Today 23 May 2026 evening at 5.30 pm marked death of my friend Prabhakar Padekar from Cacra village near Goa University.
Prabhakar always wore smile on his face every time I met him from April 1996. He served as the President of Cacra Nagrik Vikas Samiti (CNVS) and successfully led the campaign to defend his village from being buried under thousands of tons of Cement to construct off shore stockyard and Berth by mining company from Goa - Fomentos under police cover during Pratapsingh Rane rule.
After this successful chasing away of corporate invasion of the village Prabhakar worked at Goa DESC at Mapusa for few years in late 1990s.
Prabhakar moved out of Goa to aquire qualifications as Physical Education teacher and was employed in school at Sattari till his death.
It was Prabhakar who convinced me to involve with fishers of his village on Zuari river Bank in 2015.
Prabhakar visited me with team of fishers to Vanxim many times after death of my wife Maggie in 2021 to console me.
Prabhakar has wife and children after him.
And for us he has left glipmse of his deep thoughts in his paper :
https://mandgoa.blogspot.com/2008/02/turmoil-and-struggle-of-village.html?m=1
Prabhakar smiled everytime he met me. It's long struggle that we got to continue and he taught me with smile struggle is joy.
His role though invisible his love for land was deep. He was Gawda, an indigenous Tribe in Goa.
Good bye my friend. Good bye Prabhakar. You left young yet with a smile.
Your death day Prabhakar is on birthday of late Fr. Bismarque Dias. I pay tribute to both of you for all that you'll stood for in your own ways to defend homeland.
Sebastian Rodrigues
