FN: Frederick Noronha’s blog

Yesterdays at Monte: Jogging Down Memory Lane
Edward de Lima.
Vikram Publications,
August 2006.
vikkurocks at hotmail.com
Rs 100 pp78.

A book written “almost 43 years after leaving school”. By a retired (and prolific author of self-published books) Dr Lima (b 1946).
He studied at St Anthony’s Guirim from 1953 to 1963. Incidentally, he did his PhD on ‘The Creative and Critical Writings of Armando Menezes’, the Goan poet and teacher. (We both share an interested in collecting books related to Goa! … Dr Lima reading them, and we, well… just collecting them!)

Among the chapters: early years; lunch at school; annual concert; Mocidade Portuguesa; corporal punishments; pranks in and out; school debating society; the Konkani card; brown hair episode; retreats in school; our teachers; and classmates. A nice tribute from an alumni, organisations of which are growing in Goa!

Check the Guirim alumni online [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/montedeguirimschool/] and see the book cover at [http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/301760385/]

—————————————————
Empowering Rural Women in Goa:
An appraisal of Self-Help Groups under SGSY
Arlette M H Mascarenhas
Goa Institute of Rural Development & Administration
Ela, Old Goa
No date mentioned. 96pp.
—————————————————

It’s one of those schemes with an unpronounceable, almost unrememberable names, probably crafted by bureaucrats with a one-size-fits-all approach in New Delhi. So who’s to blame for not recognising sufficiently the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY Scheme)?

Do we fail to appreciate its potential? Have we just become cynical of all government? Have we no empathy left for rural concerns? Or is this all just official spin?

Mascarenhas introduces the SGSY as one of the “micro-credit programmes for women (that are being) increasingly lauded by development agencies as an effective intervention with a positive impact on economic growth and improvement of the social status of women”. This is not necessarily true in Goa, but in other parts of the ‘developing’ world and India.

So how is this being played out in Goa? Does it go beyond the traditional pickles-and-papads model? Does it impart new skills?

This study looks at Ponda and Quepem talukas. It focuses on all-women self-help groups. Ponda is described as the “land of temples, singing, drama and folk-art”. Becoming a tourism spot, with many engaged in tourism -related activited and agriculture, it’s very different from hilly Quepem with its villages scattered. Quepem’s people depend on agriculture and farming.

Mascarenhas says Goa has 426 self-help groups under the SGSY. With names like Nagesh SHG, Betora SHG or Kamakshi SHG, Navdurga SHG, Mahalsa SHG, and Sateri SHG, these tiny insitutions are bringing about a change in the way women perceive themselves, and their abilities.

Or, are they?

So what do they do? Mascarenhas writes: “Their activities include vegetable, flower and coconut selling, taking catering orders at weddings and feasts; and selling flowers, making and selling masala powder, pickles, sweets, papads, shell items, etc”.

Ponda’s many temples, notes the author, creates “good business” for selling flowers and coconut. But then, shouldn’t value-added speedy skill upgradation be a priority with Goa’s rural womenfolk? Can we just manage with a ‘more of the same’ approach?

In Quepem, meanwhile, self-help groups now have an income “from Rs 3000 to even Rs 6000 and even around Rs 8,000 at times”. This sum may seem like a pittance, when converted into dollar-equivalents. But consider the fact that many parts of Goa simply don’t have access to the monetised economy. And that, till a generation ago, most people lived ithout money in any case. On the other hand, we can’t get smug with a this-is-fine approach!

Activities are mostly agricultural like cashew, fruit and coconut selling, dairy farming, with a few taking up to sweet-making and candle-making.

Amidst a whole lot of detail — such as what motivated women to join, family incomes before and after joining the self-help groups, attitudes within the groups, group functioning and more — there is also an attempt to sketch
the broad picture.

Some conclusions from this study:
* Such groups can do “much better” in Goa.

* Mere financial assistance does not help the women.

* Many women do not possess prior experience in production.

* They need institutional support.
* Training, skill upgradation, marketing strategies is their need.
* Information on the latest available technology is also key.
* Such schemes are meant mainly for BPL (below the poverty line) sections; but others too manipulate and squeeze in.
* Officials need to focus on quality groups, rather than “just forming groups for quality sake”.
* Officials need training in rural communication, and patience with the rural poor.
* Before introducing credit programmes, officials need to offer brainstorming sessions on the principles of micro-credit.
* Group members need to act as managers and watchdogs, ensuring discipline on themselves and reducing dependency on “outsiders” (including NGOs, or non-governmental organisations).
* Villagers need training in marketing techniques.

