Explore Goa’s cultural legacy at Heritage First Festival

On a precocious Sunday afternoon, the air, redolent with the fragrance of caller marigold garlands, has conscionable been rinsed successful a abrupt downpour. The courtyard astatine 100-year-old Fallary House successful Goa’s Margao, opens up to a colourful spot of sky, reverberates with soulful strains of thumri successful the deep, resounding dependable of classical vocalist Shakuntala Bharne.

This live-music show for an intimate gathering of civilization seekers, peppered with stories and a location tour, is an inaugural of Heritage First Goa, led by Heta Pandit, writer of Houses of Goa, Jack Ajit Sukhija and Snigdha Manchanda. Founded successful November, 2024, Heritage First Goa is dedicated to preserving and promoting Goa’s built, earthy and taste heritage.

Before we adjacent measurement into the house, we instrumentality successful the quiescent grandeur of its majestic exterior. The imposing façade has precocious ceilings, ornate woody doors and a charming wraparound veranda hugging its magnitude from 1 side. 

“Can you conjecture wherefore the balcão extracurricular is wider that the ones you would find successful a Catholic Goan home? Obviously, due to the fact that Hindus ever sat cross-legged,” points retired Heta.

Tale rotation

Heta’s probe connected Goa’s past and civilization pb her to constitute 10 much books that research Goa done the lens of home and monumental architecture, oral past and accepted art. She documents stories of families who person chosen to crook Goan houses into taste hubs. After 25 years of penning aft her archetypal publication Houses of Goa, she decided it was clip to chronicle the stories of those houses; arsenic a remembrance of tales astir Goa’s state struggle, culture, practice and of its people. And, thus, the publication Stories from Goan Houses was born.

“It’s been a agelong process of research,” says Heta. “For Houses of Goa, I took a batch from the archives, sat and work astatine the room of Xavier Centre of Historical Research. But truly, it was not a first-person narrative, conscionable accusation I gathered. The caller publication has superior accusation and I spoke to a transverse conception of people, digging up long-forgotten stories from homeowners, masons, carpenters, painters and each those who made these Goan homes.”

Margao’s glorious past

As we participate the ornate doorway and measurement wrong Fallary House, it feels arsenic if clip stands still.

This location belonged to a baccy merchant, Vaman Raghunath Fallary. It did spell done its just stock of transmutation by 2 of the 3 brothers who inherited it and reconstructed it connected modern lines, but this information was preserved by the contiguous family.

“This information of the location was inherited by my father-in-law, who passed distant this March astatine the property of 94. It utilized to beryllium brimming with festivities and galore spiritual gatherings passim his time,” shares grand-daughter-in-law Meghan Fallary.

She shares however the location resounded with spiritual music every twelvemonth during the Ganesh festival, and erstwhile it ended, they had to instrumentality the idol for immersion, with dense hearts. Along with it, went a filled cookware oregon kalash of water, decorated with flowers and mango leaves. The children of the location returned from the immersion, crestfallen, and truthful the filled kalash would person the pridefulness of spot successful the courtyard platform, and songs would beryllium sung astir it.

Fallary House has a distinctive Goan architecture, which is reflective successful the usage of laterite chromatic and misses the accustomed sloping red-tiled extortion 1 would find successful the Portuguese benignant of architecture. The beige and taupe colour façade is refined, yet stately, with the usage of jaali or trellis enactment creating an ornate, lace-like pattern. The rooms are each functional and arranged astir the rajangan oregon the courtyard, the premier gathering spot for the family, “where the kartaa or caput of the household often presided implicit matters oregon simply sat lounging successful his large, ‘plater’s chair’,” says Heta, earlier starring the enactment into the wrong of the house, towards the nahni oregon bath. 

I look astatine at the plan and aesthetics and americium amazed to discern a fewer differences with immoderate of the aged houses I person been to successful South Goa, present successful Margao and Chandor. The Portuguese benignant decidedly is much façade forward, with a verandah, balcão and pillars. Hindu homes are much inward facing, with rooms arranged astir a cardinal courtyard.

Traipsing done practice

Goa has galore gems similar Fallary House, each relics of its bygone era. Heritage First Goa has been connected a ngo to sphere and uphold them.

On till December 7, this year’s variation of Heritage First Festival comprises 41 walks, including Khazan locomotion done brackish pans, a marketplace locomotion successful Panjim and caves locomotion successful Chicalim. The poesy locomotion successful Parra, was 1 specified absorbing traipse done colony by-lanes and aged churches, aft which we sat down to constitute poesy with prompts that came up on the way. The kunbi sari store was a peek into Goa’s weaving practice and the colony saunter successful Saligão and Chorao land were similar walking done the pages of storybooks.

The walks are priced astatine ₹750; Heritage First Festival is connected till December 7. For much details, link with Heritage First Goa connected Instagram @heritagefirstgoa oregon sojourn heritagefirstgoa.com