Imagine in 1960 you were a Goan adult in Bombay city. Friday evening after 5 full days of work you looked forward to the weekend. You worked Saturday too but only for half the day, which meant little effort if any at all. That evening was a stage play, a tiatr in Konkani. The billing included Anthony Mendes, Anthony D’Souza, C Alvares and Robin Vaz. It had Ophelia and Antonette too, so this would be no run-of-the-mill show. Loud whistles throughout the play would increase enjoyment.
You were soon going to miss all that. You had interviewed with MacKinnon Mackenzie in Ballard Estate and your uncle working there would make sure you got that plum job in Aden, British Yemen. A large salary increase from 300 rupees to 500. You would have hesitated except that two of your villagers from Bastora who were there for many years convinced you it was your lucky break. An easily available part time job in the British Baghdadi Jewish shops lining the port would increase your income. They preferred Goan clerks. Honest and hardworking. So you wanted to celebrate. Merely taking country liquor from Dhobitalao in your pocket for the interval didn’t cut it for this one. You told the two friends who would accompany you that you had something special. The British had sold a lot of opium in China. To make large fortunes they had succeeded in drugging first the royals and then the common folk. They could not have done it without the Parsis and Gujaratis of Bombay. They financed it, transported it and distributed it while the British Army stood ready to quell any Chinese disturbances. So the British thrived. One more reason for empire. But so did the Parsis and Gujaratis. They became filthy rich, building magnificent baroque stone buildings that housed colleges, hospitals, places of worship, taking their businesses from small shops to large international trading houses. By 1960 it was 13 years that the British had left India. Except for the statues, their names on roads and institutions, and their bureaucracy, the latter of which still remains, their presence was no longer felt. But vestiges of their Opium Adventure in China still remained in the Bhangwadi area and you, a Portuguese Goan resident in Bombay there for a Konkani play, soon going to Aden was going to get high with his friends on a night of entertainment the kind of which you would no longer see.... Reminiscing the Bhangwadi days of Gujarati theatre... Manoj Shah in conversation with Utkarsh Mazumdar... Natya Chaupal: 2015. https://www.mumbaitheatreguide.com/dramas/Articles/15/jul/manoj-shah-in-conversation-with-utkarsh-mazumdar-enatya-chaupal-friday-17th-july-2015.asp# Roland. Toronto.
