Update about Goa Archives

[Carvalho]

Dear all,

Thank you for the numerous helpful response regarding Goa Archives. I did indeed visit the Goa Archives. I arrived at 10am and sat patiently for an hour. Eventually someone recognised me as the writer and hastened my entry into the archive hall. This office defied any semblance of modernity and had an estranged relationship with technology. By some antediluvian method, I ordered a documented assisted by person who recognised me. I then took a seat and awaited said document. I sat in a hall full of men who pored over centuries-old documents with their arms spread on these books, brandishing felt pens, the documents spine straddled without support. After I saw this, I felt nausea creeping up and tried to avoid eye contact with anyone, most of all the clerks in the room. 

I sat for another one hour and could see all the peons chatting but no document had arrived. I went to the head clerk and asked about the possible arrival of my book. He nodded to a peon, they laughed, and one frail creature departed on his search with all the enthusiasm of a man being led to the guillotine. Finally he returned clutching the holy grail of a book but when I took custody, it was the wrong book. I went to tell the manager who sat in a class cabin with the surly look of a government officer, pressing a buzzer to summon people. He dismissed by not looking up. I did not wait for the right document because had it arrived, I could neither photograph it nor photocopy it. I would have to make an application for the record and collect it 15 days later. So I left.

Every department, institution and organisation of governance in Goa (and unfortunately I have had to visit many) is a failure of efficiency, procedure, custody and care. We are light years away from any semblance of modernity and our sense of Goan exceptionalism is utterly misplaced.

The story does have a happy ending. The man who recognised me researches records for a living and I shall simply hire his services.

Take care,

Selma

[John de Figueiredo]

Dear Selma,

Please get the name and contact information of the person who helped you. He/she is precious.

Best wishes,

John

Sent from my iPhone

On May 1, 2023, at 2:25 AM, 'Carvalho' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to goa-research-n...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/1514668968.1207763.1682922322014%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Carvalho]

Certainly, John, I'll email it to you privately.

Warm wishes,

Selma

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/9D48A34D-A844-452E-B373-6932A92C553D%40sbcglobal.net.

[sandra lobo]

He/She is precious, or just a piece of a shameful state of affairs, particularly at Goa archives? Of course Selma being a women does not help the situation. For instance, if  one does not hold Indian citizenship then has to pay seven times the price of copying documents, as if researchers swim in money. The present head of the Archives, Dipak M. Bandekar, should be confronted with being runing a historical archive in a modern world. My experience is that sometimes conversation works miracles (not always). I hope there are still good examples in Goa, as that of Central Library when under Carlos Fernandes direction. Without his positive attitude I would have never been able to perform the ample investigation of my PhD. Good luck, Selma

Sandra Ataíde Lobo  

https://giepcip.wordpress.com/

tmn. ++351 930690459

---

De: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> em nome de John de Figueiredo <john...@sbcglobal.net>
Enviado: 1 de maio de 2023 16:43
Para: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Assunto: Re: [GRN] Update about Goa Archives

 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/9D48A34D-A844-452E-B373-6932A92C553D%40sbcglobal.net.

[John de Figueiredo]

Thank you, Selma. Glad it all worked out at the end.

John 

Sent from my iPhone

On May 1, 2023, at 11:56 AM, 'Carvalho' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/333634423.1308724.1682956555394%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Albertina Almeida]

Is there anyone here who accessed the Goa Archives about 35 years or more ago? Where it was accessible even without technology? I somehow think that it is not just about technology, though technology certainly can help. It is also about a regimen of corruption, which can persist even with technology.

For instance, at the Registrar's office, the process towards registration of sale deeds has been digitised. One would have thought that would make it easier. But approvals of what is uploaded can take sooooo long for some. And the connectivity and other issues including the website being dysfunctional, so to say, can make life hell. The whole exercise can be a nightmare. 

So while technology can help, it may not be the panacea. There is something more.

