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.
