Village walk

 

To celebrate Republic Day, Ganv Bhavancho Ekvott, Chandor organized a village walk for its members visiting the heritage and important geographic sites in the village keeping in mind that the new Tourism Master Plan has earmarked the village of Chandor as a place for village walks.

The walk began at Bansor where the age old granite stone where in earlier times the gaonkars of the village used to dance the mell on the last day of carnival. However, this practice is not followed anymore as the original gaonkars have migrated from the village

 

The next stop was at Mamlatemer which was the post for the Kadamba dynasty sentinels who would keep a look out for the people entering the city and by way of coloured flags would inform the guards at the Fort gate about who is coming.

The group then went to Devlla Baim which is situated at Bindimoll. This well was constructed by the priests and others when they were shifting the temple and the idols from Cotta to Chandreshwar Bhutnath at Paroda. Earlier the well was the source of water to all the residents of present day Molla and Sailabhat.

 

The dilapidated condition of Oilem Tollem was seen next where there was hardly any water to call it a lake and the need to desilt the lake and reimburse the embankments was sorely felt.

The next stop was the magnificent 450 year old Menezes Braganza house where each section of the house was visited and the aged and exquisitely carved furniture, the made to order dinner set, the various plates, silver ware, trays and other knick knacks mesmerized everybody present.

Next to visit were two springs – one near the old railway station and the other was moddlem spring. However, everybody was disappointed at Modlem as the owners have stopped the flow of water to breed fish and the natural beauty of the spring is destroyed.

The group then visited Aleluia Gomes’ house at Guirdolim to see the ancient door in his house that bears testimony to the family’s conversion from Hinduism to Catholicism.
Finally the Maha Tollem was visited which is now called Matoli and the lake has totally disappeared due to siltation and only evidence of it is the greenery in the form of wild grass growing there.
The group that went for the walk had 18 adults and three children. The adults included members, prospective members and members’ wives. While John Douglas Coutinho sponsored the lunch, Domnick Mendes sponsored the visit to Braganza house and Darwin Cardoso the beer.

Menezes Braganza house was the most striking place for GBE members Cynthia and Illa while Sita found Mamlatemer very interesting and Irene along with Valissa found the moddlem spring very good.

In all the group travelled around 10 kilometers on vehicles and walked quite a distance that sorely tired some of the members. Darwin Cardoso and Domnick Mendes gave their inputs on some of the places visited while overall explanations were given by Julio D’Silva