Hi Augusto, Your post did interest me a lot, and almost tempted me to comment earlier. I have heard so much about CECO (is CECO an abbreviation, or is it just Ceco?) As you know, I studied in Mapusa for quite a few high-school and higher-secondary years.
The only thing that held me back from posting earlier was that it would expose the fact of how illiterate and poorly-read I've been :-) Somehow, I never, ever, stepped into Ceco or Shibbir libraries. Let's conveniently blame it on the limited number of buses we had (and still have) between Mapusa and Saligao! However, I did visit the Athaide (whom is it named after anyway... ?... bless his soul) municipal library at Mapusa. While their books are perhaps aging, their newspapers and magazine collection is indeed very helpful. So are their fairly late (but not late enough!) evening timings. Anyway, I think your musings on Ceco and Shibbir and the written word in the Goa of the 1970s would be interesting enough for a full-fledged article! In fact, I would have surely not ended up as a journalist, had it not been for the sparse library at the Saligao Institute (rich in books, which didn't interest me much, but with just three periodicals, which I read closely -- Navhind, Times of India, and the then-new India Today, long before its switch to saffron). Learnt a lot from these publications, till, that is, Valmiki Faleiro interviewed me for a job at the Herald, and if I recall right contemptuously said, "If you want to spoil your English, read the Navhind." :-) Other influencing factors towards reading and journalism were the late "Sir" Ivan Rocha from Parra and the librarian who always encouraged us subversively to "read Biggles", Mr Almeida, again of Parra (both of Britto's). I am sure Avelino in Kuwait/from Bastora will bear me out here. Please go for that long article, it could make for a very interesting read. Personally, I believe that reading (not the online version!) is fertilizer for the brain, and exercise for the mind. Which is also why I force-feed it to my kids :-) FN Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490 On 21 October 2010 23:58, augusto pinto <[email protected]> wrote: > I had written: > "CECO Circulating Library Will Be History Soon > Do you, my frends, know that CECO Circulating Library in Mapusa will > be shut soon. > It used to be one of the two main ones that were very popular in the > 70's and 80's (Shabbir's was the other). I used to frequent them in > those days but then I lost touch. Shabbir's closed down long ago, and > now it seems people's book habits have reduced so drastically that > they are not capable of sustaining these libraries. > They are disposing off many of their books for about Rs 40 - 50. Much > of it is pulp fiction, but there may be some things that you are > looking for. For the younger readers there are a lot of Nancy Drews > and Hardy Boys and Louis L'Amore and such like stuff; as well as > comics and magazines. So it might be worth paying them a visit." > Surprisingly to me there were no responses to this post. I expected > readers of goanet who were living and around during the late 70's to > condole the demise of the premier circulating library of Bardez of > those days. > In my days we used to expend our extra gonadal energies on > table-tennis tables; badminton courts; football and cricket grounds - > and the likewise. Apart from all these my personal favourite was > -Chess, the most apparantly placid but which actually is the most > lucrative feature of chess.
