Dr Jose Pereira speaks to Gerard D,Souza ( Gomantak Times)

'THE FORCES DESTROYING GOA ARE MUCH STRONGER THAN I AM'

One of Goa's foremost intellectuals, Dr Jose Pereira, also known as Goa's Da Vinci, inaugurated
his painting exhibition at Porvorim last week. In an exclusive interview, this polymath (who has published 24 books on theology, history of art, architecture, Goan culture, language, literature and music) speaks to GERARD D'SOUZA about his varied interests.

Q: Your interests span a wide range of issues from Islamic
architecture in India to teaching Theology of World Religions
at the Fordham University, to the Goan mando. How did you
come to span such a wide range of interests and
specialisations?

I see myself as a product of two traditions: one is the
Latin-Christian tradition and the other is the Indian Hindu
tradition. So, in order to bring to expression these
traditions, I had to do extensive research.

Q: You spent a majority of your life outside Goa. How did it
feel to be separated from your motherland?

Like a rat, I have run away from the sinking ship, which is
Goa.

Q: How did you manage to keep in touch with Goa despite
being based in far off places, even before the internet came
into the picture?

When I was in London, I used to travel by land to Goa. That
meant travelling across Europe and then to the border of
Iran. From there, I would hitchhike by truck on the border of
Pakistan and then make my way into India. Nobody does that
anymore.

Q: You have done extensive work on the mando. How do you look
at the mando today?

As I said, I am a product of two cultures. In the
mando, I find a concrete symbol of the synthesis of
two cultures. I needed a concrete argument to bring
out the synthesis of the Latin Christian and the
Indian Hindu and I find this in the mando.

The mando is beloved but betrayed. It was the work of the
aristocratic minority to create a fragment of Europe
surrounded by the waters of the Arabian sea and the hills of
the Sahyadris... an attempt to create a little Vienna with
a fantastic spirit and dance.

It is amazing to see a file of men dressed in purely Western
outfits and a file of women in Indian costumes holding
ostrich fans gently swaying back and forth to a melancholic
tune. It was a fantasy world. It couldn't have lasted very
long. It lasted about a hundred and fifty years. I like the
fantasy world of the mando.

Q: What about the tiatrs?

In my time, there were folk plays, beautiful plays. But they
published nothing. It was only when Joao Agostinho arrived on
the scene that he began publishing. They were lucky I arrived
on the scene and took notes of what was happening.

These folk playwrights were ahead of their time. They were
already attacking social evils like landlords sexually
exploiting their tenants and drunken behaviour and all this
pushed them much ahead of their contemporaries.

Q: Even today, the tiatr is a very vibrant industry, don't
you think?

Yes, that is because the Catholics are afraid that their
entity is being dissolved and this is their way of asserting
their identity.

Q: What do you feel about the future of Konkani?

I'm no longer optimistic about the future of Konkani. It
has to fight too many forces that are too great for it to
take on. What will we do?

Look at Marathi. It is spoken over such a wide territory,
almost 80 times the size of Goa, and they all have one
standard that they can look up to.

How can Konkani survive? They claim there is a standard: the
Devanagari Konkani, but does it inspire loyalty among a
Bardezkar or Saxttikar? Take for example the mando 'Adeu
Korcho Vellu Paulo'. Tem Ponddekar-ak poddlam? Amchem nu
mhonntelem te.

If we have the zeal of the Jews, then maybe. They have
revived the buried Hebrew language. It's plastered
everywhere, on their walls, they speak it to their children
and they speak it on the radio. Do you think we are capable
of this?

Q: You are primarily known as a scholar and intellectual.
Where does painting come into the picture?

I look at myself as a painter. It's just that my primary
source of income was not from paintings. Besides, nobody
noticed my work so I went into scholarly studies. People were
perhaps... equally confused as I was about myself. My
painting was otherwise sporadic.

Q: You were based in Benares for awhile. Tell us what you did
there?

I was centered in Benares as I had a project to research the
history of Indian art with the American Academy of Benares. I
was working on producing photographs of Indian monuments
across India.

We were supposed to take pictures and store them there and
then study them. That was our plan. I was doing Indian
Baroque art. I travelled a lot in India then, especially
visiting Daman and Diu, Bombay and Kerala, not to mention Goa
where Baroque art is popular.

Q: Tell us about your encounters with D.D. Kosambi?

My encounters with him were very brief. He was being driven
somewhere and he allowed us to enter his car. But I was
friends with Manoharrai Sardessai and still remember his
poems.

Q: How did you end up lecturing Theology?

I'm a self-taught theologian. It is one of my greatest
fascinations, especially Latin scholastic theologies. I've
written articles on theology. But then, how does one expect
people who are into theology to be interested in a painter?

Q: If you were to get a chance to live again, what would you
like to come back as?

I supposed I could be a computer graphics expert. But then, a
meditative existence would not be possible. I would not be
able to have the vivid experiences that I have had. I am
happy to have lived in the time I have lived and have been
living.