Mascarenhas’ report suggests that such groups venture into other activities — fruit, fish and meat processing or canning; tailoring, flower and candle-making; organic farming; setting up nurseries and floriculture; mushroom
cultivation; moving into other varieties of food; working in handicrafts….

All in all, an interesting report, with some honest and critical pointers at where things need to be improved. While there could be scope for other perspectives on this issue, for sure it throws light on a topic that few are otherwise concerned with.

Here’s a list of some useful articles available in the Konkani research bulletin (Sod) brought out by the Thomas Stephens Konkkni Kendr of Alto Porvorim, which was out in April 2006 (just got a copy late):

* Konkani Myths: Pratap Naik SJ
* Social damage done by Goa’s language controversy and (the) conspiracy behind it. Ramnath G Naik
* Roman script, the soul of Konknni. Nelson Lopes.
* Socio-economic growth of the Goan community through the Konkani language. Tomazinho Cardozo
* Roman script for Konkani, a must: now or never. Godfrey Gonsalves.
* Script controversy. Eduardo Faleiro.
* A response to “Konknni Myths”. Alito Siqueira.
* Scripting controversy: debating the war of the Konknnis. Jason Keith Fernandes.
* An attempt to understand Konknni language assertion movement. Sammit Khandeparkar.
* Mother tongue blues. Madhavi Sardesai.
* Konkani versus scripts. Matthew Almeida, SJ
* The African, Portuguese, Kannada, Marathi, Malvani, Hindi and English influences on the hybridized Siddi-Konkani dialect. Geralda de Lima Angenot
* English medium primary education for better future. Cypriano Lopes.
* Response to “English medium primary education for better future’> Joe F Vaz.
This issue is priced at a reasonable Rs 50 (100 pp) in Goa.

By way of background, the TSKK has long been solidly in favour of the Devanagiri script. Recently, it rethought its position, and its director Dr Pratap Naik sj is one of the leading campaigners in the movement to get recognition for the Romi script. While this perspective obviously dominates the publication, there are also views that question it (like iconoclast Alito Siqueira’s essay, he’s always there to raise some thought-provoking point of view). Check it out if interested in language and how this intertwines with other complex social realities in today’s Goa!

PS: You can contact TSKK on tskk AT sancharnet.in or find out more about it via
http://www.tskk.org or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stephens_Konkkni_Kendr

Khalil Ahmed’s Broadway Books on Saturday (Aug 19, 2006) released Tony Martin’s new books Life is Beautiful and Time Pass. At a somewhat formal function, the release was done by Dhempe College mentor-to-a-generation and theatre person Ms Isabel Santa Rita Vas in Panjim this evening.

Fr. J Loiola Pereira, Director of Diocesan Centre for Social Communications Media Fr J Loiola Pereira andGoa Art College lecturer Willy Goes (also a musician and writer himself) spoke.

Fr Loiola Pereira in his foreword to Life is Beautiful says, “‘Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away.’ I can assure the reader that each of the stories in
this book will provide such a precious moment.”

“Each tear-jerking story here hits the consciousness like a winged missile making an impact that lingers. You will love reading them. Again and Again. They will make you think. They will make you feel. They will rip the strings of your heart apart and knock your soul out of its unfeeling slumber. And if you feel like crying as you read, Good. It shows you are still human,” says Tony Martin in the preface to the book.

Willy Goes feels that at a time when more and more of our students turn out to be nothing more than rote-machines, a sense of critical thinking in children is the need of the hour and Times Pass is a small but positive step in that direction.

My former journalist college Mr. Martin (whose real name is Anthony Baretto, something everyone has probably forgotten) teaches English at Shri Nirakar Education Society’s SS Angle Higher Secondary School and is the author of Naked Goa, It’s a Funny World and The Practical English Teacher..Miguel Braganza compered.

Anthony M Barreto aka Tony Martin can be contacted at Galgibaga, Canacona, Goa — 403728 M: 9422390701 R: 91-0832-2632012 and via his website Canacona.net

Report on soc.culture.indian.goa Usenet newsgroup about an earlier venture to set up a book review site for Goa which somehow didn’t survive due to technical problems.

