The feast of St. Bonaventure at Erangal beach
The famous church of St. Bonaventure, a 16th-century Portuguese church, is situated on the beach in Erangal in Malad (West), Mumbai. The annual Erangal feast held on the second Sunday of January, celebrating the feast day of St. Bonaventure, attracts over four lakh people of all faiths and communities to this scenic spot.
To celebrate this feast, people travel by buses, tongas, and bullock carts from all over Mumbai and its suburbs. The feast is patronised mostly by the people belonging to the East Indian Catholic community. But nowadays, other communities patronise it as well. The day starts with attending the Holy Mass at the famous Church of St. Bonaventure situated on the beach in Erangal. Thereafter, people start enjoying themselves by going for horse rides, camel rides, giant wheel rides and other rides available on the beach front. There are also stalls for different kinds of games like throwing rings, shooting the balloons, etc. Some people do live cooking in the open air wadis, while others prepare their food at home and bring them in huge Tiffin boxes. Lots of East Indian Marathi songs are played throughout the day. Some of the well-known ones are ‘Mary tuze kes lam lam lam’, ‘Sakalche Para’, and ‘Gaylan Sakli’. People visit each other and the day is spent in eating, drinking and merrymaking. In the evening, the fisherwomen in their traditional nav vari lugras (nine-yard sarees), wearing the same colours, dance to Marathi songs along the beach to celebrate this feast.
The fair is popularly known within the community as ‘Erangal Cha Sann’. The East Indians who are the original inhabitants of Mumbai have been visiting the Shrine of St. Bonaventure at Erangal for centuries.
Jubel D’Cruz
Allotting govt-bungalows to former CMs in MP
It refers to the media-reports about Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath providing government-bungalows to former chief ministers Digvijaya Singh (Congress) and Shivraj Singh Chauhan (BJP) in Bhopal. Earlier, recently retired CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan subsequent to an order of MP High Court following Supreme Court verdict on May 7, 2018, misused his discretionary power of allotting government-bungalows to former BJP Chief Ministers Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur, Kailash Chandra Joshi but not to Digvijay Singh of Congress.
Chief Minister Kamal Nath, in a bid to exhibit unbiased politics has provided government-bungalow simultaneously to his BJP predecessor Shivraj Singh Chauhan also, in order to provide one to Digvijay Singh of his own party Congress. It is clear that rival politicians unite on matters of mutual convenience.
The Supreme Court should sue-motto take cognisance of the matter and undo the wrong done by extending its order on May 7, 2018, to all the states so that such undue facility may be snatched from all former chief ministers from various states. It is noteworthy that even the most advanced nation of the world, USA, with democratic governance of system, provides just half of the last-drawn salary to its former presidents as the only post-retirement benefit, with former US Presidents even doing job in private establishment or engaged in farming etc. after their retirement as most powerful political ruler of the world.
Madhu Agrawal
Demonetisation of Rs 2,000 notes
Media reports confirm about the printing of Rs 2,000 currency-notes by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) after about two years of its launch to meet emergency situation subsequent to demonetisation on November 8, 2016, of earlier notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
Rs 2,000 notes worth Rs 6.73 lakh crores were there in circulation on March 31, 2018, which accounted for 37 per cent of total currency worth Rs 18.03 lakh crores on that day. Since Rs 2,000 notes not commonly seen are mainly hoarded as unaccounted currency and for illegal currency-circulation, even a currency-crunch developed in the country some time back.
Even though demonetisation on November 8, 2016, was a bold step for checking unaccounted deals, yet poor and unplanned implementation could not give the desired results with currency-circulation presently crossing the figure before demonetisation on November 8, 2016, thus negating the real purpose of demonetisation.
Since Rs 2,000 notes are not much in hands of commoners, a well-planned demonetisation of Rs 2,000 notes by asking the public to deposit all these notes in their banks before a stipulated date can yield the desired result of checking unaccounted transactions and replacing cash-deals by banking transactions. Voluntary Disclosure Scheme for unaccounted cash announced simultaneously with the announcement of demonetising Rs 2,000 notes can overflow public-exchequers. Demonetisation of currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 done on November 8, 2016, will be incomplete till Rs 2,000 notes issued in emergency conditions are demonetised.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Need communal harmony
The statement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Ram Temple issue that government would wait for the SC verdict is most welcome. This statement has been appreciated from all communities, irrespective of caste and religion. It is very clear that the leaders of the country have faith in the highest court. I hope they will accept the judgement of the SC without ifs and buts, except a handful of people who are constantly destroying the peace of our country and compelling the government to make a new law to build the Ram Temple. I request them to not insult the verdict of the SC and trust it. Definitely, it will create communal harmony in the country.
Najmul Sherazi
Establish a strong India
In order to defeat the ruling party, the Opposition must be very strong and united. If the Opposition does not unite, no one can stop their votes to be divided. In this case, the ruling party takes advantage and that is why the Opposition should make the best policy before the upcoming election for the sake of the country.
The unity is the biggest weapon of defeating BJP. The unity will only overcome BJP (United we stand divided we fall) and we request the president of every political party to make a strong alliance in the next Lok Sabha Election so that we establish a strong India.
Waseem Akram Qasmi
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
