Its Wonderful ! Now www.amchenbarkur.com shines like anything. Now the real way to wish, we Barkurians have to do is by visiting and browsing this site and by sending articles, wishes, news etc etc. Whatever we have to say is to be said in this site. This is real wish coming from the hearts of the people of Barkur visiting this site. So you can double your effort on this site. All the best , Almighty  God , Son & Holy Spirit bless this site.

Habbu, Barkur. habbubarkur@yahoo.com 21.08.2002.  

Wish both training Camps scheduled on 25th of August - Arivu - to be organised
by Rotary of Barkur, and Leadership / public speaking siminar by the Expressions, all success.
On behalf of AYA Nagermutt,
Secretary. ayabarkur@indiatimes.com

Dear Barkur.com team (& Archibald in particular),

Thank you for airing your opinion and inviting Barkurians to join the Nagarika Vedike, to help in improving  the Barkur Railway Station, etc. I would be glad to do whatever I can, but please give me some clue as to how I and many others from Mumbai can participate in this Vedike.

Diana Fernandes, Mumbai 21.08.2002.

Development of Barkur Railway station.

I have few suggestions and utilization for development of our own

Barkur Railway station.

1.Get Rid of Malayalam speaking railway staff: As our own local youth are unemployed, it is not proper to appoint  non-speaking kanndiagas from out side the state.  The railway staff has got the problem of communication with the passenger in general and local people in particular. They talk half Malayalam, half Kannada. …Sometime  broken English. When they finish the train may pass…. from the station!

2.Transport: Basic facilities such as transport required to and from Barkur bus stop to Railway station regularly.

3.Development of Railway station Road: Road from Barkur bus stop to Railway station is too narrow and full of  potholes. Need to repair and widen it urgently. As Inter-state trains are going to stop there is a good business  opportunity exist in surrounding areas. Those who are seriously interested  they can start shopping centers, retails-shops, telephone booth and more  scope for development of real estate.

J. Manoj Sequeira. (Barkur) Johannesburg. S. Africa. 21.08.2002.

 FOR THE KIND ATTENTION OF SOCIAL ORGANISATIONS

On 31^st of July 2002, there appeared a beautiful report on Barkur Railway Station in the Kannada daily Udayavani written by Mr. Rama Bhat, with two photographs by Vishwas.

Mr. Dharmaraja Shetty a businessman of repute, with other like-minded people of Barkur and Brahmmavar under a platform called Nagarika Vedike organized a meeting of Konkan Railway Authorities and local people, on 20^th July 2002 to find ways and means to improve the amenities to the train travelers in the background of Matsya-gandha, Mumbai bound train halting here.

With due respects to the opinions tabled here in this Website by Mrs. Diana Fernandes Mr. G.S.Lewis, Mr.Manoj Sequeira, M.M.Alvares etc. it is anticipation of Amchen Barkur Web-site that among others, the Rotary, Lions, SPA - Mumbai, ICYM, Catholic Sabha, Billawara Sangha, Yuvaka Mandala etc too to join hands with this Vedike to co-operate whatever way possible.

For the information of others, interested in this proposal, hereunder give a glimpse of various aspects of 'master plan' chalked out to improve the surrounding, facilities to travelers at the Station:

Improvements to the existing platform to give protection from sun and rain.

Construction of quality bathrooms, toilets and waiting rooms.

Tea, Coffee, fast food stalls with Newspaper stand.

Outlets to exhibit special agro-products like fruits, cashew nuts etc.

To provide parking facilities for cars, auto rickshaws and arrangements to buses to give stop during train arrival / departure time.

Encouraging local youth and others to start public telephone, fax, and e-mail facilities.

Beautiful flower garden in the vicinity of the Station

To start a RAILOTEL to accommodate travelers and pilgrims consisting 25 - 30 rooms.

Railroad co-ordination, by repair / addition / improvements in the existing road network.

Please look into this and come out with constructive suggestions and support the Vedike in their yeomen service.

P.Archibald Furtado, Muscat,20 August 2002.

Dear Friends,

Too many good things at a time....! in a new look site..!!

New personality, fresh memories, lot of news from Barkur, very interesting Masala items and of course a totally new concept in Archie's corner'. Normally I ignore long writings, but the feedback of many of you and specially Dr.Derrick and Mr Lewis, motivated me to go through the article once again and it reminded me of one popular saying in Kannada, "Beleyuva pairu Molakeyalli" -  Proud sons of Barkur, Keep it up..!!

Philiph Richard ,philiphpass@hotmail.com,19/08/2002

Excellent work!  Now your site looks like a bride after wearing sado, flowers, gold, etc., etc.  Keep up your good work Kishoo, God will bless you abundantly for your service to your community.

Austin Prabhu, Ph.D., USA, kalasampath@aol.com ,17/08/2002

Dear Kishoo and the Team,

Congratulations on presenting the 'New Look' Barkur.com on August 15,2002 as promised earlier. What we need most is commitment and dedication like this, to 'keep one's word’. Excellent job. Well done. It will be a pleasure to browse through Barkur.com. Please include information as to how to get to Barkur (road, railway etc).  Also Congratulations go out to Russell.E. Quadros on his excellent all round achievement and wish him best of luck with NDA-Air Force Wing.  May he make you all prouder.

