Quiet Flowed The Zuari - Part 3

- Vignettes from the life of a Goan

(A Novella in four parts)

Part 1 

Continued from   Part 2

Why?!

The wedding was held in Ooty. It was the first time he was visiting India, which is what Goans thought of the subcontinent before and after its independence from the British, and even for a few years after Goa’s liberation. She said her mother had even located a Goan priest, Father Pinto, who would conduct the ceremony in Konkani. She was trying to learn Konkani, but had memorised her minimal dialogue for the ceremony. When prompted by the priest, or nudged by Frank, she just had to say, “Vhoi” – the one word of acceptance equivalent to “I do”, though “zatta” would have been the more accurate translation.

On the wedding day she was dressed in a resplendent white gown with a long train, and a white headdress. She wore a small tiara and simple chain with a crucifix. In south Indian style, she wore her hair with two long plaits in front of her, terminating in an ornamental tassel called Kunjalam in Tamil. She, after all, was half-Tamilian (as he sometimes jokingly pointed out), and had wanted to dress up like this. He personally felt that it was a travesty to restrain her wonderful hair in this ghastly manner, and would have volunteered to liberate her tresses. But he, like many other men before him, had learnt the value of keeping his thoughts to himself. He was dressed in a black suit, with a bow tie, and black shoes. He had done up his hair to look like Elvis Presley, whom he resembled to some extent if viewed from the side. He felt like singing Elvis’s Marguerita, one of his favourite songs, which had the words, “Who makes my heart beat like thunder? Who makes my temperature rise? Who makes me tremble with wonderful rapture with one burning glance from her eyes...”. But the priest was beckoning, and he had some disturbing news.

He informed them, that unfortunately, Fr. Pinto had to rush back to Goa a day before the wedding as his brother had met with an accident. He volunteered to step in, and conduct the services in English, as he did not know Konkani. When he reached the crucial question, and enquired “Do you, Suzanne Roberts, take this Franklin Ferrão...,” the excited bride had stuck to her original rehearsed response.

“Vhoi!,” she heartily exclaimed, much to the surprise of the priest, who heard it as, “Why?”

He looked up questioningly, in confusion, as she realised her mistake and she gave the expected response in English.

They went to Kodaikanal for the honeymoon. One morning, they spent the entire time at the lake, surrounded by tall trees, which cast their shadows on the edges of the lake. They had a terrific row that lasted a couple of hours.

His arms ached all day from all that rowing and he had blisters on his hands. But he continued rowing every day they were at Kodai.

***

A Naming Ceremony

Soon, it was time for Frank and Suzy to pay a visit to her parents in Ooty, as part of a common ritual followed in many parts of India. They traveled by train from Vasco to Bangalore and then took an overnight bus to Ooty. Anglo-Indians had always preferred Ooty with its cool climate, given the tropical climate of the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. For Frank too it was a change from the hot and torrid weather in Goa, which became mild only during its ‘winter’ months. For Suzy, it was a homecoming of sorts, though she had wonderfully adjusted to Goa’s climate, language and culture.

Time flew by in Ooty as they visited the local sights and eating places. Frank got to taste a wide variety of south Indian vegetarian food which Suzy’s mother preferred. He also tasted Chinese cuisine for the first time at Shinkows, a popular restaurant. He took to their non-vegetarian dishes like a Peking Duck takes to water. It became his regular port of call for lunch when in town. He had heard of a new restaurant in Panaji which had opened a few years back and served Chinese food. While its name was Goenchin – a portmanteau of Goen and Chinese, it also meant “Goan people” in Konkani. He estimated that it was about 12 kilometres from Sancoale as the Peking duck flies or around 20 kilometres by road. He decided to pay a visit once he was back in Goa. Of course, the Ooty lake constantly beckoned him for boating, which he really enjoyed. It increased his appetite for lunch and Shinkows was not too far away from the lake.

