Pantaleao Fernandes's 'Traditional Occupations of Goa'

[augusto pinto]

Thanks for that Jugneeta. I think Pantaleao Fernandes's book deserves to be dealt with on a separate thread, so I'm changing the subject line to Pantaleao Fernandes's 'Traditional Occupations of Goa'

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: jugneeta sudan <jugneet...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 10:45 AM
Subject: Re: [GOABOOKCLUB] “A Photographic Guide to Birds of Goa” by Naitik Jain
To: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com

hi 

Talking of book launches, Occupations of Goa by Pantaleao Fernandes was launched a month back at Sunaparanta 

and I decided there and in that i would be writing about this special book sometime in my column in NT. Here it is : 

                                                     A Different Music

It was an ethnic book launch; a launch with a difference. Of course, there was the usual chai pe charcha, but the snacks were a delicious Goan fare (maybe prepared by randpinn, the local women cooks). The guest speakers were felicitated with shendri (soft palm leaf) mats and  vozhem (hand woven baskets) filled with  bhaaji (fresh green vegetables) from the shet (field) or mirsangeche kamot (cleared vegetable patches in the jungle). The resounding notes from a home-made percussion instrument (taso) filled the air. Women making a mandri (sleeping mat) with reeds rendered an effective visual of hand craftsmanship.

Writer, photographer and ethnographer Pantaleao Fernandes added pormoll (fragrance) to people’s lives and indeed struck a different note when he introduced his coffee table book, Traditional Occupations of Goa at Sunaparanta the other day. The book cover is a photographic montage of fifty artisans and their trades in Goa. The book is edited by Isabel Santa Rita Vaz whose keynote address at the launch read like a meditation. 

 The book has a soul of its own. It is an ethnographer’s labour of love for his land, the people and culture. The vivid photography captures artisans at work, on with their craft, in the interiors of Goan villages. It is their family vocation for generations, but not being espoused by their next of kin. The images are evocative paintings of traditional artisans of Goa immersed in their daily skills, in which the tools, wares and ultimate products seem to become characters by themselves, telling multiple stories of an era and a way of life. The voice which speaks to the reader is that of Pantaleao, but through its layered tone, filters polyphony of voices of human souls living and gone, a long time ago. We meet the dorji (tailor), the iron lady, the fiddler, the theshildar (temple soldier), the pedekar (coconut plucker), the salt maker....... 

Pantaleao, with meticulous detailing, stands true to his work of ethnography defined as, “A holistic study conducted so as to yield the fullest possible portrait of the group under study.  In all cases it should be reflexive, make a substantial contribution toward the understanding of the social life of humans, have an aesthetic impact on the reader, and express a credible reality.” The book reflects a long-term field study both personalized and multi-factoral.  It’s a lament, poetically rendered as an objective art.  A close, intimate human rapport exists between the researcher and the study group. Also, the uncanny connect between the artisans and their inanimate wares, a repository of their ancestral tradition and source of survival, forms the core of the illuminating long story. The writing is lucid and the tone conversational. An epilogue would have added to the detailing of the complete journey with the artisans or served as an aperitif for the sequel, a book in the making on fifty more artisans.    

It was William Morris, a co-founder of the arts and crafts movement in England, who said the machine will destroy the soul of man. It has been happening in the world since the industrial revolution. He redefined the concept of truth and beauty through arts and crafts – the language of our soul.  “It is the province of art to set the true ideal of a full and reasonable life….a life to which the perception and creation of beauty, the enjoyment of real pleasure that is, shall be felt to be as necessary to man as his daily bread…”   Damodar Mauzo, in the preface of the book, terms culture as ‘the preservative, the glue that holds communities together as a humane society.

A generation back, people sought more spiritual and holistic experience than than what was offered through the intellect or through ordinary religious rituals. Mahatma Gandhi, at his charkha, churned ideas and strategies to achieve freedom for his country. Pantaleao evokes him while portraying Baburao Tivle and his Haatmaag (handloom) producing a rhythmic dak-dak-dak sound with his hand movements magically creating a cloth of red and earthy colours. Yet the economic return is a paltry sum. In today’s market-run economy, it is suicidal to maintain ties with his vocation but Tivle says ”The haatmaag is my very life, the love for it runs in my blood. I can’t just give it up. I do it to fill time, I do it out of passion, love and I’ll do it as long as I live”.   The story of Jose Fernandes and his humble boilancho gaddo (bullockcart) and farmer Joao Rebello and his saga of planting the Goan rice runs along similar lines.

