Another year older!
VIVA GOA has turned a year older and with this, our bonds with our readers have grown stronger. With an increasing number of stand sales, subscriptions, advertising and patrons who continue to have faith in our magazine, we will continue with our pledge of excellence and trust...
May
We decided to revisit our roots with Lata Mangeshkar gracing the cover of the Second Anniversary Issue, a tribute to the voice of the Indian music industry in a very frank, heart-to-heart conversation about her work, life after Bollywood and the most important question, why she has never performed in Goa. The readers were also treated to a celebrity column with Dr Vijeeta Dravid telling us about her husband, cricketer Rahul Dravid. We also got to speak to former British High Commission representative Grace de Souza about how she eventually came to call Goa home. We featured one of Goa's best know artist Vamona Ganesh Navelkar and his works.
June
Mobile phone usage seems to have triggered a lot of speculation in the minds of people about serious health issues. With this in mind, we examined at length the myths and facts surrounding the usage of cell phones in a well researched article by eminent gynaecologist Dr Kedar Padte. Culturally, Goa is abundant, and MLA and Chairman of Kala Academy Vishnu Wagh, shares his vision for the premier cultural institute in the state. The Advocate General of Goa Atmaram Nadkarni paid tribute to legal luminary the late Nani Palkiwala.
Young Isheta D Salgaocar shared with readers the experience of meeting iconic Myanmar leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
July
Efforts had been made to raise the game of football in India and The Dempo Sports Club tried its best by signing a deal with Shah Rukh Khan. There had been speculations about a cricketer buying another stake, which triggered our imagination and we brought out a story on the stakes at the club. Though the talks didn�t go ahead, we did get a good story out of it! We had a first person interview with Edila Gaitonde, the Portugal-based wife of freedom fighter, Dr Pundalik Gaitonde who spoke about her three nationalities, born British, married a Portuguese national who was an Indian by birth. We also covered a rather unassuming artist, sculptor Puttaswamy Gudigar of Nagali-Taleigao, who has crafted many masterpieces including the seven foot Natraja statue in the courtyard of the Raj Bhavan, Goa.
August
Emergencies arise anywhere & anytime, and emergency services have to be able to provide quick relief and that is exactly what the 108 Emergency Services have been doing in Goa. We commend the effort of the team of highly dedicated doctors and other committed personnel who have saved countless lives and continue to do so 24x7. Being an issue coinciding with Independence Day, we had the privilege to feature freedom fighter and one of Goa�s first officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) Prabhakar Sinari who braved the Portuguese forces, played a noteworthy part in the state�s liberation and remarked that the real history of Goa�s liberation is yet to be written.
September
Making heads turn this issue was Goa�s young export to Bollywood, Ileana D�Cruz, who made her Bollywood debut in the hit film �Barfi!�, which went on to make it to the list of the best films of 2012 and Ileana did her bit making Goa proud. Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni traced the 150 years of the Bombay High Court. Virendra Sehwag penned his memories on the retirement of his colleague VVS Laxman. We also had another artist who truly believes in the phrase �art for art�s sake� muralist and sculptor, Zilu Harmalkar, who spoke to us about his memorable rise from humble beginnings. The world-famous tourism brand, Hilton also made its debut in Goa by opening DoubleTree by Hilton in North Goa.
October
�The Green Room� was released around this time and we were all waiting to get our hands on the autobiographical account by the father of minimalism in Indian fashion, Wendell Rodricks. We gave a sneak peek into the world of fashion and also had a small chat with Wendell about his work as a fashion designer and a writer. We were also pleased to feature the Golden jubilee milestone of the Amul ads, an excerpt from the book Amul�s India, with adman Sylvester Da Cunha relating to our readers the �Utterly Butterly story�. We also featured Goa�s first Arjuna Awardee and former captain of Indian and Goan football teams Brahmanand Shankwalker who spoke about his passion for the game and the evolution of football in Goa.
