My very old and lovely friend Hartman sent me the following:

To keep the blues at bay I am back to carving logs. This one attached is titled ‘The Curses of Paikdev, A Lament for Water’. It was a birthday present for my sister and is planted on her farm [in Goa]. It faces Paikeachi Zor (Paik’s Spring), which will disappear very shortly hanks to the rampant mining in the area. My sister plans to court arrest again, and this time refuse bail. She hopes that at least will get the Goans out.

In the thickly forested hills between the villages of Maina and Kawrem, to the south east of Quepem Town, a poignant story once fortunate enough to have had a happy ending, is now destined to end more sadly than it could ever have begun.

800 overloaded trucks groaning through the town throughout the day barring a few hours respite to let schoolchildren in the area to scamper to and from school is testament to this. It is this very same business, though ‘greed’ may be a better term, that is ‘legally’ destroying a myth of almost epic proportions, and with it, again ‘legally’, the water sources and bodies of the area.
Continue reading The curses of Paikdev. A lament for water: Hartman de Souza →