Dale, Thanks sincerely for taking the time to do this review. Reviews are important if Goa books are to get the attention they deserve, and we have so few reviews happening.
I agree with some of your comments, but over others feel that for every viewpoint we can find an equally convincing and opposite point of view. When the chance came up to republish 'Goa Masala' in Goa, I seized it with both hands, for a number of reasons. On behalf of Goa,1556, I can say that it is one of our better books which I am proud to be associated with. The feedback we got here was heart-warming; even my kids (12 and 7 years old) enjoyed many of the stories, which I converted into bedtime tales for them while surreptitiously proof-reading the text! Dan Driscoll himself volunteered to do a reading from the book, and his views are online here [http://www.megavideo.com/?v=FR9ENQ5P] On 18 April 2011 23:48, dale luis menezes <dale_mene...@rediffmail.com> wrote: > In the recent years it seems that the Goan diaspora > is speaking out. This is evident from the fact that a > number of books have been published which deal > with the history of Goan migration, the causes of > such a migration and the experience(s) resulting > from settling in a foreign land. These books have The diaspora has long been writing about its experiences. The Goan Voice, as Eddie Fernandes reminds us, was a newspaper (weekly?) published in Kenya (if I got it right). People like JB Pinto of Saligao has written a book on Goan migration in the early 1960s. The Goa Today, in its earlier Lambert Mascarenhas avatar (prior to its being bought over by the Salgaocars) was very much of a diaspora Goa networking voice. Now, that voice is being heard back in Goa. Partly due to the Net, also because the barriers to publishing books are far fewer than earlier (thanks to computerised typesetting, lower costs, better printing options including in India). Also the setting up of the NRI Commission in Goa, after lobbying by expats, who were, in part, linked up by channels like Goanet. > a decent ‘visibility’ in the various bookstores in > Goa as well as on the internet. Actually, no! We're struggling to get noticed here. Maybe one or two of the bigger bookshops in Panjim and Margao have noticed this work. But ask any author or publisher how difficult it is to get "visible" even in Goa itself. > Most of the writers (including some who were > coerced to write) in this anthology have > immigrated to Canada from Africa and rather > than their ‘Canada experience’, the nostalgic > and adventurous reminisces of living in Africa > and hunting trips in the African jungles as > well as homecoming to or vacations in Goa > find a greater print place. When I write my memories, they often go back to the 1970s. Those were the formative years of my life, and what I remember the best. I've also had many ex-Africander friends, and understand how much their experiences there shaped their lives. Maybe you'd have to wait some more time before the Canada stories emerge. > While there is certainly nothing wrong with it, the > successive repetition of more-or-less the same > plot-line renders a good portion of the book monotonous. Is it a case of all Chinamen look the same? I guess our distance from the issue makes it all look "more-or-less the same". As for me, on a closer reading, I found this to be an interesting mix of a range of themes -- the spoilt boy-child, a train-driver (in British India?) of another generation, creaking old mansions with trap doors, the cuckolded husband, belief in evil eye, fishing in Goa, cross-cultural marriages, the expat and Konkani, learning to swim in Goa, and more... These are only the first nine stories. Even the Africa-focussed stories have variety in them. My kids (beta-testers for some books!) were thrilled and also upset by Xavier Sequeira's *Elephant hunt in Tanzania*. The hunter kills a majestic jumbo, only to regret it: "The dying matriarch raised its trunk and trumpeted, as if to warn the rest of the herd, and then the five ton beast slumped to its knees and slowly crumbled on its side.... but then I felt no elation as I saw the proud majestic matriarch crumble with my single bullet." Other Africa stories deal with an untimely death in the family (many of our earlier generations died while in their 40s!), fleeing Africanisation, the coup, coming back for marriage and a bride, a tragi-comedy at an airport in remote Africa, and the like. I think we're making the mistake to presume that Goans in Canada all come in one size and shape. In fact, what this book makes clear if anything is that the Canadian Goans today take memories from a range of places -- from Burma, from Goa, from what was British India, from Africa (particularly Uganda, Kenya and Zanzibar), and from Bombay and Pakistan (though the last two are not very visible here). If anything, the theme of the Africa-to-Goa journey does show up in four chapters, and mention in maybe a couple more. You could call that excessive. On the other hand, this was such a memorable part of life overseas I guess that most ex-Africanders would recall that. > In the foreword, a disclaimer is added: > “The stories featured in this publication have > not been fact-checked for authenticity by > the 55PGA, the publishers or the editors. > Authors of the individual stories assume > full responsibility of their own stories.” Fact checking on a canvas of this scale would indeed be an impossibility, given that it spans three to four continents and memories going back sixty to seventy years! You could argue with credibility thought that it might have made sense to avoid such a disclaimer itself. > “She was until recently; today the patron saint of Goa > is the Blessed Jose Vaz.” Jose Vaz is only beatified and > not canonized ergo; he can’t be a patron saint. You're right on the above, but it's probably only a tiny quibble. The word "saint" should have been deleted, our error. For the devout, and as stated in for instance the archdiocese directory, Jose Vaz is indeed the patron of Goa. > Like the Mozambique Goans, the Canada Goans too > could have offered their ‘personal histories’ to the historians. I would think it is for the historians to work on this, and not the other way around. Once again, thanks for discussing this work. FN