Eena Meena Deeka
The
story of Mother’s family
By John H Nazareth
My mother, Anne’s family
story is one of music. Grandpa Antonio Matias Gomes had an orchestra and they
used to travel around India playing in theatres in the time of the silent movies.
At the turn of the 20th century, he got a contract with the British
to play in Theatres in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. He was so enthralled with KL that
he settled down there where most of his children were born. He is credited by
the national music archives with being the first orchestra to bring
Classical Music to Malaysia. Grandpa’s instrument of choice was the violin.
Mum’s father was not the
only musician in the Gomes clan; at least another brother also had an
orchestra and settled in KL. Another of his brothers Manuel Salvador had two
sons Johnny and Joe Gomes who were well-known in the music scene in Bombay.
They played in bands and composed music for Bollywood movies. This played a
part in the stories I am about to tell you.
Let’s go back to Uganda in
1962. This was my second year at an African Catholic boarding secondary school -
St. Mary’s College Kisubi (SMACK) which was popular with Goans. It was also the
year that Uganda got its independence from the UK. To celebrate Independence
the school decided to host a Tattoo during which students from each tribe in
school were asked to do a cultural dance around a huge campfire on the college
sports field. Likewise, the Goan students were asked to put together some cultural
dance. Only one problem – we were all young guys and we had no knowledge of any
Goan cultural dance. None of us even knew a Konkani song!
To the rescue came Tony
Rodrigues, who was one of the seniors, then in Form 5. Tony was a musician and was
well known for playing the accordion and singing. Tony told us about this new
Hindi popular song he had heard – Eena, Meena, Deeka. It was the rage in Bombay
as it was the lead song of a Hindi movie of the same name. Tony suggested that
he would sing it, the rest of us could sing the chorus (“Rum, pum, po”) and
dance the twist. The song even had the Konkani words “Maka, naka” (I don’t
want) in it together with “Tanganyika”, which made it seem bona fide. And
that is what we did. Phew! We were embarrassed as hell, but it got us through
the night. (The following year we actually learned to dance a Mando (Goan
traditional dance) for the 1963 Tattoo.)
Fast forward to 2010 – almost 50 years later, location – Mississauga Canada. I had recently come to know my first cousin Manuel Gomes – son of Joe Gomes – and he emailed me an article on the Goan Musicians of Bombay written by Ashwin Panemangalore. I read through it and discovered to my amazement that my Uncle Johnny Gomes was the co-creator of “Eena Meena Deeka”! I immediately emailed Tony who was now a Professor at the University of Nairobi and sent him the article. He replied: “Indeed a small world”.
Nora Jones
One day while the family
was at my sister Ruth’s place in 2008, I brought up the subject of Nora Jones’
music, which had become very popular in her native US. As we were talking about
her, mum asked “Who is Nora Jones?” Trying to capture more than just her music,
I said that she was Ravi Shankar’s love child. Mum goes “Ah! Ravi Shankar ……… I
met him.” To which I added “Wha-a-a-t? You met Ravi Shankar? When?” She went on
to say that she met him at her cousin, Johnny Gomes’ house in Bombay in the
1950s before he became famous. Johnny and Joe (his brother) Gomes were well
known in the music scene in Bombay. They were professional musicians.
Ravi used to come to Uncle Johnny’s place to jam.
The Gomes music story is
one that keeps on giving.
An Extract from my Memoirs
in work.
18 Jan 2022
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