A Goan Catholic wedding in all its traditional glory is interlaced with
rituals, right from the moment a couple decides to wed to the time the
families are united as one. In
earlier times, every ritual involved was carried out with utmost care and
belief; nowadays, even if certain rituals are followed, not many know the true
meaning and intent behind them. Bonaventure Peter Fernandes, popularly
known as Bonaventure D'Pietro in the world of Konkani literature, music and
theatre, had earlier written
the Konkani novel ‘Sankoll’ (2013, Publisher: Dalgado Konknni Akademi), which brought
together the different traditions a wedding of yore entailed. That book has now been translated to English by Willy Goes. ‘Forever Yours’, as it is now called, has been published
by Goa 1556 in association with My Village Anjuna.
‘Forever Yours’ revolves around the family life of Joao
Mestri, his four
daughters and one son as they get married and settle down in life. A
docu-novel, the book takes you back to the days when the bullock cart was the only form of transportation and
numerous social customs were an intricate part of every
Goan wedding. D'Pietro puts
forward the history of the traditional Goan Catholic wedding and its gradual transformation to the modern day
wedding.
"In earlier days, weddings in Goa were grand; preparations would start a
month in advance. Now
it is just a three-day
event. This book will give youngsters some insight into what they are missing. It is because ‘Sankoll’ received
such a great response that I decided to translate it into English with
Willy Goes. It took me three
years to complete my research for this book and I have covered the traditions of seven
talukas of Goa in it,”
says Bonaventure, from
Anjuna.
Born in 1942, Bonaventure is the first Catholic writer to win the Konkani Bhasha Mandal
Award, which he did in
1972 for his novel 'Kallea Vistidachi Choli'. He is an
admirer of Reginald Fernandes’s
works and Perry Mason detective fiction. His first novelette, 'Soitanacho Ghutt' (1958) was penned by him when he was just 15. He was
titled the 'Goan James Hadley Chase' of Roman Konkani by the late Alfred Rose
for his style of writing suspense thriller novels in the late 70s. In a span of
almost six decades, he has written award winning novels and countless articles
for various Roman Konkani magazines.
Wilfred
Eusebio Goes, the
translator, works as an Assistant Professor, Applied Arts,Goa College of Art, Panjim and has
written seven Konkani books and one English book till date. He is also a recipient of several
literary awards.
‘Forever
Yours’ is very easy to understand and the Konkani phrases and words have been retained to explain the true meaning of various traditions.
“An important part of the wedding were the ‘Zoti’ or traditional ‘vers’ or
songs that were sung during the wedding rituals. We’ve recorded these songs on the CD which is available
with the book,” says Bonaventure,
who is the father of three musicians.
The CD has songs that are sung for ‘Vodde Bhaztana’, ‘Chuddo Ghaltana’, ‘Ros
Laitana’, ‘Udok nhanoitana’, ‘Nouro vokol nhestana’, ‘Vor ghuen vetana’, ‘Vor
gharan pautoch’, ‘Te Deum’, ‘Xim Palltana’ and ‘Kazarachi Saud’. Very minute details about each tradition have been documented in the
book for those who missed out on learning these from their grandparents.
Bonaventure has already started working on his
autobiography, ‘Vattleachea Avazan…’. “I was the youngest in the family, after four sisters, and my father couldn’t believe that he finally had a
son. When he saw me, he
didn’t know how to express his joy. He wanted to burst crackers but since the
store was far away, he rattled
a silver spoon against a copper plate to convey the good news. That is
the title of the book,” says Bonaventure.