Jaag and Timeline Goa Latest Issues

[augusto pinto]

Unlike you poor chappies, I don't have to buy magazines but I access them from my college library.

The latest issues of Jaag and Timeline Goa are the ones I picked up when I last went there.

Jaag as you know is that Konkani monthly started by Ravindra Kelekar and published in the Devanagari script which is very staid and proper, a tradition which Madhavi Sardesai continued after Kelekar's demise until she too passed away recently.

Ravindra Kelekar who those who have followed the Konkani movement might recall is the ideologue who propounded the one language, one script, one this and one that formula which created a huge rift in the Konkani movement although at the time of the Official Language agitation some Catholic Konkanis like Olivinho Gomes and Tomazinho Cardozo and the Church were dumb enough to fall for this ruse and supported the idea.

Nowadays the one script, one land, one dialect and one whatever is being seriously challenged by the Christian supported Dalgado Konkani Akademi.

But a more serious negative challenge to the Jaag type of writing, comes from the Bahujan Samaj who simply don't support this 'Bamon Konkani'. They do this by opting to read the flourishing Marathi press like Tarun Bharat, Lokmat and so on...

Anyway, to come back to the topic, Jaag was for about a year suspended as its editor Madhavi struggled for her life. After her death her daughter Asawari Nayak took over the editorship of the journal.

The first issue after its resumption was dedicated to Madhavi. The next one after Asawari took over is one which Madhavi had apparently already prepared before her death.

However, Asawari has given a signal as to which direction Jaag may go - showier. The cover uses a beautiful Van Gogh like painting by Uttara Angle in brilliant colour.

The inside cover page is in colour advertising Caculo Mall; the inside back page advertises Datta Damodar Naik's Monginis; and the back cover advertises Fomento Green of the Timblos.

Anybody who has any idea of publishing will put two and two together and make 22. Jaag will now be hostage to the elite and will not say a word about mining, rapacious tourism, environmental degradation, building madness...

As for Timeline Goa which is edited by Manohar Shetty, it is a table top glossy That means that the production values are great, but the articles are not so meaty as they could be, which is a huge waste.

I guess Shetty has to go by the Timeline house style. Compared to the Timelines that I've seen in Mumbai and other cities Timeline Goa has more articles in it. However the pictorial features are lovely: the cover feature is on wildlife; there are nice articles about wildlife by Sudeep Dalvi and Erle Britto and Benhail Antao (is he any relation of Ben Antao?) and then features on sports associated with wildlife like long distance biking; kayaking; cycling and so on.

The photo features on waterfalls and chapels are nice, and there is an article about Garcia de Orta and Luis Antonio de Andrade, two physicians associated with Goa by GBC's stormy petrel Selma Carvalho; and another 4 or 5 nice features.

Timeline Goa is a nice mag to look at, but I think it could have challenged Goa Today's niche as a cerebral magazine if it had bothered to try, because it is so easy to do that given GT's staid attitude.

Augusto

[Basil Sylvester Pinto]

Hi Mr. Pinto,

It was nice to have received your esteemed acknowledgement last evening at  a friend's funeral. That said this cousin gets poorer every month by purchasing the various local English magazines. Yes, I have access to most periodicals for free at the public libraries in Margao and it is only Goa Today which is available. Yet I buy Goa's oldest survivor in English mags regularly. Possibly, it's August 2015 edition would be out today.

Well Timeline Goa has got good content and has taken in known writers on board which is a good sign and in a way has aped Planet Goa. It caters mainly to the elite class. Yes, it does not have much cerebral content. And I agree that Goa Today favours our tribe by and large, but the the next gen look for less content in writing and mainly photo spreads. There is this publication, My Goa with it's last edition in May this year. It has not gone defunct but I guess is a struggler unlike its older and successful cousin, Business Goa. It covers and features a whole rain of topics as we at Goenkar do. Possibly we also do a bit more with glamour content. Goenkar magazine is a socio,economic, business, lifestyle magazine also on stands catering to locals. It is published by Hello Publications Pvt. Ltd. of the Hello Group. Yours truly is attached with them in the editorial capacity for its various magazines for almost nine years now. Do have a read of Goenkar.

Regds,
Basil

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[Selma C]

I don't know why Augusto is calling me a stormy petrel. It sounds like a fictional character from a konkani short story. What should I name Augusto, dhirio boy?

Anyway back to the point he makes about magazines in Goa is true. Too often they have to conform to the brief given to them by the owners and as such I get the feeling able editors are not given leeway. 

