Souza: The Artist, His Loves & His Times

Souza: The Artist, His Loves & His Times

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no 21

In the end, F. N. Souza belongs to Goans. Apart from the Tate Gallery, London, displaying one of Souza’s most emblematic works, the ‘Crucifixion,’ and Grosvenor Gallery having the occasional retrospective, F. N Souza elicits little recognition. There are no biographies paying tribute to the artist, no English heritage plaques commemorating the places he lived in, nor are there regular references made to his work in that definitive art reviewer, the TLS; he does not seep into the British consciousness the way his contemporary Francis Bacon does or even the less distinguished and one-time boarder at Souza’s house, Keith Vaughan does.

Revisiting Goan Diasporas of Pakistan and East Africa

Revisiting Goan Diasporas of Pakistan and East Africa

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no 19

What becomes clear is that by the late 19th century, increasingly, metropolitan Bombay rather than Goa became the centripetal location from where Goan elite in the diaspora sought direction. The ambitions of Bombay-Goans like Leandro Mascarenhas, B.X. Furtado and Dr Acacio G. Viegas who were founding members of the Associacao Goanna de Mutuo Auxilio Ltd, the Uniao Goanna and the Instituto Luso-Indiano were mirrored in Pakistan and East Africa

Mona Dash: A Sensual Feast

Mona Dash: A Sensual Feast

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no 19

So begins our journey, with a touch of trepidation, into Mona Dash’s collection of short stories, titled, Let us Look Elsewhere, (Dalia Books UK, 2021). What sensual feasts await the reader? Imagine Anais Nin, imagine the writings of women, bold and untrammelled, indulgent of sexual desire, unrestrained by a moralising gaze, yet conscious of the constraints of marriage and motherhood.

Siddharth Dasgupta: A Moveable East

Siddharth Dasgupta: A Moveable East

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no 19

There is a kind of secular light which washes over Siddharth’s collection of poems titled A Moveable East (Red River, 2021), its 136 pages divided into seven sections. I say secular not because it shies away from the sacred but rather because he embraces the sacred with a purity of heart, embraces the universal goodness that lies at the core of each faith tradition, and claims as his own the unique voice of these faiths, their many moments of shadow and space.

Rochelle Potkar: Bombay Hangovers

Rochelle Potkar: Bombay Hangovers

In conversation with Rochelle Potkar

Issue no 19

As these stories organically came about, I gleaned that the common thread was Bombay, later Mumbai. As one consumes the ebb and flow, sea-breeze, buzz and bustle, march and spring, it puts you into the rhythm of its heartbeat and the city speaks to you. There is a hum that I have not felt in other cities of the world, rare like Bombay blood group. This hangover is one of memory, in and outside the city then. More so, of the joint march of its citizenry of all classes—industrious as bees and ants.

Kololo Hill: A Story of Courage

Kololo Hill: A Story of Courage

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no 19

Neema Shah joins this sparse but important canon of Asian-African literature with her debut novel Kololo Hill (Picador, 2021), the focus of which is also the interrupted and scattered lives of the Asian exodus. It has fallen largely to the sons and daughters of those who left Africa and settled in the new worlds of Canada and UK to tell this story. Shah’s mother was born in Kenya and her father in Tanzania who migrated to the UK.

Vitesh Naik: I See Myself in Crowds

Vitesh Naik: I See Myself in Crowds

By Jugneeta Sudan

Issue no 19

National award winning artist Vitesh Naik, who began from humble beginnings in Jan 1974, has been awarded the 2021-22 Pollock–Krasner Foundation grant. Considering his passion and perseverance, the outcome has been most satisfying. It began with a sketch of his teacher in history class for which he was suspended for 3 months.

A Goan Wedding in Zanzibar, 1896

A Goan Wedding in Zanzibar, 1896

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no. 19

Maria Augusta Elvira de Sousa is lost to history. She wanders its corridors, unclaimed. In accounts by European chroniclers, her ethnicity remains a shadowy unknown to be guessed at, presumed most likely to be a Portuguese woman. But I am determined to reclaim Elvira’s rightful place, because Elvira was a Goan.

Goa's Literati Name their Best Reads of 2020

Goa's Literati Name their Best Reads of 2020

Compiled by Selma Carvalho

Issue no 18

In a year when lives were disrupted in a most unexpected manner, 17 of Goa’s literati spread across the world, tell us of the books, in 2020, they found comfort and meaning in. This splendidly diverse list which includes everything from love, sex, spirituality, self-healing, decolonisation, and displacement to World War II and queer writing, makes for curious reading.

Interpreting Sudhirsukta: Waghacho Rag

Interpreting Sudhirsukta: Waghacho Rag

By Augusto Pinto

Issue no 18

In 2013 a poetry collection came out which in my opinion is a jewel of Konkani literature. There are those who might dispute this view and indeed regard this collection as not merely valueless but even pornographic. Be that as it may, one thing is true: anyone who has read this particular poetry collection will agree that it is the most controversial work of literature ever produced in Konkani.

Gavin Barrett: I am a Pocomomo - a postcolonial modern mongrel

Gavin Barrett: I am a Pocomomo - a postcolonial modern mongrel

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no. 18

I am what I call a pocomomo—a postcolonial modern mongrel. I am Goan thanks to my mother and Anglo-Indian thanks to my dad and am fortunate to be claimed by both communities. Without meaning to sound precious, my lived experience contains many exiles. So there is always the yearning for Goa that many in the Goan diaspora feel.

The Suppression of Romi Konkani and the shaming of a people

The Suppression of Romi Konkani and the shaming of a people

By Malavika Neurekar

Issue no 18

The book is about people who want to belong and yet can't; that is to say the liminal subject. Now I know all about being the liminal subject. My mother is Mangalorean and my father was Goan, and so when I grew up in Goa, this liminality, of being not quite Goan, was an important part of my life.

Goan Homes: A Lamentation

Goan Homes: A Lamentation

By Yvonne Vaz Ezdani

Issue no 17

The sun has just waved a glorious goodbye, leaving lingering light for my path. I latch the gate behind me as I step out on my evening walk. Clusters of crimson bougainvillea slipping over our white-washed garden wall make me stop to let the beauty soak in. More warmth, as passersby smile and friendly neighbours wave from balcãoes as I walk on.

Lives in Childhood: Goan Writers & Artists

Lives in Childhood: Goan Writers & Artists

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no 16

the home has always been a special place, one we take for granted perhaps, but which dwells in our imagination—the geographic specificity of it, the relationships which unfold within it, the momentous events we share and celebrate—and particularly the homes of our childhood remain with us, becoming an indelible part of our consciousness.

Bombay Balchão: Inspired by Family Histories

Bombay Balchão: Inspired by Family Histories

By Selma Carvalho

Issue no 16

My great-grandfather Ignatius Borges was from Sadashivgad in Karwar; he worked as a motorman for the railways and travelled often. His younger son, Stephen, my grandfather, served briefly in the army, before moving to Bombay in the 1940s, where he lived in a kudd, a short distance from Cavel. He got married to a Goan bride, my grandmother, Anna Vaz, and got himself a job as a tailor, and settled on Grant Road.

Peter Nazareth: I am a 'Pure Goan' but there is no such thing

Peter Nazareth: I am a 'Pure Goan' but there is no such thing

By R. Benedito Ferrao

Issue no 16

I was the first-born son in the family. My sister Ruth was born when I was over four years old, and so I was in effect a lone person. My father had a lot of books in our house, including joke books. He was well known by Goans for giving fine speeches and always including a joke in the speeches.