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GODS PLUNDERED - II
By Valmiki Faleiro
* A rare Indian coin goes under the hammer of an international auctioneer in
London.
For millions. That coin, at Christie’s (maybe Sotheby’s, but that’s not
important),
originated from Goa. When few here knew the value of antiques, some 30 years
ago.
* Slush money stashed away in foreign banks, lapped off connivance in the tax
evasion
sins of Goa’s biggest business barons, pimps a plump play on India’s, and the
world’s,
stolen antiques bazaar.
* “Straight from Goa: a rare antique statue of St. Ignatius de Loyola, an 18th
century
Indo-Portuguese pieta … of direct Goan provenance, for sale on the Internet.”
Newspaper report by Pushpa Iyengar, Nov-2005.
Read this as you would a fairy-tale. Except that in this tale, the fairy is a
male incarnate,
plundering gods and antiquities for ‘Dhana Prapthi’ (disdainful lucre.)
Once upon a time there was a tiny community of settlers in a Goan ’Aldeia’
(village.)
A community that considered itself superior to all others. A community that
prided itself
on being the most learned, cultured, sensitive, docile, polished,
sophisticated, intelligent
and accomplished of all of Goa’s ‘vangods’ that migrated either from Kashmir or
Bengal,
to a land built around the myth of having been produced from an arrow shot into
the sea
by the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself, no less. Holy land, sanctified
men.
A military conquest ushered in new rulers and a new faith. The community en
masse
embraced Christianity and worshipped the new God with renewed vigour, even if
with
traces of the old. Like colour codes for caste ‘Confrarias.’ God, in mundane
forms – in
wood, ivory, metal and stone (precious or otherwise) – was revered. Idols
evoked more
devotion than precepts did. Statues were sacrosanct. That’s the backdrop.
Towards the ebb of the first quarter of the last century, was born the only
male heir to
a wealthy family of that community. (Wealth was measured by acreage possessed.)
He was destined to carry his illustrious family name to the grave, in more
senses than one.
The family had given Goa, and her Christendom, a lineage of distinguished
clergymen.
The boy was intelligent. One of the few from his peers who went beyond the
portals of
the local Lyceum, to graduate from an university in British India. Unlike his
ancestors,
he was enterprising. Independent of the family acreage, he set up his own
business and
did well for himself. As a shrewd Brahmin, he assisted Goa’s biggest business
crooks
to evade taxes and made a neat pile for himself.
He loved the ways of the world. He demonstrated, live, his stud-like prowess to
an elder
of the community whose spirit was willing but the flesh weak. The old man had a
virtually
limitless bevy of comely rural belles at call. The vice, however, almost cost
the young man
his life. The husband of his buxom secretary choked his tongue out, leading to
hospitalization but, understandably, to no police complaint. In between, our
Don Juan
married into the traditionally richest local family. Wealth by wealth did
strange things.
He was not new to fine china, crystal chandeliers, exquisite furniture, rare
coins,
ivory statues and the like – his family possessed it all. He embellished his
new mansion
with an array of these, sourced from all over, including Mumbai’s infamous
*Chor Bazaar.*
Somewhere down the line, human avarice blurred the line between a legitimate
collector
and an unscrupulous racketeer.
Word spread, including among real-life thieves, of the man’s inclination, among
his other
colourful interests, for antiques and artifacts, including ones stolen from
churches.
Contraband crossed international borders before anyone could bat an eyelid.
The tiny community still regards him as one of its most distinguished sons.
The fairytale ends. Let’s pan to the real.
* Last Monday’s Colva Fama would have been different (see HERALD, 17/Oct/06, Pg
2)
had burglars angling for the Infant Jesus statue, stored in a bulletproof
vault, succeeded
on Nov 1, 2005. Value of statue, gold and jewellery, including a 16th-century
diamond ring: Rs. 1 crore.
* St Anne's Chapel at Marra-Pilerne wasn’t as lucky. A 65 cms.-tall,
200-year-old ivory
statue was among the nine spirited away. Days later, seven statues were gone
from
O.L. of Assumption Chapel, Guirim. Estimated loss: your guess is as good as
mine is.
* In weeks, a major heist of antique statues and artefacts shook St. Joaquim
Chapel,
Borda-Margao. Net worth: priceless!
Some had a bumper 2005. The thieves have struck yet again. May the Festive
Lights
illuminate and move our minds from darkness to light. To all my Hindu and
Muslim readers,
a happy Diwali, and Id Mubarak mid-week. (Concludes.)
(ENDS)
The Valmiki Faleiro weekly column at:
http://www.goanet.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=330
==============================================================================
The above article appeared in the October 22, 2006 edition of the Herald, Goa
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