One just wonders how they managed to carve out the delicately curving roads, which turn, twist and entwine the wondrous village of SOCORRO in Bardez, throwing up ravishing vales in which nestle age-old mansions with arresting architectural features. Here live warm and friendly inhabitants.

The Porvorim plateau was once a grazing ground for cattle with lush green tree cover. The rain-water, which seeps into the ground, sprouted springs at the foothills and sustained kullagars (bettlenut groves) and coconut plantations. And that's where the original inhabitants of Serula or Sirula, the head village of Bardez set up their earliest base in Bardez.

The rustic lifestyle of the largely peasant population, vibed perfectly with the wondrous elements of nature. They raised temples to deities Vetall, Narayan, Dhaktti Vandevta, Vhoddli Vandevta, Ravalnath, Siddharth, Malkuni, Somnath, Bhagvati and others. They were quite content to live by the sweat of their brow tilling their land, nearly a quarter of which was fertile and cultivable.

Recalling the ancient names, Chantre F X says that Sirula was known as Shrivaddem because of its immense wealth. The deity is Shree Dev Vetall Maha-Rudra Shirodkar. The ward of Vadem, where kumbhars (potters) from Pilerne came and settled to escape an epidemic back home, is probably what remains of the original nomenclature.

Then came the Portuguese, and re-tailored their nationality, religion and culture. The pakles torched their temples, uprooted their culture and transplanted it with churches, western culture and Christian beliefs.

If the Portuguese had not divided Serula, it would have remained the biggest village in Goa. The Portuguese split Xirodda (Serula), the head village of Bardez, in sadde-tin parishes, christening them with Portuguese names: Socorro, Salvador do Mundo, Penha de Franca and Britona. Having tampered with the nomenclature, the Portuguese managed to make these vital villages of Bardez indistinguishable nonentities from the ethnic point of view.

Going deeper into the past, one finds that Joshivaddo or Zosvaddo or Dosvaddo was where the brahmin bhatts lived, in the vicinity of the Ram temple. The Franciscans could not find a more ideal spot than Zosvaddo to erect the beautiful Church of Our Lady of Socorro in 1667. They got the gaunkars to contribute generously to raise the church, which also gave the village its Christian name--Socorro.

By 1763, the Franciscans had done quite a bit of religious inculturisation of Bardez and with the increase of converts, they had to renovate the church. The main altar was embellished with a throne, niches and a pulpit brought from the Convent of Cruz dos Milagres at Old Goa. The village too came to be landmarked with white-washed crosses shrines and chapels. Around 1737, Oratorian Fr Jose Gomes helped build the Remedios chapel.

The village is dotted with magnificent mansions and most of them, probably, closeup on Khar'rem, another vital wing of the village with its aristocracy. One would tend to link Khar'rem with dry fish but locals believe that it got its name from hot-headed (khor) local bhattkars. They got their own chapel of Our Lady of Rosary built as early as 1682 and rebuilt in 1848.

The major landmark of evangelisation here is the 400-year-old shrine of St Anthony, which stands West of the highway fork. On the eastern side of the highway stands the Candelaria chapel, built by the Pinto do Rosarios, and has a resident chaplain. While Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas was the chaplin, he was responsible for the renovation of the St Anthony's chapel, which many tried to demolish to broaden the highway.

Since Fr Savio D'Souza took over the Candelaria chaplainship, the chapel has been converted into a major pilgrim centre. Devotees from all religions flock there every Friday evening for the special prayers for the sick. People--Christian, Hindu and Muslim--come even from as far as Karwar, Savantwadi and Nasik for the prayer services.

Of course, Porvorim was known for health and maternity care set up by the late Dr Antonio do Rosario Pinto on March 12, 1938. The birth of the maternity hospital wrote off the old era of the almost always illiterate voizinn (village midwife), who took care of all the births in village Goa without the help of a doctor or other medical facilities. Dr Pinto Rosario was the Mayor of Bardez for 16 years, and was responsible for the construction of Mapusa's new market. His father was the Feitor of Diu and hence the hospital is called Feitoraguer. The Feitor's grandson, Dr Sidney, is equally well known and grand-daughter Fatima D'Sa was a Goa minister for a short while.

