Going through the mail on my return to dubai following a three-day sojourn in Goa, I could not find what triggered the posts on the Moraeses. To the best of my knowledge, Dom was not much in touch with Tereza. Dom has written about his family in his book, My son's father. One post said he was from Taleigoa and one said he was from Agacaim, but I think Dom wrote about his first visit to his ancestral village of Santa Cruz. On my visit with a group of six journalists, we visited Mario Miranda's house. I casually talked about Dom and other of his friends such as Behram Contractor and Frank Simoes, all departed. I believe Frank lived in Mafatlal Park at Breach Candy when he was editor of Times of India. Here, Dom and his third wife (?), the beautiful Leela Naidu were neighbours and childhood friends. Naidu had married into the Oberio family, but she and husband were later divorced. On this Goa trip, I went via Colombo, as it was organized by Srilankan Airlines, who are starting a Colombo-Goa route towards the end of October. Flights from Europe and Dubai will bring people to Colombo for the new Goa destination. I mentioned to one of the Srilankan media officials accompanying the group that one of India's famous journalists, Frank Moraes, was editor of Times of Ceylon. I also informed her that Frank's son has a poem called Serendipity, a word which originated in Sri Lanka, which was called Sarandip by Persians. It may be a corruption of the word Sinhaladvipa, which in Sanskrit means, "the island where lions dwell." One can see statues of lions in parks and elsewhere. The Srilankan airlines inflight magazine is called Serendip, a place somewhere in the country. I also know a person in Toronto who is related to the Moraeses. I still have to read Filomena Geese's views on present-day Goa and other stuff. Goa is featured everywhere. The article by Vivek Menezes also appeared in Time Out Dubai, and possibly I have a copy of it. I think Leisue and Travel has a big section on Goa. I didn't buy the magazine in Bangalore during a brief stopover in the city en route Bangalore-Colombo and Colombo-Dubai Saturday early morning. Jet Airways inflight mag, Jetwings, has a piece on Goa. In a short time, the backpack tourists will come in hordes in Goa. Surprisingly, hotels are full even during the off-season. Taj Exotica was full the day we spent a night there. I think even Cidade de Goa, where the group spent two days, was running almost full. Don't know about the Marriott where we had dinner one day. As we were going to our bus, someone pointed out a person to me and said, "He is the owner of the hotel." I said isn't that Shivanand Salgoacar. I stepped ahead and Shivanand came forward to shake hands. I knew him since my sports reporting days in Mumbai when he could come for the Salgoacar games. But like Mario Miranda, I think he remembered my face but not my name. I met Mario after at least 26 years. Someone asked him his age, and he said 96. I think he is 69 though someone said he is in his 80s. I don't think so. His wife Habiba remarked that Mario does not like to tell his age. He gave each one of us an autographed packet of his Goa postcards and also copy of "Goa with Love." He showed two Paris-based female journalists his book, Impressios of Paris, and they were thrilled. Unfortunately, he had just his own personal copy.
Eugene Correia __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
