MARGAO: While visiting Margao, one would have to pass through the Old Market (Mercádo Velho) formally known as Mercádo de Vásco da Gama, which was the main market for the whole of Salcete until 1887. The new market (Mercádo Novo) referred to as Mercádo Afonso de Albuquerque, was set up in 1889, on arrival of the railway line in the taluka. Even though the new market came up, the Old Market was not completely shut down. There were bakers like Souza and Joaquim Váz, grocers like Pandurang Bharne and Shanu Arsekar, the Quadros family of Fatorda who were wholesalers supplying flour to the bakers and Joaquim Rebello’s tailoring store, just to mention a few of the age old vendors there.
One of the institutions that still stands today, providing an essential service to society, is Rebello Funeral Service, Margao’s most famous coffin-makers. A chat with Hayden Rebello of Madel Grande, the third-generation owner of the shop, reveals that it was his ancestor Joaquim Vincente Rebello who started the family business in the 1930’s - as a gent’s tailoring shop, J V Rebello & Sons (closed down in 1998) on the ground floor along the front of Câmara Muniçipál de Sálçéte.
The family also had a side business of making coffins and grave crosses, called ‘The Rebello Coffin Shop’. Haydon’s father, late Sebástião Roberto Rebello, introduced him at a tender age of sixteen, to their business of making coffins and crosses somewhere around 1996, when he was in Class X. Every evening, Hayden would spend roughly an hour from 6 pm to 7 pm with his dad at their workshop in Margao, picking up the skills and secrets of smoothly running the workshop. Until the 1970’s, the Rebellos were the only family engaged in making coffins and crosses in Salcete.
Until the 1970’s-80’s, the coffins made were of a slightly different shape, bearing six sides. Today, these coffins come in a standard shape with four sides. Apart from coffins crafted entirely in wood, there were also the type which only had a wooden frame, with a black cotton cloth stretched across it. “Cloth coffins had more buyers than wooden coffins in those days, but we no longer make them,” says Hayden.
Hayden recalls that they would earlier buy whole softwood trees that were locally available, like ‘Savar’ (Bombax ceiba) and ‘Santana’, which they would process at a saw mill. “As of now, we have agents who supply us with the wood,” he says. Hayden also makes a mention of teak wood being used for coffins. He says that teak being a hard wood, would not decompose quickly and would create problems for the grave diggers in the cemetery. The church hence discouraged the use of coffins made from teak wood in the 70’s. In the 70’s, a cloth coffin would cost about Rs 50 and a basic wooden coffin would cost Rs 100. Today, a basic wooden coffin costs Rs 8,000 and goes up to Rs 20,000, says Rebello.
Coffin accessories were traditionally made using mild steel sheets or brass sheets.
However as of now, these have been replaced with vinyl fixtures which are biodegradable, says Rebello. “The most common problems we encounter are sourcing labour and fighting pests like rodents and cockroaches which destroy most of our raw material,” says Rebello. “Wooden grave crosses are hardly used today, and have been substituted with gravestone stickers,” he adds.
In the earlier days, if someone couldn’t afford to buy a coffin, the church would provide the family with a coffin which had to be returned to the church after the funeral. Today, organisations like Saint Vincent de Paul contribute towards funeral expenses of the needy, says Rebello.