The ubiquitous poder (bread man) with his pantli (basket) on his bicycle is still a common sight in the lanes and by- lanes of Goa. The writer examines a forn (wood fired oven) at an old bakery in Britona owned by  Veronica Libania who has happily lived through eighty five monsoons. The forn is made of stone and mud with a small opening  through which it is fired. A mix of salt, broken glass and white pebbles covered by earthen tiles is the secret of the base on which the delicious poie, kakon and other breads are baked. The coir rope maker, too, lets the reader into a secret formula for the unbreakable strands which sell fast i.e. curing coconut husk with salt water. 

Each artisan harbours a treasure house of secrets that which gives his product a ‘hat ke’ quality. The great demand by connoisseurs for Launicho soro (Feni) is because, as Nazareth tells us, this variety of feni is distilled using the earthen pot launni (easily breakable if not constantly supervised during the distillation process) wherein lies its authentic feni taste. Rendiers (toddy tappers) with their acrobatics ups and down the coconut palms were responsible for toddy flavouring of curries, black chocolatey godd (jaggery), distilling of feni  and leavening of  sannas (steamed ground rice cakes fermented with toddy) and breads which is now on the wane due to dwindling number of rendeirs. Yeast which has replaced toddy in breads  cannot bring about the flavour of toddy, key to the enigma of many a  Goan  recipe. Moiddechi mati (the soil in Moira) imparts the characteristic taste to Moiddechim Kellim (Moira bananas) which is missing in bananas from other villages. They appear the same – yellow and long but lack the latent taste. The lime in the dammonem (earthen container to collect toddy from the pod)  affects the quality of the godd. Such hidden treasured bits of information line the entire narrative.

Pantaleao  very astutely brings forth the fine line dividing the businessmen and artisans in the trade of designing gold jewellery. He calls it the Midas touch, the touch of trust. The old goldmaker is first an artisan who takes pride in his workmanship, rather than the gold businessman of today, luring the customer with the glitter in the display windows and sourcing and moving gold designs from one place to another. The sculptors and creators of gods (clay idols of Lord Ganesh), too, make an interesting read. I was greatly intrigued by the chapters White as Milk, With a Pischol (long paint brush) and A Boom from the Khozno(iron shell with gun powder) .

The writer has been inclusive in his approach, taking up traditional occupations of Goa across caste and religious lines. The coffin maker Dominic Barreto, the grave digger Santan Fernandes , the Mhar( first settlers of Goa )  Shambu and the gaoncho chammar (village cobbler) find pride of place in the book and regale the reader with their stories of hardwork and total commitment to their traditional work profiles.  Their lifestyles are modest, resting on bedrock of harmony between man and nature. ‘Puran sheti’ (ancient wisdom) dictates their life of need, with no place for greed.

The writer treading the paths of the artisans is inspired by their stoic countenances in face of hardship and says, “Their simplicity strikes a chord somewhere deep down in one’s being”.  In the midst of poverty and struggle are stories of their children making it to school and colleges,  feasts and weddings and arrival of grandchildren. Life is beautiful and “when a fisherman flings his pagel (a circular fishing net) into the river, it appears like a giant flower bud, before it sinks into the water.”   An artisan lovingly cajoles his ox to work, “Chol, baba, begin chol;  Chol, shanno mozo,chol”  (Go, my son,  go;  Go my wise one, go).  This is a testimony to the aesthetics woven into the fabric of a testing life captured by the writer with great sensitivity. The beaming smiles on the faces of his characters clicked and frozen in a photographic frame for his book, for posterity and, for the collective consciousness of the people of Goa are heart-warming.    

 “If the house is not stitched before the monsoons it collapses,’’ said Ravindra Khauntankar, as he came down from the roof of a small mud-house at Revora.  “Hanv ghor shinvtalo (I was stitching the house).”

