by Dr. Francisco Colaco
I am a great admirer of Valmiki Faleiro and had lavished a lot of praise on Valmiki as a brilliant writer and master of the pen. I stand by what I said. But after perusing his book “Soaring Spirit” minutely this is what I have to say:- 1. The historians whom I met on that day and thereafter admit it is no historical book at all. A magnus opus that makes sweeping statements about contentious subjects should contain well-known references and a readily-accessible bibliography. That the book was written in three months cannot be advanced as an excuse for its multiple short-comings 2. Valmiki’s book, instead of being a historical book, reads like a book of khaniô. He has indeed stooped to abysmal depths by selectively bringing into the open the private and intimate lives of inhabitants of Largo da Igreja and their revered ancestors. He seems totally confused when he brings into play the new settlers like Massurkars and Barretos in good light, while directing his ire, a fruit of his fertile imagination, against those against whom his family had a grudge, notwithstanding the fact that the Colaços in particular, to cite one example, contributed so much towards the welfare of Holy Spirit Church and the Comunidades unlike his family. 3. Valmiki would have sounded more congruent if, while washing other people’s dirty linen, he had brought under scrutiny his own. It is abysmal to learn that he talks of his half-mad “gossip-monger” aunts as “encyclopedias” who gave him the inputs for his book. Further, he fails to mention about his own father who was a manic-schizophrenic and had to be tied when he ran amuck and went into a state of murderous frenzy. Yet, he seems bent on soiling other people’s good name which is tantamount to defamation. As a member of the ancestral Colaço family, I have two advices for Valmiki. First, “let a book about “history” be a “historical book”. Second, “those who have glass houses should not throw stones”
