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Cheers Dears
By Augusto Pinto
Evy Sippy at the Camara Barber Shop
Dears,
In Goa the barber shop is one of the best places to pick up gossip. People
who come from far and wide often have to wait their turn for a haircut or a
shave, whereupon they begin to speak out about the goings on in their
neighbourhoods, even with people they don't know from Adam.
One such shop is located at the building of the new Camara or Municipal
Council building, and is run by a nice young man from Andhra Pradesh, who
rents it from a a member of the Camara named C.P.Sippy. How did Sippy manage
to acquire this shop? Well all Councillors are born lucky, which is why God
keeps blessing them with the good things in life.
Sippysaab as he is now called, is an interesting chap. He came to Goa just
before Liberation, to work a a 'bhoyo' which was how Goans mispronounced the
word 'Bhaiya' the people who came from North India to work at Marmagoa
Harbour. In order to supplement his income, Sippy started to steal people's
chickens, but unfortunately for him, he once got caught by the Portuguese
police and was bunged into jail.
This proved to be a stroke of luck for him later, for after Goa was
liberated, he was able to get a pension from the government claiming that he
was locked up because he was a freedom fighter. Not that Sippy really needed
the money from the freedom fighters pension; he had the wits to earn a
fortune any day, swindling someone or the other. But he could now proudly
say,"I am a Freedom Fighter! Not a Chicken Thief!"
After he got out of jail, he became a contractor and real estate broker when
people had not yet caught on to the racket, and prices of land in Goa were
quite cheap. He made a killing by gulling Communidade members of various
Goan villages to foolishly sign away the properties of their common lands to
his company, Land Marg Constructions, named after his village Marg in North
India. Although the poor Communidade saps made fools of themselves by
getting implicated in his shady deals without getting much of the loot
themselves, Sippy himself remained in the clear. His money bought him a
Councillors post in the Camara,
Over time he became, one could say, a pucca Goenkar. especially after his
son married a Goan girl from Moira named Evy who was a friend of mine. But
lately Sippysaab was in the eye of a storm because of a speech at a freedom
fighters forum where he said that the Portuguese liked to rape Goan women
and so all contacts with them should cease. Now there is nothing more
inflammatory in the macho man's world of Goa than to be told that our women
were raped by someone. Hence a furore erupted. Still I was surprised, for as
far as I knew, all that Sippy cared for was money, and not such
controversies.
As luck would have it, when I went to the Camara Barber Shop for a shave, I
met Evy Sippy, who had brought her son for a haircut. Evy said,"Hello Gusto,
how are you?" I replied,"Very well, thank you Evy. Tell me something, why is
Sippysaab so worked up about the Portuguese nowadays?" "Oh it's nothing,
he's just following Party orders" I said,"Party orders?."
Evy said,"Yes. You see, the elections will be coming sooner than later, so
preparations have to be made. Daddy will be standing. The Party said people
must be polarised on Hindu versus Christian lines. He's just following
orders." I said,"Maybe. But how do the Portuguese come into the picture?
They left Goa 47 years ago." "Well Gusto, in Goa it's inappropriate to
directly antagonise Christians. Banging the Portuguese is a way of bugging
Christians by proxy."
"But Evy, in the bad old days there were so many Hindus who benefited from
Portuguese rule too, and even now many are associated with Portugal and
Portuguese culture. Why do only Christians get annoyed when the Portuguese
people are targetted?" "I have no clue, but just read the papers - most who
criticise the Portuguese are Hndus; their defenders are mostly Christians.
But you mustn't take all this too seriously Gusto. Politics is just a game.
"
It was time for my shave so I shut my mouth up and pondered over what Evy
Sippy said.
Till next time then...
Cheers (ENDS)
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The above article appeared in the November 12, 2008 edition of the Herald,
Goa
