Latest news with #Moni
Time of India
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Prabhu Chambers claimants press N Goa collector to enforce Rs 7.5cr recovery
Panaji: Backed by a definitive order from the Tiswadi mamlatdar, 41 claimants of Prabhu Chambers at Mapusa urged the North Goa collector to swiftly execute the recovery of Rs 7.5 crore from Venkatesh Narayan Prabhu Moni. The plea comes in the wake of a May 20 order that dismissed the respondent's objections and upheld the recovery amount. The dispute, ongoing for months, is being adjudicated under the Goa Land Revenue Code. The decree holders met the collector seeking immediate enforcement of coercive measures, including arrest, if required. In Dec 2024, then collector Sneha Gitte ordered civil imprisonment for Moni, who was jailed for nearly 100 days at Colvale jail. However, following an April 11 directive from the district court at Merces, the collector was asked to reassess whether the default was wilful, with instructions to conduct an impartial inquiry and act accordingly. Responding to the directive, the Tiswadi mamlatdar issued a fresh hearing notice and conducted a new hearing. The mamlatdar concluded that the objections raised by Moni — disputing the recovery amount and denying wilful default — were untenable. The ruling reaffirmed the original recovery figure and cleared the way for enforcement. The claimants allege that Moni repeatedly delayed proceedings by casting aspersions on officials and questioning established claims. During their recent meeting with the collector, the delegation received an assurance that lawful action would be initiated without further delay. For the long-waiting decree holders, this assurance signals a possible end to the impasse over the recovery of dues.
Perth Now
22-05-2025
- Perth Now
Young father swept out to sea in front of wife and children
A beloved father and husband who has not been seen since he was swept off rocks in front of his desperate family has been remembered as a caring and dedicated person. Monitake 'Moni' Karakaua visited Salmon Holes, a popular but notorious fishing spot near Albany in Western Australia's Great Southern, with his wife, two children and friends on Anzac Day. Their day out turned to tragedy when the 29-year-old disappeared into the surf after losing his footing and falling from the rocks about 1.30pm. His life jacket reportedly failed to inflate and friends could not reach him with buoys. Despite an extensive, multi-day search the Fijian national has not been found. 'I had tried to tell him to come back (off the rocks) to the shore,' Moni's wife Tongauea told 'I witnessed everything. It's just devastating. 'I was helpless. My heart breaks.' Tragically, the incident came just weeks after the couple had celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. Tongauea said she 'felt something was wrong' on the day, given the 'sea was rough' and the smooth granite rocks slant down towards to the water. But her husband was 'very calm' and was happy to stay with his friends, she said. Monitake Karakaua, pictured with his family during celebrations to mark his 10th wedding anniversary with wife Tongauea. Credit: Tongauea Monitake Karakaua and his wife Tongauea. Credit: Tongauea Tongauea said her husband was a 'workaholic', a dedicated man of faith, and the ultimate family figure for her and their children, six-year-old Arima and eight-year-old Sarah. 'I'm so blessed to have him as a husband and their father,' she told 'No one can replace him — he's an incredible person. 'It's really hard (to not have him with me).' The grieving mother only moved to Australia with her children from Fiji about seven months ago. Moni had come before them, establishing himself in Katanning, 277km southeast of Perth, where he had worked at sheep meat processor WAMMCO. Tongauea said her husband was keen for the family to make the move to Australia for a better life, and was loving life in his new home. Given their visa situation, the family will now have to make another major shift and return to Fiji. 'She faces an uncertain future and the overwhelming responsibility of raising their children alone,' family friend Sharon Muir said in a GoFundMe set up to support her. 'They are now facing the difficult task of leaving Australia and returning to Fiji where they hope to find emotional support, extended family, and a chance to rebuild their lives.' Tongauea said she had been overwhelmed by the support shown to her and her children by those in Albany immediately after her husband went missing, and her community in Katanning in the weeks since. Authorities say conditions at Salmon Holes can turn quickly and are dangerous. Credit: Parks and Wildlife Service WA / Facebook Salmon Holes is described as a 'beautiful but treacherous beach'. Credit: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions More than a dozen people have died at Salmon Holes after being washed off rocks at the 'beautiful but treacherous beach' in the past 40 years. Life jackets were made mandatory at the rock fishing hotspot in 2019, following a trial to improve safety. Albany resident Paul Smetham called for the rocks to be closed off over Easter, which coincides with the annual salmon run. He said many visiting tourists are unaware of the dangers. 'We've got steep, smooth granite rocks that slope into the ocean, they get really wet and really slippery,' he told the ABC last month. 'We also get really big swells there. Myself and other locals won't go out there if it's over 2m.' Parks authorities had issued a warning just weeks before Moni fell into the water. 'Don't risk it. The salmon run has started along the south coast, drawing keen fishers to popular places like Salmon Holes in Albany,' WA's Parks and Wildlife Service posted on April 5. 'Rock fishing is extremely dangerous and people have lost their lives from slipping or being washed into the ocean by large waves, gusty winds and slippery surfaces. 'Even calm days can quickly turn. 'Use the anchor points installed at Salmon Holes and wear a lifejacket, or better still, fish from the beach and keep the sand between your toes.'
