Posted by: lilliandcosta on: November 21, 2009
Should women be allowed to play a greater role in the Indian defenses, this is a debate that keeps cropping up time and again. More than once I have seen some women screaming on national television on how the defenses are bias and are keeping women out of frontal roles, such as combat. The most recent case in point being that Indian women were not allowed to become fighter pilots. This, when all other countries including China, allowed women, screamed the women defense!.
The defenses headed by men also put up a stiff resistance citing research about how women just aren’t meant for the role, and for once in my life, I kind of agreed with them. But of course if you know me, you would know that it definitely could not be for the same reason, and yes, you would be right. The fighting machine in this world, and that includes the cannon fodder, is just not the creation of women. Women are inherently creators not destroyers and so I honestly think that if women rule this world, there would have been smaller armies, smaller defense budgets and as a result less fighting. In a world of conflict created by men why in the world should women participate?, should the want to participate, why in the world should they protest for not being allowed to participate?
If the Indian defenses or any other defenses for that matter want to keep women out, they are doing women a favour we should be grateful for. Women especially the upper middle class ones, who have access to all the TV channels and self appoint themselves ’speakers’ on behalf of other women, often drape themselves in the deceptive garb of feminism and enlightenment and fight for equal opportunity with out the intelligence to note, who it is that they are fighting with. How many of these women have sent their children to the defenses without a heavy heart is yet to be seen, but more important for these women to discern is, what it is that one is fighting for. What good has any defense force done so far. An overwhelming majority of the time, a country’s defense forces are used against their own people, why would we as women want to perpetuate this violence. So Hail to the Indian defense forces and please keep the women out.
Posted by: lilliandcosta on: October 11, 2009

Football is in the blood of every Goan and the high that comes only with this racy sport can be seen as people gather at their village grounds every other day. Some of these football fields are mere flattened paddy fields, but the thrill of watching the ball race around can be got just about anywhere if you’ve a Goan.
Came rain or shine, week days or weekends, there are matches happening almost every day in some parts of Goa or the other. And many a young athletic boy dreams of taxing his muscles, getting his adrenaline going, covered in the sweet smell of excited sweat, all to be playing for a local club.
With people fanatic about football, most villages have their own football clubs and the inter-village tournaments can be fiercely fiery ones.
“Goans have the potential to lead the country in football” says Aldrid DaCosta, English FA-qualified football coach, who left the UK and followed his passion for football, all the way to ancestral Goa. “Countries all over the world with Portuguese or Spanish influence make up the best football teams in the world, some examples being Brazil and Argentina. Goa needs to exploit this heritage”, he continues.

Aldrid DaCosta walks his talk and has set up the GOA Learning Soccer School which conducts football camps for young students all year round. Aldrid has tied up with numerous schools and trains their football teams too. Many of these schools have gone on to win inter school championship trophies too.
Sport, as a vital part of education has been diminishing in value. Burdened by school, travel and tuitions, children have become couch potatoes, preferring to unwind before the TV or computer than go out and exercise their muscles.
Sports, help young boys and girls grow to their full potential, make them physically strong and athletic.
Sports, especially group sports like football, instill young boys and girls not just with a competitive spirit, but gives them faster motor- eye co-ordination, enhancing their instinctual abilities, helping them understand the importance of team work and co-operation. All these are invaluable learns which will help young boys and girls get ahead in life.
Thankfully some school and parents are beginning to recognize the importance of sports in the development of their child and going by the large turn outs for the GOA Learning Soccer School Camps, Goa may well retain its dominance in the football arena after all.
If you would like to contact Aldrid DaCosta,
Cell number +91- 9823 281781 Email – atdmdx@gmail.com
Posted by: lilliandcosta on: August 27, 2009

I lean my tired weight against the seat of a crowded bus and watch. Lap crossed, a plastic bag full of Jasmine buds, a roll of thread, one bud to the left, another to the right, the thread wrapped around them once, then a quick knot. Another bud to the right, one to the left, the thread wrapped round again, a quick knot. Every few flowers a couple of green leaves are added, then a couple of tiny orange flowers. I don’t know what they are called here in Bangalore, in Goa they are called Aboli. They are the state flower of Goa. There are two kinds of Aboli, the sadi or simple ones, these are a lighter shade of orange, and they bloom. The Ratan Aboli is a darker shade of orange, and they remain buds. While the Sadi Aboli is common because they grow easily and proliferate fast, the Ratan Aboli is difficult to grow and those who have a few plants don’t easily share a cutting.
Back in Goa women no longer ware flowers as widely as they do here in South India. In Bangalore, it’s not uncommon to see women sitting at a little foldable table with long yards of flowers curled in a heap. Jasmines are most commonly worn, besides these there are the chrysanthemums in yellow, pink and purple, and another light pink flower that grows as a large bud. These women before me had no time to waste, an hour ride in the bus gave them time to put together a real long garland and probably spare them more time with the family. For the sale of flowers begins early, as women head to work, they would buy themselves a bit of the garland.

