look at the map from the perspective of land borders and indias smallest state is an insignificant pinprick of territory tucked away on a western coastal extremity of the subcontinent but turn the prospect around to think of the vast oceans as the main location of cultural flow contact and exchanges that they are and you really begin to understand the essential importance of entrepots as the poet ranjit hoskote said earlier this week in panaji that switch in outlook is crucial to understanding goas function over millennia as an important crucible of entanglements exchanges and transfusionshoskote was hosting an outreach programme that is collateral to the exhibition india and the world a history in nine stories at the chhatrapati shivaji maharaj vastu sangrahalaya in mumbai this collaboration between the host institution the british museum in london and the national museum in new delhi brought together hundreds of objects from the main partners as well as 20 smaller museums and private collections across india the museum of christian art in old goa lent its showstopper monstrance in silver and was the host of the panjim event in the shade of the calpataruanother of the evenings speakers delhibased academic jonathan gil harris reiterated hoskotes point that it is important to look at some of the broader questions of identity culture and tradition from the perspective of goa he said that this required an acknowledgement that all culture is actually conversation indeed a function of translation this is one of the main themes of his 2015released book the first firangis remarkable stories of heroes healers charlatans courtesans other foreigners who became indian that book of history is full of examples of transnational characters including garcia da orta the hakeem of bombay and ahmednagar thomas stephens patri guru the kavi of rachol and juliana dias da costa the jagirdar of jogabaiin his individual presentation preceding a panel discussion hoskote spoke about jose custodio abbe de faria the candolimborn priest who achieved significant notoriety in rome and lisbon before intriguing at considerable length in postrevolutionary france in the late 18th century that journey from india to europe is the precise opposite to what was accomplished by thomas stephens in the 16th century gil harris recounted how the oxfordeducated englishman wrote the first printed grammar of any asian language on konkani in 1640 arte da lingoa canarim and later the singular krista purana in a unique mixture of marathi and konkani that is profoundly influenced by both greek classical literature as well as his contemporary the great bhakti poet eknathone of indias leading tabla players the scholarly aneesh pradhan described the trajectory of kesarbai kerkar who was born into a devadasi family in goa in 1892 then shifted to colonial bombay to pursue the study of hindustani music in her teens and eventually became such a celebrated exponent that hers was the only indian voice included on the goldplated voyager golden record compilation of great world music that was sent into space on board