SIOLIM: Snack maker extraordinaire Rosalia D’Souza, hailing from the picturesque valley of Pilimbi, Siolim, reflects on her passion for cooking and how it made her the woman she is today.
From a young age, Lina, as she is fondly known, was fascinated as she watched her father cook in their home as well as in his own restaurant. She dreamed that one day she too would be able to be as good of a cook as her father. When she was old enough, she shadowed her father; watching, learning and sometimes even helping him cook at his local restaurant in Mapusa specialising in traditional Goan food.
Those fond memories were all Lina had, once her father’s restaurant business suffered losses and had to close down. Shortly thereafter, her father passed away, leaving his helpless widow with four young children to care for. These tragic events forced an eight-year-old Lina to grow up faster than other children her age. Her mother, Martha, had to relocate the family from Mapusa to Siolim, to help with the finances, as she took up a job as a daily worker.
In those tumultuous times in the 1970s, employment was seasonal for daily workers, and labour was in abundance, so it was difficult for their family to make ends meet. The barter system still existed then, so Martha would often work for a bag of rice, or some other commodity to provide for her family. Still, to feed a family of five is gruelling, let alone on the wages of a day worker earning five rupees per day. So, in 1973, Martha managed to get a job in Kuwait with the help of some Good Samaritans.
With her mother overseas, Lina shouldered the responsibility of caring for her siblings. When she wasn’t in school, Lina was either cooking, cleaning or doing household chores at the tender age of 12.
Despite being a bright student, Lina had to make the tough decision to
sacrifice her own schooling, as it became difficult to balance the different responsibilities.
In 1983, Lina too joined her mother in the Gulf to provide an additional source of income for her family. After a few years she returned to Goa to get married and settle down. Once again, she rediscovered joy in cooking for her family, loved ones and neighbours but this time on her own terms. Such was the love and care she put into her cooking, that she earned plaudits from all who ate her food.
In 2007, her husband had to undergo surgery for a major procedure, leaving the family in dire need for a replacement breadwinner. Never one to shy away from responsibility, Lina took charge and decided to start a small snack making business to tide them over. She began to take orders for Goan snacks like Beef Croquettes, Egg Chops, Risois, Panroll and different types of sandwiches like Chutney, Tuna, and Chicken sandwiches.
Her customers were generally known faces from the neighbourhood, and advertising was mostly through word of mouth. Slowly, as news of her delicious snacks spread throughout the village and it seemed like Lina had struck gold, because the orders started to multiply; more than she had imagined.
That’s when Lina decided to enlist her sister-in-law, Lily, to help out with the large number of orders. With Lily’s help, the business began to thrive even more, prompting Lina to widen the menu to include items like Sannas, Samarachi Codi, Xacuti, Sorpotel and more.
“This small business has helped me to get more than my daily bread,” says Lina.
Nowadays, she is the go-to person in the locality for catering snacks and food, for all types of events whether its birthdays, wedding roces, Bhikariche Jowan, anniversaries, or even funerals and memorials. Some people even order her snacks and then send them to their relatives across the world, be it the Gulf, UK or even Europe. With Lily as a steadfast figure by her side, Lina caters food to the masses from her little kitchen, sometimes feeding as many as 200 people for an event.
Now, her son Dennis has joined the family business. Alongside his mother and aunt, Denis operates a food truck called ‘Mr Botato’ which serves lip-smacking delicacies like Choris Pao, Beef Chilli-Fry, Pork Chilli-Fry, Hotdogs, Corn Dogs, and Cafreal to name a few. The food truck can be seen in parked along the Siolim – Tar- Arpora routes where hordes of tourists can be seen lining up for a quick bite
Despite running such a time-consuming business, Lina always makes it a point to begin her day by attending Mass. “God has given us hands and legs, and we have to make the best use of them because they are our greatest assets,” she says. Lina is often known to invite people to seek her out in times of need. Besides her yearly
sponsorship of a seminarian’s education, Lina is also involved in other charitable works, regularly reaching out to those in need in the community who have no one to look out for them.