[BY SELMA CARVALHO] Reading the E-Seniors notebook, I am struck by how strong the literary tradition is, in Goa. The beautiful narratives transport us to a time most of us are unaware of and would be lost forever but for the eloquent words of these men and women.

It is amazing how a small state in India managed to produce so many great writers spanning four languages. The feat is akin to that of Ireland. It is said that the lush Irish green, its wet weather and a hoary Celtic imagination often fueled by myriad spirits is what brings out the writer and poet in the Irish.

Certainly we share the green, the wet and the spirit in its many forms, with the Irish. There is a wandering minstrel and poet in every Goan soul and it
stirs to life with pen and paper.

Much of Goa’s unpublished talent that came of age as the colonial era snaked to an end, doubtless received little encouragement to follow a life in the arts. Nevertheless the wandering mistral persevered amidst this reluctance. Some became professors at universities and took to writing only part-time.

The generations that followed fared much worse. The choice after secondary schooling was narrowed down to three streams of education, science, commerce or arts, of which arts was definitely looked upon with much disdain. Perhaps the quantum of those that followed their literary ambitions had diminished but certainly not the zeal and the talent, which is evident in the prolific writers of Goa today.

What does the future hold for the Goan literary tradition? It is for the literary luminaries of today to pave the way, to battle outmoded ideas that exist
surrounding a life involved in the arts and create opportunities for young writers to put their best pens forward. A society bankrupt of its artistic heritage and future is a society bereft of imagination, values, foresight and ultimately its soul.

Novel, “Penance” by Ben Antao
Publisher Goan Observer, Goa, India
Soft cover, 329 Pages

I have just finished reading the Canadian novel, “Penance” by Canadian Goan author Ben Antao and published by Goan Observer, Panjim, Goa, India.

It’s too bad the North American publishers still shy away from Goan novels and novelists. I am sure if Rohinton Mistry had submitted this novel to Alfred Knopf or any other big name publishers, it would have been published. But Rohinton has not yet published any Canadian based novel so far, a fact not ignored by his Canadian critics.

Author Ben Antao has succeeded in his first foray into a mainstream Canadian novel. The fact that Ben has based this novel on a more than familiar Catholic way of life and the fact that he is married to his Canadian born wife and also the fact that he worked as a professional high school teacher in Toronto, has all worked very well for him in his portrayal of the Canadian Catholic teachers’ intricate way of life in this Canadian novel. As a result the ethnic novelist leaves no stone unturned in making it a full fledged Canadian novel, and not an ethnic one.

This novel is well written with some lively scenes, flashbacks, monologues, a keen human observation and a precise narrative. The book has been well edited. The novel is just about 60,000 words, a little too short for a full fledged novel, and the reader ends up wanting for more. But the author makes up for this by using double line spacing, which makes the book much easier and faster to read and also makes it 329 pages long.

The first part of the novel follows the pattern indicated on the book’s blurb, as the author uncovers the background of his characters with his typical show-and-tell craft, which most modern novelists adhere to. The second part is lot more interesting and as the novel comes almost to an unexpected end, it holds the reader’s undivided attention so much so that you can’t possibly put the book down as the tragic end just bowls you over.

The author employs so much of his Catholic religious belief and doctrine in his writing as the novel progresses and regresses with flash-backs and transitions and taking us back to the sixties, that it almost looks like you are reading Bible at times, replete with visuals of existence of God and some explicit sex thrown in, all at the same time and on the same page. The imagery used in this novel, especially the conservative way of life of all the characters, who happen to be staunchly Catholic, and who eventually become teachers, shapes up a real world full of living colours.

The author skillfully puts all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together in the story and switches between characters seamlessly and makes transitions very easy on the reader. I must point out I had a little hard time figuring out the timeline of the story though. The book is heavy on emotions, except in one case where I was certainly looking forward to a really emotive meeting between the father and his young son, who longed to see his father after a long separation from his mother, but unfortunately the author missed a great opportunity to quench the reader’s thirst for this sensational reunion. But the end is completely captivating and suspenseful, and makes up for all the logical sequences in the first part. I found all four characters to be too
perceptive of each other, a fact not too common in real life.

