Understanding Goa …by way of books

Goa, despite all its achievements,
continues to be an information-poor
region. No wonder we understand ourselves
so inadequately, writes FREDERICK NORONHA
and takes a look at some bookshops
focussing on titles published in the region.

 

At a conference last week, some visiting participants were asking around: What do we do in Goa? Where’s a good place to shop? What do we buy? When you’re hit with a lack of answers, it only reminds one how much of an information-poor region Goa can actually be.

Inspite of all our boasts about this being an affluent region, the fact of the matter is that when it comes to information, we are still doing rather poorly.

There are guidebooks which fill in the slot … to some extent. But some are drowned by advertisements, and so their information is more than a bit suspect. They highlight only those places which advertise the most. Result: you end up visiting a place described in glowing terms, but end up feeling short-changed or overcharged.

Lonely Planet is best suited for the Euro tourist (or should we say traveller) of a certain youngish, age profile. Time Out has some good information, but is fairly upmarket in a way. Other publishers of guide books want you to write about things they understand, in a format that fits their bias. So it’s a Catch 22 situation.

Books are one way through which one can understand a region. Maybe books don’t fit well into a hurried, consumerist holiday in Goa. But when one needs a deeper understanding of the region, this is what could be recommended.

Books on Goa are also not easy to come by. They’re scattered, not easy to locate, quick to go out of print. And, as we argued in an earlier column, hardly ever reviewed adequately at the time they are released here.

So finding relevant books on Goa can sometimes be a challenging job. This is even more true if you’re new to the place, and have limited time there. But it helps if you know where to start. This small region of 1.4 million has a very active book publishing sector, with varying levels of quality.

Goa’s citizens, often the small player, churn out book after book after book, on topics related to the region. Some of undeniably low standards. Others are poorly printed. Most find it difficult to become financially viable. But books on Goa offer useful insights that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Getting a grip on the subject can be difficult because Goa’s people have written in so many different languages — 13 tongues. That’s according to Prof Peter Nazareth, the Iowa-based African-born writer of Goan origin who in the 1980s compiled an extremely interesting anthology of Goan writing.

Goa has had the first European-introduced printing press in Asia. This piece of machinery landed here by accident in 1556. But the flurry of publishing in Goa isn’t due to this fact alone.

Portugal-based writer Jorge de Abreu Noronha notes that Goa’s (and Asia’s) oldest printing press was introduced in the territory in 1556. Meant to help missionary work in what is today’s Ethiopia, the press didn’t reach there due to “acts of god”, but stayed on in Goa, as history tells us.

In Panjim’s dusty and colonial-style building of the Government Printing Press (close to Azad Maidan, and the Goa Police Headquarters) you find traces of the past. It’s still just might be possible to buy a Portuguese-published book, what with its antique value, for a few rupees. That is, provided the staff is willing to oblige.

There are other options too. Enough books are being published each year which are worthy to join your bookshelf. More importantly, some of these help unravel the mysteries and mythologies of that small place many of us, one way or another, call home.

There are some essays which remain my favourite….

US anthropologist of Jewish origins, Robert S Newman’s 1983-published article (in the ‘Pacific Affairs’ academic journal) titled ‘Goa: The Transformation of an Indian Region’ offers interesting insights. Even if it is dated by now, almost a generation old!

It explains what Goa is all about, how it has morphed over the past generation, and what are the problems and potential of this small state. (It is also included in his book ‘Of umbrellas, goddesses & dreams: Essays on Goan culture and society’, Other Indian Press, Mapusa ISBN 81-85569-51-7.)

Newman’s vision doesn’t belongs to the gung-ho world created by make-believe “we’re doing great” official statistics. Nor does it belong to that doom-and-gloom version of “where is Goa going?”, created out of the embers of a class who believe they had it good during the colonial times, and who see themselves as having lost out in the subsequent transition.

Newman’s introduction to Goa — if somewhat dated now, 23 years later — continues to be a basic text for anyone wanting to get an instant understanding of Goa. If you start collecting books on Goa, you would quickly realise that there is a lot of material out there.

Librarians like the UK-based Eddie Fernandes, formerly with the University College London, have collected over 2000 Goa-related titles. Incidentally Fernandes is the hard-working editor who single-handedly puts out the ezine called Goan Voice (Africanders, does that name ring a bell?) and it’s at http://www.goanvoice.org.uk

Bangalore-based scholar of Goan origins Rochelle Pinto, who recently published her own book, is seriously concerned about the state of libraries, and the need to build more. Places like the Xavier Centre of Historical Research (at Alto Porvorim, almost half-way along the Panjim-Mapusa road) have a rich collection which is still waiting to be adequately tapped, in their excellent libraries.

