Goan mandos: Indo-Portuguese fusion music
Since the last few decades, fusion music has been making waves all across the world as an exciting new style of music. But it all began from the time Pandit Ravi Shankar strummed his sitar at Woodstock, a western music festival, in 1969, at which the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez also performed. (On an aside, far from being proud of having taken Indian classical music to the West in a big way at that time, Ravi Shankar lived to regret ever having performed at Woodstock for the audience was largely lakhs of stoned hippies, many of them engrossed in making out at the open-air venue.)
Later on, musical performances like these came to be more appropriately called world music, for each musical style retained its own individuality. There was no blending of diverse musical genres. Continue reading
“As a freelancer you’ll be your own boss!” “You’ll work exactly how many hours YOU want to work!” “You’ll enjoy more free time!” 
Once upon a time (was it all really so long ago?), on Sunday mornings after every Mass got over, people streaming out of churches across Mumbai would be greeted by young men standing at the church gates distributing blue, green, and pink coloured handbills with advertisements of soon-to-be-staged tiatrs.
Do you often find yourself saying stuff like: “Honey (just adding a little romantic touch to the dialogue here), I met what’s-her-name while I was on my way to… to… the birthday party of … what’s-his-name… on Sunday… or was it Monday…” Or do you notice that you often leave the room and go to the kitchen (or bedroom, or maybe even the bathroom) and wonder why you’ve gone there? It’s true we all have days when our memory plays tricks on us. But if there are too many of such days, you’d better be careful or you could soon find yourself joining the ranks of the ‘forgetfuls’. Of humans with not-so-healthy brains.
The best part about writing as a profession or as a hobby is that it is just right for pursuing from home or on a freelance basis.
A few days ago an interesting article in the Times of India caught my eye. The headline read: “Couples need more ‘me time’ NOT sex”. The article was about the results of the research done by Dr. Terri Orbuch, a psychologist and a research professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research during a study called ‘The Early Years of Marriage Project’. Under this US study, the marriages of the same 373 married couples were followed for more than 25 years. Since the project got underway, 46 % of the marriages ended in divorce. And it was found that the lack of personal privacy or ‘me time’ in marriage (time for self) was the reason for unhappiness and marriage problems among a large number of the married couples surveyed. 
This great Goan is only 15, and she recently made national news in the UK. She’s nailed a Mensa score higher than that of Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, and Bill Gates, no less. And she has Goan roots! That’s UK schoolgirl Fabiola Mann for you. According to a Times of India report, her mother Rene migrated to the UK after marriage in 1993. A former Margao resident, Rene is a news producer for Associated Press Television Network in London. Fabiola’s father, Anthony Mann, is a British lecturer.
It’s our day, a special day for senior citizens. So I thought I’d give you something to smile about and something to think about. But what about those intriguing Vitamin ‘C’s for aging happily you ask? I’m coming to that. First, for those who didn’t know that a day exists for appreciating the contribution of senior citizens to the world, October 1 is the UN International Day of Older Persons – a special day dedicated to senior citizens across the world. It was observed for the first time worldwide on October 1, 1991.