There are 4 types of Jasmines that I have seen, they’ve all white though, and all give off this excellent fragrance. One is the many petaled flower, I’ve seen these only in Goa and even there I don’t think they are made into garlands and sold. The second are the buds, the thin, long, narrow buds; these are commonly worn in Goa. This Jasmine plant is a creeper and so a wooden 4 poster is created so it is free to run.
The Jasmines commonly worn in B’lore are a mix of these two. A tiny plump white bud that when it blooms is a multi petal flower. Another type of Jasmines that I have seen growing in gardens but not really sold is a real tiny bud of Jasmine. It would be a real arduous task to make these into garlands, but women do wear them and when they bloom they are a thick white garland. They give off a really strong fragrance, and the only way one could get to wear one is if ones mother in law or mother, after her busy day, went out into the garden and collected these tiny buds, weak eyes and dexterous fingers would then spent hours making them into a garland. Wouldn’t that make these Jasmines the most perfumed gift of love?

I remember a friend from Kerala telling me about the export of these beautiful scented flowers. It seems his family had a couple of acres of Jasmine and the whole family would have to wake up at 3 O’Clock every morning to pluck flowers before they bloom. They would wear tiny headlights and rush out into the garden. By 5 O’Clock the flowers would have to be rushed to the airport, where they were sold, packed, passed through security and on a flight to the Gulf. I’m not sure what they were used for there, whether they were worn as garlands like in India or used to make perfumes and Ithar.
Come the first rains and most people in Goa would begin the process of plucking off the leaves of their Jasmine plants, making them bold and as the plant burst into leaves along came the buds. We believed that this way the plant gave more flowers. We had a Jasmine plant at home and what glee it gave me to could the buds as the sprung forth.

Until recently, wearing flowers were an integral part of a women’s head gear. Few would leave their home without a flower in their head, much of that is still seen in Karnataka, even Bangalore. Flowers were such an important part of a woman’s dressing in Goa that they even made flowers of gold. If you attend a Hindu wedding in Goa, you will still see women wearing these gold garlands around their coiffed hair.
However unlike in the South, flower selling is no longer a profession that can bring you a steady income in Goa. If you go to the market, the women who sell flowers are elder, and need to earn their own keep; they grow a few plants and every other day make a few garlands and bring them to the market. Why did women in Goa move away from wearing flowers?

Posted by: lilliandcosta on: August 27, 2009

Every few months I get this I-R-R-E-S-I-S-T-I-B-L-E urge to change the way my blog looks.
Something new always makes me want to come back and relook at it…… admire the colours.
For the last couple of months, the posts on my blog have been pretty scarce…… yes, time has been an issue, but I’m wondering…… is it also that I was tired of the look?
I’m finally over the blues (if you remember the old template) and got myself this lovely soothing cream, little twirls showing off in the corners.
The titles of the posts are actually in a bright pink
you might think that feminine, I think it subversive!!!
Let me know if the new look of my blog tickles you too
Posted by: lilliandcosta on: July 26, 2009
DANIEL SUELO LIVES IN A CAVE. UNLIKE THE average American—wallowing in credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office—he isn’t worried about the economic crisis. That’s because he figured out that the best way to stay solvent is to never be solvent in the first place. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit.
His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah, where people who know him are of two minds: He’s either a latter-day prophet or an irredeemable hobo. Suelo’s blog, which he maintains free at the Moab Public Library, suggests that he’s both. “When I lived with money, I was always lacking,” he writes. “Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present.”
To read the rest click here
Posted by: lilliandcosta on: June 14, 2009
Frogs in Goa: Frequently Asked Questions

Are frog populations in Goa really on the decline?
Yes they are. Bio-indicators as well as studies conducted by herpetologists and amphibian specialists in Goa confirm that frog populations are falling, just as it is in the rest of the world. Globally, frogs are disappearing at an increasingly rapid rate than creatures have ever done in the past 65 million years.
While studies in 1999 and 2002 were conducted by amphibian specialists in coordination with International agencies like the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), basic surveys and compiling of checklists have also been done by researchers at the Goa University’s Department of Zoology, the Goa Forest Department and others.
There is however, a need for long term monitoring of Goan frog populations as frogs found in Goa.
What are the reasons for this decline?
A number of threats to frogs exist, however, in Goa the chief threats are:
1. Catching, killing and consumption of frogs at the onset of the monsoons. Frogs end their aestivation after the first rains and come out to breed. This is when they are at their most vocal, and hence easy to track down and catch. And as most of the frog-hunting is done before the frog can breed, this has a drastic effect on the future populations of frogs.
2. The widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture. Flooded paddy fields are a hotspot for frogs, and since frogs absorb water through their skin, they are particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of residual chemicals in our fields.
3. Habitat destruction – filling of fields, clearing of forest cover are a few of the main reasons. Encroachment of forests by human activities such as mining, construction, etc have caused entire resident populations to disappear within a short period.
4. A significant global trend that is threatening frog populations as a whole worldwide include climate change, global warming, introduction of invasive species and spread of disease from farmed to wild frog populations.