Albertina

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/AS8PR10MB62941C448F31108CFB20C4E5A56E9%40AS8PR10MB6294.EURPRD10.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

[sandra lobo]

Dear Albertina. I did want to be me to go so far. Of course, only those who have not contacted the archives reality, may be unaware of running schemes. best wishes, Sandra

Sandra Ataíde Lobo  

https://giepcip.wordpress.com/

tmn. ++351 930690459

---

De: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> em nome de Albertina Almeida <albertinaa...@gmail.com>
Enviado: 1 de maio de 2023 17:48

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CACbS_uQsWeXAJx66qzrAaYwaK%3D8HxVO6WTwUOfrUerrASFW1BQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Carvalho]

Dear Albertina,

I totally agree with you. I didn't want to say it in my initial message. Technology would certainly help and is the need of the hour as those books under no circumstances should be passed around like pie to men jabbing felt pens at them, but the more important thing is attitude. There are lots of things one can do ease the process. For instance there is one (just one) moth-eaten catalogue which looks like it survived Noah's flood, used by one clerk to find out the reference number of the required document. All that needs to be done is print out 10 catalogue books and keep them for use by the general public. Or better still upload the catalogue online and make it accessible. Then the public can provide the clerk with the reference number. All it takes is the will power to improve systems. There needs to be a very radical change in attitude in every organisation. The Gandhian non-cooperation movement in Goa is alive and kicking.

And Sandra, absolutely, being a woman doesn't help.

Also what is up with those pens being allowed into an archive hall for goodness sake? I had carried a book and pencil inside to make notes. This was shouted down (fair enough, rules are rules) but for goodness sakes, the pens must go.

Take care,

Selma

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CACbS_uQsWeXAJx66qzrAaYwaK%3D8HxVO6WTwUOfrUerrASFW1BQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bernardo de Sousa]

This piece was published by a Goa daily 15+ years ago. Clearly, the attitude of the staff has not changed. Nor for that matter the utter disrespect with which priceless ancient documents are treated:

Aal izz “Sit” in Goa’s State Archives

 

By Bernardo de Sousa

 

Any visit to Goa needs to start with a wallet refueling stop at a bank. Having connections speeds up that process. In the Mapusa bank we went to, a lady was seated at a desk, dozing peacefully; she suddenly woke up, picked up a ball, rolled it on the desk, then returned to dozing. We later learnt that banks are required to hire personnel belonging to scheduled castes/tribes. Being a local bank, this occurs through the intercession of an MLA: the candidate controlling the largest number of votes gets the job.  A win-win situation:  our aspiring athlete gets a salary, the MLA gets the votes. Thus, “vote bank” politics ensure the “upliftment” of the downtrodden. 

 

My contact at the bank being away, I was instructed to head upstairs. The scene was chaotic: no boards indicating which counter handled which transaction, people rushing to any counter that was manned. An acquaintance said he would call Mr. X and guided us to a pair of chairs with a parting instruction: “Sit” -- an instruction I would repeatedly encounter in Goa with devastating consequences. 

 

After about an hour, I managed to obtain from Mr. X the prized ATM card that, sadly, failed to function until our departure. For expediency, we cashed traveler’s cheques at Vivanta hotel in Panaji, where the transaction absorbed all of three minutes flat -- the most efficient and friendliest service I have ever encountered anywhere on the planet. 

Our wallet thus replenished, we headed to the State Archives, Panaji, where I wished to consult a list of historical documents. 

 

We were greeted at the ground floor by an overpowering smell of naphthalene, attempting unsuccessfully to mask the odours from the nearby toilet. The strong influence of carnival in Goa is not to be underestimated – a vote bank mask at the bank, a naphthalene mask at the State Archives.

 

The clerk at a counter instructed me to go upstairs to see the manager. I did not quite comprehend why but arguments would only waste time. We were invited into the manager’s cramped office. “Sit!” he instructed. Not again! After reading my list, he confirmed that the documents were public; we were thus in violent agreement but the documents still eluded me. 

 

I was now instructed to cross the corridor to the public documents section; as we did so, we saw a lady sitting on a bench, resting one of her feet on it, blissfully cutting her toe-nails. I did not need an explanation: another vote bank mask with an aspiring beautician replacing an aspiring athlete. 