Best,

Selma

 

Sent from my iPad

--

[augusto pinto]

Hello Mr Pinto,

The library unfortunately does not subscribe to Goenkar, but the next time I see it somewhere I'll definitely pick it up and maybe even tell you what my opinion of it is.

Best

Augusto

[augusto pinto]

On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 9:55 AM, 'Selma C' via The Goa Book Club <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I don't know why Augusto is calling me a stormy petrel. It sounds like a fictional character from a konkani short story. What should I name Augusto, dhirio boy?

 

Quod erat demonstrandum. .

Anyway back to the point he makes about magazines in Goa is true. Too often they have to conform to the brief given to them by the owners and as such I get the feeling able editors are not given leeway. 

 

Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ!
 

Have a nice day!

Augusto

[Basil Sylvester Pinto]

Sure Augusto :) Your feedback would be appreciated. By the way, which library are you referring to?

Rgds,

Basil

Basil Sylvester Pinto
Mob: 9970627610

[augusto pinto]

On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 12:05 PM, Basil Sylvester Pinto <hello...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sure Augusto :) Your feedback would be appreciated. By the way, which library are you referring to?

 

The Dempo Commerce College library.

Augusto

[Basil Sylvester Pinto]

oh yes, you are a Professor there. English ? 

rgds,

Basil

[augusto pinto]

Mr Pinto,

If you wish to be a credible journalist, please make sure that you don't ask questions whose answers can be easily found elsewhere.

Anyway I'm going to forgive you this time, given that you belong to the extended Pinto clan.

My designation is Associate Professor in the Dept. of English in my college, but I prefer to be addressed as simple Augusto.

Your short questions are so tedious to answer.
Augusto

[Basil Sylvester Pinto]

well Augusto, I had no intentions whatsoever to provoke you and this outrage by you  was least expected ... well frankly, it did not strike me that you are a professor and at Dempos. 

Rgds,

Basil

[augusto pinto]

Dear Basil,

Outrage is bit strong a word, but I suspected that you were trying to pull my leg or some other organ.

Anyway I did find a copy of Goenkar of June 2015 at Broadway in Panjim  which at Rs 60/= isn't as expensive as Timeline Goa or Planet Goa at Rs 100/=, but is also not quite so upmarket and nowhere close to Goa Today's Rs 18/= cover price.

Going to its website www.goenkar.in I found that it apparently was a monthly till last year but now it has become a bimonthly. It's printed in colour but its design is a bit amateurish especially when one compares it with Timeline Goa. It's masthead brags, "Goa's largest circulated Socio / Economic / Business / Lifestyle Magazine." I didn't quite believe this claim given that I rarely see it around.

Although the Editor & Publisher is one Jerry Mathew I guess the real editorial work is done by its Principal Correspondent whose name seems strangely familiar.

The cover feature is "A Story of Conquering Physical Challenges"  is the story of a physically challenged musician Agostinho Fernandes. Sadly the cover forgets to mention his name.

The story about this musician who teaches music in Ambaulim Quepem and who has inspired a short film on his life which has been shown at Cannes is well written by Basil but there are some things which could have been done with more taste. There are no less than 4 pictures, 2 on the cover which show the subject, walking on his hands which puts him in a poor light. Instead on focusing on his disabilities, perhaps the pictures which featured him overcoming them, which on the cover are rather tiny should have dominated.

However with the exception of two or three other stories on a young actor Manguirish Bandodkar and on trekking and mountaineering, the rest of the magazine consists of local eye candy, advertorials and advertisements and hence is a bit of a bore.

Given the number of advertisements that it has attracted I presume that Goenkar is doing well. It is the sort of magazine that is all right outside a doctor's clinic but I certainly won't be buying it again.

If I'm asked to rate it, being in a generous mood - I'd say 1.5 / 5.

Best

Augusto

On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 2:40 PM, Basil Sylvester Pinto <hello...@gmail.com> wrote:

well Augusto, I had no intentions whatsoever to provoke you and this outrage by you  was least expected ... well frankly, it did not strike me that you are a professor and at Dempos.

Hello Basil,

Look up http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

There are many other sources which will give you an insight into journalistic duties and ethics but this happened to be the first one I came across.

There was no outrage as such but I'm the sort of guy who gets a bit suspicious when 

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

Young Basil,

Don't let good 'ol Gusto's acidic (or is it acerbic?) comments demoralise you or make you hit the bottle on this rainy weekend in Goa. 

Keep in mind that these words come from someone who has probably never put to bed a magazine (or newspaper) in a real-world situation, working with resource constraints and the harsh realities of our planet.

