Hi Silviano, Ped Ruzar Fernandes is a figment of your imagination but my Grand-Father, Sylvester Philip D'Souza, was a very real person -- and he reached Montreal, Canada in 1918 after serving with an Indian Army group in France during the First World War, which ended in 1918 -- He died in Montreal on 1st August 1945.
His grand-children, his daughter's (Bemvinder Rodrigues') children, Bella (D'Cruz), Leo, Alex, Allan, Rudi and Collette (Andrade) and their children and grand-children are all in Canada -- Toronto and Vancouver. Maybe we should stake claim to Sylvester Philip D'Souza being one of the first Goans, if not the very first, to reach Canada. Cheers Aloysius D'Soiuza ----- Original Message ----- From: "Silviano Barbosa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <goanet@goanet.org> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 5:59 AM Subject: [Goanet]O.K. Nice to be back Here's one old article I just foundviaAltaVista Search! | | | | OCTOBER 1997 | PULSE MAGAZINE | | | JOURNEY INTO 'LITTLE GOA' | By Silviano Barbosa | A close look at Goan paradise in Toronto, Canada | | Who was the first Goan to land in Canada? Was it A. Fernandes from East | Africa or B. D'Souza from Karachi or C. Pereira from Bombay? Well, it was | none of them. From what I found out recently, it was Ped Ruzar Fernandes | from Maddel, Goa. He was the first Niz Goenkar, the real genuine Goan from | Goa to step upon Canadian soil. Pedro Rosario Fernandes landed in Vancouver | on a cold winter's day on January 17th 1897. | | At a recently held lavish party thrown in his honour to commemorate his | centenary, Ped Ruzar's great grandson, Kennedy Valerian Fernandes of Goa, | (who recently migrated to Canada from Saudi Arabia) welcomed the mostly | Konkani speaking Goan creme de la creme in his palatial 4000 sq.ft. home in | Markham and described in detail the pioneering effort of Ped Ruzaris first | landing in Canada. | | It seems Ped Ruzar was a cook on a British steamship S.S. Adelaide. The ship | had docked in Vancouver on January 17, 1897. Ped Ruzar had seen snow for the | first time in his life. Excited he quickly opened a can of condensed milk, | poured it into a bowl, added some sugar and cocoa to it and got off the | ship. He ran towards the dock which was covered with fresh snow. He grabbed | some snow, placed it into the bowl and mixed it with sugar, cocoa and | condensed milk. He quickly gulped the concocted mixture, loudly exclaiming | "Ice-cream! Ice-cream!" The captain of the ship heard him and shouted back | "Don't scream! Don't scream!" Since that day, Ped Ruzar was known as the | 'Ice-cream Man' all over Goa. | | Ped Ruzar went back to Goa. Word got around that the 'Ice-cream Man' was | ready for marriage. Hundreds of proposals came for the Canada returned | prospective bachelor. A beautiful maiden Kotrin finally became the mango | (apple) of his eye. They got married and within a year they had a son, | Hipolito. When he grew up, young Hipolito also joined the ship. Hipolito got | married and had a son named Manuel. Hipolito died during the war when the | Japanese emperor Hirohito died. Manuel got married and had a son who was | born in 1961 soon after Kennedy became the President of the United States. | As a result Manuel's son was christened Kennedy. His second name was taken | from Goa's first Prince of the Church, Cardinal Valerian Gracias. | | Kennedy V. Fernandes went to Loyola High School and later graduated as a | computer engineer from Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) at Powai, | Bombay. Then he accepted an offer to go to Saudi Arabia, where he made a lot | of tax-free money. Through a professional broker and money manager in New | York, he made even more money playing the risky commodities and futures | market. | | Kennedy went back to Goa and opened an ice-cream factory in Margao and named | it 'PERFECT' ICE CREAM, the acronym 'Perfect' being for 'Ped Ruzar Fernandes | Canadian Taste'. Soon Kennedy got married to his bhattkar's (landlord) | beautiful daughter, Clara and went back to Saudi Arabia. He eventually | migrated to Canada for the sake of their children's future. They presently | live in a gorgeous mortgage-free home in Markham, (not Margao) North of | Toronto. | | But in the heart of his hearts, like his great grandfather, Kennedy is a | true and genuine Goan, a Niz Goenkar. He is happy to be here among thousands | of other Goans. He was thrilled to see Goa represented in all facets of life | in Toronto, Canada. | | When