The spooks return to Goa By Frederick Noronha
Sometime in December 2009, I first came across an introduction to the work of Jessica Faleiro, a lady who traces her roots to Margao. She was then a young wanabee writer. Just like so many others who feel the urge to enter the creative world, and believe they have the talent and determination to get there. By 2012, Faleiro has come out with her book *Afterlife: Ghost Stories from Goa*, published by Rupa, promoted quite a bit and even noticed by the reviewers. It's not every year that the pan-Indian reality condescends to take note of a Goa-related book. So, when this happens, there's naturally a lot of curiosity over it back home. In terms of a bare outline, the story is this: the Fonseca family gathers in Goa before the 75th birthday of Savio Fonseca. It's raining heavy, the electricity fails. (What's new?) But then they choose to spend their time taking turns narrating ghost stories to each other. The ghost story is -- or has been -- something typically Goan. Anyone who grew up in the Goa of the 1960s or 1970s, or earlier, would know how this reality dominated local life then. Everyone spoke of ghosts. You couldn't escape them (or, rather, stories of them). Things were far more scary in those times. Certain places were best avoided. So was moving out late-evening. Today, youth searching for kicks and hedonist tourists (together with a section of the local middle-classes, of course) have become ghosts of their own kind, in a way, haunting the local reality with their pleasure-seeking ways at all times of the day or night! If you're skeptical, you could just say that Goa saw more ghosts in those times because we were are more rustic and agrarian society. The dark, lonely and isolated nights let our imaginations work more hyper-actively. We had few distractions. With even villages being crowded (sometimes excessively) with street-lights, where's the time and space to even think of ghosts now? That's where Jessica Faleiro comes in. Some like the Goan artist-expat Venantius Pinto have been suggesting a "Goan ghost stories" book for some time now. But it was Ms. Faleiro who actually got it done. There are quite some plusses in her work. She writes with flair, and surely knows how to tell a story. At Rs 150, the book is reasonably priced, and its 159 pages of text are a good read. The cover is charming indeed. Besides, the book has been promoted well, making it visible to all who might be interested. Faleiro's work contains a number of 'ghost' stories woven around common, oft-narrated Goan themes. The person who died tragically and gets reincarnated as a bird to visit family members. The not-so-bad-after-all miser who guides his family towards his fortune. A young boy "possessed" by the spirit of a man murdered by a relative. A girl led to her suicide in the room where another woman had done likewise in another generation. Forewarnings by strange individuals we encounter at night.... As would expect of any typical emigrant-based Goan Catholic family, the "ghost stories from Goa" are not restricted to Goa alone. You have one based in Bombay (of course!) and Martha's Vineyard, the affluent summer colony and island south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Interestingly, Faleiro weaves all these disparate themes into one common story, very well connected with each other, and tied up neatly with the skill of someone who has learnt the art of story-telling. Not a coincidence. She has been based in London and worked full-time in development work for an international charity, and has also done an MA in Creative Writing part-time at Kingston University, Surrey. Faleiro has been into editing non-fiction, contributing to Amazon's book and movie reviews, and has kept her blog at itsawriterslife.blogspot.in So does learning the art of creative writing make for better story-telling? This was just something being discussed recently at the Goa Book Club on Googlegroups. Faleiro's story is interesting for another reason. It represents the returned expat, attempting to understand and interpret the story of their ancestral society. One can see a few but growing number of such attempts happening in the English-language space in recent years -- from Victor Rangel-Ribeiro, to Dr Antonio Gomes, Margaret Mascarenhas (whose canvas is not restricted to Goa), Prof. Peter Nazareth, and Ben Antao, among others. Does Faleiro succeed? One must have read the quick-paced text with an extra critical dose, to find the answer to this question. Her adept story-telling skills stand her in good stead, and make a convincing collection of stories. But how would a reader in Goa, who grew up with the 'ghost story' reality, relate? Being hyper-critical, Goans are wont to point out blemishes, specially of one of their own. "Bebinca is usually eaten after meals," was the six-word comment by a wag in cyberspace. This was in response to another review of Faleiro's book, which describes the Fonsecas eating "generous amounts of yummy bibinca" when the power failure delays their dinner. At some points, you can see -- or should one say imagine, like the ghosts -- certain details which might not settle squarely into the Goan reality. Does the reality fit the five generations time-line that the author creates for the Fonsecas? For instance, could 1907-launched TISCO shares be worth "lakhs of rupees" some two or three generations ago? Is fish and "fried rice" a popular meal? Do villagers in North India have wedding cakes? Would there be a "tourist season" way back in 1935? Is E puri konachi (sic) a Goan song or of East Indian origin really? Apart from such excuses for minor faultfinding, the book is indeed an interesting read. Besides ghosts, it is a story of Goa, one with all its idiosyncrasies, warts, likeable aspects and more. (For instance, "Buried family secrets always come out somehow. Stories like that are like gold dust to the provincial mind-set here in Goa -- even in today's times.") There are themes of race (one Fonseca girl marries White and the other is in line, the tone makes their approach clear), class ("good family", and all that usual talk), and even cautious hints of sexual scandal (the Fonsecas trace a priest for their ancestor). Along the way, Faleiro buys into the Black Legend of the Inquisition. While her author's note makes it clear that "This is not a true historical account," the choice of themes does reflect bias or beliefs. Without denying past realities, one needs to read authors like David Higgs on the same, and also understand how contemporary political interests might actually play a bigger role in interpreting the past. Faleiro puts it well when she says "there's more out there than just ghosts ... a repressed desire or anxiety, even an emotional trauma". Faleiro gives us a neat and unexpected ending. Her story-telling technique brings a vivid Goan Technicolor screen before our eyes, as does the detail with which she writes. One looks forward to this work getting a wider audience in Goa itself, inspiring other writers, and also leading to more books from her promising quill. -- Afterlife: Ghost Stories from Goa Jessica Faleiro Rupa. 2012. Rs 150 http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/with/8981892271/lightbox/