Monkey See and Monkey Do

In those days, the country was still young and humble. So were its monkeys. The little rhesus monkeys who had made South Block their base minded their own business, steering clear of the babus who hustled files up and down the august corridors.

In later years, as the country assumed its natural role as the leader of the developing world, some of its confidence rubbed off on the primates.

They became increasingly aggressive. If India’s talks with its neighbour, usually Pakistan, were not to their liking, they swung down from the trees and screeched their disapproval. Occasionally, they lay in wait for the under secretary drafting the final communiqué and dropped a large object – a flowerpot or a brick – on his head. If a file included a decision to which they objected, they snatched it from the babu’s hands, strewing its contents all over the floor.

As long as they picked on the small fry, the mayhem proceeded uninterrupted. Unfortunately, they became ambitious. Bored with pulling out power cords of office desktops and snatching lunch-boxes from passing attendants, they headed off to Rashtrapati Bhavan to check out the scene in the most prominent address in the country.

That was a gross error of judgment. The Government was compelled to deal with this threat to its internal security. A team of langurs was recruited to police and control the smaller-sized simians. Their reward - a monthly salary paid in luscious yellow bananas.

Read more about the mokey business that erupted in Goa just before and soon after its Liberation from Portugal and its joining India as New Delhi had just completed one war (Goa's Liberation) while about to be dragged in another (the India-China conflict) in

Short Takes Long Memories by Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat

Available at:
http://www.amazon.com/Short-Takes-Long-Memories-Kamat/dp/8129118211
http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx

after reading some of the reviews like

http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/short-takes-long-memories/13/18503/s

and elsewhere in http://shortsnipz.blogpspot.com

Prabhakar Kamat's book Short Takes Long Memories co-written with Sharmila Kamat on Amazon

http://www.amazon.ca/Short-Takes-Memories-Sharmila-Kamat/dp/8129118211

Available on Amazon: Short Takes Long Memories by Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Takes-Long-Memories-Kamat/dp/8129118211

Video of the release of Prabhakar Kamat"s Short Takes long Memories co-authored by Sharmila Kamat

Goa LitFest, Goa International Center, Dona Paula, Goa on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Goa's Liberation from Portuguese rule

From Camotim to Kamat - a journey from Goa Portuguesa to Goa Indica on the Golden Jubilee of Goa's Liberation

http://www.mail-archive.com/goanet@lists.goanet.org/msg84076.html

Books recommended by DNA

http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/slideshow_book-shelf_1588699-4#top

In person: Gulzar speaks on the significance of the Golden Jubilee of Goa's Liberation and Short Takes Long Memories

Lyricist and writer Gulzar releases Short Takes Long Memories, a memoir on Goa's passage to India

On the Golden Jubilee of Goa’s Liberation, Short Takes Long Memories, a ringside view of Goa’s passage to India from 451 years of Portuguese rule, was released by noted lyricist and scriptwriter Gulzar at the Goa LitFest being held at the International Centre, Goa. The book, a memoir of Goa’s first IAS officer and diplomat Prabhakar Kamat, is co-authored by Prabhakar Kamat and Dr. Sharmila Kamat and published by Rupa Publications, New Delhi. In addition to a reading from Mango Mood, a tongue-in-cheek look at present-day Goa by Dr. Sharmila Kamat (Rupa Publications, 2011), there was also a discussion on literary trends in Goa. Eminent writer Damodar Mauzo, Goa University academic and noted writer Dr Kiran Budkuley, well-known reviewer and academic Augusto Pinto and Director, International Centre Nandini Sahai, participated in the discussion.

 Photos: From left to right, Augusto Pinto, Gulzar, Prabhakar Kamat, Sharmila Kamat, Damodar Mauzo, Nandini Sahai and Dr. Kiran Budkuley.

Photo credit: Galileo Fernandes

The real merit of the book is showcased through the understanding of history, geography and polity

Short Takes Long Memories reviewed in The Sunday Indian

http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/short-takes-long-memories/13/18503/

His liberal use of his knowledge of languages adds colour and character to the narration

Read it here:

Filled with telling episodes, lighter reminiscences and fascinating stories

On the life and times in Goa and Portugal as presented in Short Takes Long Memories - an exhaustive review of the book by journalist Frederick Noronha in Gomantak Times

Links from the Goa Book Club on Goa Net : Featuring

Short Takes Long Memories

Crosswords Bookstore - now having #ShortTakesLongMemories and #MangoMood

Short Takes Long Memories  and  Mango Mood

Galley Cat New Books

A ringside view of the passage to India of Goa, the subcontinent’s beach paradise, from prized jewel in the Ultramar Português. Short Takes chronicles the tale of a land caught between the irresistible pull of free India and the immovable obduracy of Salazarist Portugal. The book is based on the reminiscences of diplomat Prabhakar Kamat.

In the late 1940s, the narrator leaves Goa for war-ravaged Europe. Here, his adventures navigating the minefield of culture shocks are tempered with sobering encounters with revolutionaries from Asia and Africa. He returns to a Goa caught in a tug-of-war between free India and an unyielding Lusitania. A blink-and-you-missed-it Indian Army action lets Goa rejoin India and plunge into its hectic, colourful democracy.

Goa’s date with self-rule galvanises Portugal to follow suit.

Goa Down the Ages - Short Takes Long Memories

 A Goa pre and post Liberation with its caminhaos (public buses), its village elders debating world affairs between snarky observations on the local femme fatale, with its cafetarias serving piping hot bhajias and shiras in faith-coded cutlery, where law and order was (sort of) maintained by Keystone cops and an army with 2 anti-aircraft guns, both of which ought by rights have been retired years ago, made up the defence of a 451 year old colonization.

Short Takes Long Memories

By Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat
http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx

A ringside view of an eventful period in Goa’s history – its transition from being a Portuguese colony to becoming Indian, this is a tale of a land caught between the irresistible pull of India and the immovable object that was the inflexible colonial regime. The book is based on the reminiscences of I.A.S. officer and diplomat Prabhakar Kamat. In the late 1940s, Prabhakar Kamat abandons the somnolence of Goa to travel by sea to Europe for higher studies. In Lisbon, his adventures navigating the minefield of culture shocks are tempered by encounters with revolutionaries from the larger Portuguese Empire. He returns to a Goa still under colonial rule, but with India’s patience wearing thin. A blink-and-you-missed-it Army action in 1961 lets Goa join India and plunge into its hectic, colourful democracy. Goa’s date with self-rule galvanises Portugal to follow suit. With sharp insight and witty anecdotes, the book showcases life as it was (and in some ways, still is) in Goa.

About the authors:

Prabhakar Kamat is a retired I.A.S officer and diplomat from Goa. He has held very senior positions in the administration of Portuguese Goa and India. He has worked for the Ministry of Finance of Portugal and has been Director of Economic Services before the Liberation of Goa. He was Director in the office of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Counsellor in the Indian Embassy in Lisbon. He retired as chairman, Mormugão Port Trust.

Sharmila Kamat is an astrophysicist who is also an established writer and author. She has a PhD from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and is a recipient of a University Fellowship by Columbia University in New York. Her research studies the constitution of the Universe, particularly what makes up the hidden mass we call dark matter. She was Faculty in Physics in a Goan college before proceeding to the US.