GOA MUST BE DISCIPLINED AND HATE NOBODY! |
TARA NARAYAN catches up with the grand old disciplined man of Goa, Lambert Mascarenhas, on the eve of his 90 th birthday for a free-wheeling conversation.
IPE OLD AGE sits well on trim and spritely Lambert Mascarenhas. The one thing one noticed about him during an hour long on again-off again conversation with him on the eve of his 90 th birthday is that he likes nobody to be at his beck and call! He gets up, climbs up a flight of steps to place his empty tea cup on the dining table, he takes the steps in a jiffy to the first floor where he and wife Jolly have their sleeping room to get a photograph of himself (in case the ones I take with my camera don�t turn out well). When fatigue sets in he just gets up and goes for a little walk around his beautiful duplex villa, returns. Perhaps it�s a hint to say, I�ve-been-interviewed-enough, let�s call it a day (the September issue of Goa Today carries an exhaustive interview with him about his life and times). Mr. Mascarenhas is a little restless, one gathered, he has got a scratchy throat and perhaps a bit of a cold coming in�just a bit, he concedes, otherwise he keeps good health. He�s got a seasoned doctor for a wife in Jolly Mascarenhas, perhaps it helps to have a wife who�s 20 years younger than you, but it�s a marriage which has worked out well judging by the small glimpse of indulgence and affection one sees between them. Wife Jolly comes and goes as we talk and at one point confided, �My husband swears by Himalaya�s `Geriforte�, two tablets daily. He�s been taking it daily for years and he thinks that�s what contributes to his good health��
HALE AND HEARTY AT 90: Lambert Mascarenhas with his wife Jolly. |
Turning all of 90 years old on September 17, 2004, is not going to make a man like Lambert Mascarenhas retire or take a back seat! From the sound of it he has lived his life wisely, married a little late in life � because he�d taken a vow not to marry till Goa was liberated from Portuguese rule on December 19, 1961 � but more or less lived happily ever after that. Hailing from a well-to-do family he�s obviously never seen want except perhaps that of the mind and soul, for he loves Goa and describes himself as �a man of Goa� although from 1931 to 1961 he was in Bombay. Born in Goa but not brought up much in Goa, he says his early education was in Pune and later at St. Xavier�s College in Bombay. The 40�s were heydays, he remembers, when his own patriotic zeal was fired by listening to Gandhi and Jawarharlal Nehru and Sardar Pandit addressing freedom rallies in Bombay. He joined other Goans in Bombay to fight for Goa�s liberation from Portugal.
In fact, throughout his early career in journalism (stints with The Sentinel of the Bombay Chronicle Group of papers, The March, The Free Press Journal, Onlooker) his ardent advocacy and passionate reports for the liberation of Goa got him into trouble with the police in Goa every time he visited family in Goa, the last 14 years in Bombay were a virtual exile and only when Goa was finally liberated did he get married and a day later wife and he packed their bags and headed for Goa. Goa was and will always be home although he cherishes his growth as a human being and an Indian in Bombay.
But rues the fact that so many Goans have quit Goa and gone away abroad during Portuguese times and soon after liberation and to this day, �Even the Portuguese government could not give them employment in Goa!� His disillusionment with the present government is also no secret, �Although Manohar Parrikar is very shrewd and a good administrator, he�s an RSS man�.� Life, he says, was better during the Portuguese times in some ways at least before Salazar�s dictatorship years, �Salazar thought he was in India to safeguard Christians! The contact between public and administration was better�today if you go to a government office for some work nobody even acknowledges or looks at you, they will look down! Make you wait.� It�s something to do with respect, �There was a respect for the other person�and people were afraid of the law. Today nobody is afraid of the law and they think they can get away with doing anything, very few people are frightened of the law.� Yes, he fears that, �People in Goa and India cannot appreciate democracy, democracy has failed! People who�re not educated can�t think in terms of country, only of stomach. That�s the tragedy of democracy in India��
Mr. Lambert Mascarenhas is also disillusioned with the people of Goa, �There�s a certain degeneration of people by and large, we have no discipline. Take the helmet issue, the roads may be bad but we don�t care for rules�there�s no discipline in Goan people.� Then there�s that other bugbear, a general overwhelming obsession with money. All that people can think about is making money and every Goan thinks that a political career is the key to making pots of money! Such an obsession does not necessarily make for either good human beings or good politicians. Although he�s been a member of the National Congress (Goa) and �I have always voted Congress, I�ve always been a Congress man�..but what kind of Congress do we have now?� But let us stop talking of politics and move on to other more pleasant subjects.
