-Brian Mendonça
When some of us from our school batch of 1981 decided to meet, I
knew this was going to be a trip down memory lane. In hindsight I realize this
was also an invigorating learning experience.
Back then in Bombay, we were just kids, finding our
fledgling feet in the world. Most of us were in the boarding school. This gave
us a sense of bonding.
Anthony was down in Goa for a few days. I had to
pick him up and join the guys at Nerul for lunch. We were now all scattered across
the globe. There were clumps of us in Kuwait, Canada, Bahrain, Bombay, New
Zealand and here in Goa. Some of us had families, some preferred to stay
single, and some were living separately. There was so much we brought to the
table after all these years.
It was like going back in time. Faced with the
frenetic onslaught of development here were tall trees to greet me. The winding
roads had sunlight at every turn. There were spaces by the road with benches to
sit down and rest – the red tiles clean and inviting. There was even a railway
crossing. Sometimes the road was so narrow two cars could not pass through. At
the turn, the church of Our Lady of Livra-Febres, Consua looked majestic in white.
The village has preserved its natural heritage. Quaint names like Mazilvaddo
and Pimpalkota with the ward number, on signboards greeted you as you drove
past.
Anthony and me spoke of life, about the page we were
on, and about our friends. He had a wisdom which came from being a
globetrotter, a family man, and a down-to-earth human being. He was the
catalyst who brought us all together, and the peace-maker who stepped in when
things got nasty. Every guy retains some
to the character he had in school, Anthony was saying. If he was a show-off
then, he is a bit of a show-off now. It made it easier to read one’s
personality.
With the boys from the batch which passed out of SSC
in 1981 it was okay to use the register - almost an idiolect - we used in
school. It made us feel young again. Here surprise was punctuated by the
exclamation ‘What the fcuk!’ Using expletives was okay to show you still
belonged to the group, and shared their sense of identity. The joke on the
WhatsApp group was ‘After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF.’
As I swerved around the bend at Reis Magos fort,
Nerul, Anthony said the sharp turns were so dangerous. Like Consua, I thought
to myself.
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Published in Gomantak Times Weekender, St. Inez, Goa on Sunday, 19 March 2017. Pix (Top) Anthony with the verdant fields of Consua, Goa in the background, 9 March 2017 ; (Centre) Schoolmates at Babazin, Nerul, 9 March 2017; (Below) Good times at Claudi's, Bogmalo, 6 March 2017.
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