7NEWS
22-05-2025
- 7NEWS
Father swept out to sea at Salmon Holes in Albany remembered as beloved family figure
A beloved father and husband who has not been seen since he was swept off rocks in front of his desperate family has been remembered as a caring and dedicated person. Monitake 'Moni' Karakaua visited Salmon Holes, a popular but notorious fishing spot near Albany in Western Australia 's Great Southern, with his wife, two children and friends on Anzac Day. Their day out turned to tragedy when the 29-year-old disappeared into the surf after losing his footing and falling from the rocks about 1.30pm. His life jacket reportedly failed to inflate and friends could not reach him with buoys. Despite an extensive, multi-day search the Fijian national has not been found. 'I had tried to tell him to come back to the shore,' Moni's wife Tongauea told 'I witnessed everything. It's just devastating. 'I was helpless. My heart breaks.' Tragically, the incident came just weeks after the couple had celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. Tongauea said she 'felt something was wrong' on the day, given the 'sea was rough' and the smooth granite rocks slant down towards to the water. But her husband was 'very calm' and was happy to stay with his friends, she said. Tongauea said her husband was a 'workaholic', a dedicated man of faith, and the ultimate family figure for her and their children, six-year-old Arima and eight-year-old Sarah. 'I'm so blessed to have him as a husband and their father,' she told 'No one can replace him — he's an incredible person. 'It's really hard (to not have him with me).' The grieving mother only moved to Australia with her children from Fiji about seven months ago. Moni had come before them, establishing himself in Katanning, 277km southeast of Perth, where he had worked at sheep meat processor WAMMCO. Tongauea said her husband was keen for the family to make the move to Australia for a better life, and was loving life in his new home. Given their visa situation, the family will now have to make another major shift and return to Fiji. 'She faces an uncertain future and the overwhelming responsibility of raising their children alone,' family friend Sharon Muir said in a GoFundMe set up to support her. 'They are now facing the difficult task of leaving Australia and returning to Fiji where they hope to find emotional support, extended family, and a chance to rebuild their lives.' Tongauea said she had been overwhelmed by the support shown to her and her children by those in Albany immediately after her husband went missing, and her community in Katanning in the weeks since. More than a dozen people have died at Salmon Holes after being washed off rocks at the 'beautiful but treacherous beach' in the past 40 years. Life jackets were made mandatory at the rock fishing hotspot in 2019, following a trial to improve safety. Albany resident Paul Smetham called for the rocks to be closed off over Easter, which coincides with the annual salmon run. He said many visiting tourists are unaware of the dangers. 'We've got steep, smooth granite rocks that slope into the ocean, they get really wet and really slippery,' he told the ABC last month. 'We also get really big swells there. Myself and other locals won't go out there if it's over 2m.' Parks authorities had issued a warning just weeks before Moni fell into the water. 'Don't risk it. The salmon run has started along the south coast, drawing keen fishers to popular places like Salmon Holes in Albany,' WA's Parks and Wildlife Service posted on April 5. 'Rock fishing is extremely dangerous and people have lost their lives from slipping or being washed into the ocean by large waves, gusty winds and slippery surfaces. 'Even calm days can quickly turn. 'Use the anchor points installed at Salmon Holes and wear a lifejacket, or better still, fish from the beach and keep the sand between your toes.'
