------------------------------------------------------------------------ Remembering Aquino Braganca (b. 6 April 1924), who fought for freedom of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. An online tribute http://aquinobraganca.wordpress.com/ (includes many historical references, some photographs and documents)
------------------------------------------------------------------------ *April Fool* *By Tony de Sa* The Ides of March have come and gone, and the month of April and spring are well under way. Many of us must have been victims of April Fool jokes on the first of April. April Fool jokes vary from the garden variety to the more sophisticated ones. There are all kinds of April Fool pranksters, but none can outshine a college friend of mine, whom I shall call Peter for the sake of anonymity. When it came to April Fool jokes, Peter left rival pranksters miles behind. Months of planning and preparation went into his pranks. I first became a victim of Peter’s April Fool jokes when I was a student of St Xavier’s College when it was located in Bastora. For a few days, Peter had been promising to take me for a treat to Mapusa. On that April Fools’ day, he finally invited me for an ice cream in Mapusa. Accordingly, we bunked our classes and went to Mapusa on his scooterette. At the ice cream parlour, Peter ordered two large tubs of chocolate ice cream. The owner informed us that only one large tub was available and the rest were small tubs. Peter generously offered to have a small tub and asked the man to give me a large tub. Both settled down to tuck into our respective tubs. I dug my spoon into the tub and was about to put it in my mouth when I realized that the tub was filled with mud and that the tub had only a thin layer of ice cream on top of the mud. I swore at Peter, who was happily grinning and chanting “April Fool, April Fool”. Peter had roped in the ice cream man for this enterprise. Of course, as compensation, I was offered a large strawberry cone to make up for being fooled. Over the years, Peter became a celebrity of sorts for his bizarre jokes; a memorable one was when he decided to commit ‘suicide’. Exams come around April. For a few days before April Fools’ Day, Peter had been complaining that he was feeling desperate because he couldn’t study and was contemplating suicide. Everybody brushed this aside as Peter’s tomfoolery, and so no one took him seriously – till one afternoon when everybody in the house heard a big splash in the well. On trying to figure out the source of this sound, Peter’s sister was horrified to find a pair of old bathroom slippers, a banian and a scapular on the well wall. Immediately, Peter’s constant grumbles came to mind, and when she couldn’t find him in his room a hue and cry was raised. The neighbouring village lads were called and the swimmers among them dived into the well in search of Peter. Peter’s mother, sister and other relatives were sobbing bitterly and everyone was at their wits’ end. A few enterprising souls even tried to poke bamboo sticks into the well in the hope of snagging Peter’s body, but to no avail. After this commotion died down and before any serious steps could be taken like calling in the police from Mapusa, Peter walked in, cool as a cucumber. When the commotion, hue and cry died down, he revealed that he threw a big stone into the well and jumped over the compound wall to hide in an aunt’s house. Another time, he and a friend covered themselves in bedsheets and lit torches near their faces, inside the bedsheets, and sat on the parapet wall of a culvert after dusk. There were no street lights then and the culvert was situated near a junction. They had a ghostly eerie appearance in the dark. Soon a group of teenagers returning from an outing in Calangute came near the junction. One of them told the others in a shaky voice that there was something sitting on the culvert wall. They bolted away from the place. Soon a couple of drunks came that side and one told the other, “I think I can see an evil spirit”. The other, with drunken bravado, told him that he was not afraid of spirits, evil or otherwise, and that he would see him home. So they started seeing each other home several times. Various people had varied reactions to the apparition. Some bolted, others cursed, some crossed themselves frantically and started murmuring prayers, and some even tried to throw stones. At this, Peter and his friend decided to beat a strategic retreat. Peter’s pranks are legend and I could fill a whole book telling you about them, but they will have to wait for another day. [This piece appeared in Herald on 08/04/2009] -- тσηу Tony de Sa Ph: +91 832 2470 148 M: +91 9975162897 E: tonydesa at gmail dot com ------------------------------------------------ 'When someone shares something of value with you and you benefit from it, you have a moral obligation to share it with others.' -Chinese proverb