The bus departed from Panaji bus stand at six a.m. and reached Mangalore the same day at four in the evening.

The bus reached Panaji at 5 p.m. From there I took the local bus to Mapusa.

Since I had no personal means of transport, for me to travel from Bogmallo to Panaji and back twice would be difficult, so I had worn the suit and left home early morning.

To my surprise, Evagrio Jorge, the noted freedom fighter and news reader at All-India Radio in Panaji, was its first editor.

When in Goa, my friend and I went to see AC, as he was popularly known, at the Casa JD Fernandes store in Panaji.

The offer came with a flat in the Sant Inez locality of Panaji and a car.

Mudaliar and me had lunch one day in a Panaji restaurant and he seemed quite distraught.

Once when I was in Goa, he, D'Cunha and I travelled in a car he borrowed from Vohra, as his own car was unavailable, all the way from Panaji to Margao to watch a soccer match.

Planton Faria, who used to run the Diocesan Communication Centre at the Archbishop's House at Altinho in Panaji.

Herald an English daily from Panaji.

And as for our own reporting resources, there was Lionel Messias who slaved all alone in the Panaji office.

Among the free-sheeters published in Goa, Vasco Watch keeps a watchful eye on the happenings in Vasco while the Plus group sheds 'positive light' on Mapusa, Panaji, Margao and Ponda.

Panaji is such a 'happening' place that a weekly free-sheeter could grow comfortably covering the cultural events, exhibitions, sales, educational scene, etc.

My own method was to attempt to blend in with the rhythms of the village in which I lived, Betim, which lies across the river Mandovi, opposite Panaji.

The simple truth is that the "Goan culture" that is so venally peddled aboard the tourist boats that shamelessly and noisily ply the Mandovi off Panaji (how I wish they would cease) is far from easily definable.

For instance, Gomantak's staff strength is higher than Tarun Bharat's, but most of them are concentrated only in Panaji.

The court at Circuit House in Panaji is still there, even if fallen into disuse.

In 1964-65, a suitable surface to play hockey was at a premium, especially in Panaji.

Of particular note was the staging of a football match, featuring a team of women, during the Carnival season, on March 4, 1973, at the Police ground in Panaji, between Eves and Adams.

My first pieces were a series on the socio-environmental impact of iron ore transportation in the village of remote Sanvordem, a problem that is otherwise very seldom noticed in distant Panaji, more so in the world of the English-language press.

Devika Sequeira and Pamela D'Mello had just quit and Julio D'Silva (who, in the ever-so-political world of newspaper politics, was perceived as being close to Rajan Narayan) was brought into Panaji as the Chief Reporter, on shifting Alaric Gomes to Margao.

Special stories of such a nature would usually imply going out of Panaji to the villages.

Pressure of covering routine events prevented me to leave Panaji to chase these stories.

All this resulted into many a Panaji-based reporter turning into mere stenographers, ready for the next round of dictation.