Panjim 175: A cool new way to rediscover the heritage city
There is an old, ancient well in the Mhamai Kamat House?a rambling,
200-year-old Hindu upper caste family home in the heart of
Panjim?located right across the Abbe Faria statue in the city square.
I know this not because I am familiar with Panjim and its heritage
structures, but because I have a walking tour app of the city on my
phone. The same app, Panjim 175, tells me that the highly influential
Mhamai family were traders who sold everything "from slaves to socks"
and wielded tremendous financial control over the state of Estado da
India or the Portuguese State of India. Viceroys could not overlook
their demands and the Mhamais were able to get the colonial state to
overturn bans on Hindu practices, including the establishment of
Mahalaxmi Temple which reinstated Hinduism, once decimated by
Portuguese rulers who had adopted a policy of religious and racial
intolerance in the 18th century.
The palatial house?with yellow-and-white Latinate facade and
old-school Konkani interiors?stays unlocked for most of the day. I
gingerly troop in to the main courtyard to find women members busy
with their household chores. I ask if I can see the old well to a
tepid response. They don't seem too keen to entertain visitors this
morning in December, already a peak tourist month in Goa. But how do I
leave without seeing the well? Just then the 'view story' feature of
the app somewhat comes to the rescue. The feature has a photograph
slideshow of the Kamat House with a sufficiently rustic looking
picture of the well still in use at this inter-generational home. It
is one of those instances where technology aids and abets cultural
consumption. In this case, it is a DIY heritage walk done via
smartphone and google maps. On a whistle-top tour with time for only
bite-sized history lessons, Panjim 175 is a cool travel accessory for
a city walkabout.
Panjim formally became the capital of Portuguese India on March 22,
1843, when the power centre shifted from Old Goa. To commemorate 175
years of the heritage city that is Nova Goa or Panaji, or more
popularly Panjim, the Serendipity Arts Festival this year commissioned
a special project called Panjim 175, complete with augmented reality
exhibits, video installations and paintings on the city's cultural
heritage. It also brought out an eponymously titled app to offer a
guided tour of the city. The app is curated by Goa-based writer and
city chronicler Vivek Menezes (who also curates The Goa Arts and
Literature Festival) with a team of designers and artists.
"There aren't any apps quite like this anywhere. Certainly not in
India. You have such apps for European cities, but nothing like it in
India," says Menezes who wants to eventually create a three
dimensional mapping of the city in Panjim 175, with information on 200
sites on Panjim alone.
Self-guided tours in a new city can bring you that much close to being
a fl?neur. We really want to be aimless walkers and keen observers. We
actually want to just keep walking and watching. And if there's one
place where you can dress the part of that mythical stylish stroller
from French literary culture, it is in Goa's chic, pocket-sized
capital Panjim. The city's Azulejos, ubiquitous Islamic-Iberian tiles,
palm-fringed Indo-Portuguese homes, riverside promenades, an array of
delightful local liqueurs, quaint cafes, churches and garrulous
marketplaces, all require slow-cooked inspection and scrutiny. Add to
this heady concoction an easy, slumberous vibe with oodles of tropical
sunshine and a smorgasbord of historical nooks. But what if your
languid exploration of the city were to be aided by a Heritage App?
How can technology change our ambulatory experience of a city? "I am a
curator and I am very interested in how people interact with art. The
vast majority of people visiting major museums like The Louvre or The
Met find their experience greatly improved if they have their own
access to information about artists and museums," says Menezes. "And
Panjim is like a living museum. It is actually a very exciting way
forward." Menezes is quick to add that the app might be for
recommended walks, but it still works for new age fl?neurs addicted to
smartphones. "You can see nine different things on nine different
days. There is no rush. It doesn't work like a game," he says.
Panjim 175 app has audio guides and capsule texts with Menezes' voice
narrating the history of 8 key sites for now, beginning with the
Quartel, one of the oldest buildings in Panjim, known for its striking
murals depicting the voyage of Vasco da Gama from Portugal to India.
The 'Highlights' section will give you the most definitive list of
cafes to visit, apart from leads for clubs, churches and other
cultural hotspots. But what really arrests your attention in the app
are the lush paintings and multimedia stories beautifully put together
in collaboration with Quicksand Design Studio. A personal favourite is
the story of Abbe Faria. After having zipped past this curious statue
of the Catholic priest?who is a bearded man casting a spell on a
stunned lady?next to the old secretariat, only a graphic novella like
treatment in the app could offer that joy of discovery?the story of
Abbe Faria, "the forgotten father of modern hypnosis" told in black
and white rectangles of cutting-edge art.
Faria was the first one to proffer that hypnosis is born in the
subject's mind by the "power of suggestion" unlike the animal
magnetism theory of the "mesmerizer". Faria was born in Candolim in
1756 and moved to Lisbon when he was 15 for theological studies. Once,
while delivering a sermon in the royal palace of Lisbon, Faria froze
out of stage fright. His father quietly murmured in Konkani from a
distance while seated in the audience, "They are all vegetables...chop
the vegetables," and Faria bounced back from his state of blackout.
Apparently, this incident birthed Faria's exploration in the power of
suggestion.
