On 3 October 2011 18:46, <roland.fran...@gmail.com> wrote: > Now that he is writing on Mapuca, I hope he includes my village of neighboring > Assagao and it's people, since it is the filling between the sandwich slices of > Mapuca and his own Anjuna and about which I know so little.
Roland, Rodney de Souza has a book published on Assagao. See below. This is self-published, so the best place to find it is probably with the author (and I think OIBS, at Mapusa). FN * * * Books from Bardez THE PRINTED WORD|Frederick Noronha FROM ONE corner of Bardez come two interesting books. The first is a village guide on Assagao, a sylvan and still picturesque village next to Anjuna, the latter ironically better known for its hippy links since the 1960s. The other book is from the nearby Mapusa-based St Xavier's College's botany department and focuses on local medicinal and aromatic plants. Journalist Joel D'Souza gave me a copy of Rodney de Souza's 'Sobit Assagao'. Its cover is done in a simple style, which might mislead you into believing that Assagao is yet another nondescript part of the rural Asia. Open its pages, and you'll see it this is far from the case. As anyone linked to this State would know, Goans take their village loyalties very seriously. Assagao is a village that has accomplished a lot, though we may not know of all that it has done. Sometimes, we are not aware of this ourselves. For instance, while browsing the Net, I came across an interesting fact about an early Goan from Assagao, who landed up in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Armand de Souza (1874-1921) was a Ceylonese newspaper editor and democratic activist. He was father of Senator Doric de Souza of the LSSP (the Lanka Sama Samaja Pakshaya, Sri Lanka's Trotskyist party) and Torismund de Souza, Editor of the Times, as well as Aleric and Lena who both died early. Not just that, De Souza documented the race riots in Ceylon in 1915 in a book entitled "Hundred days: Ceylon under martial law" in 1915. Many back home in Goa would have probably not even heard of Armand de Souza. With this book, Assagao is yet another Goan village to have a book dedicated to it. Others like Chandor, Saligao, Cuncolim, Benaulim, Calangute, Arpora et cetera already do. Some amount of village pride is indeed important (though in excessive measure, it could lead to all kinds of complications). At the very least, it could help us to treat our areas and our traditions with more respect and concern. Sobit Assagao, a book whose title in Konkani translates to Beautiful Assagao, has a map of the village, and details about the village. It focuses on its communidade, religious institutions, the Assagao Association, post office, the local Assagao Union High School, the religious orders there (including the Pallottines and Ishaprema Niketan), among others. In recent times places like Assagao, close to the beach belt but not exactly there, have also become homes to diverse interesting institutions. For instance, the International Animal Rescue is based here. This is a global group of animal rights' campaigners who have been doing an interesting job in taking care of stray animals, specially dogs. One has a lot of respect for their work and dedication. Likewise, another non-profit in the village is El Shaddai, which takes care of street children. (Sometimes I tend to see them as shouldering a modern-day White man's burden. But, in the context of so much poverty, which is conveniently ignored by Indian middle-class public opinion, what else is the solution?) But that's not all. There's a birthing centre in Assagao too, which offers "natural" deliveries. This book is a mix of the new and the old. One interesting if brief chapter is about nicknames in the village -- Girgirea-ger, Bamni-ger (a family of Brahmins with a female head!), Shaulea-ger, Chaukara-ger, Bandmasteri-ger and more. This book was self-published and is available from Rodney de Souza, 248 Socolvaddo, Assagao, Bardez 403507 Goa at Rs 195. * * * The second book is on medicinal plants. As its publishers point out, the Indian subcontinent is filled with medicinal plants, and hence we need to take advantage. It covers some 101 different plants, and comes from the college's Centre for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. Among these are (by their local names), the adulso, kando, lasun, bhikna, taikulo, popai, tikhi, nimub, santra, halad and more. Each page gives a black-and-white photo of the plant, together with its botanical name, family name, common name and parts used for health benefits. For instance, the tomato has nutritive properties, and is a tonic and digestive. It is used for high fever, frequent urination, profuse watery diarrhoea, rheumatism, influenza and aching pain all over the body. One would have not guessed! All in all, an interesting book, and worth having. Might be a bit difficult to procure considering that it has not been commercially published and is unpriced. But you could try to get a copy from the college itself. Sobit Assagao Rodney de Souza Socolvaddo, Assagao Rs 195 Pp 183 Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Dr Maria AAR Fonseca (Ed) St Xavier's College, Mapusa, Goa Pp 118, np