16 Jun 2019  |   03:48am IST

FONTAINHAS, MY FONTAINHAS

Sujay Gupta

 Y

ou drift into the recesses of the past. Memories and history live cheek by jowl. They hang on the steps that wind their way up from the streets of Fontainhas, in Panjim, all the way up to the High Court, caressing homes on the hillsides, where the visages of the past float, like the first flush of love.

This is home now. In this cocoon of romance- because that is what Fontainhas always was, is and hopefully will be- live its gorgeous people. If Fontainhas, nay Panjim itself, was a heritage building, each of the 196 families of Fontainhas would be a brick in that ancient piece of architecture. Every family has a link with the charm and elegance that Fontainhas represented, a confluence of grand living and high thinking, involved in the arts, literature, writing, medicine, law, history, architecture. At Fontainhas, jurisprudence meets joie de vivre, music meets mirth, charm oozes from galleries and cafés. It’s a bubble alright but it’s a bubble that allows you to believe that the excitement of the sixties and seventies in Panjim remains, not as a picture on the mantelpiece but an everyday breathing reality.

Devoid of the interference of city clichés the bakeries, the close to 100-year-old grocery store, the school, join the past and the present, keeping it all alive. The ever smiling Xec (please note) Ismail, the son of Noor Mohammad, a Don Bosco boy, mans and nurtures his family grocery store of the same name Xec Ismail opposite the grand Mangal Bhavan, home of Damodardas Mangalji’s family. The house though lies closed and empty. As Xec (that’s how the Portuguese spelt Shaikh) hands over your kilo of potatoes he converses in clipped lilting English about the folks of Fontainhas. He, taking off from his father obviously, knows everyone and everyone knows him.

In the evening, Tony Godinho’s cart-below octogenarian Percival Noronha’s house- full of savory snacks, arguably the very best in Panjim, takes its pride of place and draws patrons from all over the town, who flock for his cutlet pao, bhajjis, chops and rissois. He has a couple from Jharkhand though who have learnt the art and serve Goans who may not know that their favorite snacks are made by non Goan hands. Thus even in Fontainhas, certain realities have crept in, but it is Tony who ensures that the quality never falls.

But what stands out -and this is something that the multitude of tourists who come and take pictures of the chapel, the homes belonging to an era long gone by, the tiled roofs, and the cats and dogs of the area in their daily romp through the by-lanes- miss, is the intense bonhomie of the locals, their sense of belonging and the belief that their lives are interwoven with each other and with their Fontainhas.

This is where homes are not known by the house numbers but by the people who live there. For instance the magnificent red home opposite the chapel is known as Architect Arminio Ribeiro’s home. Ask anyone, including the postman what the house number is and he may draw a blank.

A shining example of this sense of belonging, identity and togetherness of the people of Fontainhas is the project to restore the St Sebastian Chapel. The human project of revamping the chapel which was inaugurated on February 11, 1888 (yes that’s correct) has been undertaken by the people of Fontainhas. When its roof was totally eaten by termites and with the threat of the chapel, getting weak, the people took it upon themselves under the leadership of the Chaplain Fr Leonardo Pegado, Confraria of St Sebastian Chapel, to bring it back to former glory.

The renovation work started in February 2019 and should get over by August 2019. Most of the 196 families have not just contributed money but are deeply involved in the restoration work.

Meanwhile an iconic institution Fundacao Oriente has donated handsomely towards this restoration, mainly because the institution is synonymous with Fontainhas, as also the family of Victor Albuquerque since his family lived near the chapel in the sixties.

A committee of locals headed by Jovito Lopes (president), Auta Menezes Bernardo Araujo, Clifton Afonso and Engineer Ecwin Ribeiro, each bringing to the fore their professional expertise and knowledge are at work in earnest. Ecwin Ribeiro is the honorary chief consultant and guiding light in the execution of the work. There are some unsung heroes whose deeds need to be highlighted. Alirio Costa’s (the proud resident of the resplendent blue house next to the chapel on Rua de Natal) efforts, as the main motivator for the two big financial contributions, should also be recorded in golden letters when the story of the restoration is written, a true people’s effort without the help of politicians or the government.

And this is one of the many such stories of one of the most unique neighbourhoods, not just in Goa but in this country, now woven inexplicably with the journey of yours truly.