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  From Tonto de Freitas FIVE  videos of 75-year old Goan icon Chico Fonseca talking about his life and singing Portuguese and Konkani songs. He has travelled the world with his guitar and sung with the likes of Harry Belafonte! I was particularly moved by his Konkani Farewell song, faulty though it was because of his age, because I remember so many parties where my dad and mum sang that song with people of their generation. It was a sentimental song and the old folks were visibly moved as they sang songs like these. Playing *Goa* https://youtu.be/o3A4G_0ZIQo On his musical journey https://youtu.be/GfiXdnzkYT4 On doctor-musicians and serenading in the 1950s and around then https://youtu.be/9mLC0RfqETQ On Latin-influenced music in the Goa of the past https://youtu.be/h4y-2nD9LGc On Konkani's farewell song, his travels with the guitar &c https://youtu.be/mJD993ZBmxw

  Prawns in Bombay My paternal grandfather, Zose de Freitas ("Tonto Zose"{ (short for Zose who limps)  to his friends), was a fisherman in Chorao, Goa. He was a man of humble means, so seafood featured largely in the family diet as his  cantai  (net) fetched him a free haul of prawns and small fish daily from the nearby irrigation canals, enough to feed his family - and then some. He had a paddy field and a vegetable patch, coconut palms and a hillside plot with cashew trees. The cashew crop provided him with an ample supply of cashew wine ( cajel ) and cashew liquor (feni). In those days, few people in his part of the village had luxuries and he did not aspire to be a  bhatkar  (wealthy landowner).  My grandmother, Ana Carlota, longed to move from the shack in which she had raised her son and two daughters. Her dream came true when her son, Gabriel (my father), found employment in East Africa and saved enough to buy land from the Vas family in the...

  American Poet Anne Sexton – “It doesn’t matter who my father was: it matters who I remember he was”  Joaquim D’Souza ascended to his heavenly father on March 6 th 2021; 16 days shy of his 93rd birthday. His soul met his creator with his life-long companion of 62 years, Martha, by his bedside. He was a caring father and father-in-law to Arleen and Tyronne; Everett and Michele; Hayley and Merwyn; and Tansy, even though at times, due to his hard childhood, he struggled to openly show his emotions. His four children had a carefree, well provided young life, blessed by a place we still treasure as our “first home” in North Lavington. He was a loving grandfather to Ralston (Stacey), Kielan (Yujin), Kyle and his lovable Ariella. He now has but one surviving brother, Francis, in Brighton, England and the youngest sister Dolly in Georgia, USA. Joaquim Victor D’Souza was born in Assagao, Goa on March 22 nd 1928 and made the journey to Kenya at the tender age of two with his bold par...