Heta Pandit

Heta Pandit's first “real job” was with famed ethologist Dr Jane Goodall on a chimpanzee research station in Tanzania, East Africa. On her return to India in 1981, Heta volunteered with the Bombay Environmental Action Group and initiated several heritage preservation projects through the Indian Heritage Society, Bombay Chapter. Traumatized by the riots in 1993 in her beloved Bombay, she left the city for Munnar at first and then Goa putting all her energies into the preservation of Goan houses. She has written 11 books on Goan heritage - Houses of Goa; Hidden Hands –Master Builders of Goa; Dust & Other Short Stories from Goa; Walking in Goa; Walking in Old Goa and Walking with Angels; There’s More to Life Than a House in Goa; Grinding Stories: Songs from Goa; Grinding Stories Retold, and Stories from Goan Houses. Heta is a Homi Bhabha Fellow and a founder member of the Goa Heritage Action Group. She is currently working on a book titled Objects and Memories from Goa. She lives in Saligão, Goa, with her dogs, Goru and Potyo.