he first attended St. Francis Xavier's feast, he was surprised to see | Goan food like pulau, sorpotel, vindalho, xacuti, bebic, Goa sausages, buch, | pickle and paro. What surprised him most was the Annual Konkani Tiatro | performed by Goans in Toronto. He found the acting, singing and comedy to be | of the same calibre as in Goa if not better. He was even more surprised to | find that there were even Konkani cassettes and CDs produced by Goans in | Canada. When he first went to the GOA's New Year's Dance he was amused to | see personalized car license plates such as GOARAJ, MRGOA, GOA001, FENNY, | BABUSH,etc. | | Kennedy visited the Panjim pavilion of the GOA CARAVAN festival and he was | speechless. The displays, the dances, the bands, the food and the general | participation filled his heart with Goan pride. It really made him proud to | be a Goan in Canada. Kennedy attends Goan parties and dances, where he can | listen to Goan music and Konkani songs and eat Goan delicacies. He visits | the Gerard St. Indian stores to shop for basmati rice and other spices. He | was recently excited to hear about the newly opened Goan Restaurant and he | visited it the very next day. | | Kennedy regularly surfs the Internet especially for the Goan news and views. | His day starts and ends with Goan Konkani songs. His daily food is genuinely | Goan. He begins his day with warm chapatis, eggs and bacon. He likes his | daily rice and coconut juice curry (with lots of free cholesterol) made with | pompfret fish. Occasionally he will eat pizza, tacos and junk food such as | hamburgers and fried chicken, but he can't stay away from Goa sausages, paro | and pickle. Even his children relish it. His wife makes great Goan and | Indian foods such as pulau, xacuti, sorpotel, buch, vindalho, beef-rolad, | Goa sausages, boje, bottat-vhodde, puri-bhaji, shev, chakli, dal ghosht, | goat curry, etc. | | In the summer he goes for picnics and camping with his family and friends. | It truly makes him feel he is in the midst of a Goan ambience. There they | play Goan games, fish, barbeque, sing Goan manddo, drink fenni and tell | jokes while ladies go through their routine of gossip. His wife makes boje, | bottat-vhodde, chutney sandwiches and sausage paon for picnics. | | He attends many Goan village feasts, christenings and First Holy Communion | parties. He loves attending Goan parties where there is genuine Goan food. | If he does not feel satisfied, he will go home and eat his rice and curry | anyway. He throws parties regularly. He invites Goan priests to celebrate | mass in his house every year for God's blessings on the family. He brings | over the statue of Our Lady every year and celebrates Ladainha. | | In his den, he has a library of books by Goan authors from all over the | world. He has Konkani cassettes, videos and CDs. His house is filled with | Goan artifacts. Kennedy always keeps two big carboys full of coconut and | caju fenny in his cellar for his friends. Among his close circle of friends | are Goans who speak Konkani and are proud of their heritage. | | Kennedy V. Fernandes is a proud joint owner of a private company. Together | with a Hong Kong investor, they run a state of the art software technology | firm called Software for Remotely Ported Telecommunications. Proud of his | Goan heritage, he named it himself. The acronym reads 'SORPOTEL'. The email | address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Kennedy does not miss much from Goa, except the weather. He despises the | cold temperatures of Canada. He constantly feels homesick. Every year in the | month of February, poor little rich Kennedy takes off to Goa. He is only 37 | and semi-retired. Wouldn't you envy him? I bet you would. | | But I am sorry to say Kennedy V. Fernandes is not real, for he is a figment | of my imagination, just like Ped Ruzar. But the existence of a truly Goan | culture and sucegado way of life in 'Little Goa' in Toronto, Canada is a | concrete reality. And you still don't know who was the first Goan to land in | Canada, right? (Disclaimer: The characters in this article are all | fictitious.) | | [Silviano Barbosa has finished his first Goan novel, 'The Sixth Night', | which is awaiting publication.] | | October 1997 Pulse Index Page | | G.O.A. (Ontario) Home Page | | FOR THE HOME PAGE | | ************************ That was then , this is now June 8/2005 | ***************** | | Hi Cecil, | | Very nice article about the Beer! The best I liked so far! | Belo! Ciao! | | |