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For
one of the most wonderful collection of books, some of them rare, on every
aspect of Goa, written by erudite sons of the soils as well as Europeans
and others... GOANS
OF KENYA ELOCUTION
PIECES FOR STUDENTS TRANSFORMING
OF GOA HOUSES
OF GOA AFRICANS
IN INDIA: FROM SLAVERY TO ROYALTY ENGLISH-KONKANI
DICTIONARY PROFILE
OF EMINENT GOANS--PAST AND PRESENT GOA!
THE ROME OF THE ORIENT THE
GREATER TRAGEDY
REVIEWS HOUSES OF GOA A book every Goan will be proud to possess. It traces historically the evolution of the local patterns of house building through the last thousand years and reveals in depth the great Goan boom in dwelling construction of the last quarter of the 19th century. As a book on Goan history and anthropology, the text provides an insight into the long period of the Dravidian presence--that of Kunbis, the Gauddes and the Kharvis; then, it moves into the times when Aryan groups--the Gaud Sarasvats and the Shenvis--settled in this land and passes further through the pre-Mohamadan and the Mohamadan periods of Goa's history, until the arrival of Afonso de Albuquerque. But it is certainly the latter half of the Portuguese period that constitutes the prime time under discussion. The narrative goes through six well written core chapters: "From Mud to Marvels", "A Way of Life", "Elements of Styl", "House Forms", "Building The Goan House" and finally personality profiles. It begins with a concise foreword by Gerard da Cunha and ends with bibliography, glossary of architectural terms, the index, picture credits and acknowledgments--in all, 185 large format double column pages of busy writing and reading. The main text brings out an evolution of ideas, a discovery of forms and materials and a concretisation of house plans. The Portuguese decidedly infused the locals with a fresh concept of grand living. Life became existing with difference, this difference being the house itself. Many Goans, at a certain stage, began to think in terms of owning a beautiful and large, elegant and aristocratic mansion. The Portuguese began the process themselves; they promoted this new trend at Ribandar and Chorao, but it was Goan families that extended it and spread the idea to the Velhas Conquistas and subsequently to the Novas Conquistas, in a matter of a mere hundred years. The book indirectly documents how the sense of security enjoyed by the locals was translated into a building activity, focused on the Goan house, a thing that Goans--all of them--pride for owning one. It is the dream of our people to have a house for habitation. in search of one's living style, the local genius flowered into the serious business of house construction, better than in any other field. It is also this fact that emerges from the book better than any other facet of Goan life. Indeed, the whole book is about this. Possibly, the centuries of Portuguese rule added to the craving for a house and the colonial ambience became conducive to the building of some of the best dwelling houses not only in India but anywhere in the world. Many of the Goan hogwashes can be seen in the book--are true monuments belonging to an epoch, as well as testimonials of the foresight of the people who lived through that epoch. This fact has been brought out extremely well by the authors. It is almost an exhaustive contribution on the subject matter. I had received an invitation for the launching of the Houses Of Goa, but could not make it to Ribandar, to the elegant Colaco's mansion, where the highly presentable first edition of the book was made available to the connoisserurs. This is not the first time that the vast Indian readership has had an opportunity to taste the flavours of the Goan identity; but this time, Gerard da Cunha and a band of dedicated researchers have produced something that matches the refinement of the topic chosen. As the reader goes through the beautifully illustrated pages of the book, he is bound to wonder why and how Goa's past is being lost so fast to the lure of quick profit, and why no longer such marvelous dwellings as depicted in it shall henceforth be seen except when confined to a historical note. The book is bound to reinforce the widely accepted notion that Goa has a unique identity in the vast kaleidoscopic map of India. To this extent, the contribution of Goans to the mainstream has come by way of the architecture of their houses. Goans, thus, have something to account for in the area of the development of the means of human survival pertaining to the development of the house itself. The whole project was timely and most opportune; and, in a way, emerged as a major contribution to settling the whole question of the unique personality of this small State. Though guided by the highest professional motives, this initiative of Gerard da Cunha goes well being the restricted--even if vast--scope of architecture. He has now preserved for posterity the very account which makes Goans feel so proud of every occasion--their house to be precise. This is a factor, that, in the post-Liberation period, Goans have been fast losing the identity and the uniqueness of the local houses. The versatility of houses in Goa has been disappearing at a near catastrophic rate: hundreds of ancestral houses--each a true monument to an epoch--are being demolished every year. Some