* * * * *

To begin at the beginning, though: where does one start with sourcing useful Goa books?

Finding them is like searching for a pin in a haystack. You search and search, and probably can’t find a good book. Some drop out from the bookshelves, and you make do with what you get.  By the time you learn of a good book, it’s usually out of print. And, when a new title is released, our struggling-to-be-irrelevant local press usually doesn’t have the space to review it.

So where does one go to get started?

Your best chose is those few bookshops that give some prominence to Goa-related books. OIBS (Other India Book Store), the alternative space hidden atop what used to be a hospital in Mapusa’s Feira-Alta locality, may be a good starting point. They publish an often-updated “Goa books” catalogue. This outlet is located located above the Old Mapusa Clinic at Mapusa.

Hotel Mandovi’s bookshop (near the Panjim ferry jetty) is easier to locate and centrally located. Khalil Ahmed’s Broadway, at Sant Inez in Panjim (Ashirwad Building, near Caculo Island, at the western end of 18th June Road), is another suitable outlet. So could be the Golden Heart Emporium in Margao. In Panjim, near the centrally-located Azad Maidan, the friendly Bhate Brothers run their Varsha Book Stall, started by their late father.

While passing near Don Bosco’s recently, one was surprised to see new religious bookshops come up in that locality. (Another is run by my friend and ex-Britto boy Tino Nazare, a former radio officer, at the Patto locality. Jesus Bookshop 2438638, 2nd Floor, Pato Centre Bldg.) For that matter, even the Daughters of St Paul’s has an interesting but unpredictable selection of Goa-related books, at bookshop along 18th June Road (Rani Pramila Ground Flr, Ph 2432608, 2231158).

More on this next week. Let me know if you find some interesting place for Goa-related books. Feedback welcome at fred@bytesforall.org or 2409490 or 9970157402 (after 1 pm).

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Tags: books, Goa, outlets

Learning from Goan expat writing

THE PRINTED PAGE

Goan expat writing continues to help the
reader here to understand the local
reality. Two new books, one on Abbe Faria
and the other on print and politics in
Goa, have just made it to the stands.
Meanwhile, the Central Library at Panjim
has also put out an informative website,
writes FREDERICK NORONHA.

–

Writers link the past with the future, and Luis S.R. Vas’ contribution is to the memory of Abbe Faria. Vas’ 117-page hard-bound book (ISBN 978-81-905716-0-9, Rs 295, www.bbcbooks.net) is soon to be out, and focuses on the 18th century hypnotist of Goan origin from Colvale and Candolim.

Readers might know the author to be the brother of the popular Dhempe College mentor-to-a-generation and prof Isabela Santa Rita Vas. Luis has “had a life-long interest in Abbe Faria and hypnosis”, the book tells us. And he has been for decades in feature writing, publishing, corporate communications and translating.

Like many non-residents settled outside Goa, he’s also contributing to the debate here.

His book starts interestingly: “Sometime in the early 1950s, British novelist and travel writer Norman Lewis arrived in Panjim, Goa’s capital, by steamboat.” And it goes on to quote the intrepid traveller as noting that the quay-side was “presided over” by a statue not of the colony’s founder Albuquerque, but rather the Goan who “discovered the doctrine of hypnotic suggestion”.

Vas begins by making us think: Who was this enigmatic Faria? Why is he not mentioned in some textbooks on hypnosis? Who is the lady in question? And he goes on to hint that Faria is a “most colourful if half-forgotten, 18th century character, perpetrator of amazing exploits, mainly in France, some of them still shrouded in mystery.”

This book is written in a simple yet catchy style. Its chapters would ring a bell to the reader in Goa to whom the Abbe is no stranger. Titles of the chapters, for instance, are: Candolim, Colvale, Trip to Lisbon, Propaganda Fide, Priest, Pope Pius VI, Cator Re Baji and so on….

Explains Vas: “As the 250th birth centenary of Abbe Faria loomed in 2006, I thought a new biography and assessment of the pioneer hypnotist would be an appropriate and worthwhile project for the occasion. This is that book.”
     
PRINT, POLITICS

Rochelle Pinto was just one of those names I ran across in cyberspace. Sometime in March 2005, a blog entry of mine noted: “Incidentally, in an article titled A Time To Publish published in the Economic and Political Weekly (Mumbai) issue of February 26, 2005, Rochelle Pinto makes some interesting points indeed.”

This week, Bangalore-based Pinto wrote in to inform that her new book “Between Empires: Print and Politics in Goa” (Oxford University Press, 2007 ISBN 9780195690477 Rs. 645, US$ 16.54) is just out.