 

In the public domain, five persons were seated at five desks, engaged in deep conversation, otherwise doing nothing. I showed one of them the titles of the documents. She looked at it and shouted to her colleague a few meters away. Having been disdainfully ignored twice, she approached the recalcitrant colleague, exchanged a few furious words, returned, turned to me and ordered: “Sit”. 

 

Decidedly, “sit” was becoming the bane of my short holiday. In my mind, I silently slipped an “h” in between the “sit” but refrained from vocalising my thought.

 

Explaining to us children the intricacies of traditional Goan hospitality, our father once recounted that guests were routinely greeted with the Konkani phrase: “Ailoi, io, bosloi, bos, kashti sodd, lepti kha” – loosely translated “you have arrived, please come in, sit down, loosen your loin-cloth, share our food”. I did not expect these five uncooperative chair-warmers to share their food but there was no escaping the instruction to sit. I politely but resolutely declined. The lady repeated her instruction except that this time it was an order: “Sit”. 

 

The situation was turning hopeless. Asked how long this was going to take, she muttered: “5 minutes”. My heart sank: in Goa, 5 minutes encompass any span between 5 minutes and eternity. I heard my wife say that she had been handed a form that I was required to complete hence, sitting down may not be a bad idea. Her pragmatic logic carrying the day, I sat down, opened the small rucksack containing my pen and other items. “You have to keep your bag downstairs,” said the recalcitrant librarian, who had just concluded his yogic meditation and was back in command barking out his orders. 

 

I explained to him that I had carried my rucksack all this time from the counter downstairs, transiting through his manager’s office into the public documents section, without anyone’s objection until then. He repeated his order, this time raising his voice. Another mask, what was his bark really masking? Resentment because I was an NRI, PIO or OCI? Or because I had not presented him with a motivating incentive in an envelope? 

 

Do they still insist on envelopes, or would plain cash do? Or was he another vote bank beneficiary who resented having been disturbed from his reverie or conversation? I had had enough of this rude, uncooperative, unhelpful, obstructionist and bureaucratic attitude of the Goa State Archives staff. I got up, returned the form to the lady who had given it, and walked out. 

 

Back in the taxi, our friend suggested visiting the Central Library instead. Indeed, I was led to the relevant section immediately - and could finally consult and photograph the documents of interest. I now understood why the Central Library was so well frequented whereas, excepting staff, not a soul other than my wife, our friend and I were present at the public documents section of the State Archives. 

 

This time around, when a kindly member of the Central Library staff pulled up a chair and asked me to sit, I was delighted to comply.

Sent from my iPad

On 1 May 2023, at 19:20, 'Carvalho' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



Dear Albertina,

I totally agree with you. I didn't want to say it in my initial message. Technology would certainly help and is the need of the hour as those books under no circumstances should be passed around like pie to men jabbing felt pens at them, but the more important thing is attitude. There are lots of things one can do ease the process. For instance there is one (just one) moth-eaten catalogue which looks like it survived Noah's flood, used by one clerk to find out the reference number of the required document. All that needs to be done is print out 10 catalogue books and keep them for use by the general public. Or better still upload the catalogue online and make it accessible. Then the public can provide the clerk with the reference number. All it takes is the will power to improve systems. There needs to be a very radical change in attitude in every organisation. The Gandhian non-cooperation movement in Goa is alive and kicking.

And Sandra, absolutely, being a woman doesn't help.

Also what is up with those pens being allowed into an archive hall for goodness sake? I had carried a book and pencil inside to make notes. This was shouted down (fair enough, rules are rules) but for goodness sakes, the pens must go.

Take care,

Selma

On Monday, 1 May 2023 at 17:44:00 BST, Albertina Almeida <albertinaa...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is there anyone here who accessed the Goa Archives about 35 years or more ago? Where it was accessible even without technology? I somehow think that it is not just about technology, though technology certainly can help. It is also about a regimen of corruption, which can persist even with technology.

For instance, at the Registrar's office, the process towards registration of sale deeds has been digitised. One would have thought that would make it easier. But approvals of what is uploaded can take sooooo long for some. And the connectivity and other issues including the website being dysfunctional, so to say, can make life hell. The whole exercise can be a nightmare. 