 I didn’t know houses could be stitched ? Well, then, I met the uncommon writer Pantaleao Fernandes who has artisan friends across Goa, and he told me exactly how houses are stitched and how a stitch in time saves nine!

[augusto pinto]

I wonder whether Pantaleao Fernandes thought he was writing a very political book when he was compiling his  'Traditional Occupations of Goa' but I can assure you it is as political as it gets.

This beautifully produced 116 page book is published by the author (nominally The Word Publications) and at Rs 2000/= is one of the pricier Goa books in the market although the author told me that if it is ordered directly from him he would offer a substantial discount. However even otherwise I think that the book is well worth the price for reasons that I'll mention below.

This is a paean to the tradesmen and women who had made Goa what it was and what this naturally means is that it has no space to sing praises to or tell the stories of the upper caste elite who had dominated the past politically and economically and whose presence looms large in the books on Goa that are dependent on written records.

In fact Bhai Mauzo, who writes the   Introduction Te Poder Gele, Te Unde Gele, is the only non Bahujan to grace the pages of this book.

Traditional Occupations is a visual treat in that it tells its stories primarily through photographs though the supporting commentary is well written too. The photographs  range from quarter page to postcard size to half page to full page and there are some that stretch across the page to one and a half pages, and it is especially these large photographs give the subjects a larger than life importance.

All these subjects are either people who belong to the Hindu or Catholic Bahujan Samaj (although they all come across as professionals). However the author has not hesitated in mentioning their castes and explaining their significance in ways that even the subjects themselves are not aware.

For instance in the chapter  'The Ancient Settlers of Goa'  about basket weavers, one of them named Sumati is asked what Mhar means. She is only able to say that it means Harijan or untouchables. But Pantaeao writes citing Luis Assis Correia' Goa through the Mists of History, 'Historians have, however    found the word 'Mharam. translates into of the eldest family in the Mundari language. In 3000 BC when the Kol tribe from Chota Nagpur region moved into Goa they called the natives Marang, which in the Mundari language means 'of the elder house'. Hence this tribe - now a caste by itself, are the first settlers in the land of Goa."

I'll deal with the politics of Traditional Occupations in a longer review but I think the drift of my opinions about this lovely book should be clear.

The book is hard bound and printed on matte paper in four color in A 4 size paper but in landscape manner, which suits the subjects well.

I think Pantaleao deserves to be given a huge pat on his back for his effort and the best way to do that would be to purchase his book and place it on your coffee table.

However as an afterthought I felt a little disquiet about Traditional Occupations in the context of a little poem by Soter Barreto. I give the poem below followed by a translation of it.

Mhoji Kaxtti

Te aile

Ani fottu kaddle

Mhojie kaxttieche.

Mhoji tambddi kaxtti

Sonvsarbhor famad zali

Mhoji kaxtti

Exhibition-ak dovorli

Tinnem inamam melloilim

Tim sogllim tannim vhelim

Hanv mat

Azun kaxttikaruch urlom!

My Kaxtti

He came
And photographed
My kaxtti.
My red kaxtti
Became world famous
My kaxtti
Went on Exhibition
And won prizes
All of which he pocketed.
But I’ve
Still remained a mere kaxttikar!

(The kaxtti is a traditional Goan loincloth, usually of red coloured material. It is seldom used nowadays except by poor elderly rural folk.)

Augusto

[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 18 August 2015 at 12:05, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

However as an afterthought I felt a little disquiet about Traditional Occupations in the context of a little poem by Soter Barreto. I give the poem below followed by a translation of it.

Gustus, Come on! Either you want amcho Pantaleao to write the book, or you don't. Can't have it both ways. I see this as a rather academic criticism, wringing its hands in needless angst and probably ensuring that nothing gets done!

Alito has also questioned whether an author/publisher can give a deprived community a voice. Nandita Haksar, the daughter of Indira Gandhi's right hand man PN Haksar, who has done some amazing human rights work in the deprived (or exploited even) North East, mentioned that she believes unequivocally that you can. And you should.

Until such communities get a voice of their own (and it doesn't seem to be happening in a hurry), I too think that well-meaning Others will have a role to play. Given good intentions, a well-equipped professional can indeed play a role, as we see in this case too.

