Astoria, The hotel There are places of worship that become museums, landmarks that become a visible chronicles of history, monuments that come under the protection of UNESCO’s World Heritage Center, and then there is the Astoria. A three-star hotel in Bur Dubai, known to every Goan within a 500 mile radius. For the Astoria is the chosen venue for almost every Goan function.
When I turned thirteen, my parents decided I should be initiated into that all-important Goan rite of passage, The Goan Dance. There in the darkened ballroom of the Astoria hotel, in my white dress with polka dots and butterfly sleeves, I had my first glimpse of this ritualistic ceremony of excessive drinking and frenzied dancing. Unfortunately for me, my under-aged Goan consciousness was permanently marred by an over-zealous and heavily drunk Goan uncle who insisted on dancing half the night with me, and punctuating his jokes with a wink which I mistook for a congenital twitch. Over the course of the years, the Astoria would become the venue for many rites of passage, such as learning the Birdie dance, ignoring the buttery bad breath on my partner, falling in love, breaking-up and finally having my best-friend get married and abandon me. Through it all, we danced, sang mandos, hollered out the first two lines of Auld Lange Syne, ate sorpatel, Russian salade with may’naise and Bebinca sometimes brought it all the way from Goa. Here a special mention must be made of the Goan Cultural Society and Goan Sports Club, who worked tirelessly by arranging cultural events, New Year’s Eve dances and the more renowned Goan football tournament held during Ramadan, to keep the Goan cultural spirit alive in the Gulf diaspora. Some years later when my parents in their omniscient wisdom decided that my brother would finish his education in the US and I in Goa, I didn’t sulk. I was elated. I was going back to the mother-lode of kurruddin, jive, heart-breaking renditions of Sting’s Roxanne and every diaspora mother’s dream, a gene pool of good Goan boys. This time hopefully without the congenital twitch. ------------------------- Info on the current status of the Goan Cultural Society and Goan Sports Club would be appreciated. selma
