By Armand Rodrigues acrod...@bell.net Dozing under a banyan tree in the noon-day sun, one's thoughts can stray well into the past, in Goa. Some flashbacks are presented below.
MEDICINAL * From time immemorial, panaceas for all ills have been our potent local brews. Whether made from fermented coconut tree toddy, the juice of cashews (the fruit) or unusual plums called 'jambul', the preventative and curative attributes of these liquors are legendary. * In Goa, herbs, roots and leaves have been age-old remedies for colds, constipation, loss of appetite, blood pressure, muscular pains, wounds etc.. Long before chlorophyll was used in toothpaste, we used guava and mango leaves or neem tree twigs, to brush our teeth. But, many a secret remedy was taken to their graves by our ancestors. * Leeches were used extensively to control blood pressure problems. Yes, you lay in bed after the leeches were applied, while they went to work. In the process they contributed a "thinning agent" to the blood. A brine-bath caused the leeches to relinquish their grip when it was time to get them off. * Dry-cupping was used effectively to "pull out" chills in the back. A vacuum was created when a cotton ball in a goblet was ignited, and when the goblet was applied to the affected parts it sucked out the chill. * An effective cure for jaundice was branding a person with a red-hot spoon and applying the yolk of an egg to the blister. * In parts of Salcete, the remedy for whooping cough was a special brew actually concocted from the hindquarters of a fox. PARANORMAL * In conjunction with the above remedies, a panacea for all ills was the "removal" of evileye. Chillies or alum, hot coals and a suitable invocation for divine intervention, formed part of the ritual. * Being possessed by the devil was not an uncommon phenomenon. Exorcists of all stripes were always on hand to offer their services. Many Catholic and Hindu priests had a good clientele. * Occasionally you would find that, because of acrimony, a deceased person had put a curse on a plot of land. Bad luck was said to invariably follow the new owner of the land. Certain measures had to be taken to appease the soul of the deceased and neutralise the curse. CONVEYANCES * Up until the thirties, many rich folks used palanquins, on the shoulders of four bearers, for transportation. * In the late 1930s, Goa had an airforce of exactly one tiny 'plane. The short, grass landing strip was on the hill immediately behind the railway station in Marmagoa. The interesting little 'plane had a sharp ploughshare in its rear, instead of a wheel. When it landed, the plough dug deep into the field and stopped the shuddering 'plane from going over the cliff. This was like the 'planes on aircraft carriers today, except that ours made deep furrows in the field, that had to be promptly refilled. During the monsoons, flying was out of the question as there was no way to "arrest" the 'plane on a waterlogged field. * During the war, gas (petrol) was in very short supply. Buses were converted to use steam. A boiler occupied the passenger space next to the driver, and the steam contraption provided good, alternative motive power. * In the '40s and '50s bus and car parts were virtually unavailable either because of the war or because some vehicles were relics of a bygone era. Some cannibalisation of older vehicles was possible. But the village blacksmiths came to the rescue, more often than not, by forging parts on their primitive anvils, using goat-skin bellows and hot coals to heat the metals. How they managed exact tolerances is nothing short of amazing. * Then there was the railway. The bridges, like the one across the Rio Sal at Margao or the one near Sanvordem, had very low clearances. * Sad to say, quite a few firemen got decapitated as they were shovelling coal from the tender behind the engine, quite oblivious of the approaching danger overhead. A stationmaster named Antonio Gomes, who lost a brother in such a mishap, is credited with coming up with an idea that solved the problem. A string of loose canes was hung from a trestle, a fair distance from each bridge. A delinquent fireman got a gentle early warning tap on the head. * Up to the early 50s, when people from Africa went on six months' leave to Goa, their heavy trunks followed them home by bullock cart, from Marmagoa, and arrived a day or two later. Many from Bardez and Ilhas got theirs on narrow boats propelled by a bamboo pole. * There was a time when Arab dhows were the workhorses that carried cargo to and fro on the Arabian Sea adjacent to our coastline. During the monsoons they kept close to shore. Time and again, the stormy conditions and huge waves caused the aging ships to break apart and capsize, disgorging their "valuable" cargo. Eventually, most items that floated --- with parts of the hull --- ended up scattered on shore. Then it was finders keepers, with beachcombers having a field day! Some fishermen were even known to have "caught" bicycles in their nets. FOOD & SHELTER * Catching a pig for slaughter was not always easy. In some villages, the catcher's reward was the snout, trotters, ears and tail. Some of these scraps were for the catcher's dog that assisted in the chase. And, it was not unusual to treat all the kids around to a piece of liver roasted on an open fire. * Aside from coconut trees, there are other nut trees (talgude) that are hard to climb. In some places if monkeys were taunted enough, they would pluck the nuts and throw them at you. Not necessarily the best ones, of course! * Did you know that if you waded into a river, at night, with a pressure lamp a few inches above the water, fish got attracted to the light and seemed stunned? All you had to do was grab them and put them in your knapsack. * With the first rains, bottom-feeders in some ponds make straight for the banks as if for fresh air. A machete was the tool of choice for beheading them and then scooping up the spoils. * Even more fun was getting behind fishermen's nets, in waist-deep ocean water, and pouncing on escaping fish, as the nets were being pulled in. Fresh mackerel, roasted in