of us who have remained powerless and mute witnesses to the ravages caused to the Goan skyline must acknowledge the whole effort behind the production of a book of such a nature, subject-matter, projection and dimension. To say the least, it is a fine work. The Houses of Goa has been written in simple style, and in a captivating prose, which is bound to interest historian, sociologist, anthropologist and the serious reader alike, apart from average dwellers. Having also witnessed the painful demise of our cities first, and now of the villages, where once upon a time the tiled roods were the rule, the book boosts one's dying spirit, as the pages are turned in awe. They reveal the passion with which Goans succeeded in building their very elegant, refined and aristocratic casaroes, incorporating into them the notional, the practical and the functional. Hidden in the book is the epic of the achievements of thousands of laboruers, craftsmen, masons and carpenters, who contributed with ideas and refinement of form to the art and the rigor of house building out of sheer love for work and the Goan sense of perfection. The Houses of Goa is, to my mind, the best documented production brought out on the topic to this date. Although, one may say that the entire exercise is the brainchild of the well known architect, Gerard da Cunha, the contribution of Heta Pandit, Annabel Mascarenhas, who worked assiduously on the text; the careful graphics of Rukshana Sarosh along with the painstaking photography of Ashok Koshy completes the priceless effort put by the whole team. The final result has been an extremely original treatment of the subject, including that of the description of some of the best examples of Goa's famed mansions. The book takes us through an interesting account of materials, models, preferences, sketches, all of them individualised in over 150 selected samples and largely illustrated in case of a dozen most prominent houses. Much of it has been written, sketched and photographed with tremendous effect. Maybe, the work required concentration on the majestic and the grandiose, though the moderate and the popular have not been given undue attention. The book deals with the fusion of the East and the West which in Goa has mingled happily in language culinary art, sports, style, dress and also in house building. Another important detail has been brought out, namely that through centuries, Christian artisans contributed with concepts and forms to Hindu houses as much as Hindu artisans did so to Christian houses. This measure of interacting of communities is rarely to be found in the other regions of this vast country. One may call this the tour test of our enduring "Goanity". Those who like details will find in the book abundant matter with which to satisfy their thirst. There are numerous photographs of balconies and colonnades, capitels and false ceilings, windows and railings,halls, bedrooms and porticoes, and also of furniture, chairs and tables, lamps and mirrors: of china and porcelain; and all the other beautiful objects d'art that adorn hundreds of traditional Goa's homes, along with he colour combinations, proportions and aesthetics, interiors nd surroundings replete with great detail of the patterns carved on laterite--all of them bringing out the relaxed, sossegado, existence of the small Goan population. The book, furthermore, portrays the passion of the locals for having house tailored to themselves. In a way, it is also a narrative of the life of the landed gentry of the 19th and 20th centuries and of their preoccupation to build spacious and gracious living conditions around them. The photographs are some of the best I have seen. However, a little more attention could have been given to the outhouse and the generally high compound wall, designed for complete privacy. The lateral view of many of the houses, could have been included, for the depth of the dwelling is certainly as important as the frontal view. Some of the houses in Salcete and Bardez are well identified by their lateral extension. Equally significant is the rear view of many a house which provides a singular direction of the edifice from within the respective spacious backyard. The attached chapels are significant in at least a dozen big houses in Goa. These could have been taken as an integral part of the text. A fresh edition is bound to be on the drawing boards and this fresh edition should complete the first and also should be capable of avoiding the numerous misspellings of the Portuguese words and terms that crept into the present edition. Overcoming this difficulty should not be a problem at all. It is my observation that almost all the recent works having to deal with Portuguese names have suffered from this apparently unmanageable struggle with spellings. The book has been published by Architects Anonymous in one of the most modern presses in India. It is priced at Rs.1450 for the local buyer and pounds 29 and $45 for the buyers abroad. The paper used is superior glazed, the print meets international standards for any work of this type. To a Goan who has lived for four decades in this period of transition of ups and downs, the book represents a brave new initiative about a brave but dying old world. Manohar Shetty Courtesy: The Navhind Times
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