Exit cars, enter community bonding

NoMoZo debuts in Goa, pedestrians grab right of way from cars

Nigel Britto

One of Panaji's busiest roads took a day off from its grueling schedule and donned a party hat as friends and families comprising the old and the young descended upon it for a few hours of community bonding on Sunday. Enthusiastic policemen studiously kept vehicles at bay as cyclists, skaters, pedestrians, quizzers and artists made the road their own, under the silent, peaceful gaze of Campal's famously shady trees.

Even the birds, usually happy to poop on random passers-by below, disciplined themselves for those few hours as people from in and around Panaji dragged themselves out of bed on a Sunday morning and gathered at the stretch of road between Kala Academy and 2 Signal Training Centre. While the entire section was cordoned off, most of the activity was concentrated along side the Konkan Fruit Fest in Campal, which provided added impetus to the citizens' initiative by diverting attention during those inevitable drab moments. The rest of the open road was put to good use by first-timers trying their luck with roller-skating.

The event, conceptualized by 'Aamchi Panaji' to deal with excessive vehicular movement in the capital city, was wholeheartedly backed by the Corporation of the City of Panaji. Its success was largely due to an enthusiastic citizenry who assembled there with all kinds of things-bicycles, tricycles, roller skates, badminton rackets and cricket bats. The Sunday Evening Quiz Club conducted an informal quiz that had its participants sprawled on the open road; enthusiastic young cricketers turned the road stretch outside the old GMC building into a temporary pitch; somewhere down the road, a badminton game was in progress. Cycling and skating novices were given a heads-up from more experienced folk, and those standing around the quiz group exercised their grey matter.

And it wasn't just adults; kids, too, pranced happily along the road. While their parents browsed through the Konkan fruit fest buying squashes and home-made wines, bicycles and tricycles emerged as their young riders made the most of the open space. A small stall dished out free goodies to anyone that cared to stop by; little children moved around on tricycles; a bicycle club organized a slow cycling race.

Several people TOI spoke to expressed their desire that this should be made a regular event. But getting people together was not an unintentional consequence. "Our aim is to make Panaji a better city," said Tallulah D'Silva of 'Amchi Panaji'. "And part of the plan is to get people together and to get them to know each other."

Those who missed it, fret not. 'Aamchi Panaji' is planning a similar NoMoZo on June 18 on a famous street in Panaji. Guessing which street it is isn't really that difficult.

This article was first published on The Times of India's Goa edition on May 14, 2012.

Azabagic magic lights up Panjim

Review: Bosnian guitarist Denis Azabagic's concert at Panjim

 Nigel Britto

The guitar is a “small orchestra”, Spanish virtuoso Andres Segovia once argued—a metaphor perhaps indicative of the wide range of textures and sounds this comparatively diminutive instrument is capable of, defying its essentially small voice. On Thursday at Kala Academy, classical guitarist Denis Azabagic justified Segovias’ hypothesis.
 

Quite unlike the plethora of violin and piano recitals, the classical guitar still remains a rare breed inside Goa’s concert halls. So when the Goa Guitar Guild and the Calcutta Classical Guitar Society invited the award-winning Azabagic in Goa, it was a special moment. The Black Box was sold out two days prior. For the lucky few who got in, this was what they were in for: A programme of largely-unknown composers, an unfamiliar performer from far-away Bosnia, and a single classical guitar. How would this combination work?
 

As it turned out, exceptionally well. The almost two hour-long concert featured works both by well-known guitar composers (Heitor Villa-Lobos, Fernando Sor) as well as contemporary ones with whom Azabagic shares a personal connection (Vojislav Ivanovic, Alan Thomas). Azabagic’s decision to use a microphone would have attracted a disapproving glance or two from Segovia, whose disdain for amplification is legendary. But given the location and its acoustics, Azabagic’s seemed to be a good decision.
 

He started with Lobos’ ‘5 Preludes’, one of the most famous pieces in 20th century classical guitar repertoire (though mostly associated with students rather than performers). A unique feature of Lobos’ music is the juxtaposition of the European classical tradition with fare from his native Brazil, a mixture even more pronounced on Azabagic’s exquisite Steve Connor-crafted instrument that at times seemed to play itself—so light was the touch.

Contemporary composer Vojislav Ivanovic, whose works feature extensively on the repertoire, was Azabagic’s pre-war teacher. The six Café pieces’ ranged from the sublime to the catchy, and in parts had distinct Latin American influences. Azabagic’s superior technique was on full display throughout, but was especially pronounced through ‘Nostalgia’, where he demonstrated exceptional control of tonality, and peppered it with a perfect tremolo.
 

Azabagic’s playing, though undoubtedly virtuosic, is subtle and reserved. He never tries to impress by being flashy, even when tackling tougher fare like that of Joaquin Rodrigo, who is recognized the guitar’s first great composer (mainly due to Concierto de Aranjuez, the first orchestral work written for guitar). “We guitarists share a love-hate relationship with Rodrigo,” Azabagic quipped as he embarked on the Spaniard’s “Invocation and dance”.
 

Azabagic, who struck a contemplative pose before beginning any new piece (as if to say: “that was testing the tuning, now this is the piece on the programme you’re expecting to hear”), then ventured in completely unknown territory—A suite called ‘Out of Africa’ by his friend Alan Thomas. The four parts are supposed to describe a day, but were played uncharacteristically clinically and didn’t quite convey that message.
 

Just as he started, Azabagic closed the show with a piece bordering the mainstream of his instrument’s literature—Fernando Sor’s ‘Variations on Mozart’s theme Op. 9’. It was executed to perfection with the gentlest of touches, before he retired to the pavilion, only to be called back out by a persistent applause that refused to die down.