This afternoon I was leafing through a sheaf of short stories on Goa by J. P. D’Souza.
The story I chose to read was ‘Back to the Village.’ In it, Jacob D’Costa, unhappy with his life in Bombay, decides to follow his instincts and heads to his village in Goa – we are not told which – with his 4 children in tow.
After vivid descriptions of village life, the story lurches to its inconclusive end with Jacob in between two worlds – his imagined world in Goa, and the world of Bombay, where 2 of his elder children want to head to for further studies.
I myself have always transited beteween Goa and Delhi – sometimes even on weekends. In this dual existence I retain some of the sanity I seek in life.
The Smell of Burnt Leaves
-Brian Mendonca
From Santacruz to Matunga the time is about the same
‘Haywire’ Agnihotri steers 255 to Goa
Divya Sandilya serves up the cookies
At 30,000 feet Icarus confers with Ra
Souza meets Souza, the river flows between
From a duck to a dragon, then a royal steed
A field of giant cauliflowers sprouts up in the sky
A little dog running, I can hear the yelps
In the prism of time, space is an illusion
Vasco to Mapusa, Delhi to Goa
A fishnet beckons, poetry by candlelight
School buddies connect 26 years on
The Green house goalie with wife and 2 kids
In the blinding rain, is the sound of the monsoon
Life becomes clearer on a Saligao road
16 A for a seat with a view
The sun sets on your left, ‘Take him safely back to base’
Newton and Nanz sing at the top of the stairs
Beside the hush of the sea, nothing else matters.
November 2, 2010
Books Are Not for Banning
IF the dabbawalla of Mumbai knew such a furore was being created over him – that too via a writer sitting in Canada – he perhaps could be justifiably proud about himself in these times.
But my guess is he doesn’t know. Or more correctly, doesn’t care. He goes about his business bringing food to the hungry office-goers at lunch time, satisfied he has served his fellow human beings and earned his just wage.
Aditya Thackeray nudging the VC of Mumbai University to ban Rohinton Mistry’s book Such a Long Journey for perceived aspersions against Maharashtrians more than a decade after it was written in (1991) is comic if not ludicrous.
I am sure his culture department could have found worthier and more contemporary books to fit the bill. He would be the darling of the publisher of the book – because at least then people would read it.
When OUP published James Laine’s book on Shivaji it raised the hackles of the SS of Mumbai. They dutifully set about doing what they do best, viz. burning copies of the aforesaid book. The situation, I overheard, was redeemed by the wryness of a marketing director who is believed to have opined, “Ask them how many they want to burn, we will supply directly.”
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