and red with rage he blurted out: "The ghanvti bhendo is vhis rupyank teen. Atanch itlem, zalear Chovothek kitem?”
Translated, this means: 'The local variety of lady-finger sells at Rs 20 for three pieces. If it’s so bad now, what’s in store for Chaturthi?'
Clearly, he was shocked and not without reason. Frankly, I’ve not been to the market to check the price of lady finger, but I have no doubts this man's told me the truth. By his account, the price of a lady finger, which last year went for Rs twenty-five for a hundred, had this year jumped by an out-of-the-world 1,400 per-cent!
Yet, inflation is negative according to the Government of India, and as for our own sarkar, Digambar Kamat keeps screaming day in and day out that it stands for the aam admi.
Digguji, the aam admi can’t even afford a ‘bhendo’ this Chaturthi!

Market: Fountainhead of CCP graft
Something happened in the Panjim market last week that made it evidently clear to us that the so-called inquiry being conducted by CCP Commissioner, Sanjit Rodrigues, is going to be toothless.

There was a lot of hype and hoopla about the inauguration of some store at the new market. A 'maharaj' was imported all the way from Pinguli to solemnise the affair. After a few inquiries, it was revealed that it was a 'jewellery store' that was being inaugurated, and at the centre of it all was a lanky corporator of the CCP, known in corporator circles as the 'Market Kingpin'.
A little digging has revealed that this space was actually earmarked for a 'site office' of the CCP, where market inspectors and officials of the Corporation would operate from. This Corporator, when he was in command in the 'market committee', converted it into a shop, and allotted it to god knows who, no records are available at the CCP.
So what has this got to do with the 'inquiry' being conducted by Sanjit Rodrigues?
Well, at a time when Rodrigues' inquiry has found wholesale irregularities in shop allotments at the market and an 'interim report' listing these has been tabled in the Goa Legislative Assembly in the ongoing session, a corporator formally inaugurates his 'benami' jewellery store.
Clearly, he cares a damn for Sanjit's inquiry. Meanwhile, no one's even taking cognisance of the demand for a 'judicial probe' instead of a Commissioner-level probe, voiced by veteran Opposition Corporator, Surendra Furtado.

What’s Goan in our tourism? July 27, 2009

'Sickle and coconuts in hand, Palani goes five-star' screamed one headline in a South Indian newspaper which hit my eye. The story was about a restaurant in 'Courtyard Marriott', a five star hotel in South Indian metropolis, Chennai. What about the restaurant? No, it's not the, decor or service, but a cart loaded with tender coconuts (Addsor), the kind we can see here in Goa along highways mostly in summer, bang at the entrance of this restaurant. And, the cartman, R Palani, who formerly used to sell his addsor in lungi and shirt on the street a few blocks away from the five-star, was manning it, though turned out in chef's attire and shoes.
The story goes on to add how Palani fascinates foreigners who dine in the restaurant by holding the nut in one hand and slicing it open with a sickle in the other.
Under a deal with Courtyard Marriott Hotel, Palani has to bring around 200 tender coconuts, which according to the hotel's director of food and beverages, is a 'fresh' alternative to the chilled version of the tender coconut water.

Can we have the Food and Beverages bosses of the dozens of five-stars we have here in Goa to think of such innovations? Or will we continue to hear the outrageous stories of managements versus locals conflicts, be it on the taxi front, access to beach front, and so on and so forth?
Unfortunately, the Goan has always been an 'outsider' for these hotels ever since five-star tourism set foot on Goa's sands, since the CHOGM in the early 1980s. And, anything that's Goan is treated with disdain. No wonder, that a fish-curry-rice or any other dish eaten at any of these five-stars never inspires you for an encore.
So, what's Goan in our five-stars, apart from the land and the sand they stand on, and of course a handful of owners? Couldn't that headline in that Chennai paper have so easily been: ''Sickle and coconuts in hand, 'Jose', 'Pedro' or 'Vasu' goes five-star", in any of our very own Goan daily?

Witty prospect this...
The Customs Museum and its rich exhibits, including some of invaluable heritage importance, which was inaugurated by Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, last week is welcome news for Goa at large. It promises to be a landmark in Panjim, and even offers the permanently cribbing tourism industry a window of opportunity.
Yet, the plans of those managing the museum to put one display one particular exhibit, will for sure haunt one prominent clan from Goa -- the first family of Varca.
The love-hate relationship between the Customs and this clan is not unknown to many of us Goans. The detractors of the Alemaos often brandish their record with the country's anti-smuggling agency, mostly for convinient, political brownie points. But in recent years, the Alemaos themselves have had a not-so-antagonistic, almost bordering on a 'peaceful' relationship, with the Customs and its personnel.
It won't last for long though. For, sources tell us that plans are afoot to place that infamous Contessa as an exhibit in the 'Battle of Wits' gallery which showcases items they managed to get from smugglers, at the musuem. The Contessa, impounded in that infamous 1991 Fatrade encounter doesn't find a place there already, because officials are still battling their wits on how to carry the broad four-wheeler up the stairs of the heritage building.