Book Worm

Reading Habit

It boggles the mind. When your montris want to make money they have ingenious ways to do that. Once before, if you remember, despite you not being great film buffs, they smothered you with IFFI. The big bucks got bigger for them despite all the reels they give us about making IFFI more about films and less about glitzy entertainment which btw, is what IFFI has turned out to be. Then they decided that entire India could do without IFFI. So, now it's going to have a retirement home at Kala Academy and live there happily ever after. A little later they decided you and I have a voracious reading habit. So, they planned a Central Library, now being built at Patto Plaza. You can bet next, they will find an equally stunning reason to convert the existing Central Library at the Institute Menezes Braganza to a mall. ADAPTIVE REUSE, they call it. Thank you very much.
Guess what, the Central Library will cost? Rs 15,95,00,629.70 and I am still trying to find out what the heck they intend to do with this monolith, so stay with me on this will you, even if you are in danger of losing the Reading Habit temporarily. This business takes time.

Booker Prize stuff

On what basis was the consultant for the project appointed? The Goa State Industrial Development Corporation, Goa's very own L&T with a difference said it appointed Architecture Autonomous (Gerard D'Cunha's outfit) on the basis of a national level architectural competition. You and I, the shareholders don't get to enjoy dividends, only the stakeholders do, if you get my drift.
GSIDC said it got 75 applications, and from that five were short listed. These five were invited to take part in a competition but only Architecture Autonomous and a Uttam C. Jain participated. This is about the only part I can't quarrel with. Oh, there's this part about the fees you may think is high. I do too. It's like this – the architect will be paid 4% for his comprehensive architectural services, 4% for interior architecture, 6% for graphic designing and 5% for landscape architecture. There was no response to the first call from GSIDC's list of empanelled project management consultants. Only Frischmann Prabhu (I) Pvt Ltd bid at the second call. Isn't it amazing, remember Garden of Eden, how even empanelled firms are reluctant to bid in Goa? I say just un-empanel them. Do we really need to invest Rs 15,95,00,629.70 cr in a building ostensibly for reading.

Museum Piece

On November 11 when I visited the Goa State Museum there were more attendants than visitors. I was the only one in fact. The visitors registered showed eight footfalls, none on 10th, 9th and 8th. Only four visited on the 7th. Need I say more?. In the so-called Christian Art Gallery there are bigger than life-size portraits of two Portuguese governors. Figure out how governors become 'Christian' art for your selves, because I can't. No single art work or portrait has details (so essential) like the period it came from, or its origin. The museum has quite a few statues with the legend 'unidentified saints.' In other words, the Goa State Museum inaugurated in June 1996 is yet to determine whether these are really saints or just some ancient craftsman's genius. A remarkable wooden Chariot Parod-Quepem 18th c AD lies there, un-restored and uncared for. In fact there are far too many huge offices in the museum and far too few historical pieces, all of which point to a criminal waste of space. And yet, right now the museum's auditorium is being renovated. Probably at great expense.

Book of Fiction

Clearly when a museum is neglected, what can you expect of the Central Library? In fact, the design plans for the Central Library to be discussed here next week duplicates some of the facilities available at the museum. Did the planners of this project also consider they might be duplicating facilities available at the Institute of Menezes Braganza, Kala Academy or even the International Centre at Dona Paula? You bet they didn't. After all why should they bother about such niggling details when they are using taxpayers' money? Do you think they also considered that the overly commercialized Patto Plaza was hardly the venue for fostering the reading habit? By a hair's breadth maybe, because, to be put up next, opposite the Central Library is Ginger, the 5-star hotel with a huge shopping mall. Of course they didn't by any breadth of measurement, because if they did, they would have built it within the huge Goa University campus. Oops do you think I am giving them ideas that will cost us further?


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