So while technology can help, it may not be the panacea. There is something more.

Albertina

On Mon, May 1, 2023 at 9:55 PM sandra lobo <sandr...@netcabo.pt> wrote:

He/She is precious, or just a piece of a shameful state of affairs, particularly at Goa archives? Of course Selma being a women does not help the situation. For instance, if  one does not hold Indian citizenship then has to pay seven times the price of copying documents, as if researchers swim in money. The present head of the Archives, Dipak M. Bandekar, should be confronted with being runing a historical archive in a modern world. My experience is that sometimes conversation works miracles (not always). I hope there are still good examples in Goa, as that of Central Library when under Carlos Fernandes direction. Without his positive attitude I would have never been able to perform the ample investigation of my PhD. Good luck, Selma

Sandra Ataíde Lobo  

<Outlook-tu21a1pp.png>

<Outlook-retvcb5t.png>

<Outlook-qdflsbeb.png>

https://giepcip.wordpress.com/

tmn. ++351 930690459

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/419815227.1334473.1682961635874%40mail.yahoo.com.

<Outlook-tu21a1pp.png>

<Outlook-qdflsbeb.png>

<Outlook-retvcb5t.png>

[Roland Francis]

Well written. 

Observation, trepidation, humour, hope, disgust and hopelessness all rolled into words.

Roland Francis

Toronto.

On May 1, 2023, at 2:47 PM, Bernardo de Sousa <bede...@gmx.ch> wrote:

This piece was published by a Goa daily 15+ years ago. Clearly, the attitude of the staff has not changed. Nor for that matter the utter disrespect with which priceless ancient documents are treated:

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/5A28C9D0-AB79-4AD9-A660-70978E55D42C%40gmx.ch.

[Carvalho]

Imagine that, written 15 years ago and if anything things have gotten worse. For 15 years, no one has thought of how to ensure better handling of these precious books.

Thank you for sharing, Mr Sousa.

All best wishes,

Selma

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/5A28C9D0-AB79-4AD9-A660-70978E55D42C%40gmx.ch.

[Valmiki Faleiro]

Yes, when the sister of Antonio da Piedade Moraes (I think your mother?) worked there.

She was a quiet, simple, knowledgeable, competent -- and, above all -- a very positive and helpful person.

That tribe of Goans is now hard to find.

After everything, I hope Selma gets the information she needs.

Best, v

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CACbS_uQsWeXAJx66qzrAaYwaK%3D8HxVO6WTwUOfrUerrASFW1BQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Carvalho]

Thanks, Val. Luckily I'm looking for the baptismal records of just two Goans who migrated to Zanzibar in 1839. The books are there. That much I've confirmed. I shudder to think of the amount of time it would take if I had to do serious research at Goa Archives.

Take care,

Selma

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAGoMsAB-TYcj_WT_JSd4nNuLi6Fp91qLHZtrYchLwemjFs7wxw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Valmiki Faleiro]

Wish you good luck, Selma.

Goa Archives, very unfortunately, are meeting the same fate as civil registration records. Marriage, Birth and Death registers were transcribed to new books of good quality paper.

These haven't been transcribed even once since 1961. We are now "reconstructing" missing records! But that's besides the point.

Anyway, best to you in your quest, v

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/1344392845.1489446.1683002055613%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Albertina Almeida]

Yes Valmiki, that was my mother. Thank you for the compliments. My mother worked there until her retirement in 1989/1990. She took great pride in assisting anyone who either needed to access some document for their personal use or who wanted to do some research. Whenever we come across such people, we must appreciate them, and stand by them when they are victimised for being spokes in the wheel of corruption. My mother was one such person who was such a spoke in the wheel. She is no more, but how proud I am of her.

On another note, there should be an organised movement to get the Archives Department to be responsive and efficient. And all of the issues may not rest with the Director. There are so many controls from different quarters there. But maybe there should be a representation made to get things going at the Secretary level, and this should be followed up by some persons here who are willing to take responsibility. Anyone willing?

Sincerely,

Albertina

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAGoMsAB-TYcj_WT_JSd4nNuLi6Fp91qLHZtrYchLwemjFs7wxw%40mail.gmail.com.