Several eminent doctors did the village proud. The late Dr Joao Baptista Pinto do Rosario was the former Regedor and local physician of the Serula Comunidade, the late Dr Pedro Rodrigues was a cardiologist of international repute. There's Dr Ivan Pinto, Dr Roque Ribeiro and several others. So even today, Porvorim can be called the health centre of Bardez. JMJ Hospital, behind the Clergy Home, run by nuns from Bangalore, Dr Bhale's orthopaedic clinic for bone care, Dr Kini's Children's Clinic and others have been complemented by institutions teaching meditation technique--Vipassana behind the JMJ Hospital and Amarlok Ashram of Maharajji deep in the Socorro valley.

Late Capt Oswald Pinto was an IAF Pilot. Wing Commander Clarence D'Lima, piloted the plane which crashed into a field in Jorhat on 5-11-77, but his presence of mind helped save the former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who was in the plane. Dr Alberto Gouveia from Maina is a scientist at the National Institute of Oceanography. Ernesto Costa Frias was a freedom fighter. Women too have shone in various fields. Dr Leonora Rangel Ribeiro, founder of ACDIL and former UN Adviser for Community Development to the Government of Columbia., and Dr Camilla D'Costa. Among the clergy, the most outstanding son is the late Bishop Altino Santana Ribeiro and late Bishop Edwin Pinto, Ahmedabad. Late Fr H.O. Mascarenhas was a prominent freedom fighter. Fr Manuel Pinto do Rosario, former Rector of the Saligao Seminary and Director of the Clergy Home, Canon Francisco Lobo, former Rector of Rachol Seminary and Dean of the Se Cathedral, Canon Orlando Ribeiro de Santana, Rev Dr Theodore Pereira (maestro and professor of the Capuchin Seminary), Redemptorist Rev Dr Antonio Rodrigues, all hail from Porvorim.

The haven of clergy had to provide for the evening of their life too and hence we find here the Clergy Home, whose benefactress was the late Urbina Monteiro.

Facing the Candelaria chapel is the house of India's former top cop and former Indian Ambassador to Romania, Julio Fransisco Ribeiro. The villagers have earned laurerls in every sphere of endeavour. In the field of music and culture musicians, we find Victor Rangel-Ribeiro, Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra in New York. The late Napoleao Lobo was a band-master of 40-piece orchestra in Calcutta. The late Bernard D'Souza, Domnic Pereira, Galdino D'Souza and Oscar Pereira (of the US symphony orchestra) to are outstanding examples in music. Galdino D'Souza has more than music to his credit, because just about five years ago, after his retirement, he picked up painting and is already a painter whose works (he specialises in painting pots on canvass) are much sought after.

The ward of Vadem is famous for its potters but they are a dying breed already. I met 68-year-old Jose Vales while working at his wheel. He turns out wonderful work out of clay and his large pots sell at five-star hotels. But lack of capital, lack of interest among the new generation and the need to hire upcountry labour, has spelt the doom of pottery, according to Vales. Imagine: just 8 to 10 houses do pots now while there were as many as 100 houses doing it once. The ancestors of Vales and many other potters came to Vadem from village of Pilerne, when it was attacked by an epidemic.

We come across the name of tiatrist Manoel de Lima and veteran tragedienne of tiatr, Ophelia Cabral. These folk love their land and their language Konkani. "Bhagacho maso, vorlen kuso," is a rare Konkani saying I head from Mrs D'Souza, mother of young social activist Soter D'Souza and singer-journalist Sigmund Freud, who edits his own monthly magazine Goa Messenger.

They ain't no less on the sports field because hockey Olympian Johnny Pinto hails from Socorro. So do pole-vaulter Peter Fernandes and footballer Damodar Kerkar (represented Goa). Jerome Pascoal D'Mello was Goa's first international football referee.

