First Day of Goa Conference: Mixed Bag of Goodies

Monday, January 21, 2019

Goa

First Day of Goa Conference: Mixed Bag of Goodies

Namaste from Goa!

After a restless night with one wake-up and stay-up that lasted about an hour, I finally awoke again at about 6.30 am in the International Guest House on the campus of the University of Goa. A single mosquito did bother me slightly but I guess I was not menaced too much. I blogged as usual and caught up with Twitter through my data plan as there is no WiFi in this place. I finally pulled myself out of bed and had a shower and got dressed. The lack of a canteen on the premises meant that when I left the house, all dressed and ready to present my paper at the conference, I was on an empty stomach.

Arrival at the Conference Hall:

The Conference Hall was only about 50 meters from my Guest House and walking in the benign warmth of a tropical winter sun along a superbly pavked pavement of a superbly-paved road, I took a call from Huma, a Fulbright Fellow like myself, who is based in Goa for the duration of her grant.  We had made email contact prior to the conference and I had invited her to attend it. She happened to live very close by and was going to attend the conference although she would not be presenting.  Having already arrived at the venue, she called to find out where I was and then directed me easily to the place which I reached two minutes later only to find that Registration was in full swing. 

    Armed with my name tag and conference kit, we marched into the Hall to find only a few people there at 9.20am! I have to get accustomed to the fact that in India nothing ever commences on time! My friend Ashley arrived there at 9.30 and asked if I’d had any breakfast—what a thoughtful man!I told him I was on an empty stomach. He immediately organized some breakfast for me by approaching the organizers of the conference to find out if someone could run to a canteen to get me a sandwich or anything else. Someone ran out and returned with two vada paus! I sat and ate one of them just as the panelists walked in about ten minutes later.

     

Opening Ceremony of the Conference:

In India, things are done very formally and all opening ceremonies involve the lighting of a ceremonial lamp and this was lit by the Consul-General of Portugal whose name I did not catch while representatives of the University of Goa (the Vice Chancellor Varun Sahni who is known to Ashley), the University of Quepem and Delfim Correia Afonso from the Camoes Institute were present.   

There were the few requisite speeches, a keynote address by Rochelle Pinto, a journalist and a former academic from Bangalore and a vote of thank by Remy Dias and then the formal part of the conference was done and we were invited to partake of snacks. And what a substantial snack break it turned out to be! If only I had been told that there would be snacks long before lunch I would have held out on eating my hasty vada pau breakfast! There were batata vadas, chutney sandwiches, banana bread and cashew nuts with tea, coffee or juice!

Presenting my Paper:

However, I was both too full and too keyed up to eat very much as I had a paper to deliver at the very first session of the conference to be held in the Council Hall upstairs.  Everything was delayed by about fifteen minutes as the conference had begun late but soon enough, the Chairperson, Rochelle Pinto, arrived and the session began with a presentation by Pratima Gupta, Head of the History Department at the University of Goa who talked about Roots and Routes of Portuguese Presence in Goa during a session on Press and Diaspora. My presentation on the Goans of Canada followed as did a presentation by Irene Silveira a professor of French at the University of Goa, who spoke about a single Portuguese newspaper and its catering to the Portuguese diaspora in India during the 1920s, a Professor called Everett who spoke of the Goan diaspora in Indian cities such as Bombay and Karachi and finally an independent researcher called Mark who talked about the Arabian Sea slave trade that the Portuguese practiced in India which brought in the Siddis of Uttara Kanada into the picture from Ethiopia. A good question and answer session followed during which I was asked two questions which were fun to answer. But then as the session was running late and lunch awaited us at 1.00pm, the Chair called the session to a halt. I faced many questions and comments from members of the audience who then came to talk to me. I have to say that this conference had one of the largest audiences I have ever had—being that it was the first session of the conference, no one had started leaving to go partying, sightseeing or shopping! I am pretty sure that attendance will drop as each day goes by.

     Lunch was lovely: pullao, chicken curry, vegetable Caldine curry, and a delicious fresh salad—exactly the sort of food we Goans, Mangaloreans and East Indians eat at home. It was like being home again and eating my Mum’s food—I missed her so much! For dessert, there were the tiny yellow bananas that are grown along the Konkan Coast (and which are the only bananas I will eat!). Again, the finishing of a meal with a banana is such a Catholic coastal custom that I felt a sharp pang of nostalgia for my growing years in India.  Long before we adopted Westernized customs of serving fancy desserts, bananas were what we ate for dessert as a staple!

