Re: [Goanet] Roland Francis: Heaven Knows Your Future, Mr. Fernandes - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Gabe Menezes]

On 24 March 2013 15:42, Eddie Fernandes  wrote:

> Title: Heaven Knows Your Future, Mr. Fernandes
> By: Roland Francis
> Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 24 March 2013 at
> www.goanvoice.org.uk
>
>
> When the majority of Goan families had little in the way of affluence, they
> had each other. Mother and father raised their brood usually along with an
> unmarried and disadvantaged relative and sometimes a posko or poskem - an
> adopted child that may have crossed their path unintentionally.
>
> They stopped all activity at the evening Angelus bells, then gradually
> recommencing until later when they would all huddle together for the family
> rosary. After, Dad would open the small wall cupboard to pour himself a
> shot
> of well matured feni while Mum and the children would help lay the dinner
> table.
>



> Thanks are due for valuable input from Marshall Mendonza of Poona and
> Bombay, Company Secretary and a good cyber friend.
> =
>

I have often heard about this well matured and well aged Feni. This is what
the experts say about alcoholic spirits:-

Unlike some wines, distilled spirits do not
age (or
mature) in the bottle. This means that your 20 year old, *unopened* bottle
of 18 year Scotch will taste the same as it would have the first day it was
bottled. However, like beer certain liquors can "go bad" and after months
or years almost any spirit in an opened bottle may lose some character,
"punch" and flavor. To really answer this question we need to break it down
into a few categories of distilled spirits and other bottles in the liquor
cabinet.
*Answer:*

*Base Liquors:*
The base liquors
 (brandy,
gin, rum, tequila, vodka and whiskey) are typically the most stable
distilled spirits and can be stored for a long time. Unopened, these
bottles have an indefinite shelf life but once opened they may begin to
lose certain flavor qualities over the years.

For a full read please go to :

 http://cocktails.about.com/od/stockyourbar/f/liquor_storage.htm

Brandy, whisky and some other spirits are aged in Oak Barrels - some which
were previously used for Sherry, Wine, Port...it is also from the wood and
previous wine barrels that the spirit gets its distinctive taste.

I have had Sri lankan "Feni' which is matured in wooden barrels made from
Teak. The colour of the spirit is golden.


-- 
DEV BOREM KORUM

Gabe Menezes.

[Goanet] Roland Francis: Heaven Knows Your Future, Mr. Fernandes - Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan

[Eddie Fernandes]

Title: Heaven Knows Your Future, Mr. Fernandes
By: Roland Francis
Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 24 March 2013 at www.goanvoice.org.uk


When the majority of Goan families had little in the way of affluence, they
had each other. Mother and father raised their brood usually along with an
unmarried and disadvantaged relative and sometimes a posko or poskem - an
adopted child that may have crossed their path unintentionally. 

They stopped all activity at the evening Angelus bells, then gradually
recommencing until later when they would all huddle together for the family
rosary. After, Dad would open the small wall cupboard to pour himself a shot
of well matured feni while Mum and the children would help lay the dinner
table. While the parents had their own chairs, others would squeeze on the
wooden benches beneath the simple spread of rice, vegetables and some
curried or fried fish. Retiring to the cemented balcony at the entrance to
the home, they would stretch and talk under the starry skies until sleep
first gently nudged the most tired.
 
Whatever troubles beset the family would rest solely on the broad shoulders
of the parents who would never drop even a hint to any of the others even if
the problem belonged to one of them. It seemed prayer, toil and St. Francis
would solve everything and even when it didn't there were no recriminations
that destroyed the family peace. 

Mum and Dad eventually aged to infirmity. It was the custom of the eldest
son to take over their care and he did the job uncomplainingly without
expectation of any reward of asset transfer which in any case would devolve
to all of the sons. That's just the way it was, Portuguese civil or family
law notwithstanding. In any case the assets, mainly the land and house
amounted to almost nothing. Brothers and sisters maintained the family bond
and passed it on to their children.

Eventually all that changed with the times. The price of land and homes in
Goa escalated to dizzying heights. Families grew and accommodation got
beyond the reach of average incomes. In the fight for space, elders are the
first casualty.

Goan Christians are mostly working folk. Except for a few, they are hardly
entrepreneurs or business people. With high inflation, increasing medical
and education costs and rising gasoline prices, belts have to be tightened
and the old and infirm are the first to suffer. In certain areas where
property prices have especially skyrocketed, families prefer to sell
ancestral property, divide the proceeds and go their own way. Couples want
to be independent with no added responsibilities. Father and mother cannot
manage on their own and in a short time end up in old age homes.

In many cases the younger adults have to relocate to other cities like
Bangalore, Hyderabad or Gurgaon because they are either in transferable jobs
or have found employment in these booming cities. Goa has no meaningful
opportunity for the well-educated and skilled except in the stagnating and
unregulated tourist sector which lacks any kind of self-discipline. They are
unable to take their parents along because of their uncertainties in these
newly expanding cities. Jobs in India are no more secured than in more
advanced countries. If the stress levels in these parts are high, in India
they are higher since employers while their hands are somewhat tied in the
west, have unfettered slave driving opportunities in their outsourced
destinations.

Then there are Goans who see their future in immigrating to Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and lately the UK in large numbers. They need capital to
tide them over the initial difficult phase and they tend to entice or force
their parents out of their ancestral home with the promise of providing them
with a place to live with them in their new countries. Once settled, those
old folks become either babysitters or a burden and a nuisance to their good
life, or perhaps they are still struggling and their parents would seem to
add to the problems. In some countries where medical costs are high as in
the USA or where senior or long term care homes have to be partly paid for
as in Canada and the UK, problems are aggravated.

Thankfully, Goans long established in the Diaspora, especially those from
Africa who came with young children in the 50s to the 70s are relatively
unscathed from such issues. The parents now old, have worked here for a part
of their lives and their friends and support circle live among them. There
are no unmanageable expectations and no emotional trauma of sudden
separation from a community they have lived a lifetime with.

Everybody wishes that when they get old, a heart attack, stroke or rapidly
spreading cancer quickly takes them away. No one wishes to linger in
suffering or worse still be a burden, either financial or otherwise to their
loving children. But the reality is that we live longer than ever before and
until euthanasia becomes as common as cremation, or Pope Francis threatens
excommunicati