MDMELLO(Toronto) ,Mdmello@rci.rogers.com, 17/08/2002

Dear G.S. Lewis, Your question ‘whether all the Christians (in our area) were of Goan origin.’ I have a little thought on this, which needs discussion.  It was a common knowledge or generally accepted belief that the Portuguese missionaries gladly shared their last names when they converted Indians, especially in Goa or Kerala.  Similarly, British or French missionaries gave their last names.  To think of it, 'Lewis' is a very common British last name.  This tends to imply that not all catholics in our (Kundapoor to Mangalore) region were of Goan origin.  No,I do not have any references to validate this observation.  I knew a 'Fernandes' from ernakualm, who, I thought was of Goan origin, until he clarified that Portuguese missionaries were in Kerala, and in Philippines as well, spreading their last names!

James Fernandes; USA, Jimtoxic@aol.com 17/08/2002

Impressive new look

The new home page of ‘barkur.com’ is very much impressive and attractive, inviting people of all walks of life concerning Barkur , who want to read and  write about Barkur and about people of Barkur and to express their views and opinions. A lot of hard work put in by the host Mr. Kishore Gonsalves and his team, to look this website as professional, is very much visible. While I congratulate the whole team, I call upon the writers in this website to be encouraged by the fact that, people are watching you, reading your articles and appreciating by visiting the site again and again daily, although the written response is poor. Hundreds of people are visiting the site everyday and the number is increasing , as told by the host. Keep the good work going. Welcome to Naveen’s new column. ‘Archi’s Corner’ has become the Center. Nice to  see Shri B. Seetaram Shetty as the ‘Personality of the Month’,  a long awaited change in the column, to confirm there are enough number of great personalities of / in Barkur, to write about them are a few though. ‘Fotogallery’ is beautiful as much as Barkur is and as described in ‘About Barkur”. ‘Down the memory lane’ really drives us back to our good olden days in Barkur. I hope there will be a lot of mixing and grinding in ‘Barkur Masala’. As a whole ‘barkur.com’ is wonderful site for Barkurians and its admirers. Keep it up.

John Gonsalves.,Muscat  17/08/2002     

My memories about a forum called AYA 

It gives an immense pleasure and pride to say few positive things about AYA that took origin in 1980 and was soon a trendsetter for all the youths and inhabitants of Pandeshwar and Nagarmutt. It was the citadel and edifice on which we built our career in some way. It was the exemplary courage, confidence and self-belief that was evident in some of the elders and the youths of that time has culminated an organisation called Adarsh Youth Organisation. The objectives and goals set by the elders and office bearers were clear and honest. It was an honest effort by the right-minded people to bring all people together a to increase the scope in nurturing their hidden talents. It had that accommodative, participating culture. Full marks who had the aura, premonition and vision that one day AYA will grow as pathfinder of our you Each one played their part to perfection and soon become one of the best and only offshoot of CYM Barkur.

I shall share few good things about Adarsh Youth Association, as I was office bearer and a founder member of this association. The support given by the dynamic Mr Baptist D’souza, our then Gurkar, P and T staff Mr: Jerome Fernandez and teacher Miss Lany Cornelio is immense and their relentless efforts made this association possible and not to forget the support given by Fr Patrick Rodrigues, then assistant parish priest of Barkur parish. I still remember how the idea of fund raising came up and we succeeded in raising modest amount by our standards. The novel idea of entertaining the varodo people by taking the scarecrow of grandpa or Aba and then playing a skit and wailing over his body and then asking help for the ailing grandpa and collecting the funds is still etched in my memory. The collection of wonderful trendy fancy dresses from Mr Archibald’s house and his parent’s support for the event is memorable. 

 Each one was gifted actor in that bunch of youth. I still remember the first inaugural function of this AYA that was held in the night. Many of our elders were against the idea of sending the girls or daughter to CYM Barkur for two reasons. It was very far from Nagarmutt to attend meeting at church and once dark covers the horizon it was not safe for the girls to come back. That was the belief our elders had that time. In this my parents were no exception and my sister and others joined AYA but joining CYM was not feasible. It was thought initially that we are starting this associatation as a competitive or parallel organisation. Our intention was to help our youths and bring out the talents in our youth. So it complimented CYM Barkur or supplemented their needs. Later people respected us as we did lots of social work and worked for the welfare of the village with one motive and objective that is to improve our Nagarmuutt/Pandeshwar. So soon we won the hearts of Barkur parish people and people no longer viewed with cynical or sceptical mind.

The results of this are there for every one to see. We do boast maximum number of people who spread all over the globe in having most responsible jobs. We have highest number of staff nurses, engineers, accountants, stenographers, Bank clerical jobs, computer experts and doctors. Though individuals played their part and worked hard for their career progression, this associatation has helped them a lot. I think we do owe a lot to Adarsh Youth Associatation for guiding us initially and helping us to take those early significant steps. I am very proud that this organisation is still alive and kicking. I could see good news items are coming in barkur.com WebPages through secretary of AYA. He or she is contributing and keeping us up to date with the news about Barkur. It reminds me the words of General Macarthur who said” great generals will not die but they fade away”. I had the notion that AYA is not functioning as actively as it was during my time. But I was proved wrong.

I do believe in people saying that knowledge is there not just to gain but also to share between others. I am sure the AYA is doing more social work and contributing more to the welfare of the Barkur people. I do appreciate what they are doing now and I hope they will show the zeal and enthusiasm to do more. Again it is a privilege to have known and worked with friends like Mr Archibald Furtado Mr John Gonsalves, Mr Joseph Fernandes, Late Mr Norman Furtado, our Webmaster Mr Kishoo, Mr Mark Gonsalves, Mrs Veera Furtado and many more of my junior friends. I hope all of them are prospering and flourishing well in their career. I do wish this AYA very best and assure my support in whatever capacity to the best of my ability.

With best wishes from,

Dr Derick D’souza, UK, 17/08/2002