One of the few Goans (in Goa and Bombay) who has been prolific with
his creative output is the Aldona/Mumbai-linked Alfred Rose. I saw the
guy performing occasionally, not often enough unfortunately. My own
Anglophone-biased upbringing was probably the reason why I didn't
appreciate more of him when he was around.
In 1994/5, when I was about to quit my favourite employer, the Deccan
Herald and embark on an uncertain (but which proved to be very
enjoyable) freelancing careering, the Bangalore-based paper assigned
me to cover the International Konkani Convention (or some such named
event) in the city of Mangalore. Some suspected it to be an attempt by
the capitation business headquartered there, to claim "linguistic
minority" status, and thus further its hegemony and business
interests. But that is another story.
In Mangalore, I saw Alfred Rose perform. He was in his element. It
seemed as if he had a song for every occasion.
Given the mix of the audience, he sang about the commonlities among
all Konkani speakers, how one's mother could be a Goan and father a
Mangalore, and so on. I guess the song was built to match with the
multi-ethnic nature of a Mumbai before it was destroyed by sectarian
strife of the 1990s.
Alfred's song appealed to all. It made my hair stand on edge, as I
realised that the man was redefining boundaries, building communities,
and tackling age-old biases that Goans have against Mangaloreans or
East Indians (and vice versa), Catholics have against Hindus, "upper"
castes have against the "lower" and so on. Of course, we all have our
limitations. The campaigners for "Konkani unity", who were hyper
active in that point of Goa's history, made a strong case for unity
across religion, geography and caste. Language, they argued, was the
unifying basis. But their enlightenment didn't go beyond that.
Non-Konkanis were out. We *were* superior to others. Just that the
definition of "we" was sought to be altered!
I have long felt an unease at the Goan tendency to exclude. Be it on
the basis of caste, religion, and even language ("Don't you speak
Portuguese?" Or "Konkani"? Making fun of how some speak English. How
can Marathi be a "Goan" language. Or whatever.)
Each year, at the beginning, one gets reminded of Alfred Rose. All
India Radio's Konkani section (I still tune in to it a lot, more
because I love good, ol fashioned radio) plays this song that Alfred
sings for the New Year. It's about his resolutions. It comes from
another day, another time. I guess the 1960s, when India was on its
import-substitition drives. In today's world, it seems strange how we
could think of doing without foreign fabrics, foreign watches and a
lot of other things foreign. Not even foreign blades for a shave!
While brings me to the point of how various Goan communities fitted in
to diverse world views, dominant in the places they settled in. The
Catholic Goan migrant in Mumbai tended to tune into pan-Indian
thinking. VM puts it well when he says Goan migrants are broadly
divided into two camps -- the Anglophone Goans and the Lusophone
Goans.
Anyway, just rambling on, as the year gets off to a start. Let me end
with a flame-bait: after I read on the Wikipedia, my impression
plumetted a bit of the Gregorian calendar and all this New Year thingy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar My suspicion has long
been that we, in a monsoon-defined India, might have actually been
better off with a lunar calendar. Don't forget that Goa is said to
have the second-highest rainfall in South Asia. And have you noticed
how precisely (almost, except in times of global warming) the weather
changes with each movement in the lunar calendar? FN
--
Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org Ph +91-832-2409490
Links from Goa: http://goalinks.livejournal.com/