The other question you raise (even if not explicitly) is about the role of writing and photographing. Can writing and photographing change a community? Or can it only build awareness in a way that will, hopefully, lead to change?

Given that Palagummi Sainath -- incidentally the grandson of former Vice President VV Giri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palagummi_Sainath -- won fellowships and based part of his career writing on poverty in India (where the poor remain poor), was that such a bad thing given all the awareness he also created on that issue?

FN 
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[augusto pinto]

On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 2:04 PM, Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 18 August 2015 at 12:05, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

However as an afterthought I felt a little disquiet about Traditional Occupations in the context of a little poem by Soter Barreto. I give the poem below followed by a translation of it.

Gustus, Come on! Either you want amcho Pantaleao to write the book, or you don't. Can't have it both ways.

The problem with you Frederick is that you can only think in two ways. Why is it not possible to think in a multitude of ways and that too in different ways simultaneously? For instance that the photographer of the kaxtti is able to both capture an image thus become an exploiter but in the very act of doing so he gives others including the kaxttikar insight?

And that it is very often someone who comes from the same social background as the exploiting class who is able to see through the ruses played by their own kind and disturb the illusions which hegemony can impose upon society. Buddha and Jesus and Marx were such individuals but it required others to use the insights they offered to create systems which used their insights to smash the hegemonies prevailing during their times.

I see this as a rather academic criticism, wringing its hands in needless angst and probably ensuring that nothing gets done!

 

No practical action will ensue unless there is first thought. Making snarling remarks like "academic criticism" and "needless angst" is just sophisticated abuse.

Alito has also questioned whether an author/publisher can give a deprived community a voice. Nandita Haksar, the daughter of Indira Gandhi's right hand man PN Haksar, who has done some amazing human rights work in the deprived (or exploited even) North East, mentioned that she believes unequivocally that you can. And you should.

I doubt whether Alito is saying what you are claiming that he says. I at least have not come across him saying such a thing. I am very interested in knowing where it is that he has said that an "an author/publisher" cannot "give a deprived commrunity a voice"?

Until such communities get a voice of their own (and it doesn't seem to be happening in a hurry), I too think that well-meaning Others will have a role to play. Given good intentions, a well-equipped professional can indeed play a role, as we see in this case too.

 

Yeah I agree with this, but why did you need to create a straw man out of me and then put a match to the poor straw man Augusto to come to this conclusion?

The other question you raise (even if not explicitly) is about the role of writing and photographing. Can writing and photographing change a community? Or can it only build awareness in a way that will, hopefully, lead to change?

I haven't thought this through nor read sufficiently about it, but I beginning to think that a variety of ways such as folklore studies and ethnography and fiction and photography can have a role in documenting and re-imagining  communities whose memories and voices have been erased by dominant communities through histories which are dependent solely on written documentation.

Augusto

Given that Palagummi Sainath -- incidentally the grandson of former Vice President VV Giri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palagummi_Sainath -- won fellowships and based part of his career writing on poverty in India (where the poor remain poor), was that such a bad thing given all the awareness he also created on that issue?

FN 
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[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

So do you think that communities can be given a voice or not? Can such efforts be genuine?

On 18 August 2015 at 19:07, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Alito has also questioned whether an author/publisher can give a deprived community a voice. Nandita Haksar, the daughter of Indira Gandhi's right hand man PN Haksar, who has done some amazing human rights work in the deprived (or exploited even) North East, mentioned that she believes unequivocally that you can. And you should.

I doubt whether Alito is saying what you are claiming that he says. I at least have not come across him saying such a thing. I am very interested in knowing where it is that he has said that an "an author/publisher" cannot "give a deprived commrunity a voice"?

See (or, rather, hear) the famous 'wedding video' speech:
https://archive.org/details/ThePoliticsOfKnowledgeProduction

Somewhere around 1:02:20

FN

[augusto pinto]

On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 7:49 PM, Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا <frederic...@gmail.com> wrote:

So do you think that communities can be given a voice or not? Can such efforts be genuine?

Frederick, why do you behave like a stubborn schoolboy to whom one must repeat the same thing ten times before you finally understand?

