Canadian Goans muse over the days they knew, reminisce about other times
Goa Masala, a new anthology, contains essays and
stories by Goans based in Canada. The aim is to
keep alive memories of another time; a task
specially crucial amidst a community believed to
have one of the highest per capita out-migration
rates in the world
PANJIM, Aug 26: Thousands of Goans have shifted to the cold
climes of Canada. But their hearts carry a place for the
lands they earlier called home -- whether that was Goa,
Africa or even Burma.
This point gets underlined in a new anthology comprising
writing from this expat group, and which is to be released in
Goa this weekend, August 29, 2010.
Called 'Goa Masala', the volume was first published by the
Toronto-based A Plus Publishing, headed by former Goa
journalist Ben Antao.
Now to be released in a Goa edition on Sunday at 11
am at Margao's Ravindra Bhavan -- along with Selma
Carvalho's 'Into The Diaspora Wilderness', another
well-received diaspora-related book -- this
anthology contains 41 essays including short
stories and reminiscences.
It gives an insight into the Goa of the past, which has
changed in some ways and continues in others.
Stories titled 'Baba puta' (by the Calangute-born Alick
Alphonso), 'The landlord's son' (by Ben Antao) and 'Evil eye'
(by Aldona-schooled Eddie D'Cruz) talk about the Goan life.
Jenny D'Mello, British by birth, explains what it means to be
'Married to a Goan'. Her husband of many years, Tim D'Mello
of Anjuna and formerly East Africa, meanwhile narrates his
own encounter with learning Konkani virtually from scratch,
and why he believes it is important for Goans to keep in
touch with their language.
Other essays echo the challenges and fun of growing up in Goa
and schooling here. Some narrate a neighbourly quarrel
conducted using comical literally-translated 'Konklish', or
debate the logic of arranged marriages, and also talk about
the travails faced by expat Goans at different points of
history due to changing fortunes and situations.
Africa obviously still stakes claim to a
significant part of the expat Goan heart. Probably
more so here, as this book was put together by the
55PGA (55 Plus Goan Association), some of whose
members lived through the very times when migration
to that continent was the hot favourite among the
Goan global diaspora.
In a piece filled with detail and emotion, Xavier Sequeira,
whose father was a pioneer in the tiny Tanganyika town of
Iringa built during the 1890s as a German Army base, narrates
his experiences in an elephant hunt. "I felt no elation as I
saw the proud majestic matriarch crumple with my single
bullet," he writes.
But this was no case of wanton killing going by the logic of
those times. Sequeira met with Sonny Vaz, of Moshi in the
foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Vaz's brother's farm next to
Serengeti was the target of jumbos marauding its corn fields.
Yet, the tragedy involved in the unfortunate man-animal
interaction comes across strongly in the hunter's own words,
many decades later.
Manuel "Manny" Sequeira talks of his experiences of adjusting
to life in North America, while Lisette Saldanha tells a
fascinating story from Tanga, Tanzania in 1938.
Saldanha's essay is about a seven-year-old coping with the
sudden death of a father. The imagery is realistic and
touching, as the young lad has difficulty to comprehend the
tragedy. Remember, these were times when life expectancy was
still low and parents dying while in their forties was not
all that unusual.
Bombay-educated artist Rudi Rodrigues has a story
titled 'A candle for St. Anthony'. It features a
family on holiday in Goa, and deals with the theme
of how faith in the saint credited with helping to
find lost objects allows members of a particular
household find out more about their own, and each
other's, diverse attitudes.
Former junior engineer Lourdino Rodrigues of Orlim, Salcete,
tells a spooky tale about a charming girl met at a dance, a
story with a typically Goan twist. Armand Rodrigues describes
how Goans struggle to cope with the arrival of the
tempestuous monsoon, and get ready for it. A separate essay
by him offers a pen-portrait of an old-time Goan funeral.
Goan villages like Betul (and its "doomed tigers") and
Olaulim in Bardez (the smallest comunidade, called "O'lovely"
by the father of contributor Melba Rodrigues Remedios), are
remembered wistfully on the pages of this book too.
Home-coming experiences are also described by others.
Mombasa-educated Juliet Rebello recalls a voyage by
ship from the African east coast to Aquem in
Salcete. Betty Quinn of Colva talks of when Idi
Amin visited her dad's tailoring shop while he was
still just an army-man, how she had to flee Kampala
at a day's notice in August 1971, and the stress of
adjusting to life in a Bombay at a point when life
was definitely not easy there for the "repatriates".
Leithbridge Herald book reviewer Alice Pinto, also educated
in Mombasa, describes a "chutney mutiny" aboard an
Africa-to-India ship. George Pereira talks of the Zanzibar of
the yesteryears, while Pliny X. Noronha, another expat who
studied in Aldona, pays tribute to St. Francis Xavier, a
revered figure of devotion among the Goan Catholic.
Paul Nazareth focuses the August 1982 coup in Kenya, while
Kenya-born architect and urban planner Braz Menezes spells a
description of life in the Goa of past decades, at a time
when many among the middle classes migrated abroad and
visited "home" just on holiday.
Finding a bride back home, Goan pioneers in Africa, the
rustic wisdom of the Goan matriarch of another era, and
"golden" memories of Kenya are other topics which come up in
this book. There are some tales with an unusual twist too.
Goa-born Al Lobo was given charge to run the small
airport of Juringa at the age of 22. He narrates
the entertaining if dramatic story -- with a
smattering of Swahili words -- of what happened
when a Dakota flew in crippled, and had a 142
kilogram "live male lion" amidst its cargo.
Rudy Fernandes' story is of young boy's recollection of his
uncle. Dr Rudolf de Mello. The latter was a villager from
Saligao, once based in Zanzibar, and still remembered in the
village's locality of D'Mellovaddo and beyond.
Ups and downs form a crucial part in the lives of many
expats. This is obvious from stories that come from Goa, from
colonial Japanese-invaded Burma, and from an Africa
undergoing Africanisation in the 1960s and 1970s.
Joan DoRosario's current daydream is that of a homecoming to
her tiny village "sandwiched between Varca beach and
Cavelossim beach". In another contribution to the book, she
frankly wonders whether arranged marriages back home are any
different from "America's on-line dating services".
Learning to swim in Goa, and fishing in the region, are among
the pleasurable memories recollected with nostalgia. The
one-time involvement of Goans with the Indian Railways gets
reflected too, as in Leslie Andrade's 'The Train Driver'.
Coming Sunday, the book will be release alongside the
non-fiction yet adroitly-written book on the Goan diaspora,
by Goanetter Selma Carvalho, who will be present in Goa for
the release function. Further details of 'Goa Masala' may be
obtained from Ben Antao <[email protected]>.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Goa-launch of the well-received *Into The Diaspora
Wilderness* by Selma Carvalho on Aug 29, 2010 (Sunday) at 11
am at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao. Meet the author, buy a signed
copy (only Rs 295 in Goa till stock lasts).
http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/
