Serendipity Arts Festival 2025

Gerard da Cunha is an Architect by training and practiced for 40 years in the field of sustainable Architecture. His projects include Residences, Public buildings, Townships and the Restoration of Forts.  He is also the curator of the Museum Houses of Goa, which interprets the development of Indo Portuguese home and displays its splendor. It is located in Salvador do Mundo in Goa.  He is also the curator of the Mario Gallery which was set up to preserve the legacy of Mario Miranda. The Gallery has an archive of 13,000 drawings done by Mario during his lifetime. He has published 10 books on the work of Mario Miranda and also curates and designs all the merchandise sold at the Mario Gallery.

Sanket Lawande, based in Goa, is a caricature illustrator. His collection includes caricatures of various public figures, including celebrities, politicians, writers, and models. One of his recent works features Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. He has also designed and illustrated several children’s storybooks and novels and teaches art at the Government High School in Morlem, Sattari.

Deepti Megh (she/her) is a queer visual storyteller, comic artist and Animation Filmmaker based in Goa. She is one of the co-founders of Paus, a Goa-based Visual Storytelling studio.An alumni of the National Institute of Design, she has experience in research-informed storytelling (often with an impact focus), animation film making, and nonfiction comics. Her work ranges across themes like environment and conservation, mental health, gender and sexuality. She likes drawing and writing about her feelings, which often translate into journal entries and autobiographical comics. She has also been part of the art team at the Amche Mollem Campaign. 

Vivek Menezes is a widely published writer and photographer, the co-founder and co-curator of the acclaimed Goa Arts + Literature Festival, founding editor of The Peacock daily newspaper at the International Film Festival of India, columnist for the 123-year-old O Heraldo newspaper, and a frequent contributor to other leading periodicals. He was born in Bombay, attended high school in New York, and holds degrees from Wesleyan University and the London School of Economics. As three-time curator at the Serendipity Arts Festival, he was responsible for the large-scale group exhibitions Konkani Surrealism (2017), Panjim 175 (2018) and Mundo Goa (2019). He lives in Panjim with his wife and three sons, very close to where the Mandovi river merges with the Arabian Sea at Miramar beach. Vivek is currently working on the definitive cultural history of Goa, represented by A Suitable Agency.

Amruta Patil, writer and painter, is India's first female graphic novelist. She is the author of the queer cult classic 'Kari' (HarperCollins 2008), Mahabharata-based 'Adi Parva: Churning of the Ocean' (2012) and 'Sauptik: Blood and Flowers' (2016), and the Vedic/ecofeminist parable 'Aranyaka' (2019). Patil was artist in residence at La Maison des Auteurs (Angoulême, France) for four years, and has been the recipient of the CNL grant for creative writing. In 2017, she received a Nari Shakti Puraskar from the President of India for “unusual work that breaks boundaries” in art and literature. She is currently working on her fifth book, The Rihlah, an alternate ethnography featuring art, eros chromatics, and escape artists. She is also the curator of a forthcoming exhibition on Indian Visual Storytelling traditions with Museum of Art and Photography (Bangalore) and International Museum of Comics (Angoulême, France).

Dr. Tanya Abraham is a writer and art curator based in Kochi. She is the founder of the award-winning non-profit The Art Outreach Society (TAOS), which promotes art and culture through community-based initiatives. She also serves as a Senior Fellow for the Creative Sector with the Kerala Start-Up Mission, where she plays a key role in shaping the state’s creative and cultural economy. One of her recent projects focuses on collecting and documenting traditional recipes and food stories from across Kerala, exploring the intersection of food, memory, and cultural heritage. A prominent voice in Kerala’s creative landscape, Dr. Abraham often uses food as a curatorial medium for storytelling and social engagement. Her notable works have been featured at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. She is the author of Eating with History, a book that delves into how Kerala’s cuisine has been shaped by its rich legacy of the ancient spice trade.

Odette Mascarenhas Her focus on the local cuisine earned her the distinction of becoming an award-winning food chronicler . Her books through the Gourmand cookbook awards won-the ‘Special Jury award’ (Paris 2008) for Masci the Man behind the Legend and ‘Best in Historical recipes’ (Yangtai 2015) for The Culinary Heritage of Goa. She has Curated events through the Goa Culinary Club (established 2013).and was ‘culinary arts curator’ at the Serendipity Arts festival (2015 to 2017) and again in 2025. The food critic of Goa with the Times of India and with NDTV- Grand Jury for the national food awards 2025. She steers the Goa Culinary Club as President bringing forgotten’ Goan food preparations to the fore. She has won awards like Goa’s Woman of the decade Achiever award (the World Economic Forum) Unsung Entrepreneur by CNBC TV 18 and Lufthansa.  She has hosted food series on Goa 365. As well as on TLC and Epic showcasing Goan cuisine  Her book The Culinary Odyssey of Goa is a journey of seven years of research documenting the migration of the cuisine through the centuries.

Chef Thomas Zacharias, known as ChefTZac, is one of India’s most influential culinary voices, known for championing regional Indian ingredients, forgotten food traditions, and sustainable food systems. Trained at the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration and the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), he began his career in New York at the Michelin three-starred Le Bernardin under Chef Eric Ripert. In 2014, he set out on a solo food journey across 18 Indian states, documenting local culinary traditions, indigenous ingredients, and home-cooked meals.  This experience shaped his food philosophy and led to his role as Chef Partner at Hunger Inc. where he helped build award-winning restaurants like The Bombay Canteen, O Pedro, and Bombay Sweet Shop. Under his leadership, The Bombay Canteen was named India’s No.1 restaurant by Condé Nast Traveller, and he was recognised as Chef of the Year. In 2022, ChefTZac launched The Locavore—a platform dedicated to transforming India’s food systems through storytelling, community, and impact-led projects. Anchored in the idea of Doing Good Through Food, The Locavore brings together producers, chefs, home cooks, and organisations across India working at the intersection of food, culture, and sustainability. Through initiatives like the Wild Food Project, the Millet Revival Project, and the Local Food Club—a growing grassroots movement of food communities across India—he continues to spotlight indigenous knowledge, food diversity, and ecological resilience. Today, ChefTZac is reimagining the role of a chef—not just as someone who cooks, but as someone who listens, collaborates, and builds pathways toward a more inclusive, connected, and sustainable food future in India.

Asad Lalljee is the Senior Vice President of Essar Group, CEO of Avid Learning—a public programming initiative and creative platform under the Essar Group—and Curator of the Royal Opera House, Mumbai. Before relocating to India, he spent 14 years as one of the ‘Mad Men’ advertising executives on New York's Madison Avenue. Asad has transformed Avid Learning into India’s leading cultural hub through international collaborations and partnerships with the country’s biggest art platforms. Since the restoration of the Royal Opera House, his curatorial programming has re-established its reputation as the city’s cultural crown jewel. He has been a member of the prestigious Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry's Art and Culture Committee since 2018 (now FICCI's Tourism and Culture Committee), co-convening national conferences on the creative economy across Kochi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and New Delhi. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Kala Ghoda Association and the advisory board of the Mumbai Urban Art Festival. Amid the pandemic (April 2Learning to Avid Online, presenting 240 programs in a year. An early adopter of technology trends, he specializes in new media, curating programs around AI and the cyberfuture. Asad holds a B.A. in Economics from St. Xavier's College and an M.A. in Global Marketing Communications from Emerson College, Boston.