PANAJI
An artist collective along with organisations associated with the battle for Mhadei plan to hold a massive, seven kilometre human chain on May 20 and has given out a call to artists, musicians, performers, members of creative commons and Goans in general to join what they called was a "celebration" of the river.
Earthivist Collective has joined hands with Goa Heritage Action Group (GHAG) and Save Goa Save Mhadei Front, to organise the event and implore Goans to become protectors of the river, which many believe is threatened by Karnataka's plan to divert the river waters following a tribunal verdict that partially sought to resolve a decades long inter-state dispute.
At a press conference, Miriam Koshy of the Earthivist Collective said on Monday that 'Mhadei Amchi Mai', on May 20 will be a community engagement festival where artists, performers, musicians and others will be encouraged to perform at multiple zones along the seven-kilometre route between Swimsea resort at Dona Paula and the Santa Monica jetty in the capital.
In the build up to the event on May 20 and to garner participation (the organisers hope to attract 7,000 people) several events centred around the Mhadei or Mandovi will also be conducted.
Koshy, an artist-curator and founding member of Earthivist Collective, added that the intention to hold the event is to bring together Goans from all talukas concerned about Mhadei.
"The Collective is also calling upon artists to create art interventions, in the form of paintings, poems, songs, installations, performances and sand drawings during the human chain formation at Miramar Beach and the six other nodal points along the banks of Mandovi in Panaji," Koshy said.
Heta Pandit of GHAG said, from 4 pm on May 20 a human prayer chain will be formed along the 7-kilometer route on the banks of Mandovi. She said, the organisers call upon people from across Goa to come together and connect with the river, its history and its soul.
She said, people are advised to participate in attire conforming to a blue-and-white colour theme gellig with the shades of the river.
The organisers have also urged individuals from the creative community - musicians, dancers, creative story tellers, artists to join the creative celebration by performing along the human chain site.
They said eminent personalities from Goa, such as Dr Oscar Rebello, Fr Bolmax, Hema Sardesai, Patricia Pinto, Isabel Santa Rita Vaz, Claude Alvares, Norma Alvares, Rajendra Kerkar and Pournima Kerkar will join the human chain.
Act for Goa, UrbanSketchers Goa, Plantwalk Goa, Goa Bird Conservation Network, Sunday Evening Quiz Club and That Book Store are some groups which have come onboard to participate in the festival.
Meanwhile, Elsa Fernandes, environmental architect and president of Khazan Society of Goa, said she will mobilise the farming community to join in solidarity.
Goa's literary doyen and Jnanpith award winner, Damodar Mauzo, too leant his support to the event calling it an "ideal move".
"Mhadei is the lifeline of Goans. This is also a struggle to safeguard our identity. We need to save her from being diverted," Mauzo said in a video message posted by the organisers.
