Alito's Bhashan Informed sources gave me the gist of Alito's speech. Apparantly it is a book with no flaws, a book with which Alito deeply empathized with, and a book that gripped his imagination so much that his tonality (an in-word nowadays thanks to Tarun T and Shoma C ;-) suggests he found as much catharasis in it as Dona Aurora herself
He was the embodiment of *courtesia* and *delicadeza* as he said Dr Couto this and Dr Couto that, instead of being crudely Anglo-Saxon and familiarly addressing her as Aurora, as I suppose many years of friendshiip might have entitled him to do. He pointed out that community and caste boundaries were rapidly changing during the perod, as out-migration became rampant in the stagnant Goan economy of the times. And he also pointed out how Dona Aurora's book depicted families that were making the transition from Portuguese feudalism to the English colonial system, which entailed the disposal of family land in order to get into service occupations in British India and its colonies. Some were able to make the trasition but apparantly there were those like her father Chico who could not, and became prey to lure of the bottle. By and large I got the impression that unlike Goa: A Daughter's Story, which tried to grapple with large historical problems, Filomena's story, goiing by what Alito apparantly said, and from what I heard at the book release, is a conventional biography of the life of an upper-caste Catholic woman striving to make it in a fast changing world - and succeeding. Augusto On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 11:38 PM, augusto pinto <[email protected]> wrote: > The release function of Filomena's Journey was set for 5.30 pm on 4 > December. Since Dona Aurora had sent a personal invite to me, I thought it > would be infra-dig to not be present. > > However I calculated that 5.30 - 6.00 would be chai-pani session and 6 - > 6.30 would be introductions and bhashans by the high and mighty. So if I > reached at 6.15 I would be fine. I calculated wrong. > > The first speaker was apparantly Alito Sequeira who was the one I most > wanted to hear but by the time I arrived Sunil Sethi the television anchor > was holding forth. Then there was a desultory discussion going on between > Sethi, Maria Aurora and Ranjit Hoskote. > > Everything was very hunky dory with each of them asking polite questions > and making genteel observations. > > When the time came for Q & A nobody wanted to volunteer. I actually wanted > to ask Dona Aurora whether her book would be glorifying her Saraswat > forebears like Goa: A Daughter's Story did, and was waiting for the Q & A > to get warmed up a little first. But no one asked anything and so Maria > Aurora abruptly started her vote of thanks. > > The amazing thing about this book release was that it was a tour de force > for Dona Aurora. The whole huge Menezes Braganza auditorium was full. > > The Bamon and Chardo Bhatkars were there; the Saraswats were there in > force; the writers were there; the artists were there; the journalists were > there; anybody who has any pretentions to be anybody was there. Even I was > there. > > You say you weren't there? Bah!! > > I think only Dona Aurora can get an auditorium full like this for a book > release and I raise my *chepem* to her. > > Cheers > Augusto > > P.S. I hope Alito sends me a copy of hiis speech as I requested him, so I > could enlighten you about it. I'll let you know what I think of the book > later when I have a look at it.. > > -- > > > Augusto Pinto > 40, Novo Portugal > Moira, Bardez > Goa, India > E [email protected] > P 0832-2470336 > M 9881126350 > -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal Moira, Bardez Goa, India E [email protected] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
