Mobai Gaothan Panchayat

AAPLAA GAAV! AAPLAA RAAJ!
AAPLAA GAAV! AAPLAA NAAV!

Making East Indians Popular as Natives of the City

It’s been more than a century since we took upon the name East Indian Community but the citizens are not fully aware about our Indigenous connect as Children of the soil. There is an urgent need to increase the awareness about our community through multiple initiatives. MGP has taken upon itself to join hands will like-minded community associations and activists to do the best we can to create this awareness. This will be a 5 to 10 year plan with a year on year review on the progress of initiatives and the up-coming year’s action plan will be finalised accordingly. The first Year plan has been finalised after informing and taking inputs from MGP Advisors

RESTORE – We have seen multiple projects and initiatives driven to Restoration and this is a welcome change. Around a year ago MGP even changed the name of the Gaothan Beautification Project to Gaothan Restoration Project(GRP). Here we plan to Restore
whatever we can to bring back memories of our Gaothans and its past. The Gaothan Restoration will be managed by a team of hardcore Gaothan residents who want to give our areas the ideal Gaothan Look. The GRP will restore wells for Umbrachapani, design special benches and street lights, include an entrance arch with a history board and lots more

REVIVE – Making our Community specialty well known amongst other communities is the target. Our Community will be requested to make these East Indian Specialty by its inclusion at all Village Festivals, Gaothan events, cultural Celebrations, Religious practices and house functions. Gaothan specialty would be Rekla, Ghumat, Chatir and much more to give a direct connect and make them synonymous with our community. All local associations and activists need to ensure they are always included. A data bank of these is being worked upon for our Business Network as well as our Culture Guide project

TRADITION – Customs, Beliefs and way of doing things in the past should never be forgotten. Tradition plays an important role in defining our roots and we can never forget our roots. The Lugra has become a trend at all our weddings and celebrations and has
paved a way for traditions to make a come back. Customs and Beliefs are being documented thorough our book project, Reetiñ Reevaaj which will also release episodes in video format on our YouTube channel. Appealing to our community to follow these customs and beliefs will then be the immediate agenda.

GAOTHANS – In our City, you talk of the Gaothans and immediately there is an East Indian Connect. Multiple meetings with politicians and authorities have ensured that the Gaothans are not erased but instead specially included in the City’s future plans with the approval of the indigenous people, the East Indian Community. The Gaothans and its special inclusions like the Holy Cross and Heritage Houses should not be touched as they give the perfect look for the community settlement. Promotion of Gaothans with local festivals and events will place them prominently on the City maps. A special awareness drive will be launched to restore Holy Crosses and not renovate them.

HISTORY – Past records of East Indian Community will be publicised to ensure the History of our community and its rich culture is not forgotten. Special information and highlights of Kaka Baptista will be promoted through various media forums. Some projects have
already been dedicated to Kaka Baptista and we plan to dedicate many more to our community freedom fighter. Historical facts about our community will be documented and promoted on various mediums to enlighten all about our rich culture and roots. Mapping
history of each Gaothan and it’s specialty in the yesteryears will be published as a reference for all citizens.

HERITAGE – The Churches are a clear testimony of our Heritage and existence. As always the Archdiocese will be requested not to renovate but instead restore all heritage Churches. The Church foundation and it’s connect to the local Native East Indian Community will be documented for the reference of future generations. Every historical structure or statue in religious premises should be maintained and restored. A Religious Structure dedicated to our Native Saint Gonsalo Garcia to be built to honour the indigenous connect of the Saint and his historical importance to Maharashtra State and India.

FOOD – The real taste of the East Indians is from its vast varieties of food and cuisine. In recent times we have seen a few hotels and we should have many more. The over the counter fast food stalls selling East Indian food needs to be promoted even if it’s a take away
concept. Our Community Food specialty can create wonders and we need to do our best to ensure its presence and popularity. The variety of preservatives like our Masalas and Pickles need to be promoted and nice to see many such initiatives in this direction. The East Indian Bottle Masala should be made Internationally well known to our talented home chefs and entrepreneurs.

