When I Met Mickky…
Published on: June 13, 2010
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Panorama
By Mário Cabral e Sá
What Mickky Pacheco does not know about women, call them ladies if you
like, is not worth the bother. When years back an NRI mission headed by
its commissioner officially visited Bahrain, a local leader Francis
Correia showed them a small cubicle from where Mickky Pacheco operated
his tailoring shop specialising in ladies garments. He had many and they
were all happy with the services he rendered.
His ambition then was to play football for the local Goan Club. That is
perhaps the only one that remains unfulfilled. He came to own a
football club but before that he married a rich American woman who
obliged and died before long, leaving him her wealth. Once Google listed
him as a leading perfumer.
To say the least, he has always been in the limelight. When his present
wife sued him for bigamy, instigated by Churchill Alemão he alleged (who
are again the best of pals), he nonchalantly told the court that it was
untrue that he was bigamous. He continued marriage to his lawful wife
but, as a matter of detail, he was also living with another woman of
whom he had (at that point in time three children). This minor detail
which in no way placed him outside the pale of law.
Now, the law is at his shins again. Who knows? He may well come
unscathed again. This time he may have lost for now his cabinet post,
but an MLA he remains and entitled to his privileges and voting rights.
If NCP decides to oust him, an unattached member of the house he will
be, just like Babush Monserrate. And that is saying a lot. If one
unattached MLA is enough to keep the government in jitters, imagine what
two might!!
I was introduced to Mickky by Baba Carlos Noronha Jr. He is the son of
the late Carlinhos Noronha, a personal friend, and in his lifetime quite
a man. Baba was then teaching at Pacheco’s “Academy”, which specialised
in recruiting sailors.
“E’ homen com pasta”, (Baba said in a significant aside (“he is loaded
with it”) and placed before me the tycoon. White is his favourite
colour, which I suppose is his way of displaying his immaculateness.
White and gold go very well.
“What may I do for you, sir”, I humbly inquired.
There he was sitting on one of my mother’s antique chairs, cross-legged,
riding boots on, gold on his neck, gold on his wrist, gold on his boots,
and a heavy arrow-shaped golden broach on his beret.
“You write, no?” said the tycoon.
“What is it you want, sir? A biography?”
“No, no,” said the lord, “Put my name in what you write,” he said.
Simply put, he wanted me to mention him as often as I could, in the best
possible light, and I would have no reason to regret. I just couldn’t
do it, I said. A man of quick decisions, he called Baba who was at his
side, adjusted his beret and told me off in as many words. And off they
went.
Not much later, he became an MLA and a minister. That is what I know of
Mickky Pacheco who now is, for the Goa Police, a wanted criminal.
courtesy: www.navhindtimes.in