Are some species more vulnerable than others?
Yes. In Goa, the Indian Bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus Tigerinus) & the Jerdon?s Bullfrog (Hoplobatrachus Crassus) are the ones most prized for their meat due to their large size. The Indian Pond Frog and Grass Frog are also occasionally hunted.
Burgeoning demand at restaurants illegally serving frog dishes have ensured that a pair of frog legs can fetch as much as Rs. 65-70 for the poacher.
Due to their falling populations, the Indian Bullfrog and the Jerdon?s Bullfrog are now on the Government of India?s Schedule-I list of threatened species as well the international IUCN Red List of animals that are facing a high risk of global extinction.
Ok, but why do I have to stop eating frog? What?s in it for me?
A lot more than you think?
Eating frog meat is very dangerous to human health. Due to the massive toxic pesticide residues that accumulate in the fat deposits of frog meat, consumption of frogs can trigger paralytic strokes, cancer, kidney failures and other deformities. Besides frog meat being contraband, frogs are usually killed in unsanitary conditions.
Frogs are like the pulse rate or the blood pressure of the Goan environment. Frogs are a crucial part of the ecosystem and a vital link as predator and prey in the food chain. If frogs go extinct, the ripple effect on the ecosystem will be felt by us all.
Frogs and tadpoles are voracious eaters, and consume millions of mosquitoes and mosquito larvae every year. One of the suspected reasons for the increase in cases of malaria and other vector borne diseases in Goa is the decline in the number of frogs.
The increasing incidents of snakes being found in urban & semi-urban areas is also being linked to the decline of frogs, their natural prey, and their subsequent shifting to alternate prey like rats that are more readily found in populated areas.
In Goan mythology frogs are believed to bring prosperity and good rainfall.

Are frogs protected by law?
Yes. The Government of India in 1985 declared a ban on catching and killing of wild frogs under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. This means that any person or restaurant found catching, killing, selling, serving or eating frog meat violates the provisions of the act. This would attract stringent punishment with a fine of Rs 25,000 and/or imprisonment upto 3 years. In 2008, 10 persons were detained and fined under this act.
So what can I do to help save the frog?
Firstly, stop eating frogs yourself and discourage others from doing so. If there is no demand for frog legs, frog-catchers simply won?t catch them. Secondly, if you come across people hunting frogs or restaurants serving frog meat, report it to the police (100/108) or any of these Forest Department officials, preferably the one closest to where you are ?
ALL GOA
9423 889 890 (DCF Panjim Devendra Dalai)
9422 437 333 (CCF Richard D’Souza)
9422 388 188 (ACF Dr. Francis Coelho)
9422 437 237 (CF Yogesh)
NORTH GOA
9422 437 137 (DCF North Goa Shambhu)
2374 406 (FTS Valpoi)
9423 316 280, 2228772, 2220736 (RFO Campal Amar Heblekar)
EAST GOA
9423 314 824, 2935800 (RFO Bondla Deepak B)
9423 055 919, 2612211 (RFO Mollem S. Gawas)
9422 059 237 (RFO Bhironda Prakash Salelkar)
SOUTH GOA
9822 587 607 (ACF South Goa Anil Shetgaokar)
2750 246 (RFO Margao)
9822 157 139, 2965601 (RFO Cotigao Paresh P)
After reporting to the authorities, contact WildGoa volunteers at 9823-171-312 or 9890-936-828 (South Goa) and 9922-642-059 or 9822-522-119 (North Goa) who will record and follow up your complaint with the forest officials.