What inspired him to become a journalist? He was in Bombay during the World War II years, must have been exciting times? The ordinary Indian was by and large disinterested in the world war but �Bombay was packed with English soldiers, army men and the hotels were full, they thought the Japanese may attack�I started my career as a journalist with TheMorningStandard, a newspaper started by the Englishman N.J Hamilton, he had quit the The Times of India thinking he could start a rival paper, but it lasted for only two years�it became The Indian Express �� But the Indian freedom movement was closer to home and he got involved with efforts to liberate Goa, there�s a common perception that everything was hunky dory in Goa during the old days but that was not so, �There was not enough rice and it was imported from the Mozambique, in fact the Goan economy was based on imports from Europe�� Also, one-third of Goans must have been in Bombay, �There was nothing happening in Goa and I could not live in Goa during the Portuguese days, Bombay was a like a backyard of India and Goa�there must have been a 100,000 Goans in Bombay then, now there may be 200,000. There was a strong community of Gujaratis, Sindhis, Parsis, Goans, and in fact there were four Goans in the Bombay Municipality in the 1930�s and 40�s. Even now I love Bombay�people worked very hard for the freedom of the country and I see myself as an Indian first, then only a Goan!�
And there was a need to liberate Goa from Portuguese rule although Nehru did not want to take Goa by force, he used to say, �Goa will be free one day�� It was the then Defence Minister Krishna Menon who took the decision to send the Indian army to Goa to liberate it. All that is well known. About journalism, �During Portuguese times in Goa there was no journalism at all! Some fellow used to write something and it was published, no one covered news because there was no money to pay, every newspaper was only four sheets of paper�and they were views papers rather than news papers. Journalism is much better today than it used to be when I was an editor�.(back in Goa he edited The Navhind Times for about three years and then founded his own �baby� in 1966, Goa Today, which he edited for 19 years before selling it to industrialist Dattaraj Salgaocar). Why did he choose to be a journalist when he comes from a family of doctors? He grimaced and replied shortly, �Because I couldn�t do anything else but write �I thought I�d be a writer.� This is not true because Mr. Lambert Mascarenhas is a man of many parts, he�s got a musical heart and many Goans testify to his marvelous singing voice, he learned tap dancing in his hey days and used to be an avid racegoer, loves horses, and gardening�. But perhaps writing suits him the best.
But writing suits him the best. His first novel written in the 50�s is titled Sorrowing Lies My Land and was a sell-out with a second edition. Another Bombay-based book is The First City (a collection of his writings in Bombay), In the Womb of Saudade is a collection of short stories. Now he�s almost done with another novel which may be titled The Cartman and His Son �at his age he thinks it�s an achievement to be still writing and exclaims, �Imagine it!� Life is still sweet and has its rewards. He can still take the dogs for a walk on a leash although it may be the dogs taking him for a walk. He likes to relax in his lush garden at the La Marvel residential colony at Dona Paula, surrounded by his eight grandchildren. They were the first residents of La Marvel Colony and his gracious wife Jolly says, �My children still remember what a wonderful time they had growing up here when there was wilderness all around�� While bidding goodbye to them his grandchildren were busy with a sing-song session in the background, probably practicing to sing for his birthday bash later this month! It�s a loving and affectionate Goan family and there�s much to be said for life with the family when one is getting on in years, it makes for a life well lived and fulfilled. Lambert Mascarenhas has lived his life with his heart and mind in the right place and with exemplary discipline, his concluding words were, �My vision for Goa is to see a more disciplined Goa and Goans!� Amen to that.
courtesy: www.goanobserver.com
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