Of  interest to readers of Goan  literature will be  a review of the novel " 
The Sixth Night "  by Silviano Barbosa  written by Lino Leitao based in 
Montreal  which appeared in the April issue  of Goa Today :----


Book Review

"The Sixth Night"

A novel by Silviano C. Barbosa

Review by Lino Leitao, 
Author of the novel "The Gift of the Holy Cross"


THE SIXTH NIGHT

        by

Silviano C. Barbosa

Goa Raj Books
Toronto, Canada.
pp 314, Hard Cover,   December 2004
US$ 20
 
What's the Sixth Night, or Sottvi Raat?

It's an old Goan belief, which the author expresses in a couplet down below:

       No matter how hard you try       
       No matter what you do
       What is written on your Sixth Night 
       Will always come true 
        
        Silviano Barbosa, the author, weaves a very fascinating narrative 
around this old Goan belief, exposing the social mores based on caste 
iniquities and servile mental attitudes implanted to the very core of the Goan 
psyche by the feudal and colonial hierarchies during that period of Goa's 
history. 

        The story revolves around Linda Antonieta Cardoso, born to Joanita 
Dias of Navelim and Mário Cardoso of Cuncolim on the twenty-seven October 
1944. She is born in the Shudra caste, the lowest caste in the Goan caste 
structure, and her ancestors were toddy tappers. 

       As one goes reading the novel, it appears, that Sottvi, the Goddess of 
the Sixth Night, inscribed an exceptional future in Linda's destiny. Sottvi 
endowed her with a gift of intellectual curiosity, giving her a strong will to 
fight against the prejudices that kept humans in subservient oppression in the 
society that she was born in.     

       Linda's consciousness awakens to the injustices of the caste system, 
for the first time, when she was about nine years old. It happened in her 
village Church. She had gone with her mother Joanita to the Passion Service, 
and they were lucky to have seats in the pew at the back. But when an upper 
caste woman who had arrived late to the services, orders them to vacate the 
seats because they are of lower caste, and that the seats be given to her, 
Linda rebels and fights for her rights, creating a commotion in the Church.

       Much later on, when Linda was a student at Liceu Nacional Afonso de 
Albuquerque - Portuguese High School, in Panjim, the fellow students, who came 
from the Goan elite class and some from Portuguese Europeans, looked down upon 
her because she didn't belong to their social status. She was just a plain 
village girl. The snobbish attitudes of her fellow students hurt her. She 
fought them by coming at the top of her class, thereby demonstrating that she 
was not only intellectually superior to them but a better human being. 

       A critical reader will come across some impetuous assertions in the 
narrative, which oftentimes, aren't historically appropriate, and the 
characters that abound in the novel don't voice them. They come as viewpoints 
or observations from the author, impeding not only the flow of the narrative 
but damaging the literary quality of the novel. An example:

       "The majority of the ordinary Catholic people of Goa never had any 
trouble with the Portuguese, except the lack of influence and power. They did 
not care who ruled Goa as long as they were happy. Currently, they were happy. 
(p 207)". 

       The above statement is a biased statement and the author should have 
known better. The Goan populace irrespective of their religious affiliations 
lived in secular harmony. By stereotyping 'the ordinary Catholic people of 
Goa', the author is adding fuel to the fire. The Goan populace from all 
sectors worked very hard to earn a meagre living and if they looked contented, 
it was because they were kept ignorant of their fundamental rights. Catholic 
intellectuals like: Loyolas of Orlim, Menezes Bragança, Roque Correia Afonso, 
Tristão da Cunha, Francisco Candido de Loyola and Dr Julião Menezes were the 
pioneers of Civil Rights Movenent in Goa, and I am sure that the author is 
aware of this fact.

       Ignoring such flaws, we pursue the romance of Linda and Carlos Soares, 
a Portuguese bureaucrat, who was an attaché to the Governor's Colonial Office 
in Panjim. Fate throws a lot of insurmountable hurdles on their way, making 
their union almost impossible. But in the end, purity of feelings and true 
love overcomes them all, and the couple gets married not in Goa, nor in 
Portugal, but in St Michael's Cathedral in Toronto. 

       You and I may not believe it, but Joanita, the mother of Linda, who 
came all the way from Goa to attend the wedding of her daughter, is certainly 
convinced that the Sottvi, the Goddess of the Sixth Night, inscribed the 
incomparable future of her daughter on that auspicious sixth night of her 
birth.

       I enjoyed reading The Sixth Night. 
        
       Lino Leitão - author of The Gift of the Holy Cross. 
       The novel can be ordered from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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