Team Herald
RIBANDAR: The skies were cloudy and grey, the downpour was incessant and it was a Sunday morning, but for a few biking and heritage enthusiasts, none of this was a constraint.
They cycled to Ribandar, where on the banks of River Mandovi they halted. Their destination and objective was to raise awareness of the heritage structure of the Old Goa Medical College and later Goa Institute of Management. The reason for this quite some – pictures and videos of the heritage structure had gone viral the preceding week after a social organisation did what others had failed to do.
It all started when founder chairman of Goa ForGiving Armando Gonsalves, noticed monsoon growth on the heritage building and decided to do something about it. That something was a cleanup job and it was a time-lapse video of the task uploaded on social media that generated the interest.
Sunday morning, standing opposite the heritage structure, with the waters of the River Mandovi rising with the tide and a drizzle to add the monsoon flavour, Gonslaves, his wife Shaheen, heritage enthusiast Prajal Sakhardande and a few others met and breakfasted in the café across the road. It was all to raise awareness on the need to conserve heritage structures.
The day started off with breakfast at the quaint water side cafe “Casa de Cha” where the group enjoyed mushroom bhaji, “Kalvam” (Oysters) bhaji and a host of other traditional Goan breakfast dishes.
Sakhardande with interesting anecdotes of the building, spoke of the importance of the architectural heritage of the building which is filled with emotion considering that so many current Goans have been born there besides it being a place that has powered so many exciting careers in the field of Management.
The speakers insisted that the government uses the building for interesting activities in the field of Culture, Medicine, Education and the like.
Founder Chairman of Goa ForGiving Armando Gonsalves showcased that his organisation has always been in the forefront of powering new ideas in the field of Music, Art, Culture, Environment etc. and asked whether this building could be given to private hands to pursue, maybe a Music School of International repute?
Gonsalves explained how the building was in a neglected state with shrubbery and weeds growing all over the entrance block, with even roots having got embedded in the facade of the building, which have been now removed by Goa ForGiving and its volunteers.
He appealed to Goans across the world to participate in discussions concerning Goa’s rich heritage, and he was quick to mention that huge energy has been felt from former students of Goa Institute of Management, many of whom have promised that they would get involved in any rehabilitation efforts.
“Goa ForGiving will use this energy to further power ideas and solutions to the problems being faced by owners of majestic Indo Portuguese heritage homes of which Gonsalves Mansion in Campal is the Headquarters of the Trust,” Gonslaves said, and spoke of how difficult it is to maintain these homes.
