The other Goa: The Bitter Fruit Tree
Frederick Noronha
The other Goa
In The Bitter-Fruit Tree and Other Stories, Prakash Parienkar uncovers another Goa, where Sattari’s forests pay the price for modern progress.
Published : Oct 04, 2025 17:08 IST - 4 MINS READ
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The stories are set in the forested Sattari region in interior Goa, Here, a villager from Sonal Tar fills water from the Mhadei river in Sattari. | Photo Credit: PRASHANT NAKWE
The English translation of the award-winning Konkani writer Prakash Parienkar’s short stories by Vidya Pai could not have come at a more appropriate time, when Goa is being pillaged in the name of development. Set in the forested Sattari region in interior Goa and written over three decades, the stories simultaneously reflect the State’s present reality and contrast it with the past. They are a timely reminder of the State’s rich natural and cultural heritage.
Derived from his Konkani anthology Varsal, Parienkar’s stories are a look at Goa’s inner world. A world, it is apparent, that he knows closely, understands, and loves. Not only is it far removed from the tourist’s stereotype of Goa, it is a world away even from the Goan city of Panaji.
“In his introduction to the story collection Varsal, Parienkar touches on the sheer diversity of life and flora and fauna that one can see in these parts. He talks of the range of folk customs and religious traditions and the tough life faced by the villagers as they eke out a living even as they face Nature’s fury or revel in her bounty,” says Pai in the translator’s note.
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The stories hark back to simpler and, yet, paradoxically, complex times. Caste discrimination, rural-urban conflict, human-wildlife conflict, rampant deforestation, the effects of construction and corruption—all feature here. But these pithy stories are primarily about the human condition; they draw the reader into the daily realities of Goan rural life and touch a chord.
The Bitter-Fruit Tree and Other Stories
Thornbird Books
Pages: 192
Price: Rs.350
Farmers, basket weavers, religious revellers, forest-dwellers—all find themselves thrown into challenging life situations. A Mahar (Dalit) runs from pillar to post to be allotted a burial ground for his dead wife. A woman hopes and prays for her pregnant cow to give birth to a female calf. Another rejects an abandoned baby because it is a girl and she already has six of her own. A couple watches unseasonal rain destroy the crops that could have changed their fortune. A Catholic is torn between faith and family when asked to become a “Konknno”—convert to Hinduism—by his only relative.
A rich, deep read
The under-represented and marginalised are given a voice and we see life from the perspective of indigenous minorities and oppressed castes—Dhangars, Gaonkars, Mahars, Vanarmares, all find a rightful place in this anthology. “The vanarmaro who habitually hunted monkeys with arrows was now a hunted animal himself,” says the narrator in “The Crescent Moon”, when a youth from the tribe falls prey to a mob fuelled by village rumours.
In “The Bitter Fruit Tree”, we feel the Mahar Tilgo’s pain as he carries his wife Goklem’s corpse on his back across the river, so as not to taint the Dasara celebrations in the village. In contrast to the pomp of the Dasara ceremony, where the idol of the local deity Lord Ravalnath goes to meet the goddess Santeri, is Goklem’s sorry funeral procession with Tilgo as the sole pallbearer, accompanied by his cat.
The theme of violence and death at a religious festival is carried forward in “The Sacrifice” when the chopping of a fruit-laden mango tree for the festival of Shigmo leads to discord and, ultimately, tragedy. In “Desolation”, a story around the Narakasur effigy that is traditionally burnt before Diwali, Parienkar turns around the notion of the mother figure as he juxtaposes an abusive mother with the demon.
The Bitter-Fruit Tree and Other Stories is derived from Prakash Parienkar’s Konkani anthology Varsal. | Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement
The author evokes local traditions ranging from the religious and cultural to the agrarian and culinary. Be it the “puran” style of tilling fields unique to Sattari, the cashew harvest, the making of nassaney bhakris (finger millet flatbreads), boiling the bark of the assonem tree to treat wounds, or the festival of Gorvanchopadvo celebrated in honour of cattle, he brings alive the simple life of rural folk.
Throughout, Parienkar mourns the loss of the old way of life, the passing of an era. In “Water”, when the village taps run dry because of a broken pipeline, Goklem, the village elder, says: “We should curse ourselves for our own actions that have led to this. Didn’t the whole village drink water from the well before this tap was set up?”
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In “A Forest Sanctuary”, when the government starts evicting villagers residing on forest land, Avdu refuses to leave, saying: “This land belonged to my forefathers. Why should it be surveyed?”
The stories show the author’s intimate knowledge of Goan culture and society, and they address the loss of transmission of local and indigenous knowledge to the younger generation. “The Old Man of the Hills” is a charming story of a field ingeniously created in the forest by Dongracho Baba. “Here you may not get the food you want but this forest will never let you starve,” says the old man, who remains rooted in the forest, to his city-obsessed son.
This slim volume makes for a rich, deep read. Pai’s translation retains the nuances and the Konkani flavour of the stories.
Like the dense forests of its setting, The Bitter Fruit Tree and other Stories packs in a profound intensity.
Janhavi Acharekar is an author, a curator, and creative consultant.
_/ Frederick Noronha फ्रेडरिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا
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