Saligao Serenade

by Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas

In an earlier essay (A Red-Letter Day for Saligao) I had detailed the events that took place at the time of inauguration and installation of the image of Mae de Deus in Saligao Church on 26 November 1873. This statue formerly belonged to the Mother of God Friary, located in Daugim near Old Goa.

The Daugim monastery and its church had been inaugurated on 31 October 1569. But by 1878, the friary had disappeared and the church was in a tottering condition. However, the miraculous statue of Mae de Deus was taken to Saligao on 24 November 1873. The pulpit, the main bell, and three altars were taken to Mapuca Church in 1839. One of the bells and an organ was taken to Moira Church. Another bell adorned the Church of Jua (on St. Estevam island, Ilhas). Two other bells and the reredos (altar backdrop) were dispatched to Assolna Church in Salcete. Then, what was still standing of the Friary and Church after all the years of neglect, was razed to the ground. Only the Cross remained erect, where, for three centuries, the Monastery and Church of the Mother of God once stood. Read the rest of this entry »

by Mel D’Souza

During my last two years in high school, I had a new friend – Gerry Lopes.

Gerry had done all his early schooling at the Portuguese Liceum College in Go’s capital Panjim until his dad, Aquino Lopes, decided to move him to the English medium. As a result, Gerry was enrolled in Mater Dei Institution in Saligao, and was assigned a seat in class next to me. Since Gerry was not very fluent in English, it was felt that I could help him under the buddy system.

During our school holidays, we would have sleep-ins at our respective homes. When Gerry slept over at my place, it wasn’t that much fun because my home was very small; small rooms, floor of dried cow dung, and nothing to amuse us other than our mutual interest in whittling models of airplanes and sailing ships. However, sleeping over at Gerry’s was a great experience for several reasons. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

Many Christians dream of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land someday. For some the dream actually becomes a reality. My school companion and friend Salvador Isidoro Mascarenhas from Mollebhatt, counts himself among those fortunate ones, when, about a year ago in April 2009, he, along with another couple from Saligao (Epifanio and Perpetua Fernandes from Tabravaddo/Bairro Alto) and twenty other Goans flew to Israel for a pilgrimage tour of the Holy Land.        

A few days before the pilgrimage, Salvador paid me a visit at the Holy Spirit Church in Margao. During the conversation I reminded him that Marie Dantas and her husband from Saligao/UK had placed a marble plaque, with the Our Father inscribed on it Konkani, in the Church of the Pater Noster (also called Church of Eleona – Mount of Olives, in Greek),  which Queen Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, built in the fourth century. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

As the well-known American priest and psychologist Michael Garanzini once said, “Children are excellent observers but poor interpreters.” They observe everything that others do, but they are poor interpreters of these actions; they know exactly what you are doing but they don’t know exactly what it means.

A lady in Saligao once told me of the time when her father had died. She was still a child then, and had observed that her mother did not cry at all on that sad occasion. Many many years later when the topic happened to be discussed, her mother explained to her: “I was trying to keep that traditional stiff upper lip for the sake of the children. I wanted them to know that their father was in heaven and that death isn’t a tragedy. I didn’t want to show my own grief, especially not to the children.” So she kept back her emotions, and her little girl concluded, “You didn’t love my father, did you? You didn’t love him at all. I loved my father and you didn’t!” And so, the little girl landed up hating her mother for years. And it was all based on a child’s excellent observation and faulty interpretation. This lady told me that the incident affected her deeply and she barely communicated with anyone else for many years, until she heard Fr. Desmond D’Souza (from Nigvaddo, Saligao) speaking on “What happens to people when they communicate effectively.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

In the 1940s and 50s one means of transportation that all were familiar with in the picturesque Goan village of Saligao was the boilanchi gaddi (ox-driven carriage). Only a few people could be accommodated in it. The man driving the carriage was known as the gaddiekar, and the ticket cost just four annas.

My friend Dominic Peter Francis Fernandes from Anjuna gives a nice description of the boilanchi gaddi: “The gaddi was made of wood. At its rear end, it had a half-door entrance with a metal step below, and two small windows, one on each side. It had a bench on either side with a sitting capacity of two persons each; but three would usually squeeze in. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

As a priest on staff at the Holy Spirit Church in Margao, one of my duties is to visit the parishioners. A few days ago my visits took me to the famous Rua Abade Faria (named for Jose de Custodio de Faria, the colourful and enigmatic son of Goa – a hypnotist, priest and revolutionary). A few minutes of wandering along this street presents a kaleidoscope of some of the oldest, most notable town houses in Goa, typifying Goan domestic architecture of the 18th and 19th centuries and demonstrating a whole range of styles. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

Saligao is a well-known village in Bardez, Goa. The people from neighbouring villages refer to Saligaokars as Uxellantle Kole or, nowadays, simply Kole (foxes). How did this nickname originate? Let me tell you the interesting story:

Many centuries back it was rather difficult for people in Saligao to travel from one ward to another, especially during the monsoons when the fields were usually submerged in water. In several places there were ponds, streams and even fountains. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas

The people of Goa have always had a fascination for names, and take the naming of their children very seriously. In days gone by it was not unusual for an infant to be given three, four or even more names – after patron saints, forefathers, famous figures from history, and miscellaneous tongue-twisters. In addition to all these given names, later on in life many were lovingly bestowed with one more – a nickname. Read the rest of this entry »

by Mel D’Souza

 “Baba” was a universal term of affection used in Goa to address a little boy or an adult male who was in good standing in the community. The term would also be used, somewhat grudgingly, when addressing the odd individual who was an embarrassment to his family, but whose misdeeds were not serious enough for him to be thrown out of the house. I suppose he could be called the ‘baba’ black sheep of the family.

Black sheep were few and far between, but we had one in our family. He was my granduncle and his name was Galdinho D’Souza. Read the rest of this entry »

by Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas

Prior to the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510, Goan villages had schools that were known as patshalas.  According to George Moraes, “There was no village but had a school, be it in the shade of a grove or in the porch of the temple where the children were taught the three R’s.” The teachers were known as Sinai or Xenney or Shenvi Mama. (In Saligao we had Sinai Salgaokars – remember Xinn-vaddo in Mudd’davaddi). The Sinais would teach in the entrance hall of the temples, big residential houses and even verandahs of comunidade houses. The medium of instruction was Konkani, the native language of Goans, and it was written in the Alkannadi script. Marathi was used in Goa only in the late fifteenth century when the Sultan of Bijapur ruled Goa. The Sultan even recognized Konkani as the official language of the territory [Coutinho 1987 : 153].  Besides the patshalas, there were agraharas, matas, brahmapuris and gurukalas – institutions located in the principal centres where education of an advanced type was disseminated in all branches of knowledge and finally completed at Vidyashalas. Read the rest of this entry »