It was one of those evening when all the stars had aligned in perfect order above Betty Pires’ house, founding member of Investcorp. Betty had thrown an intimate dinner party to introduce us to Marinella Proenca, who recently published her book of poems, Heart beat.
I’d been wanting to meet Edna Fernandes, author of God’s Warriors and Last Jews of Kerala, for sometime and was delighted to find her at Betty’s soiree. It was difficult not be in awe of this woman who shared sweet-meats with the Shahi Imam Syed. Edna and I both have toddlers and so the conversation inevitably turned to inculcating a Goan culture in third-generation immigrants. Edna confessed to it being a challenge. Despite being in the UK, she grew up in a definitively Goan environment at home, and is acutely aware of her Goan identity. I grew up in a Gulf Goa-centric diaspora and still occassionally cling to mine. We both agreed preserving our culture, qualifying it and passing it on to our children is not a task for the faint-hearted. In Edna’s case it is compounded by the fact that she is raising a biracial child. She has to sythesize two cultures into one identity. In my case, I’m raising a Goan to be an American, for my child is that most conflicting of nationalities, a hyphenated Indian-American. Identities are amorphous and hard to define in themselves, dealing with hyphenated ones compels us to ask fundamental questions about nationalities, race and culture in an evolving world. It was Sir Richard Burton, who wrote,“The man wants to wander, and he must do so, or he shall die.” Burton was an explorer, an adventurer and he deftly articulated the longings of the human soul, that it needs to explore and in this journey of exploration, comes to a deeper understanding of oneself. Being part of the diaspora, we are on a continuous journey, taking all that we know of ourselves culturally and yet ready to embrace that which is alien and new. Betty Pires who keeps company with Presidents such as George Bush, princes such as Charles and paupers such as me, read aloud one of the poems. About a Goa that is part of all of us. “Sweet memories are stored Banked in mind’s eye To retrieve, to remember To pass on and sigh”, writes Marinella Proenca. However malleable Goan culture is, with the unpardonably handsome Tony Luis (President of Goa Convention 2009), Rene (World Goa Day) and Maria Barreto, Isabelle Barreto, Eddie and Lira Fernandes (Goan Voice, UK), Edna and Andrew and, Romola de Souza, wife of the legendary Goan lawyer and activist, Fitz Remedios Santana de Souza who defended Kenyans accused of Mau Mau activities including Jomo Kenyatta, all in Betty’s living room, perhaps it was best defined as being one of warmth, charm, grace and bon homie. selma