[sandra lobo]

Dear Albertina,

I can join a team, if considered productive to have a "foreigner" researcher.

best wishes,

Sandra

Sandra Ataíde Lobo  

https://giepcip.wordpress.com/

tmn. ++351 930690459

---

De: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> em nome de Albertina Almeida <albertinaa...@gmail.com>
Enviado: 2 de maio de 2023 10:11

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CACbS_uRDz6GoTNOYNGH_w-1ovWj6NvyoJyPxP47iUELXxqeosg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ernestine Carreira]

Dear Albertina

Your mother was a fantastic person

Each time  my generation of researchers talk about Goan Archives, we remember her and her pertinent replies to our questions

She was the last great archivist to deeply know  all the collections.

withe best regards

Ernestine CARREIRA ALLSH

Directrice du Département d'Etudes Portugaises et Brésiliennes

Aix-Marseille Université - 

Email : ernestine...@univ-amu.fr

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CACbS_uRDz6GoTNOYNGH_w-1ovWj6NvyoJyPxP47iUELXxqeosg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Valmiki Faleiro]

Thank you, Albertina. Your mother was a great person (so is her brother, who we call Konkani Moraes in these parts, for his sheer love of the mother-tongue). People like them, of rock-solid scruples, are fast vanishing.

Regards your Point 2 below, though laudable, I am personally sceptical it will fetch results in the present setup. Yet, I would support any such attempt. But since I don't move out of my house compound, I regret I can do no more.

Best, v 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CACbS_uRDz6GoTNOYNGH_w-1ovWj6NvyoJyPxP47iUELXxqeosg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Mervyn Maciel]

You certainly have the patience of Job, Selma.

I could never cope with such inefficiency!

Wishing you well Selma.

Warm regards.

Mervyn 

Sent from my iPhone

On 1 May 2023, at 07:25, 'Carvalho' via Goa-Research-Net <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



--

[Debra Nicholson]

There is still now a bit of a rigamarole at the Central Library—you have to check your bag, take only paper and a pencil they issue to you, and I, at least, had to purchase a membership, being a foreigner, perhaps? Once over those hurdles, though, the service was superb, and even the director came up to where I was seated and asked if he could help! And the librarians were also very helpful. 

It is very distressing about the Archives — such a rich repository for historical documents, likely being systematically destroyed by neglect and abuse, not to mention terrible environmental conditions. 

As an independent researcher and writer working on a couple of projects related to Goa, I feel your pain. 

Regards, Debra 

~~~~~~~~~~

Debra Nicholson, MFA, MA

www.debranicholson.com

alternate email: dkn...@bgsu.edu

Sent from my iPhone

On May 1, 2023, at 2:47 PM, Bernardo de Sousa <bede...@gmx.ch> wrote:

This piece was published by a Goa daily 15+ years ago. Clearly, the attitude of the staff has not changed. Nor for that matter the utter disrespect with which priceless ancient documents are treated:

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/5A28C9D0-AB79-4AD9-A660-70978E55D42C%40gmx.ch.

[Patrice Riemens]

Hola Aloha,

These reminiscences are really fun to read for an 'old India hand', as it is called in northern Europe, meaning in practice a know-nothing. But I remember going to the archives, or any way a place where historical material was kept. That was in the very early 70s ,so just a decade after the inva... sorry liberation of Goa. By then Goa was rather sleepy, and still gave a strong impression of lingering colonialism, the previous one that is. Cafes where still sporting large mirrors advertising no longer available brands of Port wine (*), while the various inscriptions in the post office were tri-lingual. I was heartily welcomed in that depot of historical materials (the State Archives?) and shown a whole row of big paintings representing a succession of governors general of the Estado da India. The clerk clearly regretted the good old times when cheap wines and tinned sardines were plentiful. Te mood has apparently soured since ...

Cheers, p+7D!

(*) I encountered them again in the early 80s in Diu, I think they had vanished in Panjim by then.

---

From: "Bernardo de Sousa" <bede...@gmx.ch>
To: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, 1 May, 2023 20:46:52
Subject: Re: [GRN] Update about Goa Archives

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/5A28C9D0-AB79-4AD9-A660-70978E55D42C%40gmx.ch.

[Debra Nicholson]

P.S. I don’t mean to suggest that I “feel your pain” in the same way, not being of the culture, but pain as a researcher who grieves all the history that is potentially being lost. 

Please forgive if I have offended…

Debra 