All the scenes are eloquently accomplished, complete with minute details such as the facial and body features and even the clothes, the deportment and demeanor of each character. Sean’s (the son) character, which was more conspicuous by its absence in the first half, figures prominently at the very end. The morality of the story may not have much bearing or relevance in today’s modern times, but it did occupy a pride of place in the Catholic society right up to the sixties, and brings lots of nostalgia to those who lived through those innocent times.

After reading this novel, if you are a true believer in the Roman Catholic Church, you will never look at the opposite sex in a luscivious way, especially if you are married or committed, else you would have to pay for your dear life with grave consequences as depicted in this novel. Ultimately, no matter what you believe in, you will have to pay for your sins. There is no free lunch. Like they say in Goa “Korit to Bogit”. And pay you must, either now or later, as the title aptly says it all, through
“Penance”!

I loved this novel!

Silviano C. Barbosa, Author of the novel, “The Sixth Night”
http://ca.geocities.com/goaraj@rogers.com/

‘Getting Married in Goa’ is the Plus Publications’ marriage guide, in a new edition. It’s edited by Ilidio de Noronha and Lester Fernandes, with Cedric Silveira as editorial co-ordinator.

Obviously advertisement-driven, it also contains quite a bit of useful information. Starting with customs and traditions (the Catholic kazaar, the Hindu lagn, and the Muslim nikaah), matchmakers, cybermates, and the “countdown” to marriage.

If you got married here, you know how puzzling it can be in this information-poor state. Useful tidbits of information include brides’ and grooms’ checklists, budgeting your wedding, and even a section on “the Goan art of gifting”.

Getting ready for your big day, and details on the ‘law on marriage’ is also included. Honeymoon tips and more are also included. So is a section on ‘family planning the natural way’.

Quite a useful book. Good value for money. Provided you have marriage on you mind, that is.

%T Getting Married in Goa
%S The Complete Wedding Guide
%A Ilidio de Noronha & Lester Fernandes (eds)
%I Plus Publications E2, S2 Martins Enclave, Caranzalem
%E plusgroup@sancharnet.in plusgroup@rediffmail.com
%C Caranzalem, Goa
%D May 2006, 3rd edition
%G ISBN 81-903087-1-8
%P pp 176, Rs 125 US$5.95, Euro5.95, UKP4
%K guide, Goa, marriage

Reviewed by Frederick Noronha

One problem with books in Goa is that you never know when a new one is published. Obviously, book reviewing is a task not done very much seriousness here (except for a few publications like Goa Today). While castigating others, this reviewer also needs to accept blame for some long delays sometimes. This very title, for instance. That it is a labour of love is no excuse for not getting it done on time!

Reviewing Edward de Lima ‘Spoken Konkani: A Self-Learning Guide’ 2006 cannot be an easy job. He’s an agreeable person, one you couldn’t pick up a fight with in public. And he was also in charge of our National Cadet Corps troop during the lone year one tried this out almost a generation ago. He could immediately build up a rapport with boys in the troop.

This is a simple book by him, which promises to teach you a bit of spoken Konkani, not too much, in a simple and easy manner. It has 20 ‘units’ — the author’s long years in academia shows. Dr Lima recently did his PhD on the Dharwad-based Goan writer Armand Menezes.

This is a welcome addition. One says so because of where one comes from, and one’s belief in the need to promote and encourage a diversity of languages (Konkani, whether Devanagari and Roman and its many other scripts, Marathi, English, Portuguese, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit too … and anything else).

It is obviously a departure from the dogmatic days of Devanagari-Konkani-alone approaches. Strange how so many writers (of the non-Devanagari camp) just took a break in their writing, without even realising how dogmatism was blocking creativity, ever since Devanagari became the lone accepted script post 1987.

Lima proffers to teach you Konkani by way of conversations at situations you are likely to encounter. The post office (with email around, it’s not that important anymore), the hotel, the doctor’s, the restaurants, and so on.

At the start of the slim book, there’s a guide to pronunciation. What one found useful was, at the very end, a listing of months, Konkani numbers, time, useful words and phrases, spices (mossalo), taste (ruch), nature (soimb), cereals (dhanya), vegetables (tarkari or bhaji), fruits (folam), Goan fish (Guenchem nustem), parts of the body (kuddiche andde), animals (zanvaram), birds (suknni or sonvnim), and the ever-complex set of relationships in Konkani (nathem). As an aside, I just disagree with Lima when he says “hippy” is a derogatory term for a foreigner in today’s Goa.

