She hates the comparison with the city’s electedrepresentatives and her deep set eyes flash with anger if you ask her if shewill be running for elections, but that does not take the popularity away fromDr. Jennifer Lewis e Kamat. In a little over two years, she has touchedpeople’s lives by reviving something unheard of in the city. She has revivedits spirit.
On November X, when hundreds of Vasco citizens converged inthe City Centre on a sussegad Sunday to celebrate the city’s maiden NoMoZo,Jennifer Lewis stood in the shadows and watched in satisfaction. “People hadwarned me about Vasco’s notorious political one upmanship and how the best ofideas never crystallised, not because the people didn’t want it but because ofthe question, who will do it?” says Jennifer, recollecting her fights. Who willhead the organising committee, will people come, will the artists and thetalent be there, will people enjoy themselves, will the city shed the tag of adead city? All that disappeared as a young, vibrant Vasco hit the streetsdancing, playing, singing, cheering. Unlike Carnival, it was the people whowere running the show and loving it. The seed of the idea, Jennifer.
Born three decades ago in the heart of the city, Jenniferwas always a diehard Vascokar. Years ago when Facebook and Twitter was unheardof Jennifer would wonder why there was nothing constructive happening or heardof about in Vasco. “I was a member of practically every internet group on Goa,but I always wondered why Vasco did not have a group of its own on the web,where people shared their ideas if it was not possible to meet in person?”explains Jennifer. Vascokar United, the Yahoo group was born, which made wayfor its more popular avatar, the 4222 strong Facebook group of the same name.For a city fed up with its greedy politicians, crafty bureaucrats, VascokarUnited has become the nursery of ideas, hope and planning. The NoMoZo, a soundtestimony to its success.
Jennifer however, prefers not to let big successes hold herbigger ideas. Her current endeavor is to revive one of the biggest Portuguesebuilt forts anywhere, Fort Mormugao. While reviving the sagging spirits of acity and making it believe that it is a happening place was tough, the revivalof Fort Mormugao is tougher as there are no written records available of itsexpanse. “We are starting off with a basic cleaning of the fort walls and thenlet the historians do the talking. When people come to know that one of Goa’sbiggest heritage structures lies right here, they will not only adopt it butpreserve it too” says the former engineering teacher.
But then it is also Jennifer’s time to brush the dust offher PhD. Her specialization, the revival of old concrete structures is comingin as handy ammo to revive the city’s old and crumbling structures. Fromcultural landscape to heritage revival, from online-offline community bondingto reengineering the City’s infrastructure, Jennifer Lewis’s strength lies inthe fact “it is not about hogging credit but about making people own the ideaand crediting themselves for it.”