Afternoon Session at the Conference:

The Afternoon session at the conference involved four more presentations which I attended—the focus being on the press in Portuguese, Konkani and English. The beauty of this Conference is that it throws up such a wealth of linguistic variation as so many of the participants are admirably multi-lingual having mastered English, Konkani and Portuguese. There are a number of white international delegates at this conference from all over the Portuguese world: San Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Lisbon and Porto in Portugal and I had the chance during lunch and after to finally meet some of the contributors to my book which will be officially launched at a formal ceremony tomorrow. I also met the publisher of my book Frederick Noronha who is organizing the official launch tomorrow at the Camoes Institute in Panjim where the conference sessions will be held.

By this time, I had been informed by Delfim that I was being moved from the International Guest House to a very nice hotel in Panjim in the heart of the Old Quarter. It turns out that another delegate. Chandrika Kaul from the University of Edinburgh who was also staying like me at the Guest House had complained about the place being too isolated and too devoid of amenities such as WiFi and a canteen. They, therefore, decided to move the two of us to a very fancy hotel—but then Chandrika had already made plans to stay with Varun who happened to be a friend of her’s. So, after the day’s program, Delfim would drive me to my guest house to pick up my bag and then drive me to the new hotel in Panjim for the next two nights.  I might probably just extend my stay there for another two nights—let’s see.

     Tea followed and it was another big spread like there was in the morning with the addition of delicious dry-fruit studded coconut macaroons! Back inside, we had a special lecture by Amelie Polonie which was followed by the Cultural Program.

Cultural Program at the Conference:

The last part of my day was the Cultural Program at the conference which turned out to be a real hoot. A troupe of men dressed in Western black suit with bow ties and women dressed in sarees presented a series of dances—the mando (a courting song and dance routine sung in Konkani), the dekhni (a rural dance sung in Marathi), and the Carrodim (a Portuguese dance sung to lyrics in Portuguese) to the accompaniment of instrumental music that were provided by a guitar, two violins, a saxophone, a keyboard and, somewhat interestingly, a dhamok (an earthenware pot turned into a drum). 

The troupe was fantastic and we had our feet tapping before long. Because I made a request of them to sing ‘Ye Ye Katerina’, they did—and then before I knew it, they were inviting me to get up on stage and dance with them! Of course, I did! And then I beckoned to all members of the audience to join me and so many of the Portuguese guests did so. We were a huge group on stage then dancing and doing all sorts of Goan folks movements as well as Western jiving! So much fun! I was later congratulated for turning the cultural show into a party! Indeed, we had such a blast!

Dinner swiftly followed: Another buffet of pullao, chicken curry, aloo gobi and salad were on offer with wedges of watermelon for dessert. Such good simple home-cooked food! These meals gave all the delegates the opportunity to circulate and get to know each other and make valuable new contacts. Again, many people commented on my paper and told me how much they enjoyed it. 

     Delfim then drove me home with Amelie and Eduardo from Porto. We stopped at the Guest House where I picked up my case and checked out and then drove for about half an hour to Panjim where he stopped and led me into the Panjim Inn. I checked into a very classy boutique hotel that had gorgeous Portuguese style carved rosewood furniture sprinkled all around the courtyard where white tourists were sipping drinks and eating dinner. I had a quick chance to look around the hotel before I arrived at my room. I found it to be a sprawling heritage Portuguese bungalow that has been reconstituted as a boutique hotel to include superbly tiled floors—some with mosaic tiling, a collection of Portuguese-style furniture (out all original or authentic but many reproductions of the original styles), lots of lovely vitrines filled with glass and ceramic antique containers and loads of blue and white china plates on the wall together with the wrought iron lamps of which I have one hanging above the dinette in my kitchen. In other words, a beautiful colonial ambience has been created in this place that lies right o the River Mandovi.

  I was placed in a deluxe room but soon discovered that the WiFi worked only sporadically and that the TV was not working either.  They then decided to move me into the room next door which was not deluxe—sadly! However, it met my needs and I was gratified to find a nice attached bathroom. Llew called me and we had a very long chat on the land line as WhatsApp was not working. 

It was after midnight when I finally went to sleep after a very fruitful and interesting first day at the conference. Being based in Panjim will now allow me to do a bit of exploration on foot—so you can expect that first thing tomorrow morning, even before breakfast, I shall be out and walking through this lovely old Portuguese neighborhood that is stacked with old homesteads that have been lovingly converted into first-rate boutique hotels.

     Until tomorrow...