Angelo da Fonseca by Savia Viegas

[Selma Cardoso]

Dear members,

It is my pleasure to share art historian and novelist Savia Viegas's article 'Angelo da Fonseca: As Recounted by his Daughter.' This article allows you a preview of our upcoming June issue. As usual I request, that if you enjoy the sort of writing and features we bring you, please visit us on our Facebook Page and hit like. In this way, you will not miss a single issue.

"A sewak motioned the path to the estate. The terrain was rough and full of prickly dry twigs. Yessonda pointed to an oddly-shaped laterite-bound structure which resembled a well. ‘We bathed at this spring in childhood!  Its waters were believed to have curative properties.’ Now the wellness spring is a shabby mess of rotting wood, stagnant water, and plastic bottles. Further into the property, Yessonda motioned to a ruin of stone and crumbling wood with a door lintel and a rafter or two.  The structure was a nala lojja, a veritable store-house for the wealth of coconuts harvested every trimester. This harvest almost became a burden when the prices of coconuts fell, and the fortunes built on the coconut plantations became nostalgic episodes referenced in past tense. Fallen dry palm leaves from malnourished trees with swollen roots gave the landscape a desolate look. There is a huge anthill in the vicinity, and I am scared a king cobra may just pop up like in the stories from my childhood.

Yessonda, caught in a tumult of memories recalls the taste of the times gone by: the tender coconuts, the cangi served with pickled thor, the kokum seasonings that Porob, the caretaker, supplied to the family with the thepla, the berry for the curry seasoning. The heat was oppressive and we heard the winding-up notes of music from the Ravalnath installation.

Back in the car, Yessonda reminisced about her father Angelo da Fonseca.  A Gandhi cap, block-printed shirts and kolhapuris were his signature clothing. The bicycle was his only mode of transport. She followed him in all that he did during the day: shopped for vegetables, fish, cooked, dug around their little garden and painted. Fonseca was very much a man about the house; he liked to tidy-up, iron his clothes, cook – and dance he was a natural dancer. ‘My mother had two left feet, but my father loved to dance. Maria Conceicao, the adopted daughter of his sister Olinda, was his favourite dancing partner,’ recollects Yessonda. He was good at gardening, loved the theatre and played the violin.

Read full article here:

https://www.joaoroqueliteraryjournal.com/nonfiction-1/2019/4/10/footnotes-on-fonseca-as-retold-by-yessonda

Best wishes,

Selma

Editor, JRLJ

[FM N]

Thank you, Savia. Thank you, Selma. Thanks for fleshing out the great artist. 

'A moon-faced plump child, with a translucent complexion' is how I too remember Yessonda, and she was assertive: though almost a year older than she, I was overawed.

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[Braz Menezes]

Nice reading, thanks for sharing. Savia has brought Angelo da Fonseca's daily survival to life.

 

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[Mervyn Maciel]

Thanks Savia.

Enjoyed reading your article and Yessonda's

recollections of her wonderful Dad who was married

to my cousin, Ivy.

The article revived many memories of those early years

especially our meeting with the family at their cottage

in Poona when Yessonda was a little girl.

  Yessonda's recollections of her maternal grand-mother

(Aunty Horty as we knew her) - brought a flood of memories

of my childhood days in Belgaum when I used to spend many

a time with Aunty Horty,Ivy and her sister, Edna.)

   Thanks for the memory!

Mervyn Maciel

    

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[Jeanne Hromnik]

Thank you (Savia and Selma) for this wonderful article!

xx

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[saxtti viegas]

Thank you Braz. We owe it to our artists. The y died unsung and lie forgotten.
Savia

Sent from my iPhone

> On 16-May-2019, at 6:15 PM, Braz Menezes <bmen...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> Goa

[saxtti viegas]

Dear Jeanne,

Fonseca' art and his family are close to my heart.  Thank you for appreciating.

Warm regards 

Savia

Sent from my iPhone

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[saxtti viegas]

Dear Meryvn,

Thank you for your warm response.  I have high regards for your cousin lvy.  Her managerial skills

 Were admirable.

I had the good fortune to be associated with her and listening to her accounts of her husband's legacy. Thank you again.

Warmly

Savia

Sent from my iPhone

On 16-May-2019, at 10:51 PM, Jeanne Hromnik <jeanne...@gmail.com> wrote:

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