Who is Involved with the campaign
Save the Frog Campaign is coordinated by WildGoa, a Goa related network of Wildlife enthusiasts and NGOs. This awareness and enforcement campaign has been on for the last 4 consecutive years and is supported by the Goa Forest Department a number of local as well as International organizations including Amphibian Ark, Save The Frogs International, Botanical Society of Goa, Organic Farming Association of India, GOACAN, Earthworm, Green Essentials, WWF-Goa, Nisarga Nature Club, Vivekananda Environmental Awareness Brigade, & Mitra. For more information do visit www.savegoafrogs.org or email info@safegoafrogs.org To contact us, you may call us at the WildGoa volunteer phone numbers mentioned above.
Posted by: lilliandcosta on: June 14, 2009
While the rest of the world is focused on Swine flu and India is just recording the first of its confirmed cases, places like Bangalore have another virus that is doing the rounds. Like in pervious years this virus too has the potential to reach pandemic proportions and yet, few, least of all the government are talking about it. Chikungunya is spread through mosquitoes, results in high fever and severe joint pain.
While I hear of more and more cases occurring in my neighborhood, the word is out that the entire locality, which comprises of about 10,000 people, is affected. Yet, I see no spraying, no awareness leaflets, no awareness campaign in the newspapers and the monsoon season in Bangalore has only just begun. Some articles in the media report some 4000 cases but that would be a gross underestimation and statistics of those who report to the local health centre only. But loads of people I know don’t even go to the health centre, many of them take Ayurvedic medicine that can be self prescribed and so an allopathic doctor would not even know of these cases.
Sad scenario I should say. Bangalore keeps getting projected as the IT capital of the country, home to all the major IT MNCs in the country and yet the facilities and services are archaic. If the Government cannot guarantee a descent standard of living in its capital city how does it hope to do so for the rest of the State?
Chikungunya is not new, each monsoon season there is an outbreak, should the Government then not have had a well oiled protocol in place, and yet there is no sign of it.
Posted by: lilliandcosta on: May 30, 2009
It’s the fag end of summer in Goa. The beads of sweat roll down the back and sting the eyes, most people can be found spending their spare moments in their veranda, waiting for the tiny whiffs of breeze that may or may not come by. Most school children are savoring their last few days of holidays. Collecting mangoes from the neighbours yard, helping their parents clean up the garden, stack in the firewood and heading to the village spring for a therapeutic bath.
Most homes are entertaining guests, relatives who have come back to relaxed Goa, for a few days off the treadmill in the city. But this year, the gossip has not been just about the grand old aunties at church, the weddings attended on the weekend or the price of mangoes and salt fish. It is also about a serial killer who over a 15 odd years has confessed to killing 15 women!
The modus operandi. A supposedly unassuming Mahandand Naik from Shiroda befriended women in their 20s and 30s, pretended he was in love with them, after a while suggested he would introduce them to his parents, and on the appointed day asked them to come finely dressed, then waylaid them, strangulated them, often with their own dupatta, robbed them of their jewellery and then dumped their bodied.
The modus operandi seemed to be the same every time, the bodies dumped in rivers, or hung, often the victim was stripped. The police identified some bodies, were unable to unidentify others, and didn’t even manage to find other bodies, as they lay buried in secluded places.
Fifteen women and the number may grow as more confessions tumble out. More and more families that have had their daughters and sisters missing are coming forth to revive old complaints. Some families hoped against hope that their daughter had eloped with her boyfriend and living happily, have now been proved wrong.
The police had closed numerous cases of these women as cases of unnatural death are now reopening them. And while this drama unfolds, not unlike the movie “Perfume: the story of a murder” most people in Goa, who live a relatively sheltered life are obviously shocked and stunned.
Following this case from 500 kilometers, so many questions and issues come to my mind.
Women in Goa even though relatively well educated compared to their counterparts in the rest of the country are still naïve to their safety and can fall prey to murders like Mahandand Naik.
These women were emotionally vulnerable, unmarried, with a desire to love and be loved, and a wicked mind like that of this serial killer was able to identify and take advantage of their vulnerability.
The killer although displaying an unassuming simplicity about him was cold and calculating. Remorseless in implementing a well practiced plan, which refined itself further with each murder.
Could a man have perfected his art so well that he could go undetected for a decade and a half, or did his family fail to ask him and themselves some crucial questions? To what extent did they collude with the serial killer who lived among them?
The families of these women victims did not pursue the search for their daughters and sisters to the legal end. Perhaps the victims came from poor families and the family could not afford the time or monetary resources to pursue the cases.
The police, with all the public resources at their disposal kept doing a shoddy job of investigation. Probably ignoring evidence in their desire to close the case. Perhaps unqualified and so unable to recognize evidence. Perhaps lazy and unmotivated to pursue cases. In their incompetence, the Goa Police have become inadvertent colluders with the serial killer
Do the gruesome murders of fifteen women tell us something about the ‘value of life’ in Goa, does it tell us something about the ‘value of life of women in Goa’.
Do these murders tell us something about the ‘collective conscience’ of a society, that failed to raise an eyebrow about the murders (just like they fail to raise their eyebrows for so many other things) in the state, relegating these victims the place of a number in the statistics for the year.
Or am I reading too much into this whole incident.
Would it be better for all of us to dismiss it as a one off, so we can all go back to our lives and bring closure to the incidents? Or should we as a society spend a few minutes, maybe a few hours grieving the loss of fifteen women and an eroded social conscience.
I am still trying to come up with a response, as my intellect and my emotions tussle to explain the murder of fifteen women, full of potential.
Recent Comments