Next time you are in the sunshine state, let Panjim 175 be your guide
to explore the city anew.
200-year-old Hindu upper caste family home in the heart of
Panjim?located right across the Abbe Faria statue in the city square.
I know this not because I am familiar with Panjim and its heritage
structures, but because I have a walking tour app of the city on my
phone. The same app, Panjim 175, tells me that the highly influential
Mhamai family were traders who sold everything "from slaves to socks"
and wielded tremendous financial control over the state of Estado da
India or the Portuguese State of India. Viceroys could not overlook
their demands and the Mhamais were able to get the colonial state to
overturn bans on Hindu practices, including the establishment of
Mahalaxmi Temple which reinstated Hinduism, once decimated by
Portuguese rulers who had adopted a policy of religious and racial
intolerance in the 18th century.
The palatial house?with yellow-and-white Latinate facade and
old-school Konkani interiors?stays unlocked for most of the day. I
gingerly troop in to the main courtyard to find women members busy
with their household chores. I ask if I can see the old well to a
tepid response. They don't seem too keen to entertain visitors this
morning in December, already a peak tourist month in Goa. But how do I
leave without seeing the well? Just then the 'view story' feature of
the app somewhat comes to the rescue. The feature has a photograph
slideshow of the Kamat House with a sufficiently rustic looking
picture of the well still in use at this inter-generational home. It
is one of those instances where technology aids and abets cultural
consumption. In this case, it is a DIY heritage walk done via
smartphone and google maps. On a whistle-top tour with time for only
bite-sized history lessons, Panjim 175 is a cool travel accessory for
a city walkabout.
Panjim formally became the capital of Portuguese India on March 22,
1843, when the power centre shifted from Old Goa. To commemorate 175
years of the heritage city that is Nova Goa or Panaji, or more
popularly Panjim, the Serendipity Arts Festival this year commissioned
a special project called Panjim 175, complete with augmented reality
exhibits, video installations and paintings on the city's cultural
heritage. It also brought out an eponymously titled app to offer a
guided tour of the city. The app is curated by Goa-based writer and
city chronicler Vivek Menezes (who also curates The Goa Arts and
Literature Festival) with a team of designers and artists.
"There aren't any apps quite like this anywhere. Certainly not in
India. You have such apps for European cities, but nothing like it in
India," says Menezes who wants to eventually create a three
dimensional mapping of the city in Panjim 175, with information on 200
sites on Panjim alone.
Self-guided tours in a new city can bring you that much close to being
a fl?neur. We really want to be aimless walkers and keen observers. We
actually want to just keep walking and watching. And if there's one
place where you can dress the part of that mythical stylish stroller
from French literary culture, it is in Goa's chic, pocket-sized
capital Panjim. The city's Azulejos, ubiquitous Islamic-Iberian tiles,
palm-fringed Indo-Portuguese homes, riverside promenades, an array of
delightful local liqueurs, quaint cafes, churches and garrulous
marketplaces, all require slow-cooked inspection and scrutiny. Add to
this heady concoction an easy, slumberous vibe with oodles of tropical
sunshine and a smorgasbord of historical nooks. But what if your
languid exploration of the city were to be aided by a Heritage App?
How can technology change our ambulatory experience of a city? "I am a
curator and I am very interested in how people interact with art. The
vast majority of people visiting major museums like The Louvre or The
Met find their experience greatly improved if they have their own
access to information about artists and museums," says Menezes. "And
Panjim is like a living museum. It is actually a very exciting way
forward." Menezes is quick to add that the app might be for
recommended walks, but it still works for new age fl?neurs addicted to
smartphones. "You can see nine different things on nine different
days. There is no rush. It doesn't work like a game," he says.
Panjim 175 app has audio guides and capsule texts with Menezes' voice
narrating the history of 8 key sites for now, beginning with the
Quartel, one of the oldest buildings in Panjim, known for its striking
murals depicting the voyage of Vasco da Gama from Portugal to India.
The 'Highlights' section will give you the most definitive list of
cafes to visit, apart from leads for clubs, churches and other
cultural hotspots. But what really arrests your attention in the app
are the lush paintings and multimedia stories beautifully put together
in collaboration with Quicksand Design Studio. A personal favourite is
the story of Abbe Faria. After having zipped past this curious statue
of the Catholic priest?who is a bearded man casting a spell on a
stunned lady?next to the old secretariat, only a graphic novella like
treatment in the app could offer that joy of discovery?the story of
Abbe Faria, "the forgotten father of modern hypnosis" told in black
and white rectangles of cutting-edge art.
Faria was the first one to proffer that hypnosis is born in the
subject's mind by the "power of suggestion" unlike the animal
magnetism theory of the "mesmerizer". Faria was born in Candolim in
1756 and moved to Lisbon when he was 15 for theological studies. Once,
while delivering a sermon in the royal palace of Lisbon, Faria froze
out of stage fright. His father quietly murmured in Konkani from a
distance while seated in the audience, "They are all vegetables...chop
the vegetables," and Faria bounced back from his state of blackout.
Apparently, this incident birthed Faria's exploration in the power of
suggestion.
Next time you are in the sunshine state, let Panjim 175 be your guide
to explore the city anew.
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