This is what I wrote in my last mail: "it is very often someone who comes from the same social background as the exploiting class who is able to see through the ruses played by their own kind and disturb the illusions which hegemony can impose upon society. Buddha and Jesus and Marx were such individuals but it required others to use the insights they offered to create systems which used their insights to smash the hegemonies prevailing during their times."

Please try and study that carefully young lad and don't ask me silly questions again.Bah!

About Alito I'll have to wait for an hour till the thing finally downloads and then I'll get back on that.

Augusto

On 18 August 2015 at 19:07, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

Alito has also questioned whether an author/publisher can give a deprived community a voice. Nandita Haksar, the daughter of Indira Gandhi's right hand man PN Haksar, who has done some amazing human rights work in the deprived (or exploited even) North East, mentioned that she believes unequivocally that you can. And you should.

I doubt whether Alito is saying what you are claiming that he says. I at least have not come across him saying such a thing. I am very interested in knowing where it is that he has said that an "an author/publisher" cannot "give a deprived commrunity i voice"?

See (or, rather, hear) the famous 'wedding video' speech:
https://archive.org/details/ThePoliticsOfKnowledgeProduction

Somewhere around 1:02:20

FN

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P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter: @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha

Goa,1556 Shared Content at https://archive.org/details/goa1556

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[Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا‎]

On 18 August 2015 at 20:00, augusto pinto <pint...@gmail.com> wrote:

About Alito I'll have to wait for an hour till the thing finally downloads and then I'll get back on that.

You don't need to download it, but can play it online. Hurry please... I prefer a pre-aperitifs comment :-) FN

[Vidya Pai]

Friends,

Mahabaleshwar Sail's Konkani novel HAWTHAN (Bimb Prakashan, 2009) deals with Pottery, one of these traditional occupations on the verge of extinction as the potters find their traditional way of life crumbling under the onslaught of modernity.

THE KILN, my translation of this novel, was published in 2011 by Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation, Mangalore.

Regards,

Vidya Pai.

--

[Cielo Griselda Festino]

Dear Ms. Pai

My name is Cielo G. Festino. I live in São Paulo, Brazil. I would very much like to read "The Kiln". How can I get a copy from India? I tried in Amazon but did not find it.

All Best

Cielo

[pantaleao fernandes]

Dear Agusto,

You wrote and I quote:

However as an afterthought I felt a little disquiet about Traditional Occupations in the context of a little poem by Soter Barreto. I give the poem below followed by a translation of it.

I am providing you this info only to calm your disquiet. You see the only character in my book wearing the kasti is the Dhangar. However, after coming in contact with him, and getting to know him and photographing his kasti, I recommended his name for an Art and Culture award for his various artistic talents and to his joy and mine, he did receive the award, which included felicitation and a handsome cash prize (25000.00 I believe).

The same good fortune has visited many more artisans whom I interview and then recommend their name wherever I can. The latest to get a nomination from me (and I believe is selected) is the barrel maker who was featured last month in'Viva Goa' magazine and is one of the heroes of the sequel to Traditional Occupations of Goa.

Pantaleao

[Vidya Pai]

Dear Cielo, please get in touch with the Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation at bar...@vishwakonkani.org. or write to Gurudath Baliga gurub...@gmail.com Regards.

[augusto pinto]

Dear all

Our newest member Dr Cielo G. Festino is originally from Buenos Aires Argentinia and is like me a young researcher - .

With her husband, she moved to Brazil in 1996. There she did Master's at Universidade de São Paulo and joined Professor Lynn  Mario Menezes de Souza' study group (as you all know he is of Goan origin).

He introduced her to literature from Goa. Then, she also did her PhD with Lynn Mario in Indian literature in English. As she liked the tradition, she did a post-doctoral programme in Indian literatures in the bhashas, written by women. Currently she is part of a research group called "Thinking Goa" headed by Professor Hélder Garmes.

We look forward to your contributions Cielo.

Best

Augusto

[Cielo Griselda Festino]

Dear Vydia

Thank you for your e-mail and contacts. I will send them an e-mail.

As in the case of Augusto Pinto and Frederick Noronha, whom I know through their writings, I also know you through your translations in Ferry Crossing.

Kind Regards

Cielo

[Cielo Griselda Festino]

Dear Augusto

Thank you for your kind introduction.

From one young spirit to another!

Cheers!

Cielo