All good things come to an end, as did that vacation in Ooty. For the day road trip back to Bangalore, Suzy’s mother prepared a simple dry vegetarian dish. It contained juliennes of carrots and beans, thinly sliced cabbages and onions, sautéed with crushed ginger and garlic. It was lightly spiced with some turmeric, chilli, coriander and cumin powder. It was wrapped in chappathis to make easy-to-handle rolls, convenient to eat during travel.

Frank had never tasted this filling before and found it extremely tasty, filling and satisfying. Having no real name for it, they named it “Ooty curry”. It went on to be a permanent addition to the menu at Casa Ferrão, and was a must during travel. Curiously, in Frank’s recipe book – handwritten in an old diary – this curry ended up being entered on the page bearing the date 14^th February.

***

Tiatr

Frank and Suzy had many common interests. Amongst them were gardening and drama. She had studied Shakespeare during her Master's degree and taken part in many college plays. She was quite excited at the opportunity of adapting those to Konkani Tiatr with his assistance. Though his skill in tiatr had been limited to providing the background score and the comic interlude during intervals, he had watched all performances with a keen eye. He knew his acting talents were quite modest, but he wanted to appear on the stage at least once.

The opportunity came when Suzy was directing an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. During the interval just before the famous balcony scene, Frank requested Suzy to appear in her stage clothes and deliver Juliet’s first line of that scene. He also arranged that the screen remained open.

When she appeared on the balcony, he – wearing a wig and a beard – was standing with his trumpet right under it. Not below and in front of or next to it. He was exactly underneath the balcony.

“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” she said, referring to wherefore, i.e., why he was a Montague. This line is frequently misunderstood by many to mean “Where are you, Romeo?”

He gave a literal reply to the erroneous interpretation, saying, “I am understanding you, Juliet!”

Extempore, but not thrown off by his response, she continued, “Though I am understanding that you are understanding the balcony, I am not understanding why you are understanding the balcony?”

He played along, saying, “It is raining quite heavily and I will get wet if I am outstanding.”

Not to be outdone, she continued, off the cuff, “I know you are outstanding in many ways, but how can you call yourself a true Goan, if you are scared of such a tiny drizzle?”

And then it was time for the real balcony scene, but their exchanges had found resonance with the audience. Murdering English was a popular pastime with the crowd. Some might have taken umbrage if Portuguese was similarly ill-treated.

***

Batata VaDa

Konkani Tiatr is entwined with music and songs, though non-Tiatr music and songs are popular too. Music is played not only in churches and temples but also in various family functions and festivals. While very few people are aware that there are over a dozen types of Konkani songs, some even claim that there are over 30. Many know the names of genres like Mando, Dekhni, and Dulpod, though they are not necessarily aware of the contours of such genres. Few, however, are aware of genres like Fugdi, Duvallo and Ovi.

“Quite a few Goans have contributed to Bollywood music as arrangers for several popular songs with western scores,” Frank informed Suzy. He added, “They have played the music in many songs and hardly got the credit for it. They have also made a small number of well-made Konkani films.”

She asked him, “Who is your favourite Goan musician in Bollywood?”

He replied, “Chic Chocolate.”

“Always thinking of food, aren’t you,” she scolded mildly.

He explained, “Chic’s real name is Antonio Vaz. He has not only played instruments but has even appeared in some movies.”

He added that one of Konkani’s most popular songs had come not from Goa, but from Mangalore. Henry D’Souza and Helen D’Cruz had come out with a fast and hip number called “Ye, Ye, Katrina” – in which the male singer proposes to take the lady out on an outing and teach her ‘loving’! The lady expresses her reservations about the outing. She does not seem to have any objection to his amorous advances, but is more worried he might buy her batata vada and bhelpuri.*

Suzy and Frank practised the duet many times. It always ended the same way – with a craving for piping hot batata vadas. He always joked, “My biwi’s BVs are superb.”**

Her first impression – that he invoked music not to satisfy his heart, but to fill his stomach – remained a lifelong impression. She was not only correct about that impression, but subscribed to the thought herself.

* Popular Indian snacks
^** Biwi - Hindi word for wife, when pronounced sounds just like BV

***

Cooked up?