MUSIC – East Indian Music is unique and can be taken to greater heights if all in the music community come together. Some recent initiatives online have been encouraging but there is much more we can do. The Ghumat should be in every East Indian household and it’s presence at every Celebration should be ensured. Music releases should be targeted not only for the listening pleasure of the community but the larger audience too. The Music experts should be roped in to create this unique quality thereby creating East Indian Music lovers in India and Internationally too. Our East Indian Bands should also work towards appreciation from a larger audience through their talent and expertise. The list of action points to fulfil this objective of making East Indian Community well known maybe endless but the time has come to act on this. We at MGP plan to review all these plans and do our very best to take our community to greater heights. We need your support and every hand counts. Join Us and Together Lets Make This Happen.

Gleason Barretto, Old Kurla

MANASHI GAZUYA NAATAAL
DAAVRUYA SAMAJACHA KAMAAL

Time to make a Difference

Nice time of the year but we never expected a last minute announcement to create restrictions for the Christmas service. Many Churches cancelled the Christmas Service as it was difficult to arrange the logistics and only a few Churches were able to organize the Christmas Service. The Church in Maharashtra was informed about this decision at the very last minute and we saw disappointment in people’s faces as they were told to manage with an online Christmas Service. A large section of the Christian Community feels that they have been side lined and taken for granted. This is a ‘Wake-Up’ call for the Peace loving Christian Community which has now become ‘Voiceless’ too.

Awake everyone as Baby Jesus is born. ‘Awake’ has been redefined in our community as we have been sleeping and have been caught unaware of this sudden political decision. Do we have a political voice in Maharashtra and India? NO! A Community that has been lauded for its service to the Nation especially in the form of Schools and Hospitals has not managed to create Community leaders. Many of our current politicians have studied in our Catholic schools so why do we not have Christian Political Leaders? Do we not have the calibre for creating great Community Leaders who can be clean and committed to the Nation? It is time to rethink our strategy and create initiatives to take our community forward on the Political scenario.

Awareness is the key word. MGP team took a general census and the result was that more than 90% of our community feels that the Christmas restrictions were uncalled for and had a selective political agenda. A few wish to differ but it is about the majority in a democratic country. Creating awareness across the community is the need of the hour. The Christmas Midnight Service held across the world was suddenly stopped around a decade ago, and then we had restrictions of 250 people for religious services and then came the bigger blow, night curfew followed by only 50 people for the Services announced just a day before Christmas. Sad but true our Community has been taken for granted. Not a single Political Party spoke on our behalf and in support of the Christian Community.

Tradition plays an important role in each community and changing these traditions does not go well especially at a time when we are all in ‘Revival’ mode. The traditional midnight service was discontinued due to sound restrictions. Do other communities follow these rules? No, but our silent community obediently follow these rules being a good role model to other communities. This Christmas has proved us wrong. The communities that break
rules are given special SOPs for their festivals and those who follow rules are pressurized with more restrictions. Today, we find that injustice towards the Christian Community is at its peak and it is time to speak against the injustice as mentioned in the Holy Bible.

Act now or it will be too late. Get like-minded people to think aloud and give suggestions. Think out of the box, get a committed team and let us counter this with creative and effective solutions. Our future Christmases should be brighter and happening. We need to create a strong Christian identity so that no political party can take advantage of us and take us for granted. MGP is all set to team up with like-minded people who have this passion to take our Christian Community to greater heights. We need to work on numerous plans so that some can see the light of day by next year and all others within 5 to 10 years. Should the Church support these initiatives? Obviously yes, but we cannot be totally dependent.

Actually this is the ideal time for the happy go lucky community to get serious and what better way than by active participation in the upcoming BMC elections in February 2021. Our Voice needs to be heard across the political circles either by representation in political parties, a new community led party or independent candidature. Let us not look at immediate successes or personal agendas but at the future of our community. It is time to lay the foundation of a community that has been the change makers in the field of Education, Medicine, Social Service and now Politics. Politics is not a dirty word as considered by many, it is time to enter this field, clean it up and make a difference.

Love, Joy, Peace and Hope is the message we receive at Christmas. Let us love all communities but let us not be taken for granted by any. Let us spread joy on the face of all especially the needy. Let us continue to be Messengers of Peace but let us not encourage those who want to split us apart. Let us continue to Hope for a better future of the Community through active participation across all fields. With the birth of Baby Jesus time has come to give birth to a Christian Revolution. To speak against injustice and be the change makers that God wants us to be. Join this Revolution for change every hand counts and can make a big difference!

Gleason Barretto, Old Kurla