Meet the 83-Year-Old Woman Who is Bringing Goa to Delhi

Suman Kurade, 83, has been organising the Goa Festival in Delhi for the past 14 years.

Goa’s lighthouse. (Photo: iStockImages)

Suman Kurade, 83, loves Goa and ‘somewhat’ likes Delhi. The octogenarian is bridging the distance between her two homes by bringing a bit of her favourite place to Delhi.

Kurade, who moved to Delhi 46 years ago, in 1969, runs an organisation called Goenkarancho Ekvot and is organising the Goa Festival, a three-day extravaganza that celebrates the spirit of Goa in Delhi.

She has been organising the Goa Festival in Delhi since 2001, for the last 14 years.

Kurade is not the ‘Goan’ Goan – she wears an elegant sari and speaks fluent Konkani. She acknowledges that Goans have been played by the very stereotype that was created for the sake of Goa.

<p>Goa has always been projected as a western place. Of course we have western influence. We were ruled by the Portuguese for so long. But Konkani is our mother tongue. We have strong roots and we aren’t just influenced by the West.</p>

<p><b>Suman Kurade, President, </b><b>Goenkarancho Ekvot</b></p>

Interestingly, ‘Goenkar’ (from the organisation’s name Goenkarancho Ekvot) means Goan in Konkani, which in a way symbolises the point that Suman is trying to make.

Our understanding of Goa is limited to cliches – its fenny, its shacks, its westernised way of living. But here is a Konkani speaking Goan who shows us a side of Goa that has somewhere been lost in the enigma that was created around this Indian holiday paradise.

Tourists ride a boat at the Anjuna beach in Goa. (Photo: Reuters)

<p>We love tourists but we feel successive governments have commodified tourism. We want tourists, but not at the cost of our environment. The government should balance local needs with tourist needs.</p>

<p><b>Suman Kurade, President, </b><b>Goenkarancho Ekvot</b></p>

The dynamic Kurade is a foodie too.

I love Goan food. I prefer to have Kalputi. But the food they serve in Delhi in the name of Goan food is humbug I tell you.

She makes an interesting point, in the middle of her food conversations – that her beloved Goa has still somehow managed to remain free of the polarising culinary politics that has engulfed the rest of the nation.

<p>What one’s faith is, what one eats… nobody should have any problem with anyone’s food habits. In Goa we have no barriers. So much so that Christians eat beef. But we have no problem. It is an individual concern. And even though most Hindus are vegetarians, we have no problem with it.</p>

<p><b>Suman Kurade, President, </b><b>Goenkarancho Ekvot</b></p>

Goa is indeed a melting pot – 66.06 % of its population is Hindu, 25.10 % Christian, and 8.33% Muslim.

But the spirit of Goa is still ‘live and let live!’