Eventually, one zeroes on the glorious age-old mansions of Socorro. They include the house of Dr Sidney do Pinto Rosario, Fr Manuel do Pinto Rosario, the Noronhas at Ambirna, the Henriques in Vadem and the rambling house with rooms without end, in which Motel La Joy (now demolished) was housed once.

Like in several villages, several grand mansions have kissed the dust and what's left, particularly along the National Highway, will be ruined by the construction industry soon. Says Anthony Vaz, a very energetic local elder and social worker, "Big houses are crumbling because of division of property, share litigation. On the other hand, government secretaries and officials have bought land here. They own several flats with none to question corrupt practices. Hence Porvorim is being populated with non-Goans right upto Betim and Pilerne." Several big buildings like Nanu's Complex, Kamat Green Hills, Angel's Complex, Sabinis Park and others, and housing colonies like the NIO Colony at Ambirna, the Police Co-operative Housing Society and the KTC workshop, have come up on the vast vacant plateau, which was once considered to be the green lungs of the village and its natural wealth.

Like fields inundate when a dyke springs a leak, Socorro too got inundated with people from every walk of life and from every state in India the moment the Mandovi got a bridge over it. Swanky bungalows, villas and buildings mushroomed on plots of land, bought individually or by people, particularly eagle-eyed government servants, by forming small housing societies.

The result of the invasion by non-Goans not only shot up land prices to Rs.4000 and beyond per square metre, but has morphed the demographic content of the 7000-odd population of Socorro, particularly at Porvorim, which has already developed into an elite area. Modern facilities too began being beefed up to meet the growing needs of the new urbanites. While once children used to travel to Mapusa or Panjim for schooling, they now have the Shiksha Niketan in nearby Sangolda, a primary school run by Nisha da Cunha, who also operates her wellknown kinder-garten Nisha's Play School in Torda.

The Holy Name High School, with former Aldona MLA Fatima D'Sa as the principal, also caters to the educational needs. There is a parish school, a government-run middle school and a primary school while once upon a time there was a sole school run by the Rangnekars. From this family hails the late Dinanath Rangnekar, who was the editor of The Economic Times.

While talking of schools, one is reminded of Valentine and Anna Coelho, who have been teaching their three children at their unique Home School, beyond a beautiful palm-grove at Dosvaddo. Their eldest child is in the 9th standard and the youngest in the KG. The Coelho couple also unique because they are quite involved in social activities like their Marriage and Engagement Encounter besides their cottage industry-Silvana Products--which produce traditional Goan perada, banana cheese, jackada, papaya cheese, mangada and various country pickles like those of tendlim and kanttam.

When the village with 20 per cent of the land under cultivation was an agrarian economy, Chavddi in Maina, nestling in sylvan surroundings, was the meeting place of the village gaumponn (Comunidade). Cultivation has been totally neglected now and development detrimental to environment has been increasing. Many claim that "the later day gaumponns have not cared much to preserve their inheritance as far as the Comunidade land is concerned".

Of course, one cannot deny that since Liberation progress has made its way in the village. There is a wide road leading uphill to an area earmarked for an industrial estate, at an isolated place called bara zannache khonnir (where twelve robbers were caught by the villagers). But people in the village--some because the industrial estate is located at an isolated place and others fearing that it will lead to the destruction of the environment--don't seem to be in favour of the industrial estate.

One really feels sorry to find that the once head-village of Bardez is losing all its original splendour and identity. A lot of people were displaced by an epidemic in the distant past. That apart, could it be because of the brain drain since everyone seems to have deserted his ancestral village for better pastures elsewhere? As people in every other Goan village, many Sukurkars or Shirodkars have achieved name, fame and wealth away from their native place. Of course, many of them return home, full of nostalgia for the land of their ancestors, for a brief annual vacation.

They'd love to return to the pristine surroundings to settle amidst the harmony of the singing of birds and bees permanently were it not for the sake of livelihood and other preoccupations. For their new generation, brought up in a modern and everything-found environment with excellent education and fair job opportunities, there seems to be no point of return...to good ole Sukur. Or is there?

JOEL D'SOUZA