Government Printing Press, Panjim… legacy from colonial times.

One google search told me: “Between Empires offers the first systematic analysis of the relationship between print culture and colonial rule in Goa. Rochelle Pinto discusses the development of print culture and its implications for larger questions of nationalism, modernity, and colonial politics.”

Sounds interesting.

Apparently, the book draws “succinctly from available literature on print, reading publics, and linguistic hierarchies elsewhere in India,” for the author to offer what the book calls “a persuasive account of the possibilities opened by print media and the manner in which it reordered social, cultural, or political ties within Goan society.”

Pinto looks at print produced in Portuguese, Konkani, and Marathi, and examines the contesting claims about Goa and the terrain of its politics.

“It shows how this highly contested public realm was deeply reflected in the novels, pamphlets, and newspapers produced by the Catholic elite, Goan migrants to Bombay, and litigants in the rural districts in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.” Pinto is credited with discussing questions of representation, genre, publicity, and literary history followed different trajectories among the non-elite and elite writers. One site said: “This work makes an important contribution to current discussions on the emergence of print spheres in colonial India.”

In her earlier, insightful EPW article, Pinto discussed two sets of pamphlets that appeared towards the end of the 19th century in colonial Goa, in an attempt to show how precedents and norms established by European print were not exactly reproduced in the colony.

The function of print and the genre of pamphlets, in particular, were altered by class difference, caste hierarchies and the context in which rural and urban politics functioned in Goa, she says.

Quote: “Increasingly, in the early decades of the 20th century, the monopolies and usurpation of land rights by nadkarnis, kulkarnis, and other dominant castes began to be challenged across villages in Goa. In the Old Conquests of Goa, the territories conquered from 1510 on, the institution of the communidade, which administered village land through councils whose membership was hereditary, male, and usually upper caste, was particularly strong.

“Rising literacy levels among sudras had, however, resulted in their growing visibility among groups of litigants in Goa. Salaried employment outside Goa had enabled sudras to use print to supplement litigation for land-rights. Within Goa, the form of the pamphlet was considerably altered when they adopted it to challenge the monopolies of kulkarnis, nadkarnis, and their own village comunidades.”

ONLINE NOW

Carlos Fernandes is the (newish) curator of the Central Library, in Panjim. From Ponda, he was earlier (for a short spell) the librarian at the Goa University, and also at the Goa Engineering College.

Last week, we ran into each other when one went to collect some information sought under the Right to Information Act.

Fernandes mentioned that the Central Library had just put up its new website. A quick glance made it clear that this is an unglamourous site, but one filled with a whole lot of useful information.

See http://goacentrallibrary.gov.in/

nlike some government-run sites, contracted out to private parties to create, this is a website built by the GoI’s National Informatics Centre, Goa. While private parties are great at creating glitzy sites, the NIC stresses on functionality. Their sites often last and don’t simply vanish in some time into that cyber black-hole.

What’s more, the Central Library initiative is enriched with a whole lot of useful information.

Some of the links on the home page focus on their collection (of books), services offered, committees, lists of libraries (including rural) in Goa, schemes to promote libraries, the rare book sections, forms and rules for joining the library, a photo gallery, lists of staff, and useful links.

The ‘useful links’ section takes you to two dozen online links, dealing with books, careers, scientific information and more. The Central Library has done a good job in taking things beyond just their own work. After all, information is seamless in a networked world.

Let’s hope they keep updating their site often, and adding more links to it. And also that readers take an active stand in ensuring that the site itself remains active and useful.

About the site, send in your feedback to the Central Library via phone 2425730 or 2436327, or via email lib-cent.goa@nic.in And, regarding this column, your comments and brickbats are welcome at fred@bytesforall.org or 2409490 or 9970157402

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Tags: goa, printing, expat writing, central library

Where have all the reviewers gone?

How will Goa books get the attention they deserve if the media doesn’t talk about them when the titles hit the stands, asks FREDERICK NORONHA.
THE PRINTED WORD

Where are all the book reviewers gone? Apart from the monthly magazine Goa Today, very few publications here give any decent space to focus on new books published in Goa.

Yes, Sunaparant reviews books, often Konkani. For the others, book reviews means looking at books published in some distant part of the globe, or in the mass market that is the rest of India. In such a context, who cares for books from Goa itself? Are we just destined to consume the thoughts that others churn out, rather than create some of our own?

Talking about which, there was this interesting discussion on the Goa Research Net [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-research-net] the other day.

Dr Pramod Kale wrote: “Books are published in all kinds of languages all over the world; but a book in Engish, backed by a million dollar contract, certainly has feet and walks all over the earth!” Well said indeed.

