The Cannon ready to fire at the temple ground Its Time up.  The tent..... Villagers erecting the tent.  Erecting the tent. Getting Ready.... The Rameshwer Temple of Achra Three to four days before, the villagers start developing make shift tents, kitchens and the planning begins for a grand evacuation. Gau Pallan they call it and there is an excitement around the obscure village of Achra in Sindhudurg just 20 Km from Malvan (an age old port town). This is an event which happens once in three years just after Datta Jayanti (a important festival in the region). Gau Pallan is an age old tradition and there are various myths behind it. Some call it a purification of sought, others have religious believes that the grand evacuation pleases to local deity. In this costal region it is believed that the physical property belongs to God and the residents are just tenants. There are also faithful that believe that the event began during the days of plagues an...

Mando is called the love song of Goa . In fact in the past, mando did not deal with themes of love alone. There were also many other issues projected through the mando, but on the whole mandos were composed on different shades of love and hence it came to be known as the love song of Goa . Mando is also called the dance song of Goa as it is accompanied by a dance   while being sung. Family celebrations uded to culminate around the singing and dancing of mando. Goa has different types of songs and dance, it can be classified into religious, childhood, marriage, random folk, occupational, caste theatrical etc. Goan music in the past was mostly monophonic. Due to the Portuguese influence Goa was exposed to Harmonic music. The first type of Goan music to use harmony were those sung in the church. Subsequently other songs like the Dekhni, dulops, tiatr songs and mando all started using Harmonic music. Although the mando is alove song expressing varied emotions of love, the dulops b...