NOSTALGIA...contd. O HERALDO, June 22, 2014
http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/Details.aspx?id=16626&boxid=155454984&uid=&dat=6/22/2014
https://dub125.mail.live.com/default.aspx#tid=cmvCWBwbL34xGiJQAjfeM5jA2&fid=flinbox
The mess Indira Gandhi landed in during her 1st visit to Goa as P.M.
If the lament of the Par-Modi combine is that there were no people thronging
the routes, venues of Narendra Modi's electoral triumph in Goa... that of
Indira
Gandhi's, during her ditto mid-sixties' visit must have, surely, been that
there were
far too many... and by far most of them cursing and booing her with a
passionate
unmitigated vituperation.
The cardinal reason for this venomous acrimony, among a veritable litany of
such, was
Gandhi's petulant, absolutely uncalled for, demotion of one of the prides of
Goa, the
venerable Escola Medica de Goa, EMG,/Goa Medical Colege, GMC, from a
full-fledged
institution of medicine to an emasculated second class such facility.
By her sheer tantrumal decree, for some reason known, perhaps, only to her
infamously
choleric temper, it was stipulated that heretofore, degrees confered by the GMC
were to
be reinforced by an elementary crash-course were they to be recognized by the
Medical
Council of India as on par with the degrees confered by the other medical
schools in the
country.
It, apparently, least bothered....mattered Gandhi that the EMG degrees were
fully accepted
by every university in the western world and had so been since the mid 19th
century, long
ere the Indian sub-continent had a functioning western medical school.
Thus, during the very first stage of Gandhi's maiden prime-ministerial visit to
Goa, she turned
out of a morning to unveil/inaugurate/garland the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Old
Goa, it was
only she that carried a garland of 'abolim' in her hands. From the crowd she
was showered with hoots and "zot'tim" and vociferous demands that the status of
the EMG be pristinely restored.
It so happened that that very day (evening) was to take place the famed, quite
certainly, the
most awaited for, event on Goan social calender: O Baile da Escola Medica de
Goa, the GMC
Ball.
As courtesy still prevailed in Goa, along with the protest note handed over
Indira Gandhi by
the GMC students, at Old Goa, she was, also, presented with a cordial
invitation to the ball,
at the Clube Nacional, that evening; which she graciously accepted...
The merry night, however, failing to produce the woman we, the chief
"trouble-shooters" of the GMC agitation, Emerico de Sousa, Jagdish Rao and I,
decided to say her goodby and remind her to try to be "gooder" to Goa in the
future.
But meet her? How? Where?
She was leaving Goa after a breakfast press-conference at the Palacio do Cabo,
for which we had been,
categorically, denied acreditation point blank by a viciously acerbic
press-officer, one despicable deputationist, Jatkar, one of the loathed
Maharashtrian locusts that were set to plague Goa and did it with tremendous
gusto.
But would that prevent us from breaching the Cabo? After a night guzzling B &
W? Hardly.
We had our trusted noble drivers, Mariano, with his Holden and Shyam, with his
Datsun. Both, as eager to embarass Bandodkar and his bunch as d'Artagnan and
his musketeers were ever so to carry out their gallant escapades.
With Shyam causing a distraction Mariano shot past the hoodwinked guards trying
to revive Shyam's Datsun "stalled" at
the gates and dumped us at the palace entrance and we lost not a moment
to deeply embed ourselves among the invited crowd. When a livid Jatkar
spotted us we were already, rattling cups of coffee in hand, exchanging
pleasantries with Madame about how much we had missed her at the ball
and the poor minion was rendered hapless.
As the conference
progressed, much adrenalinned, I asked Gandhi: "Madame, the Goan public,
through press, banners and vocally had requested Your Excellency, to
slightly detour from routes pre-planned for your progress and witness the
actual state Goa lies in. You chose to ignore our requests...
"In
preparation for your visit, Madame, trenches that had been dug up for
pipes to be laid have been filled up and asphalted, without a single
pipe laid, only to be dug up again on your departure....electric poles
have been painted silver and so on...much more. You did not deign to
listen to our pleas...."
"Young man," replied Gandhi, "When a guest comes to your house you must put
your house in order."
"Agreed madam," I replied. "Our Goan hospitality is second to none. But may I
please point out
Madame that, whereas, you are a genuine guest in London, Paris or New York you
are hardly one in your own home...or, is it not your home?"
Delicious pandemonium broke out with the sycophant national press shouting:
"Are you asking a question or making a speech...?"
"That, gentlemen, is an issue between Madame Gandhi and I; do you mind?" End of
the press
conference that had been relayed live countrywide over the A.I.R. in toto.
I still carried in my hand a copy of the souvenir
of the previous night's gala Festa da Escola Medica de Goa. I requested
Indira Gandhi for an authograph which, ever gracious, she signed on a
page of the souvenir. On the preceeding page, was jotted down the large, as yet
unpaid
bill, run up at the Clube Nacional bar during the night's ball.
Poor Raul Peres, the heart-and-soul of
every contemporary Escola Medica event, offered: "Let me take care of
your bill, Alfred and I'll keep this." It was a huge bill and I was much
relieved; but I suppose, with that august signature guarantteeing it, the bill
would have fetched considerably at Sotheby's today.
As
we left, I heard Jagdish laying it in deep into a totally deflated
Jatkar: "Sh-'nt to'dd," an ever expressive Konkni expletive that with
appropriate accompanying gesture espresses much feeling....always conducive to
robust opprobrium.
The GMC thrives and continues to annualy dish out degrees that, I am told, are
found optimally
acceptable in, as far away, as the Sargasso Sea.
Shyam, Mariano, Raul, Jagdish, Indira are, alås, no loger with us...
Alfred de Tavares, Ll: 0046 8 759 6214; cell: 0046 70 295 4091
Stockholm, 2014-06-24