~~~~~~~~~~

Debra Nicholson, MFA, MA

www.debranicholson.com

alternate email: dkn...@bgsu.edu

Sent from my iPhone

On May 1, 2023, at 3:13 PM, Debra Nicholson <Debra.K....@gmail.com> wrote:

There is still now a bit of a rigamarole at the Central Library—you have to check your bag, take only paper and a pencil they issue to you, and I, at least, had to purchase a membership, being a foreigner, perhaps? Once over those hurdles, though, the service was superb, and even the director came up to where I was seated and asked if he could help! And the librarians were also very helpful. 

[Crispino Lobo]

Hi Selma,

Would be grateful if you could also send it to me - csl...@gmail.com.Thank you.

Crispino Lobo

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/333634423.1308724.1682956555394%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Jules Fausto Mendonca de Sa]

Hi Selma,

I have been reading the posts regarding your visit to the Goa archives with a great deal of interest and it is not far off from what I highlighted to you in a post a couple of months earlier. Since 2009 - I have made at least two visits to archives on each of my trips to Goa and have seen no improvements or modernisation. I have been  given to understand that no major funding has been  provided for the maintenance of this valuable resource - which an organisation  like ancestry.com, Myheritage.com or family history.com would gladly assist. The latter had undertaken work on goa Church records from 1914 to 1996 which were initially microfilmed but now digitised. The same could be done for records at the archives meaning that the books could be copied and stored away with access given via screens set up within the Goa archives. Anyone wishing to avail of records from the comfort of their homes either locally or overseas could take up a subscription which could be used for this maintenance. I do believe that there is some scope for this. I am aware that some records are available via a Goa Government link but these are no use to people like me who does not have an Aadhar Card or Indian cell No.

Many suggestions but requiring the will.

Kind regards

Fausto

 PS. I do agree that many old tombstones carry a wealth of information and this has been a valuable resource for me in my genealogical work. My wife often jokes that whilst people take pictures of scenic beaches - my camera is full of gravestones after a visit to Goa.

Sent from Outlook

---

From: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Crispino Lobo <csl...@gmail.com>
Sent: 02 May 2023 02:17
To: goa-rese...@googlegroups.com <goa-rese...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [GRN] Update about Goa Archives

 

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/CAGVMO%2BvLPUwcy9ibpjBrbP4E3SjVdJCKrbuWB9bnHnQcrkuorQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Carvalho]

Dear Jules,

We must look strange going around with our cameras photographing gravestones. LOL. 

I think digitisation of those records is the need of the hour and somehow an appeal must be made to the government to make this a priority. They could even make it a paywalled site earning thousands in foreign currency because so many Goans abroad want to trace their roots.

Take care,

Selma

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/DB4PR02MB938257304ED0CCEF2CEED637C96C9%40DB4PR02MB9382.eurprd02.prod.outlook.com.

[Carvalho]

Having said this, I don't hold out much hope. I think it's been more than five years I made a similar stink about the state of Pai Agostinho's (the father of tiatr) original handwritten plays and stage directions which are deposited at a Konkani Academi in Goa. Those books are in serious peril and already under attack from white ants. There was similar concern at the time but I doubt anything came of it.

It is good that my research doesn't in the main require a Goa archive repository. I would be too distressed each time I see the lack of custodial care afforded these priceless documents.

Having said that my research does involve interviewing and documenting family histories in Goa, UK and Canada (descendants of those who had emigrated to British East Africa). A similar loss of history exists here. While the 20th century can be documented with  (not good but) adequate memory retrieval, not much of the 19th century can be reconstructed through family history. And that which is retrieved suffers from all the vulnerabilities of oral history.

Take care,

Selma

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/1751249251.1820869.1683100503407%40mail.yahoo.com.