I WENT to see a Gujarati natak. After a long time I got in touch with my native Gujarati in Goa or something like that. I imagine the Gujarati community in Goa is much older than say the Bengali community. The Bengali community of course engages in all these very cultural-intellectual events which even other Goans get interested in participating. But the Gujarati community too can hold its own with some very old mining families settled here right from the Portuguese era, because of mining investments, and the various Gujarati Samaj can be very active.
Especially I dare say the energetic Panjim Gujarati Samaj which last time around had a most ravishing garba-dandiya event. Last Sunday, June 8, at the Kala Academy it sponsored the Gujarati play making waves — “Patni Nachave, Ene Kon Bachave” – to a packed audience. It was quite the social event with several Gujarati residents turning up with en famille to see “Patni Nachave, Ene Kon Bachave” which translates roughly to “If the wife makes you dance, who can save her!”
The play which has already gone places like New York is insightful and a hilarious take on today’s modern day marriages versus the traditional ones fading out …pitting the nagging homemaker against the smart English speaking businesswoman who chases the scent of money in a fashionable world. Say, “gar ki murgi dal barabar” and all that – is the Westernized woman more sexy, appealing, or just why be biased! Both have their plus points maybe.
We find out in the play what happens when two women, as different from each other as chalk from cheese, gulab jamun/jelebi from chocolate cake — so to speak — in the fight which ensues to save one marriage. This Kiran Bhatt-directed play or drama is both a brilliant study of temptations and dilemmas which come along in failing relationships, as also a delicious spoof leaving the audience in splits … with the very saucy Ketki Dave playing Shikha the role of a middle-class traditional Gujarati housewife or homemaker; here’s a marriage nearing 15 years with a nagging wife and a bagful of wishes like wanting to her own home and not a rental. Then one day she gets her own home and then what…go see “Patni Nachavbe, Ene Kon Bachaver!
Well, a weary hubby falls for his boss who runs a very upscale fashion business and she is willing to bankroll his wife – if he dumps her, so that he may work as her slave for her! The rest of cast is excellent, made up of Dilip Darbar, Hitesh Upadhyay, Hardik Joshi, Hina Velani and at the end of the play it’s dear Shika who wins of course. She learns the only way to keep a husband is to keep him on a leash, loosening him occasionally but never making it too easy for him to run away to another woman’s arms to be loved and exploited of course…or what else?
Thanks to Panjim Gujarati Samaj’s president Lata Parikh I got a ticket to see the pass at the very last moment. I was so happy to see my old friend Kalaben and her grandson and others whom I’m barely familiar or acquainted with, but it is true that the only time I get to practice my Gujarati is when I meet up with say Kalaben or Kalpanaben or Lataben. Before I forget Lataben tells me the play was brought to Panjim because the community is raising funds for the new Shri Laxmi Narayan Temple coming up at Narva. Or has it already come up? How big is the Gujarati community in Goa? Let me find out.
AT THE EVENT MANAGER’S DAY CELEBRATION….
THE other interesting event which happened in recent times is the Event Manager’s Day for the first time ever in Goa at the Marriott Resort Miramar on May 31, 2025. A most interesting event although I think nowadays I catch up with a press conference to pick up some writing paper pads which are put out! I’m the few who believes in making notes on paper although my younger friends manage their smart phones better; I’m also trying but usually make a mess of it. My own written notes work better.
If there’s one thing which came across loud and clear at the first ever Event Manager’s Day it is that the nature of entertainment has changed and how…the big shows are made up of razzmatazz marriages and international concerts. Entertainment treats are no longer going for a film in a cinema hall or for a walk down the road to the local garden for an evening’s “eating of the air.” At least not for the young generation who are so techno savvy and can sit in air-conditioned cafeterias all day long doing business courtesy only one tool: smart laptop, tablet or handphone, and this is big time business, none of your old overheads to be paid for office or office equipment as in the old mode.
With the tilt in what defines entertainment naturally such mega events as marriages and concerts need event managers and hold your breath: In Goa alone the events industry contributes over INR500 crore annually to the state economy and sustains over 15,000 jobs directly and indirectly. Yet, there is the tendency to perceive the events industry as an unorganized sector, at least that how it is officially listed.
Sabbas Joseph of Wizcraft in a fascinating presentation just about summed it up by saying that the events industry is the catalyst of today’s tourism and “business ecosystem.” Tourism needs event management for the knowhow is with the events management business . Take the event management business seriously like it deserves to be; and hence the need for an event Manager’s Day. Many had wanted to book up for the day’s celebration but registrations had to close before it became a jamboree!
The Amsa Group-spearheaded event saw speakers from Arshad Husain to Nirav Chahwala, Shyam Bhasrani, Avadhoot Bhosale, Tushar Patil, Ankita Mishra, Aejaz Sheikh and many others and guess who? None other than the very savvy, articulate Harindra Singh of Sunburn fame who had much to say about how the Sunburn concert which raised so much funds in Goa (Rs1,000 crore) was being treated absurdly and shabbily – in contrast the annual EDM concert was welcomed in other places.
One disgusted man is Harry Singh as he is popularly called, he said he’s done wasting money in Goa although for him Goa remains a very special place…for he has literally grown up here, married here, his children love it here and of course, “Goa is the birthplace of Sunburn” where it has grown from strength to strength and some more in this vein. He shared that a foreign friend paid Rs18,000 from Candolim to the Vagator taxi-stand to come to Sunburn. This is Goa! Despite the shortcomings he was here in every year.
The founder chairperson of Percept Ltd shared that music lovers from the world over turn up at Sunburn in Goa and what has Goa to offer? I must say Harry sahib offered a lot of food for thought! He left immediately after his to the point sharing of thoughts, didn’t stay for the event manager’s fraternity dinner which happened much later on after a book launch (“The Show Must Go On” by Mohamad Gous, an event manager himself), panel discussions, a very interesting session on women event managers – on the subject of how women play a key role in the organization of any event.
A whole host of familiar personalities from the hospitality business were felicitated, to name some of them there was Francisco Martins (Goa’s foremost recognized name in event management), there was Abdulla Aminbhai of the AMSA Group, Serrao Francis Socorro (CROSSCRAFT), Dr Aditi Tendulkar (psychologist), Ernest Dias (TTAG), Vinay Albuquerque (executive director, Alcon Victor Group), Dr Gavin Dias (general manager, GTDC), Vivek Kerkar (SKAL International), Kedar Naik (Goa Tourism) and some more.
It was an altogether a very enlightening and illuminating event of event managers and I must say I learnt a lot myself! That when it comes to events grand marriages and music concerts are still the bread, butter, cheese and jam of the events industry now! Goa Marriott Resorts & Spa sales executive Debjani Bhattacharya who said hello to me confirmed that now even monsoon weddings are a big hit in Goa and they have at least half-a-dozen weddings lined up this monsoon! On that note it’s avjo, selamat datang, poiteverem, au revoir, arrivedecci, hasta la vista and vachun yeta here for now.
—Mme Butterfly