This International Women’s Day, Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the
Arts will explore domestic spaces and gendered objects, highlighting women’s
resilience through Grinding Stories. The book ‘Grinding Stories’ is a poetic
exploration of women’s voices, bringing together vernacular and translated
renditions of ‘oviyo’ songs that are sung over the grinding stone by women in
rural Goa.
Along with India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) fellow Lina
Vincent and the book’s writer Heta Pandit, the event features storyteller
Sarojini Bhiva Gaonkar and vocalist and environmentalist Shubhada Chari.
Theatrical direction is by Anagha Deshpande (for Abhivyaktee, Panjim) and
enactment by performer Ruchira Verekar.
The program opens with an introduction to the project and the
many ways in which oral histories bind material and intangible culture
together. The songs, rendered in a Marathi-Konkani dialect, will be alternated
with English reading of the translations, as well as theatrical interpretation
of selected pieces. The stage will be set with selected objects of domestic
life, identifying the living/disappearing heritage of Goa, and connecting with
the idea of gender-imbued objects and spaces. Five Inspirational women at the event:
Heta Pandit is
a writer and heritage advocate based between Mumbai and Goa, with eight books
on Goan heritage to her credit. Speaking about this event, she says, “With this
event, we are bringing out the stories from the Goan kitchen and backyard into
a wider public space. This event is not just that, it is opening up a different
Goa, a hitherto unseen, unheard of Goa and giving those Goan women from a
distant Goa a voice.”
Lina Vincent is
an art historian and curator with over 15 years’ experience in arts management.
According to Lina Vincent, there are a multitude of objects from Goa’s
socio-cultural history, and the traditional ‘oviyo’ sung over the grinding
stone, that have been translated in the book.
Sarojini Bhiva Gaonkar is a school teacher with a deep interest in researching Goan
folklore and oral history. She composes her own songs and has travelled across
India as a folk singer.
Shubhada Chari has
played a crucial role in the collection and research for the book. She has been
awarded the ‘YuvaSrujan’ Award 2015 and has presented cultural and literary
programmes on Goa’s folklore and culture.
Anagha Deshpande is
an experienced theatre practitioner and activist. She is a founder member of
Abhivyaktee that is one of the leading cultural organisations from Panjim,
which designs and presents various theatrical productions in Konkani, Marathi,
Hindi, and English and Sanskrit language.
Rucheera Verekar is
a pharmacist by profession, working as Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutics,
Goa College of Pharmacy. She is a kathak classical dancer.
‘Grinding
Stories- Songs from Goa’ is being held at Sunaparanta – Goa Centre for the
Arts, Altinho-Panjim today, March 8, 2019, at 7pm
