The balcony door is where mosquitoes get into a Curti flat, because that is the opening a family leaves wide in the evening to let the day's heat out. A sliding net on a track of its own, running beside the glass panels, lets the door stay open with the lights on. The aluminium sliding windows in these buildings accept a matching net panel in the same way, so bedrooms can be screened too. In the monsoon, inland Goa brings moths, beetles and flying ants along with the mosquitoes, and a fine mesh stops the small ones. Mesh also gathers highway dust, so choose frames that lift out for a wash.
- Balcony doors: a sliding net panel on a separate track, kept closed from dusk while the glass stays open.
- Bedroom windows: fine fibreglass mesh in an aluminium frame matched to the window colour, lifted out and rinsed when dust builds up.
- Narrow balconies with a swing door: a pleated net that folds to one side and takes no room from the balcony itself.
Curti adjoins Ponda on the highway towards Old Goa and Panjim. Once a separate village, it is now the fastest-growing residential part of the Ponda area, with apartment complexes, housing societies and shops along the bypass.
Most Curti homes are flats bought by young families in the last fifteen years or so. They have modern aluminium sliding windows and a balcony, and are furnished step by step as budgets allow.
Curti is inland and warm. New buildings stand in the open with little shade, so upper-floor flats take strong sun, and the highway brings dust and noise.