Canadian Goans muse over the days they knew, reminisce about other times

Aug. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- Thousands of Goans have shifted to the cold climes of Canada, but their hearts carry a place for Goa, Africa, Burma and such places they earlier called home.

This point get strongly made in a new anthology, to be released in Goa this weekend (Sunday, August 29, 2010), comprising writing from this expat group.

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 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' and 'Evil eye' (by Aldona-schooled Eddie D'Cruz) talk about 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, 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", debate the logic of arranged marriages, and talk about the travails faced by expat Goans at different points of history due to changing fortunes and situations.

Africa obviously still claims stake 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 by the logic of those times. Sequeira met with Sonny Vaz, of Moshi in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, and Vaz's brother's farm next to Serengeti was finding jumbos marauding its corn fields.

Yet, the tragedy involved in the unfortunate man-animal interaction comes across strongly in the author's words.

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, a reality the young lad could barely comprehend in times life expectancy was low and parents dying while still in their forties was not very unusual.

Bombay-educated artist Rudi Rodrigues has a story titled 'A candle for St. Anthony'. It has a family on holiday in Goa, and deals with the theme of how faith in the saint who is believed to help find lost objects influences diverse members of a particular household.

Former junior engineer Lourdino Rodrigues of Orlim, Salcete, tells a spooky tale about a charming girl met at a dance, with a typically Goan twist. Armand Rodrigues describes how Goans struggle to cope with the arrival of the monsoon, and get ready for it. A separate essay by him comprises 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 author Melba Rodrigues Remedios), are remembered wistfully on the pages of this book too.

Mombasa-educated Juliet Rebello recalls a voyage by ship from the African east coast to Aquem in Salcete. Betty Quinn of Colva talks of times when Idi Amin visited her dad's tailoring shop, how she had to flee Kampala in August 1971, and the stress of adjusting to life in a Bombay in times when life was definitely not easy.

Home-coming experiences are also described by others.

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 Goan women 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 is young boy's recollection of his uncle. Dr Rudolf de Mello, a famed villager from Saligao once based in Zanzibar, is still remembered around his old home 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 included -- from Goa, from colonial Japanese-invaded Burma, and from an Africa undergoing Africanisation in the 1960s and 1970s.

Joan DoRosario's daydream is 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 Goa,1556 and the book can be ordered via mail order to any location.

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A book publishing venture in Goa, India. We mostly focus on non-fiction books related to Goa. Launched in 2007 and relaunched as Goa,1556 Trust in May 2010, this venture now has fifteen books to its credit. It welcomes enquiries from authors of topics on Goa, specially non-fiction.