November
Goa�s coastline and water bodies make the state an ideal place to host the Goa International Marine Boat Expo and this gave us the chance to dive into the topic of leisure boating in Goa. Our cover story highlighted the many kinds of luxury boats and the lifestyle statement they make. On the other side of the spectrum, we had a filmy connection with veteran director N Chandra who gave us modern classics like Ankush and Narsimha, talk about his early days and childhood visits to his hometown in Goa. The state had witnessed some glamorous events last year and India Resort Fashion Week was just the beginning with its glitz. Though the business factors weren�t quite up to the mark, the show was nonetheless a good one.
December
The trauma of deformity can be reversed by the cosmetic and aesthetic surgery, that medical sciences can today offer. Doing their bit in transforming the way people look is the Wockhardt Institute of Aesthetics based at Goa, the only one of its kind in the country and our cover story introduced our readers to the possibilities of cosmetic surgery along with an interview with the Managing Director of Wockhardt Hospitals, Zahabiya Khorakiwala. One of the few highflying Goans in the aviation industry, the London-based millionaire Uday Nayak, of the Veling Ltd. was a part of the magazine, while the unassuming Deputy Chief Minister Francis D�Souza spoke about the changes that the BJP government has brought about in Goa.
January
Tennis ace Leander Paes� bold move with the movie �Rajdhani Express�, was the topic of our cover story. After winning various grand slam titles on the tennis court, Leander showed the world that there is always scope for more in life. Advocate General Atmaram Nadkarni in his Legal Brief column, spoke about the importance of infusing respect for women in our country. Eminent sports commentator Boria Majumdar wrote about Sachin Tendulkar in light of his retirement from one day international (ODI) cricket. Since it was the beginning of a New Year,
Dr Oscar Rebello offered our readers some sound advice on healthy resolutions for 2013.
February
We paid tribute to Goa�s first English daily which celebrated its golden jubilee. The Navhind Times has, in its fifty glorious years, chronicled Goa�s history, its struggles and its triumphs alike, turning the newspaper into a household name. Our interviews with Executive Director Pallavi Dempo, Editor Arun Sinha and first Editor Lambert Mascarenhas gave us snapshots of the newspaper�s journey. We featured some of the landmark first pages which were welcomed by the young readers based on the feedback we received. Nirmala Sawant an active woman politician for the last four decades spoke about how the root cause of corruption is that people are not happy with themselves and are constantly competing with each other.
March
Young, fearless and fabulous are terms that can be attributed to Kareena Kapoor and the same goes for writer and Mumbai-based Goan journalist Rochelle Pinto who co-authored a book,
�The Style Diary of a Bollywood Diva�, on the secrets of the diva�s style quotient. We featured an excerpt and an interview with the author as well as the publisher Shobhaa De as our Cover Story which was an exclusive to this magazine, which we are pretty sure must have been a treat for all the young fashionistas in Goa. Damodar Narcinva Naik popularly known as Mohandas Naik, one of Margao�s first citizens, spoke about his business relationship with the Tata Group, besides his philantrophic activities.
April
We saluted the accomplishments of our fellow Goans who have excelled in their various fields with the 2nd Navhind Times VIVA GOA Goan Achievers Awards. Conferring our respect and admiration to distinctive individuals who have done Goa proud, the awards went through a comprehensive process of selection, jury debating and popular voting thus making it truly a people�s award. We were honoured to have stalwarts like the Lifetime Achievement winner the former police commissioner of Mumbai and Punjab Julio Ribeiro amidst us, as well as Man of the Year Manohar Parrikar and Woman of the Year Aisha de Sequeira, MD and head of Morgan Stanley�s Investment Banking Division in India besides seven other distinguished awardees. Professor Emeritus and former Dy Director of IIT-Bombay, a Goan who is now settled in the US Arvind Kudchadkar gave a five-point plan to improve the education system in Goa.