At your age, we were struggling to bring out a newspaper, with scant infrastructure, a sometimes-leaking office, limited staff, and struggling to stay out of the red. If you see copies of those papers today, I'm sure they would appear amateurish... but the other side of the story never gets told.

Of course, I am the first to concede that there is scope for improvement. Always. Everywhere. With all of us, and with the gods too.

But talk is cheap. Specially criticism. Specially when it comes from the theoretical (or should we say professorial) domain.

FN

P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter: @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha

Goa,1556 Shared Content at https://archive.org/details/goa1556

[Jose Colaco]

Young Basil and FN,

Greetings from here.

My suggestion:

Let not needless needles distract 'us' from our dreams and goals

My specific but PERSONAL observation about Publications or any other 'Dream Projects' - There are the following pre-requisites:

* Need: There must be (or likely to be) a need for the product.

* Funding: 'we' will need a lot more than 'we' initially anticipate

* Reliance and Reliability: If 'we' have the time, it is best to rely on self and a small group. Not everyone who accepts responsibility to deliver, will do so. 

* Not everybody who 'promises' to advertise in, write for and buy the publication will do so.

* Belief in self.

* Use the Udipi model: Start small....or even ONLINE.

* Network and use Social Groups to 'advertise'.

Finally: While one hears that one has to give 100% to one's dream for it to succeed, I would definitely NOT give up my 'Day Job' or borrow ANY funds for the start up. Like investing in stocks and shares, I would only utilize funds which I can spare and don't mind losing.

best

jc

[Tony Martin]

Good 'ol Padre Frederick Noronha your sermon sounds so acidic (or is it acerbic?). Never mind talk is cheap. Specially criticism. But it gets shocking when it comes from the ever saintly St. FN. Reminds me of the elephants two sets of teeth.   

Tony 

Tony Martin
Freelance Journalist
Author
Hospitality Staff Trainer
Emcee

http://www.facebook.com/tonymartingoa
Galgibaga, Canacona

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11523/pg11523.txt

Chapter 12:
The proof of it all...

Tony Martin, the better-known pen-name of Anthony
Barretto, worked his way through Goa's English-language
newspapers, before shifting to education. He has gone
into self-publishing, and, in his own modest and
low-profile manner, has managed to put out books with a
print-run of 5000 copies (amazing by Goa's standards).
Currently, he is working on a website on Canacona.

-------------------------------

Just an out-of-school teenager that I was, life then
posed a 'Catch 22' situation when one first landed in
Panjim. Without any experience, it was difficult to get
work. Yet, at the same time, it was difficult to get
experience because I couldn't get any work.

So one fine day armed with a recommendation from the
late music maestro-priest Fr Lourdinho Barreto, who
hailed from my village of Galgibaga in the southern
extreme of Goa, to Fr Freddy for the post of proof
reader I arrived at the Gulab office. This got an
I'll-let-you-know from the editor.

Well at least I knew what job I was looking for.

Then, with a fantastic helping of luck I got a job with
the Herald -- oops actually it was with Norlic India,
the firm shown as the employer of those doing the
proof-reading of the Herald, in those days.

The job was as a proof reader, and the date was August
12, 1985.

To us, whether it was Norlic India or Herald did not
then matter, I was getting my bread, so there was no
point complaining about missing the cake.

But along with my bread, I also got a taste and a
first-hand glimpse of what I had only heard of earlier
-- exploitation. Obviously the Norlic India tag was
meant to deny us the applicable scales for
proof-readers. We were almost like daily wage factory
workers. Accept it or leave it. With pressing financial
constraints, and at that time there wasn't even a
functional union in the Herald (it came sometime later,
and have worked in fits and starts) the option was
clear: shut up and do your work or speak up and get
kicked out.

All said just-enough-to-survive Rs 400 a month was
still a luxury.

So I got myself testing the waters in the novitiate of
journalism. For a tender 'naal' (coconut) like myself
the sub-editors of the time -- Anthony, Rico, Godwin
Figueira and sports editor Nelson, to name a few --
were exceptionally good. If I had peanuts for salary, I
had gems for seniors.

For most people proofreading is basically checking
spellings and omissions by the typesetter. It was not
much different here. On the few occasions we, the
humble proof-readers, particularly Jack, ventured to
show our mastery in punctuation and grammar, the
concerned sub-editor would get furious, of course in a
playful way. Often we would end up exposing our
ignorance to the world.

Ignorant or well-informed, those two years in the
Herald were years of youthful exuberance and bliss.

And there was this noble soul Caetano. Well I call him
a noble soul because even as the foreman of the
composing section, he never gave me an opportunity to
see him angry although we proof readers (which, of
course, includes me) used to give him a chance to be
angry almost every day.

