VASCO: She is 71 but doesn’t look her age. When her customers call her by her nickname ‘Disco’, she responds with a warm smile, inquires about their well-being, and talks to them with an ever-happy face. Most importantly, at the end of the transaction, she gives blessings to her customers and thanks Lord Jesus and Vailankanni. Esperance Fernandes, better known as Disco in Vasco, Verna, and Margao, has been selling fruits and some local gavti vegetables to Vascokars for the last forty years. She has raised her two children and is also a grandmother to five, all thanks to her four-decade-long journey in the fruit-selling business, and her faith in God, she says.
Disco doesn’t remember her parents, but recalls that she was adopted by a childless couple when she was very young. Her father worked as a mason building mud walls for houses, as there were no cement constructions during her childhood. She would accompany and watch her parents mix and throw up the mud balls to build thick and strong walls. Disco never went to school, and to earn some money, she began to work in the fields near Cansaulim. The job included sowing seeds and harvesting crops. Sometimes she would accompany a toddy tapper to catch and collect coconuts.
Her parents then married her off to a man in Verna.
Almost four decades ago, Disco began to travel to Vasco to sell local produce. Initially, she used to sit near a meat market to sell fruits and veggies, and later brought tender coconuts from her village. She was later shifted near the fish market and now does her business near the makeshift fish market along with other vendors. Disco starts her day at 4.30 am in the morning and travels to Margao to procure fresh stock of fruits and vegetables. She comes to Vasco in the morning and stays till late evening. She catches a bus at 8.40 pm to return home. She often eats her lunch at local restaurants in Vasco, but sometimes, her grandson brings her a tiffin box with a hot lunch, prepared by her daughter.
People make a beeline to Disco’s stall to buy Goa’s unique mankurad mango when it is in season. Goans living abroad, especially the Londonkars, often tell their family members to buy them mankurad from Disco.
Disco and her husband stay with their son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren at Verna. While the son works at the nearby industrial estate, the daughter-in-law is a homemaker who also takes care of her father-in-law. Disco’s daughter is a tailor, and also married, and the family is heart-warmingly close-knit, and proud of their cheerful matriarch.
Disco’s son also brags about being known as ‘Disco’s son’. With a shy smile, Esperance shares snippets of her family dynamics. “My grandchildren say, ‘The world calls you Disco; how can we call you Maay?’ Just like Bollywood’s yesteryear villain Ajith says, ‘Sara sheher mujhe Lion ke naam se janta hai’” she jokes. “Muje naav vichar naaka, akkho sonvsar mhaka Disco mhun ulo marta.” (Don’t ask my real name; the world calls me Disco.) It is apparent that her jovial nature and childish innocence has made her a popular trader in the busy market.
Despite living a hard life, Disco says that one should always speak the truth. “Lying is like going against God. People who attend Mass and serve God should never lie. God has supported me to overcome the obstacles in life. I am always grateful to Lord Jesus and Vailankanni,” says Disco, getting a bit teary-eyed.
From the time her children were around three years of age, Disco has never missed her yearly trip to Velankanni in Tamil Nadu. Even if she doesn’t have enough money, she says she borrows from someone to make the pilgrimage happen. Despite being illiterate and unable to read and write, she was able to obtain her passport and embark on a solo trip to Jerusalem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, which she calls the trip of her lifetime. Though she wishes to visit again, shwe is scared of the ongoing war. While Disco derives joy from being able to supply nutritional fruits and veggies to her customers, she claims she gets her strength from Lord Jesus and Velankanni.
