Dear JoeGoaUK, I love Minglu de Merces.
Not only his name but he reminds me of the days of what Domnic Fernandes calls 'the Basurcar' in his book Domnic's Goa. Green striped pants, chocolate colored shirt, tie reaching to the second button from the collar, hat bent out of shape that can be worn any which way and if his shoes could be seen, would probably have been two toned like those made famous by Al Capone. On first glance it would seem that Minglu and the Basurcars had no sartorial sense, but that style was actually de rigeur in the 40s and 50s. Even when I found myself in Qatar in the late 70s I actually saw a few old timers working for the oil company in Dukhan (where the oilfields were) actually still sporting that masculine haute couture on social evenings. I could have died laughing but they must have been laughing too, at my bell bottom pants that were the rage in those days, my puffy Elvis hairstyle and my form fitting Levis that if I could put on today I couldn't take off. Those were the pioneers of the work-migration wave to the Middle East. The Goans who went to Aden, Abadan (now Iran), Bahrain and Kuwait. The Goans in Goa didn't even know how to pronounce those names then. They used to say Barrin and Kuweet and Abu Dubai - thus creating a single entity of two emirates Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The stories of those people have not been documented except in Thiatr. They would be as interesting as the stories of the Goan in Africa and Burma. I hope that someone like Selma or another writer like her who had first hand contact with people of that Gulf era would one day create a book or movie for posterity. On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 9:18 AM, JoeGoaUk <[email protected]> wrote: > > Meet Minglu De Merces > http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiatr/3579445476/ > > I like the unique style of singing > > watch him singing here > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPCgYlM8jCE > > [email protected]
