Vivek Menezes
I was one of the advisers to Asad Laljee, the curator of Mumbai’s Royal Opera House and CEO of Avid Learning, who launched the inaugural Festa de Goa earlier this month at the glorious, century-old opera house on Charni Road just beyond Chowpatty in South Mumbai, but the pulsating, joyous evening far exceeded any of our expectations. Our carefully curated showcase played out as a profoundly meaningful homecoming, because the cultural and social histories of Old Bombay and the Estado da India are inextricably interlinked, with significant impact right into our current moment. All of that rich cosmopolitan context came together on October 5th with magical effect, in one of the best and most enjoyable nights out any of us have experienced in a long time.
For me, the successful tone was established in the very first session, where our beloved Konkani writer and Jnanpith Award winner Damodar Mauzo (who is himself “made in Bombay” as the Podar Ratna alumnus of Podar College of Commerce & Economics in Matunga) was engaged most affectingly and affectionately by two Goan intellectual icons of contemporary Mumbai: the award-winning author and translator Jerry Pinto, and the long-time (until very recently) editor of Art India magazine and multilingual academic Abhay Sardesai. Together, these three brilliant minds explored, traced and celebrated the making of Goa’s modern identity in 19th and early 20th century Bombay, as well as the substantial contributions of generations of Goans to the cultural, economic and social ethos of contemporary Mumbai.
Mauzo’s session was an especially riveting way to start, because it underlined the shared universe of meaning that used to flourish between Bombay and Goa, and still persists without most people understanding its existence. Most people don’t even know the rocky islands of Colaba, Parel, Mahim, Worli et al – now some of the most expensive real estate in the world – first began to rise to their eventual prominence as Urbs Prima in Indis while still possessions of the Estado da India, and administered from Goa. As soon as fortunes changed under the Raj, after the 1869 Suez Canal opening transformed Bombay into the veritable “Gateway of India”, the city was immediately flooded with socially and culturally agile, and relatively better educated migrants from our tiny slice of the Konkan.
The late historian Teresa Albuquerque – sister of Dom Moraes, and with him one of the previous generation of Goan intellectual icons of Mumbai – wrote vividly about the 19th century decline of Portuguese power, when its India possessions became poverty-stricken: “Bombay was already booming with its new dockyards and ship-building. So, leaving their wives to keep the home fires burning, desperately they braved the sea in crude pattimars/country craft in perilous voyages lasting days. Others crossed the rugged Ghats on stony jungle paths to find service under the rising Maratha confederacy. Consequently, what started as a trickle mounted into a giant tidal wave. By 1888, almost a sixth of Goa’s population had migrated to Bombay!”
Here, it is important to note that modern Konkani was also “made in Bombay” and the colonial Bombay Presidency extending to Pune/Poona (where the first Konkani periodical Udentenchem Sallok was published in 1899 by Eduardo J. Bruno de Souza) and also Karachi (where the still extant Catholic spiritual periodical Dor Mhoineachi Rotti was set up in 1915, and the great Waman Varde Valaulikar – aka Shenoi Goembab – began his intensely impactful writing career). That most formidable evangelist for our maim bhas became the first vice-president of the Konkani Bhasha Mandal when it was founded in wartime Bombay in 1942, under the presidency of the poet and academic Armando Menezes, and the polyglot nationalist priest Rev. HO Mascarenhas as secretary (which I may perhaps be forgiven for the personal note that they’re my paternal grandfather and maternal grand-uncle).
Of course, far beyond their noteworthy contributions to Goa, the Goans of Bombay greatly disproportionately enriched and informed the rest of the country and world in ways that were neatly showcased at the Festa. Naresh Fernandes – heroic editor of Scroll.in and essential cultural historian of his home city – made an absorbing presentation about “Goans in the musical conversation between India and the world” who crafted the wildly popular sounds of Indian cinema, but remain “heard but unseen”. The eloquent author and journalist Jane Borges shared a number of what she called Soboicar stories of Konkani Catholics from the literal neighborhood, with archivist Malavika Bhatia, while architect Dean D’Cruz and curator Samira Sheth helped to launch Ulka Chauhan’s handsome new book of photographs about heritage homes in Goa, and I was in conversation with gallerist Dadiba Pundole and Art India editor Reema Desai Gehi about FN Souza, the great artist from Saligao who started his career as “the boy from Crawford Market.”
