· People no longer use oxen or bulls to plough the fields
· Traditional bull cart is now part of history
· Only one blacksmith left in the village
· Three toddy tappers carrying on against all odds
· Carpenters from the village maintain the rich tradition
· Some carpenter most of them who are based in Demani have adopted modern techniques to remain one step ahead of the game
· Only one family carry on the music legacy of their family, playing at feasts and zatras
Cuncolim which once was an agrarian village is slowly and rapidly losing its character.
It is no longer a village Panchayat but has a Municipality at the centre of self-governing but what has changed for the citizens in terms of facilities is anybody’s guess.
The wheels of progress are moving rapidly but, in the process, it is losing its characters.
In a few years’ time the blacksmith, the toddy tapper of the village will be a thing of the past. The traditional bull cart is now part of history, no one uses it.
Let’s see what are the things which have gone to oblivion with people having given up agriculture in Cuncolim.
The traditional bull cart which was used to ferry the agricultural products including rice to the rice mills has since outlived its purpose.
The bull and oxen were also used to tilling the paddy fields but you cannot witness the same in Cuncolim in the present-day era.
With the rice not produced in the paddy fields most of the rice mills have closed down, two of them in Cuncolim bazar, and two in Sanvorcotto both have stopped rice operations and one is focusing on coconut oil extraction besides flour while the second one in Sanvorcotto is into flour.
If one of the rice mills belonging to Menezes family closed down in Panzorconi, a new one has come in Panzorconi and is the only one which is operating in Cuncolim, I believe.
There was one in Simplear Veroda area but not sure if it is operational.
With the paddy fields cultivation, the coconut tress was well maintained which were growing in and around the paddy fields. But they too have been neglected, as many a place which once has hundreds of coconut trees is bereft of any or only a few of them on the verge of falling any day.
And it was on the coconut tress on which the toddy tappers will go up and down, three times a day, the toddy which went to make a Goan delicacies besides vinegar and also coconut feni.
The old traditional toddy tapper who used to sing some melodious songs while going up and down the tree, which you do not hear it any more.
In Cuncolim toddy tappers are giving up the profession (only three left in the village), besides Milagres Dias there are two kore all based in Voddy Cuncolim.
A little further, there is only one blacksmith left in the village, Guilherme Dias in Comba Paricotto.
The local cobbler Ranjan Borkar is the only one left in the village when there was a dozen of them.
The traditional Christian musicians, who provide music support for both catholic and Hindu festivals, are also getting lesser in number with every passing year.
The people who used to rear and sell pigs meat in the market have become less, there are only one in the village, who kills the pigs elsewhere and sells in the village market. Saude is the lone one left carrying on bravely.
The village butchery selling cow meat, shut down some three decades back, much before the cow slaughter restrictions came into force and the health authorities including Animal Husbandry off
icials were not so much active.
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