People in coastal Bardez will use this term for any Caucasian, without the bat of an eyelid. And why blame them, when hippies are the foreigners they first encountered (post Portuguese departure)? Even my decent academic friends get labelled thus quite frequently.

This is Lima’s third release. The second was a reprint. When we met many moons back, and I promised to do the review, he told me the earlier publications — in 2001 and 2002 — had done well. Artist Ramanand Bhagat has a neat illustration on the cover. Maureen’s at Panjim is the printer. The book, priced at Rs 100, was printed with a 50% financial assistance through the Goa Konkani Academi’s educational scheme.

It’s devoted, rather quaintly, “to my mother whose words I first learnt to lisp”.

Released in February this year, the book was inspired, says the author, by his several cousins — second-generation Goans in England, Canada and Australia — who were keen to learn to speak Konkani, while just on holiday in Goa.

Says Edward da Lima (58): “I wrote the book in the Roman script because it would enable all English readers easy access to the language. To learn Konkani in the Devanagari script would have been a formidable task, as they would first have to learn the script.”

It’s written in the dialect predominantly used in Bardez in North Goa, or Bardeshi. “I found it easier to write in that dialect as I speak that dialect myself,” the author told me. He says Konkani has the strong form of consonants like n, t, d, ch and l — which do not exist in English — and hence his transliteration guide could help readers navigate this “treacherous sphere”.

Any challenges while doing this work? Says Lima: “The problems are the same faced by all translators. There cannot be an exact translation of any sentence from a source language like English to a target language like Konkani without compromising its core meaning. It is a difficult task to find an accurate, meaningful and creative synonym to each word.”

Did you know that the the English words “please”, “excuse me” and “sorry” do not have their Konkani equivalents. Of course, this does not make Konkani a rude language! Check out the wealth of words to describe fish, different forms of rice, and so on.

On the script row, Lima feels: “There are many reasons as I see it. One is, Roman script writers do not get due recognition. The second is that financial assistance is only made available to the Devanagari section by the government. And the third is that Roman script writers face discrimination at government interviews, as they are required to write in the Devanagari script.”

He’s pragmatic when he says knowledge of English the international language is essential, even while “Konkani is our lifeblood”.

Incidentally Lima belongs to a generation that never had to — or got the opportunity to — study Konkani. He learnt English, Hindi, French and Portuguese. An alumni of Monte de Guirim in Bardez, he recalls times when it was the biggest school in North Goa, with 400 boarders at its height. He was there from 1953 to 1963, and recalls times when “boys from all surrounding villages used to come up like ants” climbing up that hillock.

I guess purists would attempt to write off this slim book as too basic. But, then, we have long complained about the lack of accessible language learning tools in Konkani, isn’t it?

%T Spoken Konkani
%S A Self-Learning Guide
%A Edward de Lima
%I Vikram Publications, 515 Lima Vaddo, Porvorim Ph 832.2413573
%C Porvorim, Goa
%D 2006
%O paperback, references, bibliography, index
%G ISBN not available
%P pp 63
%K Konkani, language, Goa, Roman script

Young Female, Travelling Alone
Anne-Marie M Pop
2005
iUniverse, Inc (New York, Lincoln, Shanghai)
www.iuniverse.com
Pp 149 US$12.95

REVIEWED BY Frederick Noronha

Minutes after the postman rang the cycle-bell and dropped this book at the door, I was devouring it. As anticipated, it dealt with India. And, my next guess was right too: a significant section focussed on Goa, the former Portuguese colony on the Indian west coast that this reviewer call home

Let’s shift focus to where it should go: the book and its author. Writer Anne-Marie M Pop is a Montreal-based computer engineer. In 2001, she took on a two-year job in Sweden, and then quit for a seven-month “backpacking journey through Asia”.

This is a reflection — let’s not say ‘record’ — of her times in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia and India.

It takes her through Cambodian border scams and brothels, Buddhist  meditation centres in Thailand, scenic islands, the Mekong and the rain forests. She also lands up in the sex-drugs-and-full-moon-party trail still surviving a generation after the hippies first sought solace and escapism in Asia.

