Frederick Noronha
After an expat-related book a fortnight ago (Leo J De Souza’s ‘No Place For Me’), here goes one more in that series. Maybe that could be overlooked, given that December has anyway become the time when so many Goans return home from across the globe (it used to be in the month of May earlier).
Expat-written autobiographies or biographies often circle around a familiar constellation of themes: early years in Goa (or returning here for education); some description of lives in Goa going back many decades; adjusting abroad and the challenges there; the tension between their own Goastalgia and being treated like an outsider back in their home; cultural transitions; encounters with Goan history and life; above all, a personal search for identity, renewal or reinvention, sometimes involving Goa.
‘Rain Drops’ is a family biography of a Cordeiro family from Saligão, Bardez. A self-published slender book, it focuses on the life of Rufino Cordeiro, a nonagenarian who actively kept in touch with his Goan roots till his passing not too long back.
Cordeiro’s life follows the typical story of a 20th century Goan expat achiever. One who studied well in India, and made the most of the knowledge gained here, to take on bigger and wider challenges across the globe. His daughters—Lucinda, Mary Anne, and Francesca—have done very well for themselves too, taking the earlier generation’s achievements to new heights. This book is authored by the trio and their mother, Lira.
Penned to tell Rufino’s story in chronological order, the book is packed with photos and memories. Obviously, the Goans who were doing well in the mid-20th century or even before, kept good photographic records of their lives. These images could be traced through the photo studios which played a prominent part in Goa’s life then.
The Formative Years tells us about Rudolf’s early years in Goa. Early English education (which came to Bardez villages like Arpora, Parra, and Saligao over a century back, rather early in the day) obviously gave local lads from the area a chance to seize opportunity in the British Empire. Rufino’s father was convinced to travel to Africa by his brother, and to work in the Customs at the port city of Mombasa. That was in 1924, when Mombasa was part of the Kenya Colony under British rule.
For Rufino himself, his schooling, studies in Belgaum (for higher English education in St Paul’s and St Joseph’s Convent for his sisters), is also narrated. Next, the route was to Fergusson College, the college founded in 1885 in Poona by the Deccan Education Society as a nationalist-spirited institution for modern higher learning in India, and named after the then Governor of Bombay.
Xavier’s at Bombay, and post-graduate studies in Electronics (1946), obviously gave the young man a head start. Doing an MSc in Electronics in 1948 was no small achievement, given the rather limited access to higher education in our part of the globe then.
Salaries of those times (Rs. 150 a month) and working for the Holkars of Indore, with complete charge of their airport, also lend in some interesting details. Incidentally, this Maratha Dynasty rose from cavalry commanders to powerful rulers of a prosperous princely state in central India.
Rufino goes on to spend a decade in East Africa. Though this was not apparent in the 1950s, the sun was then just setting on the (conventional) British Empire. The world of STEM, and the opportunities that science, technology and engineering (if not maths, directly) offered come to the fore in Rufino’s story. Moving jobs. Working in radio. Earning a high salary there… These are some of the issues which figure here.
Reading between the lines offers some interesting pointers. Rudolf reminds us that the Jawa 250cc was a Czech vehicle. (The company of František Janecek produced the two-stroke Jawa 250 in the early 1930s, which became globally famous after World War II. It was produced in Czechoslovakia for decades; from 1960 to the mid-1990s the bike was also manufactured under licence in India by Ideal Jawa in Mysore. It became a cult machine. The brand was revived again in India by Classic Legends in 2018.)
In the backdrop of this all, we have the protests in Kenya. The British called them the Mau Mau, and a “terrorist” rebellion. Seen from another perspective, the Kenya Land and Freedom Army was battling for land restoration, political rights and an end to colonial rule.
Family responsibilities, switching jobs, and seeking opportunities add to the story here. In a while, not surprisingly, comes marriage and family. This is preceded by a difficult romance, sometimes carried on from a distance and by keeping watch from beyond a fence!
A tour of Europe takes us back to those times, when transport was tough (by car), and survival almost iffy. Description of life in Africa, while the going was good, is something other Goan expats from there would connect too.
But, by the end of the 1960s, the political situation went downhill with corruption and greater violence. One possibly feeding the other. A friend was assassinated (probably the reference here is to Pio Gama Pinto) and daughters of politicians were being kidnapped from the very school the Cordeiro girls were attending.
There are stories of the Goan expat homecomings, and life during those period. Song, feasts and litanies perhaps tell us why, till date, so many Goans would like to lead the expat life, if they get the opportunity to.
But, in changing times, not all is easy for the expat in Goa too. We get a hint of this when the story narrates how the road to their home gets blocked. Keeping in touch with their ancestral land is also a challenge for the young children.
Elsewhere, one has argued that Goan writing in English, because of reasons of history, is largely expat-defined. This happens also because English was not widely used in Goa before the 1960s, and therefore one could not expect to find many (in Goa itself) to be writing in that language. How that shapes up the field of GwE, or Goan Writing in English, is the subject for another discussion.
Cordeiro’s achievements in the world of technology and science are impressive. At one stage, he had the chance to move on to the U.S., but didn’t. Based in the U.K., he has also worked with a German firm, and his contributions are visible in distant and remote airports across the globe. From the Middle East, to Indonesia, Philippines, Malawi, Iraq.
He is credited with designing international airports. Besides this is his work at digitising measurements of wind speed and direction, the book tells us. Its cover is by Udayraj A Gadnis.
To find out more about the man and his perspective, one can visit jrcordeirofoundation.org This is an initiative set up by the family, in the hope to do something in their father›s name and memory. This ‘private circulation’ book might be available via mac@jrcordeirofoundation.org
