Setting out to write a book is like setting out to give birth to a child. It is a demanding
experience. It requires discipline and continuous dedication.Love n Share It
the second book by Bennet Paes is set in Goa during the pre and post-
divestment of the Portuguese rule and modelled after the fortunes of a
Shasti-Goan family. It operates at various levels of a romantic romp and a
traumatic thriller.
The story centres around Jeff, Jo and her
sister Fermina. Time-honoured barrier forces Jeff and Jo –who happen to be two
lovers to travel separate ways, while the journey of the third one, her sister,
Fermina, was even more unfortunate. Motherhood came to be thrust upon her, not
by the will of the fountain she had thrown her coin in, nor even with the man
she silently swooned over.
Wrestling with emotional turmoil, Jo learned that some battles
were indeed worth fighting for – and fight for them, she did.She is relieved
off a fruitless marriage and was free to go back to her lover. Along the way,
she also discovered that to ‘love n’ share it’ was the only path toward the
reversal of her sister’s misfortune. Did she succeed?The side-characters
provoke satirical page-turners and the annotations lend a factual touch to an
imaginary narrative.
Bennet Paes, the author is a well-travelled man. Speaking of the
book he said “It’s not possible for a lover to share his love between two
sisters, but destiny has the power to change that equation – and it does, as
you will realise after going through the story. And that’s exactly how I came
to title the book: “Love ‘n Share it. If you go a few pages into the book, you
will realise that there is another character too, waiting in the wings. So, the
story revolves around three, and evolves into what seems at first a love triangle.
But destiny has its way, and a solution comes into being”.
Asked what the book aimed to show through the story, he said
“Since all the characters in the novel, except bay Emma, are from the
pre-liberation era, they lean heavily toward the Portuguese influence on their
way of living, and as such demonstrate the unease of readjusting to the nuances
of an ‘Indian Goa.’ But they don’t go so far as to dissent noticeably”.
Asked what he intended to achieve whilst writing a book, he said
“When I write a book my sincere ambition is to appeal to its readers. In the
case of this book, the story, the characters and the backdrop are entirely
Goan. And I have written it in large enough font and easy enough language and
illustrated to a large degree to meet the needs of a ‘Goan in the street’, so
to say. However, there are some difficult and non- English phases which could
be referred to the glossary. They are meant, also to educate the readers”.
For the author this book marks another chapter in a long journey
that first began in 1961. He said “The late President Kennedy was assassinated
in 1961. He was a hero to my father and I. After that tragic event, I wrote a
longish letter to my father in Goa chronicling the highlights that led to this
tragedy. I was in Kuwait then.After hopping from one college (St.Xavier’s in
Bombay) to Wadia’s in Poona and to RPD in Belgaum for six years (two in each
one) and coming out a cropper, I had no alternative but to run away from my
father, even if it meant to Timbuktu. Luckily, I landed nearer in Kuwait. My
father was mad at me, until he received that letter. He wrote: “Never mind the
past, but I never knew you could write so well.”
That
one line stuck with him and 47 years later when he returned to the place, he
was born he converted his father ‘s dental clinic into an office which was used
by him to write. The first book was thus dedicated to his memory. It was an
amateurish exercise, although a few readers encouraged me to write more, and
“Love ‘n Share It’ was born in consequence.
