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Touched By The Toe by Alexandre Moniz Barbosa Palavra Publications - Panaji, Goa, 2004 Rs 150, pages 211. REVIEWED BY Lino Leitao [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alexandre Moniz Barbosa comes across an episode while researching Goa's Colonial Period, which kindles his curiosity, inspiring him to write a novel; and the novel is: Touched By The Toe. Touched By The Toe is a fictional narrative, but also, it's a story braided with historical facts and writer's imagination. It's a legendary story of Fr. Francisco Xavier's toe, which was bitten off his right foot in the mid sixteen-century Goa while he was lying in state in the church of St Paul. Here is how the author describes the toe-biting incident, "She knelt before the feet and as her lips touched the toes of the body, her mouth opened, engulfed the little toe of the right foot, her teeth closed around it and in one motion, Isabel bit it fully off the foot of Fr. Francisco Xavier". Who's Isabel? What made her to bite off the toe from the foot of Fr. Francisco Xavier? Where's the toe now? To get answers to the above questions one has to read the novel. It's an engaging story, and the author by injecting historical authenticity to the narrative, transports his readers to that era in Goa's history. The author recounts vividly a baptism ceremony as it is taking place in the chapel of St. Jerome. The celebrant is Fr. Francisco Xavier, the first Jesuit to set foot in India, 1542. The religious atmosphere is depicted realistically, infusing the sombre solemnity of those times, and if you happen to have an active imagination, you might envision yourself in that congregation attending the ceremony, and hear the blessing as enunciated in Latin by Fr Francisco Xavier: "Benedicat Vos Ommipotens Deus Pater, Fillius et Spiritus Sactus." But others, who aren't of any religious persuasion, may reflect and understand the hold the religion of this nature had on the faithful of that time. The novel explores Jesuits intrigues, racial prejudices and servile attitudes of the colonized. While enjoying the reading of the novel, you'll get a perspective of Goa's history of that period at the same time. --- Lino Leitao is a Goan writer based in Montreal. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the 7000-strong readership of the Goanet/Goanet-news network of mailing lists. If you appreciated the thoughts expressed above, please send in your feedback to the writer. Our writers write -- or share what they have written -- pro bono, and deserve hearing back from those who appreciate their work. GoanetReader is edited by Frederick Noronha [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goanet, 1994-2004, building community and social capital for a decade. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------