The Department of Business Administration, Don Bosco College, Panjim, organised Business Talks 2021- a discussion centred around '˜Popularising the Traditional Occupations of Goa' on December 10, 2021, in the Bi-centenary Hall of the college. The hall was beautifully decorated with tables of Goan artefacts relating to the talk. This event witnessed active participation by the students of FY BBA, SY BBA and students from other colleges as well.
The event began with a brief welcome address followed by the lighting of the traditional lamp by each of the six distinguished guests on stage. Director of the college, Fr Joaquim Lobo, graced the gathering with his short speech, in which he highlighted the need to spread our Goan culture and heritage around the world, to keep it alive and active in this modern age through the use business tools and technology.
An introduction of the 5 distinguished guest speakers was provided by the moderator and the panel discussion was divided into 2 rounds. The first round began with Mr Panteleao Fernandes, an expert on traditional Goan occupations having interviewed 50-70 people practising traditional occupations for his book. His session came alive with video clips portraying people's untold stories. Mrs Shaeen Gomes took the stage to talk on the '˜Poder'- her presentation on the history of the baker, types of bread from soft '˜pao' to crunchy '˜kankon' bread bangles and the methods of making them made us hunger for more. Fr George Quadros, a horticulture expert, spoke in length on agriculture and paddy, giving insights into the scientific methods used to avail a larger produce. Mr Prajal Sakhardande made everyone's mouths water by speaking on '˜Khaje'- a goan delicacy made during feasts and how it should be considered one of the heritage sweetmeats of Goa. Mr Victor Hugo Gomes made everyone go coconuts by shedding light on the Goan coconut trees, he added that all the above occupations wouldn't survive without the coconut tree which provides coconut sugar, jaggery, oil, and much more.
The second round was directed at how these occupations could be adapted to the present times. This session was thoroughly informative and filled with passion for keeping our Goan traditional occupations alive. Besides this, three tables full of traditional Goan snacks and sweets were made available by the students of FY BBA for everyone to purchase. A token of appreciation was handed over to the distinguished guests by Fr Joaquim Lobo and the session came to an end with a vote of thanks. the event was well received by the students as well as the participants.
