---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tony FERNANDES <[email protected]> Date: 2009/7/15 Subject: Rendering from memory of the late Tommy Emar's ancestral home in Salmona and an accompanying vignette by author/illustrator Mel D'Souza To: [email protected]
An avid storyteller and prolific illustrator, Mel D’Souza, mentions Tommy Emar in his book ‘Feasts, Feni and Firecrackers: Life of a Village Schoolboy in Portuguese India, an account of his early life in the village in the late 1940’s/early 1950’s. (Proceeds from the book are donated to his alma mater Saligao’s Mater Dei Institute which celebrates its centenary this year) NB: Please see FN posting earlier this month. With Mel’s gracious permission, I thought we could also share these other links to a part of our heritage. Readers may recognise his rough rendering from memory of Tommy Emar’s ancestral home in Salmona, back in the mid 20th century. (The rendering mentioned above can be found in the pictures section on Saligao-Net Face Book, along with some of his other illustrations and pictures) Please see also a link to his book below: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37572094104#/photo.php?pid=1363651&op=2&o=all&view=all&subj=37572094104&aid=-1&oid=37572094104&id=586111053 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37572094104#/photo.php?pid=2990897&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=37572094104&aid=-1&id=586111053&oid=37572094104 Mel also recalls Tommy Emar as “an unpretentious and polite gentleman who walked around with a multi-coloured golfer's umbrella and always had a smile on his face. His wife, Lira, was from Mudavaddi, and her parents lived across from my maternal grandparents’ home. I remember her as a very beautiful woman. My buddy, Cyril D'Souza, and I would hang around with Tommy's son, Cedric, whenever he was home on holidays from his school in Nainital. We played carom in the verandah facing the 'vau'. The furniture in the living room was made to order, and the classic Goan armchairs featured the Saligao church carved in relief on the backrest. I wonder who owns these chairs today; they are a collector's item! Them were the days of elegant living, unlike the Bollywood culture that pervades Goa today. Next door to the Emar home was the home of (middle-aged) Mary, a 'poskem' from Portuguese East Africa. She was a big lady, spoke English fluently, and was known as “Mary Boat” (named after the S.S. Queen Mary). She pampered Cedric to no end, and when she brought Cedric to the chapel, she'd have him sit next to her on a special stool, amid all the women in the then ‘bench-less’ nave while the rest of us kids kneeled up front in the chancel. Cedric would be wearing a blazer with a school crest on the pocket, school tie, grey woolen shorts, knee-high woolen stockings, and polished shoes. Cyril and I would be in khaki shirtsleeves and shorts (our school uniform), with Cyril always bare-footed, and me in my sandals or’ phatan’ shoes. Whenever Cedric was under the supervision of ‘Mary Boat’, we’d refer to him as ‘Cedu bab’ – more out of pity than mockery, because Mary Boat would not let Cedric participate in the games that were intrinsic to the typical village kid. Cedric passed away, I believe, a few years ago, and his sister, Blandi Araujo, Carmen’s sister-in-law, lives in London, England” ******************************************************** Posted by A. Anthony (Tony) FERNANDES of Donvaddo and currently London UK based. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ This message comes via the Google Groups "Saligao-Net" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net?hl=en Please post regularly to keep the e-village active! -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
