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Author Matata series Braz Menezes |
Last week I received my copy of Stars Next Door by Cyprian (Skip) Fernandes (Goa 1556).
I
found myself turning over the pages of a family album - a large family
in a small Goan community, dispersed across a vast region of colonial
British East Africa. In the early 60s, four independent nations of
Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika and Zanzibar were born. In those pre-internet
days, it was the sporting networks that allowed such talent to maintain
contact, grow and thrive both at the national and international level.
This ‘anthology’, expertly curated by Cyprian Fernandes, perceptively
focuses on Sports and Music.
Seraphino
Antao was of my generation. I can remember how within a few minutes of a
race ending, the news of Antao’s win would have reached the Goan clubs
and bars. A cheer would go up; a fresh round of drinks ordered; another
toast drunk to our Goan family member from Mombasa. He made us proud. We
as a community could look up. At midnight when the papers hit the streets, we would zero in to the Nation Sports Page for Cyprian’s gripping account and in later years, Norman Da Costa.
It
was the same with field hockey. Silu, Alu, Hilary, Edgar, Egbert,
Saude, Reynold, Leo and others - classmates and friends at the Dr.
Ribeiro Goan School. We basked in their glory, but the talent and hard
work was theirs alone.
It
was pleasure to read the tribute to ‘Master’ Anthony D’Souza by Hilary
Fernandes. He taught us diligently to love Math and English at DRGS, but
his passion was in coaching the hockey players, and what a fine legacy
he has left behind!
There are others like Johnny Lobo and the Nairobi Heroes, but must leave soccer and women’s sports for another time.
Our
Goan musicians that played at the Goan clubs in Nairobi, Mombasa, and
Daresalaam and Kampala, were also household names and of our generation.
Edmund Silveira’s piece reminded me of the rap across the knuckles that
Mother Gertrude would dish out with a wooden ruler, if we appeared to
slack at the Catholic Parochial School in 1946. Edmund studied piano.
Four boys next door took violin lessons. One day heard her wooden clogs
on the cement corridor retuning to the class. We stopped our ‘fencing’
tournament with our bows. There was an accident. My violin crashed to
the floor. My musical career ended. What a legend Edmund has become his
own lifetime.
Henry
Braganza, Max De Souza, ‘Couti’ Delfine Da Costa, and the others kept
us entertained through those years. They too were classmates. When they
left, they seemed to have ended up in Canada. They are still here.
Others on that long list have settled in the UK and Australia.
One of the joys of turning over the pages of Stars Next Door is
see the continuity of the Goan endeavor in both sports and music, in
spite of the family upheavals and disruption of migration across oceans
and time zones ranging from Australia to Canada. These Stars or their
progeny have restarted and carried on. I was recently estimating that
there must be at least fifteen professional Goan bands including
‘one-man bands’ that play in the Greater Toronto Area to multicultural
Canadian audiences. Liquid Jazz is a standard on CBC Radio.
What Cyprian has achieved in drilling down into some of the ‘Stars’, is assemble conveniently for posterity, the richness of Goan Society during 60s and 70s.
I
hope now that Cyprian will find the time and resources to put out
another publication that will cover a similar close-up view of the Goans
employed in Education and Health, during the same period of time. There
are teachers, doctors, midwives, whose stories need to be told.
Congratulations Skip! A great contribution and supplement to Yesterday in Paradise.
Congratulations to Frederick Noronha and Goa 1556 for another fine publication.
Braz Menezes, Burlington, ON, Canada
Stars Next Door is available from the following people:
In Goa
Frederick Noronha
784, Near Lourdes Convent
Sonarbhat SALIGAO PO
Bardez Goa
9822122436 (please SMS if you can't get through)
0832-2409490 (landline)
784, Near Lourdes Convent
Sonarbhat SALIGAO PO
Bardez Goa
9822122436 (please SMS if you can't get through)
0832-2409490 (landline)
Canada
Astrid
D. Fernandes,
30
Allenwood Crescent,
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada,
M2J
2R2 Tel: 416-733-1141
Lan. 905 273 4029
Cell. 647 643 4029
John Noronha
3542 Burningelm Cres
Mississauga
Canada. L4Y 3L1
SILU FERNANDES
(silufernandes@rogers.com)
3174 Huxley
Drive
Mississauga
Ontario
L5L 4S7
905 607 1395
Norman Da Costa
26 Lilly Crescent
Brampton Ontario
L6Y 3K3
9054521295
London
Juliettee De-Menezes D’Costa
The Jays
177 Covington Way
Norbury
London
SW16 3AH
177 Covington Way
Norbury
London
SW16 3AH
+447557587079
Sydney
Cyprian Fernandes
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