Changing Times

 Changing Times

Apolonia Humelina Fonseca of Alto Porvorim, Goa, the former Portuguese colony in India died two days ago and her notice of death appeared in a local newspaper. Apolonia was the daughter of Anunciacao Candida Desa and the relict (an old usage meaning widow) of Jose Joaquim Fonseca who worked in Basra and Abu Dhabi.  Notices of death that appear in the local papers are columns from history. They narrate stories of Goan family life, starting with portraits of the family, their migrations, changes in lifestyle and finally the people they leave behind to carry on the family traditions. One noticeable lifestyle change that is apparent in these notices is that Goan Christians are dropping their traditional names and opting for new ones. There seems to be a move away from four and five and syllable names like Apolonia, Tiburcio and Constancio to two syllable names and in some cases names with a definite Indian slant.

Apolonia Humelina Fonseca would certainly have had a pet name that was easy on the tongue and on the ear. The names of some of her grandchildren mentioned in the notice of death are of fewer syllables and easy to remember - Herman and Nigel, Chrystal and Aidan. Apolonia’s family is not alone. Hundreds of Goa families are moving away from the names that were prevalent during the Portuguese era in Goa to ones that are both current and easy to live with.

It is not out of place to enquire how a little girl born in 1929 in Goa was named Apolonia. It is certain that she was not named after the three towns in Crete of the same name or after the town in Greece. More probably she was named after Saint Apolonia of Alexandria one of the earliest of Christian martyrs and saints whose teeth were knocked out during her torture and who later became the patroness of dentistry. Jacobus de Voragine immortalised Apolonia’s life in his chronicle the Golden Legend published in the Middle Ages. Saint Apolonia was widely accepted in Portugal as well – Lisbon’s oldest railway station that was opened in 1865 was named ‘Sant Apolonia.’ Tiburcio (also spelt Tiburzio) was also possibly named after San Tiburcio, a Roman martyr.

The children of people like Apolonia, Constancio and Tiburcio continued to be named according to the trends prevailing in the fifties and sixties of the last century. They had names like Hipolito, Milagres and Deolinda. Then came the change and the discernible shift in the selection of names. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of people like Apolonia are not necessarily named after saints and martyrs of the Catholic Church. The children born to Goan parents in the closing decades of the last century and the children of the new millennia are more often called Elvis, Lily, Sean, Deon or Anjali, Priya and Roshan. Their Christian names are not entirely discarded. They do stay on the record books and on certificates of birth and marriage. On the playfields and on Facebook, the preference seems to be for anything like Lily, Arman or Ayesha or as mentioned earlier Elvis, Lily or Sean.

Viju James –April 2013

 

 

 

A Salute to Recipe No 26

In the post independence era in India there were just a few recipe books. Women used notebooks to copy recipes of dishes that they liked or recipes that were real classics among family and friends. One recipe that was copied into many notebooks was Recipe No.26 - a recipe for Madras Chicken Curry. This recipe originated in the book, The Up To Date Cookery Book by Mrs. M. Hardaker published by C. Murphy for Thacker & Co. Ltd, Rampart Row. It was printed at Western Printers & Publishers, 15-23 Hamam Street, Fort, Bombay. Those were the days when there was no spot-UV or five colour printing! The year of publication is not mentioned but the book has been reprinted and for a limited period was available on Amazon UK.

Recipe No 26 had an abiding quality about it. Over six decades, nothing has changed about the ingredients or the method of putting this dish together. With foresight and for the convenience of many generations that would use her recipe, the author had thoughtfully placed some clarifications in brackets like that the measure chattak was the equivalent of two ounces and that a seer is equal to 16 chattaks. The country moved to the metric system of weights and measures but the conversion tables from pounds and ounces to kilograms were easily available. The author never imagined the advent of Google translation and so thoughtfully provided the Hindustani translation of each of the ingredients.

Mrs. Hardaker had the foresight to envisage that the foundation of Recipe No 26 would last for many years and would also be the base for several other preparations – And so Recipe No 27 is for a Mutton Curry, Recipe No 28 is for a Beef Curry, Recipe No 29 is for Mutton Curry with Vegetables and Recipe No 30 is for Chicken Curry with Tomatoes.  The Mutton Curry recipe in a footnote mentions: “Is made like the foregoing recipe, cut up in two inch squares; quarter seer of mutton instead (½ lb).” The Beef Curry recipe advises that it is made in every respect according to instructions in Recipe No. 26 only allowing the meat to simmer a long time. In the case of the Mutton Curry with Vegetables the novitiate is advised to put in the vegetables when the meat is partially cooked. “A little tamarind pulp or juice adds to the flavour and should be put in after the vegetables are cooked.” Recipe No 26 goes on to be the blueprint for Madras Sheep’s-Head Curry and for the Cofta or Ball Curry and for many others that follow in the Chapter Curries in Different Ways.