Q: What are your views on today's young generation?

I know nothing of the young of today. I am nearly eighty
years old. The world that I knew is very different from the
world of today.

We used to read books and classics. I read all of
Shakespeare, Dickens... but today's youth know computers. We
had an opening to Portuguese culture which today's youth
don't have. The Portuguese have died out and with that the
Goa I knew has also died out. We no longer create new songs.
In our time, the songs were being composed by the dozen.

Q: Do you think Goa is a good place to nurture scholars of
your caliber?

We don't have the institutions. It will take time. Where can
one do meditative research? Definitely not at Goa University!
In any case I don't live here so I don't know the scene.

Q: Do you ever regret leaving your home behind?

What they cannot control, the wise do not grieve. The forces
that are destroying Goa are much stronger than I am, why
should I grieve?

SOURCE: Gomantak Times.

Rocket Baba

Portrait of Rocket and Jeannie at Ozran beach (small Vagator), Goa. copyright Alex Fernandes Portraits.

Good Sadhu Babas should never be as you expect them to be and Rocket Baba is no exception.

Over seventy years in age, he has the body of a fit thirty year old, his skin and eyes are clear and his voice just booms. He arrives at the house of his student like an angry demi- god. He sits himself on the charpoy cot and we gather at his feet like children. Once he is suitably seated and in control, he orders chai and surveys the group at his feet.He takes the time to notice me, but I know he has already been briefed about me by my brother Gopal.

“Madam that course you did in Kerala? It’s all BULLSHIT!” He roars by way of greeting. Rocket Baba is an expert on the medicinal uses of the plant Neem and has spent many years in the jungle as well as the laboratory exploring the healing qualities of the plant.

“They just taught you monkey stuff! There is never any circumstance when hot metal should be applied to the body.”

He is talking about a massage course I did in Kerala.

“They corrupt an ancient science to create duplicates!”

I think of the guy who taught practical massage technique pole-vaulting around the room to the tune of the Brazilian students pseudo orgasmic moans (when she was GIVING the massage) and have to agree with him.

“ROCKET science is the only truth,” He announces firmly. He points his bony finger at my designer bag.

“Do you have a rocket in that woman’s bag of yours?”

By Rocket he means a chillum, the clay pipe used for communication with the gods via smoking ganja.I don’t.

“Well then Madam you are nothing but a duplicate!”

Now I really like a Baba who will insult and challenge you immediately upon meeting, he reminds me of a mild version of my own Baba ji.

A lot of people prefer to cleave to a white robed swami with a permanent expression of bliss on his or her face but I am a child of the Kali Yuga and things just aren’t that blissful anymore so the bossy warrior type take no crap kind of Baba is my Baba of choice. Anyway, compared to the Naga Sadhu I lived with, this guy is really quite mild.

“Jai Ho Baba ji” is always the best response to outrageous Baba’s and I pull my ears to show my repentance for being a duplicate.

“Rocket is the oldest artefact in the world. It symbolises the only one true eternal truth. Everything Goes Up In Smoke. Dust to dust, ashes to ash!”

“So Madam you get yourself a chillum and you keep it in your (he pauses to sneer) woman’s bag. And when you go back to your country while they search through your stuff at the airport. Then Light your rocket!

I imagine the scene at Auckland Airport if I somehow managed to light a chillum in the arrivals hall.

“You are laughing?”
I am.

I pull my ears again but I am sure Rocket Baba is pulling my leg.

He isn’t.

“Madam this is Rocket Science, its only for True Rocket Stars not duplicates! If you take my advice you will have freedom. You light a chillum. They immediately assume you are mad. So?”

He fixes me with his hazel stare.

Less said the better at this stage, I think.

I flip my eyebrows in question.
“No criminal charge! Only they take you to the nut house. They think you must be mad. Then after three months in the crazy house, bed, food everything supplied, they give you a crazy paper. Your governments pay you to be crazy! And with that you are free!”

Free to be a rocket star!

By Dianne Sharma (December 19th, 2009). Reproduced from Wanderlust and Lipstick Dianne's Blog.
Also see Jeannie Kurz's web site neemhealthcare.com about Baba's work with Indian naturopathy.

Think Different

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify and vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as crazy, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

Portrait of Antonio E Costa (Moira, Goa, 21st June 2010)

On 21st June 2010, Anne Bonneau of Radio and Television France and myself visited Antonio E Costa and Tanya Mendonca at their lovely house in Moira, Goa. Antonio showed me his studio and his rare B&W prints of Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Marylin Monroe he had purchased from a photographer in Mexico. Antonio spoke to me at length about his work. We had the most amazing conversation over a cup of coffee and Tanya's heavenly freshly baked pastries. We spoke about about life, art, and shamanism
I made this portrait of Antonio, I think the photograph speaks a great deal of what I felt from meeting the great artist.