One day when 'penis' became 'mightier than the sword',
he laughed at it together with the subs, and then,
after they had left, politely warned us to be careful.
He had no special training in people-management; he had
surely not attended any hi-fi seminars now conducted by
self-proclaimed management gurus. Yet, if there was one
thing he knew other than typing at an incredible speed,
it was to keep his juniors motivated. We owed our
productivity and effectiveness to him. He would
challenge the Subs to a rupee for a mistake in a report
or an article. On that count we didn't let him down, at
least not often, even considering that overlooking
errors in a straight read-through -- without the luxury
of checking print-outs, but doing the proofreading on
the flickering screen itself -- was a distinct possibility.

Ironically, on the few occasions, the editor, Rajan Narayan
 -- he was not yet the super-man of the Herald then; he
acquired almost that status during and after the
language agitation -- entered the composing room, we
were just logs of dead wood for him. Not a side glance
even to acknowledge our greeting. My view: perhaps all
these years Mr Narayan was soaring too high on the
pedestal the management had seated him on, after
granting him a free hand. And as is the rule of nature,
every thing that goes up comes down. And he came down
with quite a bang.

But that was just a stray cloud in the silver lining
the Herald offered. That indifference apart, our Herald
innings is something to look back and laugh about. I
can still sense the taste of the first sip of urak at
an after-work session. Not long later, Remy and I
crashing into a cow with my rickety cycle on our way to
the Don Bosco Hostel. Time: around 3 a.m.

Another party we had in the office was a chicken party.
Nice dry fried chicken. Courtesy Jack. Everybody had
and there was still more to go around, much like in the
Biblical parable of loaves-and-fishes. But nobody
except Jack knew, until the next day, from where the
chicken came. The next day a notorious looking man
walked into the Herald office. To make bad matters
worse he happened to meet the 'patrao', the publisher
and then patriarch A. C. Fernandes. They talked a while
and he left. The next moment the old man came charging
and thundered, "Kal kombeo konnem adleo re?" (Who
brought in the chicken yesterday?) "Aayem Patrao, mhaka
rostear podlo mevloleo," (I, boss. I found it fallen on
the road) Jack confessed not unlike a frightened
rabbit. "Faleamson kamank enaka," (You're fired). And
Patrao left. Of course all those who had enjoyed the
chicken the previous day came to Jack's rescue.

In the good old days, the pace was leisurely, stresses
fewer and everything was rosy. But the pay packet was
not growing significantly heavier even after two years.
I was stuck at Rs 500. We were free to ask the then
Manager Gustavo Fernandes for anything except a raise.
Asking for a raise was invariably met with a simply
question, 'Do you want to continue?'

There was no choice. Choice came knocking with the
arrival of Gomantak Times. And some of the more
enterprising journos left their training ground and
joined GT. But, to this day, Herald remains an
enriching and fond experience.

On 8 August 2015 at 23:14, Tony Martin <tonyma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Good 'ol Padre Frederick Noronha your sermon sounds so acidic (or is it acerbic?). Never mind talk is cheap. Specially criticism. But it gets shocking when it comes from the ever saintly St. FN. Reminds me of the elephants two sets of teeth.   

Tony 

[reenamartins]

Hillarious! 

This reminds me of my three middles that had appeared in Herald sometime between 1993-94, typos and all. 

Same proof reader? :-)

Sent from Samsung Mobile

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 9 August 2015 at 00:14, reenamartins <reenam...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hillarious! 

This reminds me of my three middles that had appeared in Herald sometime between 1993-94, typos and all. 

Same proof reader? :-)

Reenabai, this is precisely my point! 

Sometimes, when working in a team, against the clock, and amidst so many institutional limitations, it is not just a question of individuals. An armchair critic like Augusto is unlikely to be kind in his judgement on this score. (Just as I would not if it came to evaluating what teachers and prof'sors should do and could do to make their classrooms more delightful.) In an ideal world we would have all done better.  But this is a wholly flawed planet.

Maybe I was the sub-editor of all of your three middles (typos and all)? Was it in 1983-87? Or were you still running around in PT shoes on the grounds of St Annes in those years?

FN

[reenamartins]

Haha! Clearly etched in my memory is a typewriter with what looked like a paan stain and a certain Mr Narayan who grunted.

Good to know the paper's moved on from both.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

-------- Original message --------
From: Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا
Date:09/08/2015 12:41 AM (GMT+05:30)
To: The Third Thursday Goa Book Club
Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Jaag and Timeline Goa Latest Issues