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CONVENTION OF THE GOAN DIASPORA FROM GOA INTO THE WORLD
Lisbon, Portugal June 15-17, 2007 Details at:
http://www.goacom.org/casa-de-goa/noticias.html
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Three off five names end with "Zata". All the titles are sentences which
describe the action of "bappa". The protagonist is still "bappa"...This is
'passe' stuff, long dead that desrves a decent garve.
In the light of the above, here are some reflections:
22 years back I left Goa. A youth of 22 then, with desire to study more,
interact with a world beyond the golden coast, taste something other than
fish and feni. It was the year 1985. The bridge had just collapsed! Remo had
recently embarressed the Late Rajiv Gandhi at campal with his ridiculously
patronizing 'number'(hello Rajiv gandhi), minutes before he declared Goa a
state. It all somehow made one expect a change. Hope more committedly that
'Amchem Goyem' would grow up.
some years into the '90s and we had theatre school at K.A. It seemed as
though we would do better than the tame little plays that were put up at
K.A. annual theatre competitions. On the regional literature front we had a
Veluskar or a Naik showing some originality and strengh of conviction in his
writings. That, I thought was much better than the "pochpocheet" and
childish skits and aweful stuff written by...( beg your pardon, I don't even
remember the author of that sort of trash...) Sometimes the plays were
either original marathi or traslations (in Marathi mostly) of plays written
by big names in Indian playwriting like Mohan Rakesh or Badal Sarkar, etc.
(Our Sangeet khell or tiatr is, in my opinion, a classic form of popular art
and therefore exempted from undue criticism)
In 1992, Hartman D'souza did some experiments in theatre with his group
called "Khell" funded by the Ford foundation. Goa was too complascent to
notice. In 1990, some young painters like Ted mesquita and Hanuman Kambli
attempted to make their presence felt. There were exhibitions and 'art' etc.
happening alright, but it was so conventional, so bougeoise that one wished
it didn't exist. The painters ( founders of Goan Art Forum) demanded to be
on their own terms.
I am happy about the recent Aparantha, (although I had written two separate
drafts for Goanet, it was somehow not published - owing of course, to my
green-ness on this network) that finally Goa was joining the mainstream on
its own. Goa had finally found its numinus, its 'CHI', its own rhythm of
growth, I thought.
And then I read this message 2, Fr.Freddy's bappa... and something in me
buckled. It was a Promethean sentiment when his rock must have tumbled again
down the slope. Something like,"oh, Nooo! Not Bappa again! Not again the
"Sorti futta" thing, man, bappa is gone with his "pudvem" for ever into the
oblivion!" (please note that I'm aware of Prometheus's probable ignorance of
Bappa, or for that matter vice versa! It was the sentiment, the hopelessness
that exists a fraction before you give up or decide to hope again, that I
distinctly had the experience of)
But there he is! "Bappa" and "sorti" and the "zata" and the "futta" ... ever
the over repeated, the tame, the legendary humour of the Goan psyche!
I must confess here in all honesty that I did not mean to judge late fr.
Freddy nor Fr. Diogo fernandes who is releasing the bappa series. They are,
I am sure, very decent human beings, worthy of all my respect and love. Nor
is my reaction to the two mentioned above, but rather to that certain
'playing safe' attitude which has always harnessed Goans to a sort of semi
retardation. I do not intend to imply that the 'popular bappa series'
should not be or are not popular. Mine is a reaction, perhaps a little
'mpassioned', to a tendency locked within a collective psyche (not just the
Goan). It is more the criticism of the habitual response of man to things
and I do wish for it to go, for it is a tamasic or inert response.
As for us, we Goans are warm people, why should our art be stale and luke
warm? We Goans are terrific folk, and so should our art be.
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