Many people with a gastronomic bent of mind are aware of the Portuguese influence in Goan dishes. They are aware of names (and sometimes the true taste and flavour) of dishes with exotic names like Xacuti, Rechead, Vindaloo and Balchão. They rightly suspect that the Lusitanian influence goes beyond the name of some dishes. Portuguese influence continues to be seen not only in Goan cuisine but also in the food of the East Indian community of Bombay, which used to be a Portuguese possession. But very few people know the real contribution of the Portuguese to Indian – not necessarily Goan – cuisine. They introduced many exotic fruits and vegetables which they had brought from their South American and other colonies to Europe. As any Lusophile will tell you, this includes potatoes, tomatoes, chili, papaya, capsicum, cashew, passion fruit, pineapple, and several varieties of beans, including Rajma, which is popular in North India. Compared to the size of their Indian colony, their influence on Indian food was enormous.

But after Liberation, with the ever increasing number of tourists and restaurants, Indian food too flourished in Goa. You never knew what was cooking at Casa Ferrão, for both cuisines blended seamlessly in its kitchen. Frank was quite open to sampling what were exotic dishes from his point of view and even cooking them. And Suzy did not disappoint him. The south Indian dishes she brought to the table were superb and much better than what was available in restaurants in Goa.

Whenever Frank felt the urge, he would pop into the kitchen singing to Suzy,

“Say hey, good lookin’,

Whatcha got cookin’?

How about cookin’ somethin’ up with meeeeee?

Hey, sweet baby,

Don't you think maybe
We could find us a brand new recipeeeeeee?”

Hank Williams would have been proud of his song being put to good use.

Frank was not only familiar with the art of motorcycle maintenance, but also associated Zen with cooking. He followed recipes but sometimes got into trouble. Once, he was cooking at the kitchen counter. The pan was on the stove and he was cutting onions on the cutting board near it. He meticulously peeled the onions and cut them into cubes. The cubes went into the garbage bin and the skin into the pan. And, a new dish was born. Suzy tried to guess, in vain, what vegetable he had used.   

*

Once Frank made Peas Pulao. As he always did, he kept all the ingredients ready on the counter. He fried the sliced onions, along with ginger-garlic paste, in the cooker. He then added the tomatoes and sautéed them a little. After a little while, he added the rice, salt, water and spices, and closed the cooker. After the cooking was done, he transferred the pulao from the cooker to the serving dish. At that point, he spied the bowl of peas sitting next to the serving dish. He found that he had invented a method of making Peas Pulao without peas.

Suzy enquired, “I don’t see any peas in this pulao. Did you put them in?”

Frank sheepishly admitted his mistake and asked, “What do I do with these peas?”

She advised him, “Donate them to Greenpeace.”

*

Once in a while, Frank liked to cook on an open wood fire. He had set up a few bricks to support vessels and used sticks and bits of dead wood from the garden.

One day, he decided to make Veg Kolhapuri, a dish available in many restaurants. He referred to his blue book which contained his recipes. He marshalled all the ingredients in the kitchen, and carried them to the fireside, so that he could have them at hand. He lit the fire and proceeded to add one ingredient after another. However, the Veg Kolhapuri did not taste like it usually did. He went back to the kitchen and  referred to his book. He found that he had used some ingredients from the recipe mentioned on the next page. The recipe on that page was Veg Hyderabadi.

When dining, Suzy remarked, “Your vegetable dish tastes different today. It is good, but it doesn’t taste like the Veg Kolhapuri you usually make.”

Frank said, “This is Veg Solapuri.”

“I have not heard of that dish anywhere,” she said.

“I just invented it!” he replied.

“But why do you call it Solapuri?,” she enquired.

He explained, “This dish is a blend of two recipes that I mixed up – Veg Kolhapuri and Veg Hyderabadi. I just looked up the road map and found Solapur is about halfway between the two.”

And that’s how Veg Solapuri ended up being an exclusive dish at Casa Ferrão. It was not available anywhere else – not in Goa, not in India, probably no other place in the world.

***

Continued ... Part 4

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