The village of great wealth

GOA: Traversing across Bardez, one comes across

Aldona

, a vibrant village, home to talented people, natural beauty and where an interesting coincidence abounds connecting the past with the present day.

Aldona is locally pronounced as ‘Oidone’ and Halekannada written records of the village

comunidade

call it ‘Haledone’, says Aldona comunidade (fraternal) president

Hector Fernandes

. The coincidence lies in the meaning of its name. There are those who say the word ‘Oidone’ means ‘Vhodlem Dhan’ meaning great wealth. In the present day, Aldona could be the only village in Goa with branches of 14 banks.

Etymologically, ‘Oidone could also mean the ‘plough’ used to till fields, while some say it is derived from the haldi (turmeric) plant.


Aldona, including Calvim, was famous for its onions and chillies. Villagers say that onion saplings grown in Aldona were traditionally taken to many other villages, including Agasaim in the taluka of Ilhas. Aldona was a trading port and patmarim (sailboats) travelling through the Mandovi, docked here first, thereafter at Moira and finally at the bustling trading town of Mapusa.

The patmarim, transported rice, chilli, onion and other vegetables grown in the fields of Aldona, thereby enabling the Oidonkars to earn large incomes.

When we talk of villages, we have to differentiate between the comunidade village, which dates back to nearly 2,000 years, and the parish (freguesia) jurisdiction – the Aldona parish was formed after 1542 - and the panchayat jurisdiction, which came into existence in Goa after 1961.

The comunidade village of Aldona comprises Bodiem and the low-lying areas of Danua, which are presently included in the Tivim panchayat jurisdiction. Both these wards of Aldona comunidade are separated from the rest of Aldona by the Mapusa river. The other wards of Aldona comunidade are Quitula, Ranoi, Coimavaddo, Gutcoi, Udoi, Cottarbhat, Santerxette, Panarim, Naikavaddo, Castelvaddo, Carona, Lankdem, Panth and the island of Calvim.

The Aldona parish jurisdiction includes the above wards and Corjuem island, except Danua, which is part of Tivim parish; Bodiem, a separate parish by itself, while Calvim and Ponolem form a separate parish. The latter two parishes were earlier part of the Aldona parish.

The panchayat jurisdiction includes the Aldona parish jurisdiction and the islands of Calvim and Ponolem.


The Aldona church is dedicated to São Tomé (St Thomas), the apostle, while the presiding village deity, Bhagwati Aldonacarin, is at Khandola, Marcel, in Ponda.The comunidade still recognizes its historic relationship with the church and deity.

An interesting incident in Aldona’s history is an attack by robbers, who in the dead of night attacked the Aldona church where both, the treasuries of the church as well as the village comunidade, were kept. The villagers rallied together and killed the entire gang and those trying to escape drowned in the river nearby. This incident was blamed on the Ranes as in those days they had frequent skirmishes with the Portuguese and were requisitioning money from rich landlords in neighbouring villages. Later inquiries revealed that the Ranes were not involved in the incident. Today, villagers celebrate the event in thanksgiving as the ‘Choranchem Fest’.

At the Aldona tinto is a place called Terçena, which is now home to the Aldona Institute. Terçena comes from Terço (one-third) of the Portuguese garrison which was stationed at this site. It was attacked by the Bhonsles and due to a tactical error by the Portuguese captain, the entire garrison was killed in combat.

Since Aldona has river crossings at Danua, Bodiem, Sirsaim, Corjuem, Calvim and also Chorao, the comunidade operated canoe services called ‘tar’ at these sites. Some of these services are now defunct.

Goa’s first cable-stayed bridge was built here connecting the mainland with Corjuem island in 2004. After the Calvim drowning tragedy in February 2012, a second bridge was built connecting the mainland with Calvim island.


Corjuem fort

It is said that Corjuem fort was built by the Desais of Sankhali, but was traded to the Sawant-Bhonsles of Sawantwadi. Under Portuguese viceroy Caetano de Mello e Castro, the fort was subsequently rebuilt. In the early 1800s, the fort was used as a military school and had, in its defenses, a battery of four guns. The fortress defended the island of Corjuem and also had a chapel under the parochial church of Aldona.

Besides Corjuem fort, there were two fortifications, one at ‘Postar’ (meaning post) in Quitula and another at Ponolem island which was called as Fortim Real, which were outposts for signaling the advance of enemy forces and used to give flag signals to the forts in Corjuem, Tivim and at Sortir on Chorao island. Presently, there are no remains of the fort at Postar, but the place still carries its name, whilst at Ponolem some remains were seen until two decades ago.


Renowned Residents
In the music world, singer-tiatrist Alfred Rose, and jazz musician Antonio Xavier Vaz alias Chic Chocolate come from this village

Edward Soares

, principal and founder of St Thomas Boys High School

Late Ferdinando Fonseca, auxiliary bishop of Bombay; Joseph Couto, archbishop of Karachi, Pakistan;

Anil Couto

, archbishop of Delhi; Anthony Lobo, bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, Pakistan, hail from this village

Dr Luzito de Souza, cancer specialist

Other eminent Aldonkars are Filipe Neri Ferrão, archbishop of Goa and Daman and C D Pinto, professor and knight of the order of St Gregory

Late Alban Couto, former chief secretary and author Padma Shri awardee Maria Aurora Couto also hail from the village of Aldona


WASTE

Garbage management is a huge problem. There are no pre-monsoon and post-monsoon works carried out. We face the stray dogs problem. At night, both bridges are used by anti-social elements. The market is in a pathetic condition. Focus must be given to our backwaters


Bruno Fernandes

Aldona Institute president and resident


CORRUPTION

Corruption is the biggest problem. We also face power fluctuation. The Sulabh toilets built outside the Aldona panchayat in 2011 is still not functional and is used by anti-social elements. The panchayat has not submitted its accounts and audit reports to the gram sabha since the last two years


Oldrin Pereira | resident


We are setting up a website. Once we get land from the comunidade, we’ll start door-to-door waste collection. We’ve already started roadside waste collection. We’ve submitted the audit report, the next one will be put before the next gram sabha


Trisha Naik | sarpanch
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