Stories by Walter Menezes

  Cover image : Close-up of the plaque placed on the main cross in front of the Church of Assagão on the occasion of the birth centenary of Mgr. Dalgado on the 8th of May, 1955. The following is the inscription in Portuguese: Foi Filho Desta Aldeia o Monsenhor Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado, Sacerdote Exemplar, Zeloso Missionário Régio, E Vigário-Geral De Ceilão, Bengala, E. De Onor, Grande Obreiro Social, Insigne Escritor, E. Filólogo, Notável Orientalista, Glória do Pais E Orgulho Da Freguesia. 8-5-1855 – 8-5-1955 Homenagem Da Freguesia de Assagão, Por Ocasião Do Centenário Do Seu Nascimento . The above text has been rendered thus in English by Fr. Antonio Pereira, S.J. in his book,  Dalgado, the man and the scholar  (pg 37-38): Mgr. Sebastião Rodolfo Dalgado, a son of this parish, was an Exemplary Priest, Royal Missionary, Vicar-General of Ceylon, Bengal and Honawar, Great Social Worker, Eminent Writer, Philologist, Renowned Orientalist, Glory of the Country and Pride of th...

  Cover image : Reliquary cross containing a fragment of the True Cross / France, Limousin (Pic: Byron Dias)  Today, on the 3rd of May, due to the nationwide lockdown, masses and prayers will  not  be offered in white-washed chapels across villages and towns of Goa to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Cross on which Jesus was crucified. One Konkani hymn, however, will be on everyone’s lips and hearts:  O bhagevontu, Santa Cruzu  /  tujie kurpen nivar amkam  /  dusmanatule . (Oh blessed, Holy Cross / through your grace, protect us / from our enemies.) About a hundred days after Louvre Abu Dhabi opened on November 11, 2017, I was finally inside the ‘universal museum’. Byron, my son-in-law, was there too. During an earlier visit to Abu Dhabi, a dense fog which refused to lift had unsettled my plans and I had to be content watching a multi-sensory exhibition on Vincent van Gogh in the afternoon and the Konkani movie,  Sophiya  in the even...

  Located in the Saadiyat Island Cultural District,  Louvre Abu Dhabi  is an architectural delight with a low-slung dome covering a large part of the museum complex. Consisting of layers of geometric templates of aluminium stars repeated in different sizes and angles, the intricate design of the dome appears like interwoven palm fronds, with rays of sunlight piercing through its ‘foliage’. Cover image : Inscribed here is a quote by  Jalal Al-Din Rumi , a Persian philosopher, theologian, poet and teacher. His poetry has influenced not only Persian literature, but also the literary traditions of the Ottoman Turkish, Chagatai, Urdu and Pashto languages / Pic: Byron Dias Once inside the museum, we began to marvel at carefully acquired objects and artefacts of historic, cultural and sociological interest from around the globe as well as paintings and sculptures by celebrated artists. From the sarcophagus of Princess Henuttawy and the sacred texts of the Holy Quran and the...