Abolim
Ben Antao
Abolim should inspire new generation
A review by Ben Antao
Abolim, the orange-red fragrant flowers that exult in many a compound in village Goa, is an inspired title for a new book of collected writings by Lucio Rodrigues, who celebrated the folk songs and folk tales of his native land with a passion bordering on unrequited love.
The Anjuna-born Lucio, a brilliant teacher of English literature at the university level before Death came calling in August 1973, devoted his spare time and holidays to the mission of gathering folk tales in Konkani and rendering them into English for the appreciation and enjoyment of a larger readership of Goa’s oral literature.
These writings originally titled Of Soil and Soul and Konkani folk tales were published by his widow Laura D’Souza Rodrigues in Bombay in August 1974 to mark his first death anniversary. The essays and articles comprising “Soil and Soul” became an instant hit with the Goan readers who understood and recognised the deep spirit of love and nostalgia animating these offerings.
The folk tales, about 40 in number, hearken back to the childhood of Goa with its perennial cry, “Grandma, tell us a story.”
“The stories bear witness to the other-worldliness and down-to-earthness which is a marked feature of the Goan character,” wrote Prof Frank D’Souza in a foreword to the memorial publication. His foreword is included in Abolim, the new edition brought out by Goa 1556 in 2015.
Prof Frank D’Souza, also a brilliant teacher of English literature, was a contemporary of Prof Lucio Rodrigues.
The new edition includes Lucio’s essays on the mando, dulpod and deknni, the Konkani folk songs and dances, with a foreword by Antonio da Costa, described by the publisher as a priest, psychotherapist and musician.
To give you a flavour of Lucio’s prose style, let me quote from his essay on the mando.
“The mando expresses one aspect of Goan character. The Goan has been aptly described as the Italian of the East; for like the Italian, he is a born artist, a man blessed by nature with a fine emotional sensibility. Warm blood courses in his veins, the blood of the ‘South.’ He is essentially a man of the heart, a poet of the emotions, especially of the emotion of love. He feels intensely; and there is nothing he feels more intensely than the emotion of love. Love touches him to the quick and makes him a poet and a composer. His heart overflows with sentiment; his imagination is set aflame with images of beauty; his lips pour forth words into a mould of poetry; and his voice breaks into the music of the mando.”
Lucio also delved into the nature of the Goan son-in-law, both fact and fiction.
“The son-in-law is an age-old institution in Goa. He is called zavuim in Konkani, not only by the father and mother of his wife and their relatives, but also by all the “fathers” and “mothers” of the village. They call him amcho zavuim, our son-in-law; while the brothers and sisters of his wife call him cunhado (Portuguese for brother-in-law), and so do the young men and women of the village.
“The mother-in-law looks upon with the greatest favour, especially if he is the husband of the eldest daughter. Sasumaink zavuimacho mog, so they say in Konkani, the mother-in-law has a soft corner for the son-in-law. Even her eldest son occupies a secondary place in her affections.”
The above used to be the fact in the village. However, the son-in-law plays a different role in folk fiction. Lucio provides three anecdotes to debunk the myth of the privileged son-in-law, namely the anecdotes of the son-in-law who sat high, the illiterate son-in-law, and the greedy son-in-law. Reading these yarns alone is worth the price of the book Rs 350.
A book such as Abolim needs to be read in parts so as to digest it well at leisure.
Present-day teachers of Konkani and English literatures will find in Abolim a source of folklore deep enough to make some of them want to write graduate theses on the Goan folklore as discovered and presented by Lucio Rodrigues, their literary forerunner. If folk songs and folk tales move you, why not go for it?
When I emailed Frederick Noronha, the publisher, to ask what made him take up this project, he replied, “You never know how a few drops of ink can make so many people think! Or how the coincidences of life shape our thinking and awareness.”
He was referring to how he got hold of Lucio’s book from Jerry Pinto, the Mumbai writer.
“The story I heard, but am not sure of its veracity,” says Frederick, “is that some copies were being cleared and reached the raddiwalla. Jerry's sister is librarian at the University of Bombay, or probably Jerry himself, picked them up carefully. She passed on copies to Jerry, or something of that kind, and that's how one reached me!”
Are there other books on Goan folklore? Frederick named a list that points to the work of others in the field of Goan folk tales: RV Pandit, Mario Cabral e Sa, Olivinho Gomes’ "Meurin", Claudiana de Noronha Ataide Lobo, Robert de Souza, and VS Sukhtankar.
However, Frederick’s interest in Lucio’s book was fueled by the essay To Konna’lo?, which he had first read as a university student circa 1986, and was highly impressed.
To Konna’lo? is a quintessential piece about how to identify the Goan caste as only Lucio could have fathomed it. Or, in the words of the publisher, “It’s about how Catholic Goans use seemingly innocuous questions to identify caste markers and slot people.” Abolim has other gems like this. Try it, you’ll like it!
Eugene Correia
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augusto pinto
To answer Eugene's question, the book says that the copyright is with Prof Lucio Rodrigues. After Laura D'Souza I think the copyright lies with his family.
Eusebio Rodrigues took the lead in republishing it (and wanted me to edit it, but FN somehow didn't want me to meddle) and after his demise I think his daughter took this up. FN will know better
Incidentally if I was the editor I'd have retained the Of Soil and Soul name, for although Abolim is nice, why should one cut off the link with a title which has served well? I'd also have changed the order of the contents putting the tales first, and leaving the essays for later, and the new section on the Mando for last. That's because this would have enabled a new and especially a young reader to enter the book with something which is easy and delightful.
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