As a young lawyer there was plenty of time on hand. And so, I was embroiled in most public disputes and along with me was my colleague Anacleto Viegas.
It was sometime in the early eighties that after addressing a meeting, it was late afternoon, as we rode back to Margao. Anacleto invited me for lunch at his residence. After a climb of two flights of stairs, the door was opened by Anacleto’s wife, whom I had never met before. “This is Radharao. He is come for lunch” was Anacleto’s introduction. His wife smiled as she said “nothing special today, just the regular stuff”. And with all the mischief at my command, I responded, “oh is it? I am coming for the first time and I expected something sumptuous. I can get regular stuff anytime anywhere”. She went back to the kitchen, with a frown on her face.
Under the circumstances, I had a wonderful lunch and departed. Days later, I meet Anacleto and with his gurgling laugh he tells me his wife’s reaction, “your prank cost me dear. My wife was furious after you left. What sort of friends do you have? You should have at least informed me in advance.” Things have changed now. I am now welcome at any time and it is always more than the regular stuff. I am married to her younger sister.
Days after my marriage, my wife and I had to attend the regulation lunch at her uncle’s house in Cuncolim. Her uncle, a naturally amiable person, placed a bottle of Peter Scott, still packaged, on the table and urged me to drink. I examined the bottle closely and my comment was “these Indian whiskies, the packaging is even better than the content”. I declined to drink and was satisfied with a coke.
Months later, in the month of February, we were guests again at their house to celebrate the church feast of Our Lady of Health. By this time, I had been elected to the Legislative Assembly. We sat down and soon a whiskey in a black casing with a picture of a sailing ship was placed on the table. I picked it up and had a close look. It was a bottle of Cutty Sark scotch. I was taken by surprise as I knew that Cutty Sark was one of the last clipper ships of the East India Tea Trade. I did not know that liquor had also been named after the clipper.
Soon glasses and bottles of soda appeared on the table and the packing was opened and the bottle emerged. I requested for a coke. Nothing doing, I was told. You have to drink the scotch, said my wife’s uncle. As I continued to refuse, he said “last time you did not drink because the whisky was Indian, this time it is scotch, specially for you. Please drink”. I had a hard time explaining, that like him I too did not drink. I realised he had taken so much of trouble to arrange a scotch for me.
Recently, as my niece, scheduled her wedding, I invited her for dinner with us as, is the custom. She readily agreed and asked “when should I come?” And my response was “Why don’t you come next Friday?” After a brief moment, “Oh what tio Radha, it’s a Good Friday”. “Yes, that is why I have called you. You will be served ‘pezz’ (rice gruel) and that would be your dinner!”
Good Friday has always been a day of penance and abstinence. The only food intake on that day is ‘pezz’ accompanied by ‘chepnne thor’. I am not referring to the Norse God, after whom a day of the week is named, nor the Norwegian explorer/adventurer. I simply mean a pickled tender mango, salted and sour.
It is a tradition, we have continued to follow at home and now Good Friday is the only day of the year, when we consume ‘pezz’. But for my daughters it has become a day to look forward to with relish, thus defeating the very purpose for which ‘pezz’ was served on Good Friday!
The lowly ‘pezz’ has spawned several colloquial uses including the saying “zor pejek roddta” (fever cries for ‘pezz’). The genesis of this saying arises from the fact that ‘pezz’ has traditionally been the prescribed diet for a patient suffering from fever and the like. Thus, if you do not follow a diet of ‘pezz’, the fever will not go. And the implication of “zor pejek roddta” is, if you do not pay a bribe no file will be cleared. So, corruption as we can see is as old as ‘pezz’. Only today, ‘pezz’ will not do, the demand is for mutton/chicken. Oh, no, not beef!
Goans’ love for ‘pezz’ is so deeply ingrained that we seem to carry it with us wherever we go. The D’Sa family travelled from East Africa to Britain, where their son Ian Vineet D’Sa was born before the family migrated to Canada. Today, Ian is an international alternative rock/punk rock star. And like many Goans, he took to music at a young age. And the band which he led was called ‘pezz’ until 1998 or so when its name was changed to “Billy Talent” which is today Canada’s foremost band. Ian is the band leader and song writer.
And as I close, I cannot raise a glass for reasons you know, by now. However, as I write, I raise my pen and say cheers, to my niece and nephew as they engineer home and happiness together.
(Radharao Gracias is a senior Trial Court Advocate)