I was a pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic reception our discussions received from the Royal Opera House audience. But it was after that, when I stepped into the expansive courtyard in the break between afternoon and evening programmes – the latter being Sonia Shirsat and fado, and Stuti Choral and String Ensemble conducted by Parvesh Java – that I was truly shocked, by the full-scale, high-energy, genuinely Carnivalesque party atmosphere that was raging in every direction. There was hugely enthusiastic eating and drinking going on from stalls with names like The Coconut Boy, Aiyo Patrao, Poie & Pao, Bombay Duck Brewing and Tinto Feni Cocktail Bar. I could hear swinging cantaram belted out by Allan Vaz and Karen Vaswani, and there was Jerry Pinto dancing with Jane Borges right in front. It felt distinctly how Goa is supposed to feel, and also good old South Bombay at its very best. But then things, almost unbelievably, the evening got better still, when the throngs of happy people piled back into the beautiful old concert hall, to get blown away by Sonia Shirsat singing fado like Mumbai has never heard before (accompanied by Franz Schubert Cotta and Carlos Menezes), and an absolutely thrilling, tour-de-force concert performance by the ever-improving Stuti Choral & String Ensemble.
Here in Goa, we have become used to Stuti delivering deft, supremely adept renditions from the western classical repertoire, but for the Festa de Goa in Mumbai we owe our collective congratulations and thanks to the deceptively serene dynamo Parvesh Java for really doing Konkani proud, with wonderful arrangements of the hymn San Fransisku Xaviera (originally composed by Raimudo Barreto), the mando Doriyachea Lharari (Eduardo Menezes) and the rocking Chris Perry/Lorna classic Lisboa. Earlier this week, he told me “it felt like a very successful first edition: good energy and an adequately diverse offering. What was especially exciting was that Goa was not represented in any stereotypical way. There was a distinct sense via the stalls, talks and performances that Goa was utterly forward thinking and producing work at par with the most modern cities of India. That was a really refreshing shift from what people in other parts of India tend to make of Goa.”
This was also something Jane Borges stressed: “I thought it had everything—from Goa’s contribution to literature, art, music, as well as built and oral history. It reflected and explored the interactions between Bombay and Goa, and how it influenced the Goans who constantly moved between these two places. Sonia Shirsat really blew me away. She was honestly the best part of the festival for me. I hadn’t heard her before, and knew very little about the fado. The Stuti choir was incredible too, and their arrangement of Lisboa was so spectacular; I remember having goosebumps. That’s what also made Fest de Goa so special. There were many familiar names out there, and yet everyone put together something different for the Bombay crowd, unseen, unheard before.”
The idea for this most promising event began to form for Asad Laljee at the Goa Heritage Action Group’s festival in Campal a couple of years ago. The tireless impresario told me “the inaugural Festa de Goa was a resounding success, exceeding our expectations in terms of both audience engagement and the quality of the performances and discussions. While Goa and Mumbai share a long history and cultural exchange, there was something particularly magical about that evening. The energy was palpable—perhaps it was the unique combination of new and established voices coming together to share their interpretations of Goan identity. Personally, my key learning was about the history and richness of Konkani literature and its role in shaping Goan identity. The discussion with Damodar ‘Bhai’ Mauzo was eye-opening in this regard. I was also struck by the intricate connections between Goa and Bombay, especially through the ‘Soboicar’ project presentation. It reinforced how deeply intertwined the histories of these two coastal regions are. One surprise was the overwhelming enthusiasm from the audience, many of whom stayed much longer than anticipated, engaging deeply with the speaker sessions and the performances. Yes, there will be future editions.”