Anne-Marie’s book is an easy and entertaining read. It’s armchair-tourism  from the safety of your own home, with the tantalising promise of bringing in close, but not too close, the perils that Asia.

Anne-Marie M Pop faces many dangers. More so, as the “young female, travelling alone”. She’s critical of how Asian men treat women. And as an Asian male, this reviewer would acknowledge that she has a point. But is it Asian males alone? Oftentimes, oppression has a more subtle face on it. In Asia, it doesn’t. Not following culturally-apt behaviour could also be risky; and this holds true for any part of the globe, even if the risks play themselves out in differing ways.
Her chapters are usually just two pages long. One comprises just four paras! While this may seem unusual, it makes for easy, relaxed reading.

‘Young Female Travelling Alone’ gives the reader both insights and an interesting travelogue into a number of diverse parts of Asia. But does it go deep enough? Does it repeat stereotypes that we are already brainwashed about? We’d leave that to the reader to judge.

What this writer has to say about Goa and the rest of India struck a chord. She was writing about a place that’s barely eight  kilometres from home. The last book of the kind is Dr Cleo Odzer’s “Goa Freaks”.

[It's a sad story of how a young Jewish lady  got caught up with drugs, and almost died of it. [She cleant up, did her PhD on sex tourism in Patpong, and worked for a rehabilitation group in the US. But, earlier this decade, she returned to Goa, only to die her in an incident which still brings in many curious questions from people who knew her.]

Anne-Marie M.Pop’s description was realistic and down to earth. No wonder, as a reviewer, one was both surprised and disappointed to read the ‘fiction/general’ tag on the back cover of the book. It’s so life-like, I thought it was true!

Or, is it?

Brian Mendonca’s Last Bus To Vasco…

Given his energy levels and zest for life, you wouldn’t guess Victor Rangel-Ribeiro is an octogenarian. If he’s not mentoring young writers and egging them on, he’s spending long hours perfecting sheaves of manuscript pages or taking a keen interest in his love of music.

Born in 1925 in the village of Porvorim, he lived his life in the shadow of his father, who, he says, could do almost anything not just well but with panache. Victor Rangel-Ribeiro has had two careers — one first in Bombay, and the second in the United States. And they have encompassed several fields.

In education, he was a high school teacher in Mumbai, and in New York a teacher of illiterates, a teacher of the poor and disadvantaged both young and old, a teacher of university students, and for a very short time a “teacher of pampered teenagers whose parents were so rich they did not give a damn about getting a good education”.

As a journalist, he has been a reporter, subeditor, and assistant editor in Mumbai, and has then written for the New York papers as well. In advertising, he became the first Indian to be copy chief with J. Walter Thompson Co. in Mumbai, and was also the first Indian to be copy chief with a very small advertising agency in New York. Read the rest of this entry »

News of Philomena SanFrancisco’s book Mhojo Disttavo.

Amita Kanekar, of Goan origin and a teacher of architectural history and
comparative mythology in Mumbai, has in mid-2005 come out with her first novel. It’s titled A Spoke in the Wheel: A Novel about the Buddha (ISBN 81-7223-574-7). [04MAY2005]

Report in The Hindu about a reading of Maria Couto’s book in Bangalore in April 2005.

FOR A CHANGE, last night, one was really in a mood to read out bedtime stories to my five-year-old. In advance, one warned her that there were enough stories coming up to surely tire her out. She was game, and the festive school holidays for Ganesh allowed it; till her mum reminded all that Riza had been getting insufficient sleep over the past few days.

Anne de Braganca Cunha’s *Goan Whoopee: Goan Tales For Children* was responsible, of course, for just one night of sleeping late. After picking it up from Mapusa on Friday, one wanted to kill two birds in one stone — give a child a dose of Goan stories (even in these Internet-savvy days, so few are actually available), and also check out a book for a possible brief review.

Of course, we stopped exactly half-way through the 80-page book, which terms itself a “charming collection of fascinating tales, adopted from ancient folklore and retold with a modern touch”.

