In June this year, Joseph C Dias, put up a Facebook page called JoDi’s Art, to lure his 18 and 16-and-a-half-year-old sons to discover his childhood on a social networking site. “It has been to difficult to tell them about my birth place,” recalls Dias who has been based in Dubai for the last 25 years. Capturing his village, Utorda and its characteristic features that define a pre-modern Goa, Dias started illustrating various ways of life that precede the oncoming of electricity.

THE ‘GULFIE’ ARRIVES: Goa’s diaspora plays a big, but not adequately recognised role in the economic and social life of the region. Diaspora communities from Goa are settled in diverse pockets of the globe. pic courtesy/Joseph C Dias & Goa,1556

In his quest to inform the younger generation as well as the average tourist, JoDi’s Art (Jo is for Joseph and Di for Dias) was conceived. “I felt that as kids today are drawn towards visuals, the infographics will be attractive for them,” shares the 48-year-old artist.