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GOA
a Rediscovery - Ben Antão
Goan Observer Private Limited, Panjim-Goa
Rs150, pp 99
a review by Lino Leitão
Ben Antão, who resides in Toronto, is an active
writer known to Canadians and to Goans in the 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 the US, and then to Canada, where he makes his home now,
he never left Goa He had saudades (Portuguese term) of Goa, the Goa where
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 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
zalem,” her words must have touched the author’s heart, connecting him to
the spirit of Goa, the Goa that he was brought up with.
The 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 of his readers, he gives us a
plethora of pictures both in colour and black and white. Goans in the
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 Geraldton Crescent, Toronto, Ont. M2J 2R6 Email:
ben.antao@rogers.com
Lino Leitão
Dorval, Quebec, Canada
December 18, 2004
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