Dr Kale has a 1967 PhD from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and in Goa he’s probably better known for his genuinely insightful essay on the Konkani tiatr (‘Essentialist and Epochalist Elements in Goan Popular Culture : A : Case Study of Tiatre’ Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXI No.47, November 22, 1986). He also has worked on a Chicago project about the dynamics of social and cultural change in Roman Catholic communities in Goa. And a video film ‘Chandor, a Roman Catholic Village in Goa : Habitat and Performances’, (30 minutes, colour, English narration), 1995.

But coming back to the issue of the printed word, and Goa.

After ages, I read a fascinating review of a Goa related book, on the Net the other day. It was written by my acerbic friend (and one-time classmate) Augusto Pinto of Moira. It was about Alfredo de Mello’s just-published book ‘From Goa to Patagonia: Memoirs Spanning Times and Spaces’.

And Augusto began it thus: “If I was Alfredo de Mello’s editor, the first thing I would have told him was to rename his book: The Autobiography of a Young Goan Fidalgo, and then subtitle it: Memories of the Son of Dr. Froilano de Mello, the Great Bamon Bhatkar of Benaullim.”

With the right mix of irreverence, admiration for the author and control over his language, Augusto made light of Goan Catholic idiosyncracies. This includes even issues like caste among the Catholic community, which is otherwise such a bugbear to deal with, either way one sees it.

Augusto ends his review saying: “In spite of these carpings I think this book is an excellent read which I’d heartily recommend.And I look forward to Volume 2.” In between he goes on to touch varied topics — Goan Catholic elites, and even that bound-to-raise-eyebrows topic of how Goan writers handle the issue of sex!

You can find the review here: http://augustoreview.notlong.com

MASCI, THE MAN

Thanks to a mention in this column, I ran into author Odette Mascarenhas, a management consultant formerly with the Taj whose first book is well produced and written.

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Titled ‘Masci: The Man Behind the Legend’ is about her father-in-law, Miguel Arcanjo Mascarenhas. This is the story of how a simple man from a Goan village, Anjuna, went on to become a famed name in India’s cullinary history.

Just because her subject is her father-in-law should in no way detract from this book. It’s not just a puff piece.

‘Masci’ (an Anglicised short-hand for Mascarenhas, you guessed right) is an individual who deserves recognition. Like so many other Goans do, whose achivements across the globe just die unsung and get buried with their bodies.

Odette does a fine job in putting together a collection of photographs and clippings that portray the achievements of the man, who stares out from the neat cover in a chef’s garb.

She tells her story, as a fresher in the catering line in the Taj (in Bombay) in 1979: “My induction covered a host of areas and the most profound impact was in the kitchen… the reverence with which a single word was uttered, ‘Masci’…. I never really questioned the respect and awe that remained in the voices of some of the esteemed clients who patronized the Taj and made comments like ‘Masci would have done it like this’ or ‘No dish even left the kitchen without Masci tasting it first.’”

Unlike many hurriedly-published Goa books, this one has a classy get-up and is printed on fine paper. Its contents page gets called ‘the menu’ and apart from 131 pages on the man himself, pages 132 to 183 are devoted to recipes. Soups, entrees, breakfast, salads, the main course, the “Goan affair”, veg fair, snippets, and deserts. Fifty recipes in all.

A good book. But will it get the readership it deserves?

PANCHAYATI ISSUES

Madkai-based Peaceful Society, a Gandhian group, has been working at the grassroots for some time now. Often, they stay away from the publicity and hype that non-governmental organisations sometimes bask in. And they’ve done quite some work on panchayati raj issues.

Their newly published book ‘Panchayati Raj in India: Post 73rd Constitutional Amendment Scenario’ is an English-language edition of a national publication.

Its 13 chapters looks at various issues of ‘panchayati raj’, albeit from a national perspective. Hard-bound and 460 pages thick, this is a useful guide if you’re interested in issues related to panchayats.It was self-published by Peaceful Society, Kundai, Goa in a printrun of 500 copies (no price mentioned) and printed in Ahmedabad.

Talking about this organisation, their tiny booklets related to gram sabhas of panchayats and other matters (priced at a nominal Rs 5) have been very useful in spreading awareness at the grassroots level in Goa. That these publications are available for a free download from the Net only makes them more popular. For details email Kumar Kalanand Mani at peaceful_goa@sancharnet.in

This much for this week now. Feedback welcome: fred@bytesforall.org or 2409490 or 9970157402

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Tags: goa, books, cullinary, augusto pinto, reviews, peaceful society