The sky above the river was a blazing
orange, basking in the lazy hangover of a long amorous day with the sun, the
river below a happy witness, and the shimmering ocean another member of this grand
big natural party, when the winter has gone and the summer is not yet a rage.
This is when Panjim is on the streets, in
the bazaars and cafes bursting with the congregation of colour. This is when
all of us take out our imaginary canvasses for our rapid brushstrokes to land,
each of us imagining and experiencing Panjim the way only Ponjekars can.
Now let’s hold this thought. Is this a
freeze frame from the past, from a time when Panjim was what it once was, with
one car on the DB Marg passing by in an hour, bungalows around tree lined
avenues, when Taleigao was a little village with rice fields and Dona Paula was
a wooded hill where Panjim folks went for picnics? Or is this a Panjim which we
have won back because some footsoldiers have pressed play on the freeze frame
and unmuted the silence to bring to our streets the joie de vivre that was
paused, as Panjim “grew and developed”
The streets around Panjim’s Municipal
Garden, the venue of the towns eternal romances and dances were opened up for
the Summer Street festival earlier this week. While the happening has been
reported, the significance of this is immense. This is a unique celebration of
our town’s most valuable space- our streets. And the making of our streets as
our canvas, where food, music, dance, art and craft find space in this merry
madness to make this canvas a vignette of our life. It took three people, Vasco
Alvares, Richard Dias and Liz Gracias to put together this medley and perhaps
without realising as much, made their beloved Panjim join the likes of New
York, Bogota, Paris and other places where the streets are not just meant for
walking and driving but living. Panjim’s Summer Street festival brought living
to at least one street and area.
A farmers market, a flea market, home-made
food, home-bred music and original laughter and good cheer resonated to the
happiness of people in love with their city.
This is universal. On successive Saturdays
in August, a section of New York’s Streets from Brooklyn to Central Park are
handed over to the people to play, walk, bike and laze. More than 400,000
people take to the streets to welcome and enjoy these opened up spaces. Arts,
crafts, musical performances, salsa dances, are all shared by the people of New
York on these streets.
In Paris, the Paris Plage weaves its way on
the sides of a sandy stretch in the middle of Paris by the river complete with
deck chairs, refreshments, music and food.
In Bogota, Colombia, this is done weekly
through a unique event called Ciclovia where 70 miles (yes 70 miles) of
Bogota’s streets are closed, where city
folk bike, skate, run and race as well as recreate and relax. A dear friend who
plans cities to make them cycle friendly, has attended Ciclovia and said this
was one of her most moving life time experiences.
The success of the Panjim Summer Street
festival should kick-start similar events in other towns like Margao and urban
villages like Calangute, which need immediate decongestion by removing cars
from its village roads at least once a week.
But the freeing of our streets as Vasquito,
Richard and Liz have done, with the CCP and the Tourism Department has less to do with the un-cluttering of our
roads and much more about un-cluttering our minds and freeing our spirits. It
also gives us back our gardens roads and pavements for us to rejoice.
