Living in the coping with one too many siblings and walking barefoot for miles on end. It was also a period where time stood still and each moment uncovered was filled with rare emotion and gratitude. Aida is a little curly head girl from those times. She was born in 1935 in the quaint and charming village of Saligao. This is her story. Seen through her eyes, but narrated by her just-out-of-college 21st century grand-daughter, Melody. Aida is loved by all, children and adults alike. Her little acts of courage will warm your heart. Her rather large family brings you incidents of frolic and fun. Yet life is not all happy for Aida, as sudden happenings lead to loss and pain. She also has to deal with a war persisting around her. Will Aida be brave enough to face these obstacles? And will she be able to find the happy ending she's looking for? Follow Aida as she takes you to a time in Goa where even a simple life can have its ups and downs....

O Signo Da Ira by Orlando da Costa presents a year(approximately 1940-1941) in the life of a rural society in Goa, then ruled by portugal. There are 2 major social classes: the hereditary landowner, bab Ligor and his tenants, low caste field laborers. During the previous few years, severe drought has endangered the principal crop of the region, rice. The Japanese occupation of much of eastern Asia has worsened the situation since rice cannot be imported to supplement the meager harvests.

A play in three acts, takes place on the night of the end of Portuguese rule in Goa, in 1961, in the house of a family grieving for the death of Leopoldina, Salu's elder sister and adoptive mother to Bostu. Salu is a batcar (landlord) who hides a secret from his family. Leopoldina gives away her lands to Salu and curses him by saying that the lands are extremely fertile, rich in ore and that she exchanges a fertile land for his infertility.

This cookery book aims to help you get started with everybody's favourite Goan food. Cooking need not be tough, if you know how to approach it. Chef Chandan Chari keeps things simple. Simple, yet unique. The ingredients are easy to come by. Recipes have been tweaked to become as easy as possible. Though some of the recipes might seem familiar, the dish could turn out to be rather different. The goal of the book has been to create the desired taste with a good texture based on locally available ingredients. From appetizers to salads, side-dishes to main dishes, and sweet treats, a wide range of recipes offer a whole lot of ideas and guidance from a Goan chef whose culinary creations have been widely appreciated. Do not miss the made with Goan love recipes. Specially those of grilled mussels stuffed in shells, tuna fish baskets, sprouted salads, fish in green curry, prawn balchao, mushroom chicken, galmo (dried shrimps), sukhey khube (seafood), and the all-time popular rava-fried fish.

Painting word pictures (and pencil ones) of the past [Frederick Noronha]: It seems like ages ago when one of those expat Goans wandering the lanes of their homeland, and often struggling to cope with the changing reality, dropped in at my home. Mel D'Souza had the idea for a book, which he planned to work on when back in Canada. Not too many years later, he presented me with a copy of 'Feasts, Feni and Firecrackers'. If you're guessing what it is all about, its sub-title explains it all: "Life of a Village Schoolboy in Portuguese Goa". This is a book D'Souza Mel himself wrote and illustrated. The latter is important, because it has a number of charming illustrations set in Goa. It harkens back to a Goa of yore, one which many who lived here would remember and recognise. My first memories of Goa go back only to the late 1960s, but even then there were strong traces of the Goa that was, and a place which was drastically changing even before our eyes.

Shorty Gomes is a story of vintage Indian crime fiction, that comes our way from Bombay. In this metropolis, the crime nexus is apparent. It's a mix of beautiful women, ugly politics, toxic godmen and soulless business. Ahmed Bunglowala's fiction thriller will take you back to a city you might have known, or introduce it to you innovatively if you don't know enough of Bombay. Shorty Gomes takes you on a fascinating tour of the crime nexus. Here, beautiful women, ugly politics, toxic godmen and soulless business are inextricably mixed. Deftly blending social comment and sardonic wit, these stories mirror the grim realities of the Big City, where everything is up for sale. Shorty Gomes is an answer to Philip Marlow. He has been plying his precarious profession from his flophouse in Dhobi Talao, Bombay, in the effervescent seventies and eighties.

The impressions we pick up as children, when our minds are still open to influence and as soft as damp sponges, are likely to stay with us the longest. -- Ann Patchet When the Jazz Swingers were at the top of their game in Dar es Salaam, I was just a young child. Yet I have clear memories of their band practices at our home and gigs at the Goan Institute (G.I.), a private club where Goans and their guests could socialize. This band story is a result of a question that kept playing in my mind when music was my profession. Strangers in the U.S. often asked after a performance how I learned to play the blues. What I think they were really asking was how someone who looked like me could be so immersed in music that originated in African American culture. The answer, however, seemed clear. I fell in love with the deep sound of blues music as well as the clever story-telling and double entendre lyrics. As for jazz, I felt at home with it because swing music was the live and very real soundtrack of my early childhood.

The first part is a geographical statement, but the second part of the proverb is quite provocative and may invite retaliation. This book itself is an indication that the second part does not reflect today’s reality. I started reading, but had no peace until I could go through all its 392 pages. This is a book of reference. Researchers will find abundant material for further investigation. Yet, the language is simple and attractive for any reader. Each family from Anjuna should have a copy of this book in their house and more to gift to friends.

When all the publicity about his class Elvis as Anthology began in 1992, Peter Nazareth faced a lot of jeering and prejudice. A radio interviewer from Chicago asked him, on air, whether his class was going to be in pharmaceuticals or cookery. He said it was going to be in literature: he was going to analyze the work as he did novels. There were three targets: (1) Elvis, as a working class; (2) Iowans, as hicks; (3) Peter Nazareth, a foreigner. Comments Peter: "I discovered that when they do not understand, most Americans, including professional critics, mock and put down from a position of superiority." Peter Jennings had just interviewed a guy called Peter Nazareth on ABC's World News Tonight. Peter Nazareth had just come out out of the bush, so to speak, out of Africa, and started teaching Elvis 101. The first university course on Elvis. I mean, many people idolized Elvis but to make him serious stuff in university, never mind it was a university in a third- world state like Iowa, was real way-out stuff.

A fragment of the birth register at the Church of the Holy Family at Mermajal(Omzur), 16 km from Mangalore, records the birth of Isabella, daughter to Joao Macedo and Rosa Braga, on June 19, 1801. Joao is my great-great-great-grandfather. This is the only record of his existence; the family's history has forgotten him. It remembers, however, that the family was one among most of Kanara's Christian population deported to Srirangapatna in 1784 on Tipu Sultan's orders, and that their entire property was confiscated by the state. It also attests that the family originally came from Halldonnem (Aldona) in Goa where they were ganvkars of the Prabhu clan. If Joao had not returned from Srirangapatna, the family would have passed into history with nothing to record it ever existed.