A new book records the stories of Goans who were brought up or studied in Belagavi (Belgaum) in earlier decades
KALYANI JHA |NT BUZZ
Goa and Belagavi (known as Belgao in earlier times) have always shared a special relationship. While today, it remains a favourite weekend and shopping getaways for Goans, in earlier times, Belagavi or Belgaum was an important city for those seeking to pursue higher studies.
In a bid to record these memories, a new book ‘Belgao: Goan Memories from the Centre of the Universe’ was recently released at the Goa Book Fair and Children’s Book Festival 2025
in Margao.
With 26 contributing authors, the book has been edited by Clifford W. De Silva and has a few tales which touch on the neighbouring Dharwad and Hubballi regions.
According to De Silva, this book was made possible on the insistence of publisher Frederick Noronha.
The idea of this book was floating around a long time. And after the publishing of ‘Bomoicar: Stories of Bombay Goan, 1920- 1980’ (through Reena Martins) which documents the stories of Goans in Mumbai, Noronha felt there was a need to focus on those who had a connect
with Belgaum.
“Noronha, who is the brainchild behind the book, is of the idea that information and knowledge should be free and easily accessible. He understood the need of journaling and documenting these stories of the Goan Diaspora in Belgao for future generations to know how it was. We didn’t get hold of good photos but the writing serves,” says De Silva, who is a therapist by profession and has mostly written and co- authored books on therapy and wellbeing.
Noronha states that the purpose of this book was to capture the untold stories from the past. “The idea of bringing these stories out is to build awareness about the Goan Diaspora, which is still poorly understood. It is to build community among a section which has very strong stories and equally sharp memories, so as not to forget a time which doesn’t exist anymore,” he says, adding that they connected with anyone who had links to the place, and let them tell
the story in any way they wished.
“One of the reasons for Goans to leave Goa and settle elsewhere was education. Schools came up in Belgao in 1856, so Goans might have settled since then, but the stories here are documented since 1940,” he says.
Most of the authors of the book were born and brought up in Belgao. “There were two main schools that the Goans went to; one was St. Paul and the other was St. Joseph’s Convent for girls. My parents came and settled there because it was a good place for education. There was no SSC in Goa. The colleges came much later,” recalls De Silva, who has also written one of the stories in the book.
“The book is more about how life was there, being brought up there, how the community mingled without any difference of poor and rich. There are various aspects covered in different stories, like the trip to Goa, the horrible bus journey because the trains were stopped. We had to get a visa and travel papers in order, as we had Portuguese papers then,”
he recalls.
De Silva shares that most of the writers have never written before. “But as we needed their story, we would ask them to dictate and we would write,” he says, adding that he did not have to do much editing. “I am the kind of editor who lets the person’s voice speak. So one may find the storytelling pretty raw. We wanted it like that. I have done more of compiling. Some people are journalists and published writers, so some writing didn’t require much work,” he says.
All the stories were collected in early January and brought in an e-book format by March. George Fernandes, would have been the oldest contributor of the book, had he not passed away recently. His part was taken from an existing book. Benett Paes (93) and Mervyn Maciel (95) are the oldest contributors of the book.
One of the contributors to the book is Gemma D’Cunha, who has previously authored ‘A Leap of Faith’ (2022). This book consists of three short stories. “The first story was an inspirational tale of a young woman who moved from a small non-descript village in Goa to Hubli, in order to give her family a better life. The story in many ways resembles the story of my ancestors and is an inspiration for many generations of Goans,” says D’Cunha.
After reading her book De Silva requested her to share her own journey from the small town of Hubli to the big city of Mumbai and becoming an airhostess.
To keep it easily accessible, ‘Belgao: Goan Memories from the Centre of the Universe’ will remain in the digital version.
“Printing a book is a costly affair, and if it’s priced too high, the reader won’t buy. We have a limited print run of 200 copies. We want the articles to be read, so we are sharing it online too,” says Noronha.