a crackling fire on the beach, was always a treat for the nose and palette. * How about the large mussels that cling to the rock-face at the murky mouth of the Rio Sal, in Betul? Daring young men would descend with coconut oil in their mouths and release it when they reached a promising spot. With visibility improved, they had to fight against time to pry the shellfish loose, before coming up for air. And they had to have clean-shaven heads or else risk a mussel clamping their "floating" hair and trapping them in a watery grave. * Not many Goans know that our traditional old windows were made with opaque fish scales in the slats. The scales were imported mainly from the Far East. You can still find such scales on the shores of Penang. * And, did you know that a Papal Bull granted to Portugal was extended to cover Goa? It permitted people to eat meat on days of fasting and abstinence, for a small "fee" based on one's assets. This was a therapeutic benefit to our bodies! MORE GRISTLE * During World War II, three German ships (Ehrenfels, Drachenfels, Braunfels) and one Italian vessel (Anfora) sought refuge in our neutral port of Marmagoa. The Portuguese allowed them to stay provided their radios and transmitters were dismantled. But the Ehrenfels had a secret transmitter. This spy-ship transmitted intelligence covertly that resulted in massive losses of British ships and submarines. In 1943, a clandestine British operation, by a small group of retired officers from Calcutta, led to the ships' solitary guardian crew setting their own ships on fire! Most of the skeleton crew on the ships had been lured to a Goan party on shore! Not till I read "Boarding Party" by James Leasor, in the June 1980 Reader's Digest, did I realise what had caused the blazing inferno I had witnessed. The related film, "The Sea Wolves", starring Roger Moore, Gregory Peck, and David Niven was filmed on location. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=tBwMAlHusYc * During WW II, imported goods were hard to come by. Sugar and kerosene were rationed. The ingenious Goan improvised with whatever basic material was at hand. Grease was made by warming beeswax (old church candles) in coconut oil and then allowing the mixture to cool. In order to feed starving people elsewhere, the Portuguese mandated "expropriation" of 50% of one’s rice yields, for a fixed payment. Landed gentry hardly felt any ripples. However, poorer folks who ploughed, sowed and harvested the fields, on a 50/50 sharing basis with the landlords, now ended up with only 25%. Fair-minded owners split the cash payments received, with the cultivators. * Goan high-grade manganese ore was in great demand by Japan and Germany (for the Volkswagen) in the '40s & '50s. On an average day, forty ore carriers were loaded by conveyor belt. * If you grew up in Goa in your formative years, chances are you were sent to "Kantaram Escol", where a "Mestre" drummed Sol, Fa, Do, Re, Mi into your head and cultivated singing the scales. Since a false note was related to hearing, one's ears got twisted until the correct note emerged! * One of the traditional rituals before a wedding was the "Bhikareanchem Jevonn" (the beggars' meal). The invited beggars mumbled prayer after prayer, invoking happiness on the couple, and hosts were flushed with pride for being kind to the poor. The fatted domestic pig had been slaughtered, shaved and quartered on an improvised mat made of coconut leaves. The beggars feasted on the choicest parts -- and on other tasty dishes-- while the bride, groom and helpers ate the meagre meat on the bones, a meal called "addmass". A lesson in humility, perhaps. The meal was served on "plates" made of jackfruit leaves held together by coconut leaf ribs. Coconut "fenni" flowed freely and elicited a praying frenzy. Alongside the "plate" was a local "beedi" and a matchbox. Leftover food was wrapped up in the leaf plate and taken home. (We knew about a doggy-bag long before it was adopted by the West!) * Then there was the old purification ceremony, practised by some, of bathing the bride-to-be in coconut milk a day before her nuptials. Friends and relations brought simple gifts like a comb, curry-pot, knife, ladle or piece of cloth, for the bride. These were presented in improvised songs, by the older women. (Makes one wonder if present-day bridal showers originated here) * The origins of the last two customs are lost in the sands of time. It is conceivable that they were vestiges of some Hindu rituals. * There was a time when the village tailor and his assistant could be hired for a day or more, to come to the house and make made-to-measure shirts, pants or dresses from only a picture. You supplied the material, thread and buttons and he did the rest. Because buttons were expensive, where it did not matter some were made of rolled cloth, by the assistant. * Carbon paper was unheard of at the time. To transfer a design/pattern you poked holes in it, placed it on the fabric and brushed ash or flour over the holes. Then all you had to do was to connect the dots! Charcoal was the chalk of the day. * In some villages, a village tradesman such as a barber was allowed to use a community field to grow paddy for himself. In return, he had to give the “gavnkars” a shave or haircut free. At this point the Angelus bells jolted me from my reverie. -- Armand (Armando) Rodrigues, b. 1930 in Entebbe, Uganda, studied in Goa and Poona, and worked for the Uganda Government from 1947 to 1968 in capacities ranging from clerk to CEO(E), and the Canadian government from 1969 to 1994. He knows Konkani, Portuguese, English and Swahili. Canada-based Rodrigues says: "I had emails/phone calls from several people in Canada and even from Australia, Portugal, Jamaica and England, after my article about the ships set ablaze in Marmagoa during WWII." See http://bit.ly/WWIIGoa Debate this issue, post your feedback and suggestions to goa...@goanet.org and also to the author (address above). Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha (fredericknoron...@gmail.com) whom you can contact to share any interesting Goa-related writings....