The thick moustache has been sundried across many summers,
conditioned to twirl with pride as he recalled heroic tales of struggle and
protest to keep our Goa the way it was meant to be. Sitting in his favorite
spot in his restaurant, the charming balcony overlooking life in the labyrinth
of Fontainhas, Louis, has not just lived up to the name of his dream Venite
(meaning welcome), but has become a very sturdy brick in the wall of
traditional Panjim, where the graces, customs, etiquette and charm of one of
the most glorious towns in the world have been gratefully entrapped into some
very fine spaces, guarded by sentinels like him.
Inspite of being in existence, and how, since 1955, the
epitaph of Venite is far from being written. It’s a state of mind and hence
there will be no epitaphs. The charm of the high ceilings, the furious
graffiti, the absolute Tsunami of creativity on its walls and ceiling (one of
which is a wall broken off) have all been documented and presented with each
new website or travelogue or even a blog doing a customary – and very
deservedly and rightly so – piece on a place which has unleashed a quiet but
forceful charm offensive on folks who have become kindred souls. Like Shelly’s’
poem ‘To a Skylark’, where he says; “Hail to thee blithe spirit, bird thou
never wert”, Hospedaria Venite is all about the spirit of welcoming lodgers and
patrons to the spirit of Panjim over a meal, where the absolute essence is
enjoyment in small morsels, with time as your best friend. Venite is more than
a restaurant, it’s a blithe spirit.
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The reason why not one but two back to back visits happened
to Venite in the past ten days is for a very good reason. There wasn’t a reason
better than retracing steps back to meet the man, Louis, and soak in his place
yet again. As we lose more of our Goa, you feel comfortable being in spaces
which hug Goa with passionate entrapment.
And it’s just as well that this coincided with the new
beginning of yet another of Panjim’s charms Clube Nacional, in the heart of the
market, not far from the Latin quarter. We wept when the club was consigned to
flames but never ever gave up hope that Clube Nacional would be redone, remade
and represented, with one thing of the old still intact – it’s sense of history
and its propensity to pull people into its arms, and yes, Napoleon D’Souza
still running the clubs kitchen, as he has for 38 years, with wifey Santana the
creator of the very special Nacional Choris pao rissoles, croquets, pork and
beef dishes. The coming back party of the lovely Clube Nacional was draped with
nostalgia as legendary saxophonist Braz Gonsalves and his daughter Sharon and
her musically gifted family gave us a touch of old. Thus, we had the D’Souza
family feeding us and Braz Gonsalves’ family singing for us. Sometimes even
perfection takes a bow, when the super perfect are in the house.
Some would argue that the space for these charms is
shrinking and these are probably the last visages of an era gone by. We
steadfastly refuse to accept that because these slices of the past, are still
the whole picture of many, yes many in Panjim and Goa. This is still their
world, a happy world, a contended world, a world of simple pleasures and
friendships.
Like Tony Dias, the President of the Clube Nacional
Committee and all the old timers, like Napolean D’Souza and like dear old Louis
of Venite, there are many who are charmers and the charmed, bathing Panjim with
the glow of yesteryears making sure that the same sun shines and the same moon
soothes, in a very special area around these iconic institutions.
During the first of the two quick visits to Venite, Louis,
so warmly reminded me of a plan we made sometime ago to take off on Louis’ two
wheeler, to some of the islands and villages of Goa, to discover and rediscover
parts of our land. There can be no better rider to take me to the lovely
recesses of Goa as Louis, one of Goa’s finest sons and a proud ‘innkeeper’ of
Hospedaria Venite. But above all, he is a chronicler of Goa and Panjim’s past,
the record keeper of the present and the soothsayer of the future. In Panjim’s
true hall of fame people like Louis need to be chronicled.
