The nightingale came to Loutolim last week.
But that’s what everyone knows. For two days, Lorna, graceful and ageing but
with her voice that goes back to twenty years and never ages, spent time in
Loutolim, a village never really on her map. What they don’t, is the time she
spent soaking in the village, its sights and sounds and its people. And yes,
Goa’s most revered and loved voice met Goa’s most revered and loved musician
and composer, a local resident, whose glory has not faded though he is getting
on in years- Emiliano Da Cruz. Lorna, staying at a village home asked her
hostess if she could call on Emiliano, without argument Goa’s finest musician.
Soon, the village information network which travels through the woods, the
trees, the tinto, the Church and the Marlett bar, faster than the speed of WiFi
got activated and word reached Emiliano, who was thankfully home and not out
for his regular visits to the doctor, through his closest buddy Joaquim
Monteiro. When Joaquim called Emiliano and asked him if he was ready for
Lorna’s viist, Emiliano’s eyes lit up. The years collapsed into the here and
the now. The years when Emiliano composed and Lorna sang, the years when music,
lyrics, words and song merged in a magnificent symphony when Lorna performed.
Friends admirers and fellow god-gifted musicians like the beloved Emiliano of
Loutolim, worked as partners lighting up songs and the stage.
And when Nachom-ia Kumpasar ( Let’s Dance
to the Rhythm), a musical strung together with 20 of her songs composed by her
music mentor, Chris Perry, in the Sixties and Seventies ,was released, Emiliano took time off his three days a week
dialysis in hospital to go and see Donna (Palomi Ghosh who played Lorna in the
film) sing those songs composed by the character Larry in the movie (who played
Lorna’s eternal love Chris Perry). Joaquim Monteiro, who happened to be in the same auditorium, when Emiliano
went to watch the movie, heard someone sobbing in the row behind him. Turning
around he saw his friend Emiliano crying, hearing Palomi sing, his mind going
back to the days when Lorna sang.
Cut to last week. When Joaquim asked Emiliano if he was “ready”
to receive Lorna, Emiliano turned into an excited little boy and said “Ask her
to come right now”. As Lorna arrived and hugged Emiliano, his little granddaughter
sang one of her songs, Bebdo. An emotional Lorna then sang another one and
Emiliano’s cavernous but totally warm home lit up with memories and tears and
two of Goa’s finest musicians hugged and sang. Ultimately, the crowds, the
records, the labels, the fame and the recognition do not matter. Just two
simple Goans, who love music simply, do.
The next day was the concert in the village
organised by the very efficient Amigos De Loutolim Boys, headed by Peter Gomes.
For two hours, Lorna made us laugh and cry, weep and rejoice. From
grandmothers, to wives and children, from uncles and grand dads, all drew a
piece of their glorious lives and held it close to their hearts as Lorna sang
her best songs- She sang Pisso, Sorgar Rajeant, Bebdo, Tuzo Mog, Noxibak Roddta,
Calangute and of course Nachom-Ia Kumpasar, which she sang twice as everyone
including the regular patrons of the Marlett bar and including Valentino who
was recently bitten by a cobra and survived (we do not know if the cobra did)
took to the floor to dance.
It was a splendid evening. Old timers
closed their eyes and remembered a Lorna of twenty years ago and vouched that
the voice hasn’t changed and hasn’t dropped. And as the concert got over and
she left, there were moist eyes. Truly Lorna is one of the few treasures that
remains and with Emiliano in the same village, Loutolim’s emotions exploded.
Sitting under that inky sky, as the fireworks went off and listening to Lorna’s
song, yours humble truly had yet another moment of epiphany. Goa will always
live through its music. This outsider is still learning. And learning well.
