Viva Carnival!

Outside a film set, where else can you find Batman and Iron Man almost rubbing shoulders with two of our most iconic Gujaratis – Mahatma Gandhi and Narendra Modi? At the Goa Carnival, of course! Apart from these real-life and fictional characters, the

Goa Carnival

2019 kicked off in

Panaji

on Saturday afternoon in style — with oodles of fanfare, music, enthusiasm and energy.
The

carnival

also became more inclusive this year as people with disabilities took part and a Kerala contingent showed their gratitude to Goans for the help during the floods last year. Many of the 65 floats that were part of the parade on the Miramar-Dona Paula road dazzled the thousands of spectators with their inventiveness. They have been painstakingly created over many days by several groups, cultural associations, institutions and commercial establishments. With the message of ‘eat, drink and be merry’ from King Momo William Anes, the tone was
set for the gala event. Here is what went down at the pre-Lent festival.

Modi and Gandhi were there too!
Augustine D’Almeida as Bapu and Narendra Modi lookalike Hiriyadka Sadanand took everyone by surprise with their uncanny resemblance to the leaders. Both of them are retired and are travelling across the country spreading the word of unity. “It’s great to be in Goa with my partner Modi. We are here as part of our mission to spread the message of unity,” Augustine told us.

Carnival becomes ‘accessible’
What caught everyone’s attention at this year’s Carnival was a special float by people with disabilities and an accessible pandal from where people using wheelchairs could enjoy the fest. The float — put together by the Disability Rights Association of Goa (DRAG) and sponsored by Ezy Mov, a travel company that’s promoting inclusive and accessible travel — saw over 40 people take part on their wheelchairs and modified two wheelers.
The float included disabled people dressed up as King and Queen Momo and also, live music by Jolene Dias, who is wheelchair-bound. “We did this float to create awareness about issues that people with disabilities face. Questions raised were — why are we ignored? Where is the education, employment, entertainment and accessibility for us? We had placards to highlight this message of inclusion,” says Avelino de Sa, President of DRAG.

A float of gratitude
The Kerala community in Goa had their own little float where they created a scene depicting Goa helping Kerala during the Kerala floods of 2018. It also came with messages thanking Goans for the support to help Kerala stand up after the catastrophe. The members of the Kerala Sangamam also performed ethnic music and dances at the parade.

The floats that dazzled
From floats depicting Goan occupations to floats based on current issues to floats highlighting social causes — many unleashed their creative side in planning for the parade. Some had gone into the minutest details of their floats, while some kept the idea of merry-making at the centre. We spoke to a few about what they brought to the streets this year.
A group of 10-15 youths from Revora, which has been taking part in the carnival for the last seven years, came with a gigantic float that had a dinosaur. Shubham Mandrekar from Our Lady of Victory, Revora group, tells us, “We decided to make a float to encourage people to conserve nature and save wildlife. We made a dinosaur, because it’s already extinct and it can be a wakeup call for people of Goa. Many people from around the locality have helped us. It cost us `1,50,000.”
Joseph and Shamin Rodrigues from Benaulim were there with their family float created by Joseph. “We take part every year. So this time we decided to create a float resembling fighter cocks because my husband has many fighter cocks at home. We thought of it last year itself,” says Shamin.
Madar Youth Club, which has 50 people from Benaulim, was there with their float ‘Save Goa Save Wildlife’. It took them a month and a half to create the entire scene including a giant Tarzan along with wild animals. “Every day, we took some time out to work on the float. The cost came up to `2,50,000,” says Javed Zalegar, a member of the group.
St Anthony Boys were there with their self-funded float, which cost them around `2,00,000. Their crew comprises 50 members, which including dancers. “We decided to make an Iguana, a lizard from America. It’s a unique species and made our float very colourful,” says Celvino Vaz. Similarly, the Melly Abhi group, which comprises
15-20 boys from Old Goa, paraded a gigantic Batman that took over a month to create.