Scroll.in
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Sunday book pick: The rootless marriage of an Englishman and a Bengali woman in ‘Memories of Rain'
'He had come to terms with the bitter truth that the unadulterated passion he had felt for her under tropical skikes was not to last forever, that a deep intellectual void was eating away at his wonder, his enchantment.' Sunetra Gupta's 1992 novella, Memories of Rain, has been recently republished by Westland and Ashoka University's Centre for the Creative and the Critical. The new edition, with a smart green jacket, resurrects the novella for a new generation of readers. Gupta is a teacher, doctor, and the author of six novels. Memories of Rain was her debut. Rudyard Kipling once said, 'East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.' The quote fits any number of situations, including the natural disharmony between the two halves of the globe. So, what happens when this disharmony seeps into personal relationships and marriages? Are such marriages destined to doom? East is East, West is West Set in London and Calcutta, Memories of Rain is a cerebral novella that ponders the East–West divide and how it plays out in marriages. How does the partner from a more conservative background adapt to a culture that has a more liberal attitude towards marriage? Furthermore, with the colonial past not too far behind, what does the West really think of the East? In Gupta's novella, Moni, a Bengali woman from Calcutta, marries Anthony, a white Englishman, after a brief relationship during his visit to the city. Moni and Anthony's relationship blooms in the dark – they sit next to each other in darkened movie halls, they sneak a kiss during a Diwali night, and Anthony's overnight stays with Moni's brother at their home allow the young couple to be in proximity to each other without transgressing the accepted boundaries of pre-marital romance. When Moni is sure that Anthony has feelings for her, it is a matter of as much pride as it is of joy. And when Anthony proposes marriage, without giving it much thought, Moni accepts it as a ticket out of Calcutta – a city she believes is unsuitable for her aspirations and one she is desperate to flee. To her mind, Anthony has 'rescued' her from 'a land where the rain poured from the skies not to purify the earth, but to spite it.' Her family is well-to-do, perhaps even better off than Anthony's, but Moni is guided by her singular desire to leave. A student of English literature, she has daydreamed about the English way of life to such an extent that everything else pales in comparison. Her parents accept her decision without much protest but they do not attempt to hide their grief about losing their only daughter. Her brother outrightly expresses his displeasure and teases and taunts her about the relationship. As the couple prepare to depart for England, they promise to be back every year but in the ten years that they have been married, Moni has gone back only once. Alone. Out of West, back to East Life in England, a 'demi-paradise', starts quite normally at first, with Moni taking up an administration job at the local library, squashing every expectation that her family and teachers had from her, a bright student at one of Calcutta's most prestigious universities. Severing ties with her friends and almost abandoning her family would perhaps not seem so foolish if she were in a happy marriage. However, away from the tropical heat and the restless nights of Calcutta, Anthony pretty quickly realises that the chasm between the two – brought about by the differences in culture, history, and language – is impossible to bridge. Anthony fulfils both the coloniser's guilt and tendency – he feels compelled to 'rescue' her but when he realises that she's not a solitary entity, that she is inextricably bound to her own culture, she becomes a burden. The 'intoxication' wears off and he feels indifferent towards his wife, and begins a series of affairs that culminate in him falling in love with Anna. English and blonde, she 'leads him back to the world to which he belonged.' Worse still, he forces the orbits of the two women to merge by bringing Anna into their home and acquainting their daughter with her. At first, Moni tolerates the strange form her marriage has taken but sinks into a 'tender sorrow' which is exacerbated with feelings of failure. She had left Calcutta triumphantly, smug in her belief that she was too good for it, but when grief and loneliness become her only companions in a cold foreign country, she longs for the warmth of home and its familiar chaos. It is Calcutta, the city of her birth, the one she grew up in and despised, that might offer her a new lease of life. Language is the most striking element in Memories of Rain. Written in the stream-of-consciousness narrative, Gupta's voice is precise and musical. The tension of marriage and the unhappiness that colours Moni's days make the reader struggle for breath. This, in turn, speaks plainly of the rootlessness of such marriages – those that ignore history, and dismiss its brutal impact on personal relationships. The unwillingness to assimilate, to respect a different way of life, to acknowledge the Other (often by the half that considers itself superior) exposes a hollow 'love'– which at times is nothing but an ill-conceived arrangement spurred by the convenience of the moment. And yet, Moni's despair is buoyed by Tagore's moving compositions that she sings – despite the alienation and cruelty inflicted on her, beauty and hope have not altogether abandoned her.
SBS Australia
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- SBS Australia
TALANOA with the cast of 'Moni'
The film is funded by Screen Australia and SBS under the program to promote storytelling via film to give a voice to communities like Samoans in Australia. The cast of 'Moni' visited our studios and the following is the first part of an interview we had with them where they gave us a glimpse of the process that got them together and the experience they gained from making their film. 'Moni' was written and directed by Taofia Pelesasa, of Samoan/Niuean heritage, and the cast are mostly of Samoan and Tongan heritage. 'Moni' will be shown on SBS TV in July this year.
