Fred, this was an awesome article, thank you for your efforts. Enjoyed reading. Seby Mascarenhas
--- On Sat, 8/28/10, Frederick Noronha <[email protected]> wrote: From: Frederick Noronha <[email protected]> Subject: [SALIGAONET] OFFTOPIC: Canadian Goans muse over the days they knew, reminisce about other times To: [email protected] Date: Saturday, August 28, 2010, 5:27 PM 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 <ben.antao at rogers.com> overseas or Goa,1556 <[email protected]> in Goa. Frederick Noronha +91-9822122436 +91-832-2409490 -- 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! -- 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!
