Musings : Reminiscences about Goa in the 80s

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Ermelinda Makkimane

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Aug 29, 2019, 1:17:28 PM8/29/19
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I read the book Musings by Ashlesha Athavale; she lived in Goa as a child and the book is a series of short Musings about life as a kid in Goa of the eighties. Has anyone on the group read it? Are there books dealing with the same era?

Frederick Noronha

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Mar 8, 2020, 2:49:14 PM3/8/20
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Hi Ermelinda, Brenda Coutinho of Navelim, who teaches English at Quepem, deals with a similar period, focussing on her growing up years in Salcete.

See a link to A Matter of Time here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18519742-a-matter-of-time

Sorry for missing out on this post earlier. FN

On Thu, 29 Aug 2019, 22:47 Ermelinda Makkimane, <emakk...@gmail.com> wrote:
I read the book Musings by Ashlesha Athavale; she lived in Goa as a child and the book is a series of short Musings about life as a kid in Goa of the eighties. Has anyone on the group read it?  Are there books dealing with the same era?

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Ermelinda Makkimane

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Mar 9, 2020, 1:00:10 AM3/9/20
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Thank you, Fredrick! Found Brenda Coutinho's book on Amazon!

As for Ashlesha's book Musings, since it is about her growing up years in Goa, it would be great if a Goan newspaper could review it.

Regards, 

Ermelinda 

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augusto pinto

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Mar 9, 2020, 1:00:10 AM3/9/20
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Some books of more or less contemporaneous periods which feature scenes of an earlier Goa sometimes from a child's view point, (though perhaps the genres might be fictional) would be Carmo D`Souza`s Angela's Goan Identity; Remigio Botelho's Elsa's Joint and Some Goan Characters; some of Ben Antao's Goa-centric fiction: Silvano Barbosa's The Sixth Night; Savia Viegas's Song Sung Blue and Quinta; and Margaret Mascarenhas's Skin among others. 

Augusto 


On Thu, 29 Aug, 2019, 10:47 PM Ermelinda Makkimane, <emakk...@gmail.com> wrote:
I read the book Musings by Ashlesha Athavale; she lived in Goa as a child and the book is a series of short Musings about life as a kid in Goa of the eighties. Has anyone on the group read it?  Are there books dealing with the same era?

Frederick Noronha

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Mar 9, 2020, 1:01:27 AM3/9/20
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Forwarding a comment from Robert Newman

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Bob Newman <kach...@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2020, 01:28
Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Musings : Reminiscences about Goa in the 80s
To: Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com>


Yes, Brenda's book is an excellent one !
   Bob Newman
From: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2020 6:48 PM
To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Brenda Coutinho <brendac...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Musings : Reminiscences about Goa in the 80s
 

Ermelinda Makkimane

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Mar 10, 2020, 3:11:48 PM3/10/20
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Thank you, Augusto, for this list. I shall try to locate the books and read.

Regards, 

Ermelinda 

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eugene.correia

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Mar 11, 2020, 1:27:54 AM3/11/20
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Add to that Vatsala Mendonca's Under the shadow of a palm tree. It tackles the same subject as Margaret did in Skin.
Is Mysings available in Panjim?

Eugene



Sent from Samsung tablet.


-------- Original message --------
From: Ermelinda Makkimane <emakk...@gmail.com>
Date: 2020-03-10 3:12 p.m. (GMT-05:00)
Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] Musings : Reminiscences about Goa in the 80s

Eugene Correia

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Mar 11, 2020, 1:27:54 AM3/11/20
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Reading Ben's review, I learnt the author is daughter of Narayan Athavale, who was editor of the Marathi-language daily, Gomantak, owned by Chowgules.
Is there anything on the language controversy?

Eugene 

Eugene Correia

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Mar 11, 2020, 1:27:54 AM3/11/20
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I mentioned Vatsala, but let me mention that she's daughter of late Profs Edward Mendoca and  Betty Mendonca.
Vatsala is named after her grand- father's epic poem by that name on the Hindu goddess Durga. Her grandpa's name, Nascimento.

Most of you must have heard about the book, Sorrowing Lies My Land, by Lambert Mascarenhas. I have given a backdrop to that in my piece in the book, In Black and White, brought out by Fred.

I still remember Prof. Peter Nazareth asking me if the rumour regarding the book, and I said yes . Prof. Eddie (as he was known) taught English at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He and I kept a sort of relationship later on. 

The late Wendell Rodrigues also knew about the background story as he confirmed with me on an email.


Eugene

augusto pinto

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Mar 11, 2020, 5:09:28 AM3/11/20
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I don't think the book is available at the book shops, Eugene. Musings is available on Amazon India for Rs 175 + 75 postage.
Augusto 



Ermelinda Makkimane

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Mar 11, 2020, 5:09:29 AM3/11/20
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Musings is available free on Kindle unlimited and on Amazon India.

Thank you for the addition to the book list, Eugene.

Regards, 

Ermelinda 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/5e680591.1c69fb81.9191f.a215%40mx.google.com.

augusto pinto

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Mar 16, 2020, 3:39:34 AM3/16/20
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I received a copy of Musings by Ashlesha Athavale yesterday from Amazon (175 + 75 postage) and it turned out to be what its enthusiasts claimed: unputdownable. Of course the fact that it has only 119 pages printed in a fairly large point size helps when it comes to finishing it off at one sitting.

The large point size and the fairly simple diction coupled with short sentence lengths suggest that the book was primarily aimed at children but I must say that for a 59 year old child I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think what makes it click is the excellent use of point of view. Each episode in the book is narrated by a girl, rather girls (for the story Annlyn Mary D'Costa is narrated by a Christian girl and  Up Above the Skies is narrated by a bird) of between 5 and 15 years of age. 

Athavale is so adept at getting under the skin of her narrator that she's able to successfully recreate her world at that point of time.

There are some typos which need to be corrected but by and large this is a nice book to gift to a child. I'm sure her parents will enjoy it too.

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