There is an old, ancient well in the Mhamai Kamat House—a rambling, 200-year-old Hindu upper caste family home in the heart of Panjim—located right across the Abbe Faria statue in the city square. I know this not because I am familiar with Panjim and its heritage structures, but because I have a walking tour app of the city on my phone. The same app, Panjim 175, tells me that the highly influential Mhamai family were traders who sold everything "from slaves to socks" and wielded tremendous financial control over the state of Estado da India or the Portuguese State of India. Viceroys could not overlook their demands and the Mhamais were able to get the colonial state to overturn bans on Hindu practices, including the establishment of Mahalaxmi Temple which reinstated Hinduism, once decimated by Portuguese rulers who had adopted a policy of religious and racial intolerance in the 18th century.
The palatial house—with yellow-and-white Latinate facade and old-school Konkani interiors—stays unlocked for most of the day. I gingerly troop in to the main courtyard to find women members busy with their household chores. I ask if I can see the old well to a tepid response. They don't seem too keen to entertain visitors this morning in December, already a peak tourist month in Goa. But how do I leave without seeing the well? Just then the 'view story' feature of the app somewhat comes to the rescue. The feature has a photograph slideshow of the Kamat House with a sufficiently rustic looking picture of the well still in use at this inter-generational home. It is one of those instances where technology aids and abets cultural consumption. In this case, it is a DIY heritage walk done via smartphone and google maps. On a whistle-top tour with time for only bite-sized history lessons, Panjim 175 is a cool travel accessory for a city walkabout.
Panjim formally became the capital of Portuguese India on March 22, 1843, when the power centre shifted from Old Goa. To commemorate 175 years of the heritage city that is Nova Goa or Panaji, or more popularly Panjim, the Serendipity Arts Festival this year commissioned a special project called Panjim 175, complete with augmented reality exhibits, video installations and paintings on the city's cultural heritage. It also brought out an eponymously titled app to offer a guided tour of the city. The app is curated by Goa-based writer and city chronicler Vivek Menezes (who also curates The Goa Arts and Literature Festival) with a team of designers and artists.
"There aren't any apps quite like this anywhere. Certainly not in India. You have such apps for European cities, but nothing like it in India," says Menezes who wants to eventually create a three dimensional mapping of the city in Panjim 175, with information on 200 sites on Panjim alone.
Self-guided tours in a new city can bring you that much close to being a flâneur. We really want to be aimless walkers and keen observers. We actually want to just keep walking and watching. And if there's one place where you can dress the part of that mythical stylish stroller from French literary culture, it is in Goa's chic, pocket-sized capital Panjim. The city's Azulejos, ubiquitous Islamic-Iberian tiles, palm-fringed Indo-Portuguese homes, riverside promenades, an array of delightful local liqueurs, quaint cafes, churches and garrulous marketplaces, all require slow-cooked inspection and scrutiny. Add to this heady concoction an easy, slumberous vibe with oodles of tropical sunshine and a smorgasbord of historical nooks. But what if your languid exploration of the city were to be aided by a Heritage App? How can technology change our ambulatory experience of a city? "I am a curator and I am very interested in how people interact with art. The vast majority of people visiting major museums like The Louvre or The Met find their experience greatly improved if they have their own access to information about artists and museums," says Menezes. "And Panjim is like a living museum. It is actually a very exciting way forward." Menezes is quick to add that the app might be for recommended walks, but it still works for new age flâneurs addicted to smartphones. "You can see nine different things on nine different days. There is no rush. It doesn't work like a game," he says.
Panjim 175 app has audio guides and capsule texts with Menezes' voice narrating the history of 8 key sites for now, beginning with the Quartel, one of the oldest buildings in Panjim, known for its striking murals depicting the voyage of Vasco da Gama from Portugal to India. The 'Highlights' section will give you the most definitive list of cafes to visit, apart from leads for clubs, churches and other cultural hotspots. But what really arrests your attention in the app are the lush paintings and multimedia stories beautifully put together in collaboration with Quicksand Design Studio. A personal favourite is the story of Abbe Faria. After having zipped past this curious statue of the Catholic priest—who is a bearded man casting a spell on a stunned lady—next to the old secretariat, only a graphic novella like treatment in the app could offer that joy of discovery—the story of Abbe Faria, "the forgotten father of modern hypnosis" told in black and white rectangles of cutting-edge art.
Faria was the first one to proffer that hypnosis is born in the subject's mind by the "power of suggestion" unlike the animal magnetism theory of the "mesmerizer". Faria was born in Candolim in 1756 and moved to Lisbon when he was 15 for theological studies. Once, while delivering a sermon in the royal palace of Lisbon, Faria froze out of stage fright. His father quietly murmured in Konkani from a distance while seated in the audience, "They are all vegetables...chop the vegetables," and Faria bounced back from his state of blackout. Apparently, this incident birthed Faria's exploration in the power of suggestion.
Next time you are in the sunshine state, let Panjim 175 be your guide to explore the city anew.
