Headline: Who the bleep cares about dinner with Eduardo Faleiro?
BY: Selma Carvalho
From: Goan Voice UK 28 June 2009 at http://www.goanvoice.org.uk/


What do you do when the NRI Commissioner and former Federal Minister calls
you up and invites you to dinner? You fall over the chair you are sitting on
and babble a yes.

My first call was to Eddie Fernandes, editor of Goan Voice UK. There were
important matters of state to discuss such as why did Mr Faleiro invite me?
Granted calling up London from Goa to discuss my dinner date is a bit over
the top, but then Eddie seems to spend his time with his ear to the ground
and might have some background information.  He did!

My next call was to Goa's veteran journalist "Lenin". Goan parents have a
penchant for naming either their first born sons or their dogs after
dictators such as Salazar and Stalin. This wasn't the case with Lenin's
parents. I have merely changed the name to protect his identity. Lenin has
been trailing politicos for the past 30 years or so, surely he would know
what sort of conversation is expected on these occasions. "Be forthright,
tell him what's on your mind" advises Lenin. I dismiss this as bad advice.
No man in his right mind wants to spend an entire evening listening to a
full-blooded Shastikann like me.

What could we talk about? If Micky Pacheco had invited me, we could have
discussed how a Minister can win 1.25 crores at a hotel casino. If Churchill
had invited me, we could have talked about how to project oneself as the
great Chardo hope of Salcete. But this was erudite, well-spoken Eduardo
Faleiro, whose list of previously held political portfolios is as long as my
arm. Still, didn't my mother send me to the best school her petro-dollars
could buy? Didn't she hire me a private piano teacher to tutor me at home
even when it became painfully obvious to him and our neighbours that I was
tone-deaf?  Didn't she teach me to suppress my abundant gay laughter and
enthusiasm because well-bred girls in Goa are supposed to look anaemic and
depressed at all times? All of that must have been preparation for something
or the other.

How do I impress Mr Faleiro? I could tell him I'm a Gulfie but that word has
a "fie" attached to it, which sounds derogatory. I could tell him that I'm a
US-return, but that has "return" attached to it. NRIs only have value if
they actually reside outside of Goa. Much like a Honda city car, they
depreciate 50% upon return. I'll tell him I'm a Londonkar. That sounds so
much like bhatkar and Afrikar which still garners some respect in Goa.

I arrive early at the house. The house speaks just one language; that of
history. Of generations who have live here before and loved the land; of
women who have sat on the brick-red sopas as twilight set in, swapped
stories about the day and waited for their men to return; of men who have
walked up the winding path which cuts a natural swathe through the village,
returning home, glorious and powerful.

I find Mr Faleiro in the study; a spacious, dignified room, stacked with
bookshelves, its vaulted ceiling and imposing walls peering down on me. What
was I doing here? Me, grand-daughter of Joaquim Santan Purification Cardoz.
Was it too late to become a theist and wish that Purification was watching
me from above? A generation ago, the likes of me would only have been
admitted through the kitchen door, preferably carrying a pail of water on my
head. The weight of centuries of a social divide was pinning me to the
ground. 

As the evening wears on, I find myself genuinely liking Mr Faleiro. He wears
charm and breeding like a second skin. He's an excellent raconteur of
stories, animatedly regaling us with anecdotes that span from Bhutan to
Brazil. He's got that rare thing, which women find attractive, a
self-deprecating sense of humour and an understanding of human frailty. He
is the last of a generation that came back from Portugal, just prior to
liberation with an earnest desire to make a difference to the country that
was home. The fact that we, Goan Catholics, have not produced another
generation like him to represent our interests politically is perhaps our
greatest failing. 

Do leave your feedback at carvalho_...@yahoo.com

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