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# Goanetters-2004 meet in Goa. Dec 21, Tuesday. 12 noon to 2 pm.         #   
# Clube Vasco, Near Municipal Garden, Panjim. Pass the word around!      #  
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GOA a Rediscovery
Ben Antão

Goan Observer Private Limited, Panjim-Goa

Rs150, pp 99


Ben Antão, who resides in Toronto, is an active writer known to Canadians and 
to Goans in diaspora. His first book, Images of Goa, published in 1990, brings 
out the cultural vibrancy and harmony of Goan cultures. The book was well 
received, and a friend of mine who teaches at Chicago State University 
introduced it in his teaching program.

Goa’s Rediscovery, Ben’s second book, a collection of essays, reads like 
reportage of his trip to Goa with his wife Marinella. But when I read it again 
for the second time, I had a different insight.

Ben was born in the village of Velim, Goa, before the Liberation. He was raised 
on the pristine sprit of Goa of that time. He worked as a reporter for The 
Navhind Times (Goa). His having imbibed that Goan spirit, and when fate took 
him to US, and then to Canada, where he makes his home now, he never left Goa   
He had saudades (Portuguese term) of Goa, Goa that he was born and raised; he 
pined for his native land. Most Goans in diaspora, born in Goa, do.

In these essays the writer talks a lot about foods and drinks. Relishing Goan 
dishes of his youth- Goan soul foods, like, ambot tik with rice or supping with 
sorpatel and sannam, and sipping maddel or caju in an authentic Goan home 
ambience - the author connects to that Goan spirit of his youth that he was 
pining for in the wintry Toronto.

Another simple domestic core of yore that connects the author to the memories 
of gone by, reverberating the images of the past, is the scent of smoke that he 
inhales - seeing fire heating water in a copper urn in the backyard of Tony 
Barreto’s house, Galgibaga. The author was Tony’s guest. The cherished memories 
of his youth must have returned when the author was scooping the warm water 
from the urn with a pitcher to have a warm bath; and if, I am not deluded, this 
is a perfect gift that Tony gave to the author.

Though Goa has changed, the author discovers the true spirit of Goa in the 
villages. And when Tony’s mother expresses her pleasure by saying with genuine 
sincerity, "Tum amgue ghora don dis raulo mhun amkam dadosborit zalen.",  her 
words must have touched author’s heart, connecting him to the spirit of Goa, 
Goa that he was brought up with.

These essays in this Collection are like quaffs of Goa’s spirit quenching that 
insatiable thirst in the writer’s being.  The writer puts it in this way, "a 
journey of rediscovering my homeland and reconnecting with my roots." This is 
exactly what these essays are all about. Lest this rediscovery be erased from 
his mind or his readers, he gives us a plethora of pictures both in colour and 
in black and white. Goans in diaspora, mostly born in Goa, will enjoy reading 
these essays.

The book is available from the publisher in Goa, and also from the author at 18 
Geraldon Crescent, Toronto, Ont. M2J 2R6 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]


Lino Leitão
Dorval, Canada

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