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 =================================================