From the author’s writing, it becomes clear that she’s an expat Goan (“when my world was very new, Goa meant summer holidays, frolicking on the golden sands and surf-trimmed waves”) and that she comes from an affluent Catholic background (“then I was married and inherited this 350
year old fairy-tale mansion lit with shimmering chandeliers, dark carved furniture and pictures of stern faced ancestors on the walls”). .

Her experience probably parallels that of others of the old world Goa, the Goa that some still hanker for, even if its feudal times are fast changing: “I met people too. From my family retainers, ancient aunts, and landed gentry, and field workers to the children from the local school. They made me proud to be a Goan. They taught me about Goan culture and customs, parted with cherished recipes, treated me to songs that were haunting and rhythmic. and more than anything else, they told me stories that had been handed down generations by word of mouth.”

Her stories are indeed interesting. And, with what a twist…

This one is sure to cause bewilderment for those struck by Lusostalgia among us: A poor couple lacks a child, has their prayers heard by God Parasurama. He flings an arrow, which lands into the sea near the fertile Konkan. The arrow reaches the belly of the woman, and the child born is called Govapuri. In short, the young girl grows up “spritely and slim”, rejects many suitors, till she falls for the Portuguese prince Adil Shah. (“He sang a beautiful ‘fado’ that brought tears into Govapuri’s eyes and they turned into
glistening pearls.”)

Then, the travails of married life. The prince makes Govapuri change her name to Giovanna “and she wore frilly gowns and curled her hair and spoke only Portuguese and she roughed her cheeks and outlined her eyes, powered her face and painted her lips, which could laugh no more.” Bharat comes, along the way, to the rescue. But freeing the damsel is no easy task. Politically-correct for some; at least some of the strident voices on the Goa might consider this a book fit for a public burning

Surprise, surprise. This actually read like a fairy tale, and ended like one. My five-year-old was actually enjoying it. (One day, it might help her to understand the politics on Goanet… even if it’s going to probably leave her very confused when she has to start learning the history of Goa — rather, the different version of it!) Myth, history, caste, politics… all rolled into one, and done quite entertainingly, one might say.

The other three fairy-tales we read that night were less ‘heavy duty’. A rich lady from Assagao who mistakenenly poisons her son to avoid him moving about with the poor beggar’s daughter…. A mango tree who saves a girl from a tiger while her job-seeking brother goes from Salvador do Mundo to Mapusa to desperately seek some work… And the usual inter-village boundary dispute (this time, with Macasana being fought over between Chandor and Curtorim), and how the gods cursed ‘Ponchivaddy’ for it, leading it to be a barren hillock in the locality.

These stories echo the Goa one recalls. Not a place of the good-old-days which some on the Net harken to, but a place of poverty (we easily forget how difficult money was to come by, for most here, just a generation ago), hierarchy, intrigue, and fear. Still waiting though to encounter that compulsory ghost in the book… but having done with this review, wonder if the five-year-old is going to retain her enthusiastic storyteller!

The author writes nimbly. She has published a great deal. Besides a children’s page for the “once popular Eve’s Weekly” Braganca Cunha has written a book called ‘The Little Lute Player’ for teenage girls, and three read-act-and-do books for pre-schoolers (‘The Singing Cockroach’, ‘The Greedy Monkey’ and ‘Silly Billy Willie’). Like most Goan authored books, these seem to be hard to locate. At the time of publishing the book (1999) she wrote for the youth mag *Upbeat*.

The author describers herself as “not your run-of-the-mill white-haired Grandma, sitting on a rocking chair knitting booties”. Says she: “They call me ‘Thoroughly Modern Granny’ because I’m slim ‘n’ trim, don trendy clothes and make up, party a lot, am a busy full-time writer, and know the words of the latest pop songs”.

Whether we like it or not, expat Goans and the (rather derogatorily-termed) ‘non-Goans’ have added a lot of vibrancy to Goan society. (Resident Goans have sometimes felt that they’ve been distorting our priorities.) But writing in English is one field that has surely gained. If you have a kid who every night badgers you for bedtime tales — or even if you don’t — and you’re keen to keep up with a tradition we’re fast losing, then go for this moderately priced, neatly-written book. 06SEP2003

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Goan Whoopee: Goan Tales For Children
Anne de Braganca Cunha
1999, Pp 80. Rs 50.
Neve Publishers, Gurgaon Mumbai b…@vsnl.com
Available from: OIB, Mapusa oib@sancharnet.in