The book runs into several chapters and provides succour for the helpless for everything from equipment for the kitchen to selecting fish and meat.

Through every page of the book, Mrs. Hardaker talks directly to the reader in a language that is easy to understand and steps that are easy to follow. There is clarity and rationale and at the end of each recipe an unwritten pact with the reader that promises that they will be able to make the dish and put it on the table without tears in the kitchen. There are no visuals and no cameras to show her chopping or peeling and no deadlines dictated by time or advertising.  The only sad part of the Hardaker magnum opus is that it is near impossible today to find a copy of the book – and that becomes the reason to salute the author, her work and Recipe No 26!

The recipe is reproduced below verbatim:

Recipe No. 26 Madras Chicken Curry

Ingredients – Currystuffs: One dessertspoonful of coriander (dhunnia); quarter teaspoon mustard seed (rye); half teaspoon cummin seed ( jeerah); half teaspoon poppy seed (khus-khus); a couple of large pieces turmeric (huldee); a few dry red chillies (sooka mirrtchi); more if desired; half a dozen cloves of garlic (lusson); one piece of green ginger (uddruck); one large piece of dry coconut ( sooka Nariel) one medium sized onion (piaj).

Grind the above ingredients fine to a paste in some water (after browning the coriander seeds and taking out the husks), set aside.

Get a good sized chicken, one chattak (2 ozs) ghee, a small onion and salt to taste.

Method- Cut up the chicken in the usual way and clean and wash. Set a degchie one the fire or stove, put in the ghee and when boiling hot throw in the sliced onion and fry to a light brown, then put in the ground condiments and fry well until the smell disappears. Put the cut up chicken in now and keep frying, covering and opening the degchie alternatively until all the water is absorbed, when it is frying in the ghee, add salt to taste. Pour in sufficient water to cover the meat. Cook on a slow fire until tender and the ghee appears on the surface when it will be ready. Serve with boiled rice or bread etc. as desired. A little lime juice gives it a nice flavor; some coconut milk is also tasty.

 

 

 

My First Crib

 

My First Crib

I was about four or five years old when my mother took me to see a crib – the first crib that I saw and one that I remember vividly to this day. In those days, we lived in the coastal town of Calicut. The town is best known as the place where Vasco da Gama landed in the fifteenth century and where the British later ruled. Today, little of the early western influences remain in the town except on the sea front where the vessels are still referred to as ‘pattau mare’ (bateau mer).

Calicut was one of the gateways to the Western Ghats. In the years leading to Independence there were several Englishmen and Europeans living and working in the town. Their interests were in the tea and coffee gardens of the high ranges, the spice markets of Calicut and the fact that Malabar was one of the most developed regions in the former Madras Presidency. 

 In the late nineteenth century the Italian Jesuits build what was then considered a very large church almost on the Calicut beach and named it the Mater Dei Cathedral. The Italian influence in this church was pronounced – the steps leading to the main entrance, the dome and finally the Bernini touch on the pillars of the pastoral canopy and seat. The crib was clearly a part of the church furnishings and must have been shipped out to Calicut together with the vestments, church plate and other equipment essential for the conduct of votive services during the liturgical year. When set up, it occupied the space of an entire altar on the northern side of the church and re-created in fine detail the entire town of Bethlehem.

As a little child I had no idea that this was a picturisation of the place where Christ was born – what attracted me most was the layout of a whole mountain village – there were homes, there were taverns, there were people on the move, there were donkeys and there were lights inside the doll-size  structures. You were able to see people in their homes and people eating and drinking in the taverns . There was a tiny rivulet flowing down the hill side with little bridges and sheep drinking water at the bottom of the hill. There was real grass on the hillside and cattle resting after a good meal. Everything  came alive as you watched the scene. It was a real wonderland and for a five year old it was an unforgettable experience. In one corner of the huge crib was a foot high statue of an angel holding a little purse – there was a slot in the purse for dropping  coins and each time someone dropped a coin, the angel would nod with a tiny tinkle as if to say ‘thank you’. I recall dropping  two one pice coins – the second pice was just to see the angel nod once again.

A couple of years later I began my education the school adjacent to this church. I waited eagerly for Christmas  hoping to see the crib displayed once again. The crib was never put together again – it was never displayed. The angel was nowhere to be seen.

Memories of the crib stayed with me and came alive year after year. When I visited Jerusalem I realised that the crib in the Mater Dei Church was as close to the perfect picturisation that anyone could ever expect of the birthplace of Christ – Bait Lahem. 

A few years ago, the Mater Dei Church was repaired and renovated – once again I hoped that the crib would surface and that the angel would nod in appreciation of a rupee or two – that was a foolish wish – in its place the Church was decked with cheap Chinese Christmas decorations and mass produced crib figures with abundance of colour and little character. The angel had a better destiny – re-engineered, it was on the cloud and on YouTube just waiting for a click.…. “Angels we have heard on high….”!