I enjoyed Selma's article on the life and times of a Goan tarvotti- Costa Santan. How much these great sons of Goa must have endured in the way of discrimination, discomfort and humiliation at the hands of their English masters is any ones guess. And yet, they gave of their best. As usual, their British employers got them on the cheap. Like our tailors, cooks, musicians and others, these men deserve a special place in our history. I can recall how, in my own village(Salvador-do-Mundo), we had several tarvotti. One such kind individual,who immediately springs to mind, was "Minglu"(Michael?) Goveia. During our holidays, we used to delight in going fishing with him in the nearby river, and on return home with the days catch, he would later show us how to mend fishing nets(something I've long since forgotten!). When the time came for him to join a ship, we would always ask him to send us postage stamps from the various countries he visited. True to his word, he did send me some colourful stamps from South Africa(I was a keen stamp collector then-no longer am!). This would have been in the mid-forties. Many years ago, my late cousin(Jock Sequeira),immortalised these Goan seamen in a song he composed-"Amim Tarvoti Goencar" - a song which was included in several HMV records produced in Bombay at the time, and much later, in 1993, included in a cassette we produced in this country. Like many of our countrymen, I have fond memories of our Goan tarvotti, and salute their memory.
Mervyn Maciel