Like every Goan, when I was reading the book, my first question was where's my family in the book.... As I was reading the book, I found we weren't there, which was quite disappointing. But suddenly towards the end, there's this description of the three of the Oliver triplets. They were three girls born in Burma. Generally triplets have a very bad hit rate; they don't survive very long because they're always born under-weight. These triplets were, in addition, also joined at the head, so they had to be separated. But they were such pretty triplets that they were eventually used in the Cow & Gate milk powder ad. And Aloysius has got all this dope inside, and that's my Aunty Girtie and her three daughters....! He's got it so accurately that....
I would advice everybody in the audience to get several copies of this book, because you'll be able to give it to friends, who will also be doing exactly this -- looking up the Machados and the Pimentas, and the Menezes and the Sousas... who all turn up in a grand parade of Goan Roman Christianity, [often] in extremely strange situations. It is levened with great humour. So that when Aloysius is talking about her great grandmother, he points out that when she was bringing the kunlies to the table, her hands would shake and curry would fall on the floor. But when she was given a glass of feni, full to the brim, she did not drop a single drop! Then, there's a lovely moment of illumination, which is what I think all of us can learn from.... This book takes in so many geographic zones: it starts of course in Goa, goes to Burma, comes to Calcutta, goes to the heart of India, travels to Mount Abu, goes to Rajasthan, travels into Mhow, goes up to... It's almost breath-taking how many times the family seems to be able to pull up stakes and do it all again, without effort. It has its share of tragedies too, and upsets, and Aloysius is terribly discrete about them. He tells them with a light hand.... if you're a Goan you know exactly the scenes that would have played out. The hints are there. There is no ellision or covering up the bits and pieces the family history we don't want to talk about. Apart from it being an extremely valuable mine of information which is anthropological, historical, social and human, there's another link I found with the book.... [The Burma trek....] ... I believe we are so callous about our history, so uncaring about circumstance. We've forgotten most of it. We allow most of it to just fall away.... Thank you for giving us all the opportunity of reading this wonderful family history which I think will resonate with every single family of every Goan who reads it, and of many diasporic families across the world. I wish the book every success, and I think it would have it, simply because of the almost encyclopaedic detail that has gone into its building. AUDIO RECORDING: https://archive.org/details/aloy-launch -- <https://archive.org/details/aloy-launch> _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ Frederick Noronha <https://archive.org/details/aloy-launch> http://about.me/noronhafrederick http://goa1556.in _/ P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter @fn Fcbk:fredericknoronha _/ Hear Goa,1556 shared audio content at https://archive.org/details/goa1556 _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
