Short Takes Long Memories available in the Library of the Indian Parliament, New Delhi

Short Takes Long Memories (http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx) available in the Library of the Parliament of India, New Delhi under Social History / Biographies
http://164.100.47.132/pdfload/MyFolder%5CEnglish_Jan_2012.pdf

Three Speeds - Slow, Slower, Stationary

In the summer, I took the caminhão from Margão to Ponda, a major commercial centre in central Goa, to spend a few weeks at my uncle’s estate in Khandepar, a picturesque village five kilometres from Ponda. Today it takes less than ten minutes to drive down from Ponda to Khandepar. Then, it took more than an hour of brisk walking before you reached your destination.
With other residents preceding, and following in, my footsteps, I did not lack for company during my trek. As I walked, I met villagers on their way to Ponda either to catch the caminhão to Panaji or Margão or to sell their produce in the market.
The trees lining the roads would offer a shady place to rest when I felt myself wilting under the summer sun. The thought of diving into the cool waters of the Khandepar River in the company of the other village boys spurred me on. That and the prospect of participating in the evening soirées on my uncle’s porch.
Just before sundown, a group of his neighbours would converge around the red-cemented seats lining my uncle’s balcão. He would be seated in a rocking chair in his favourite spot by the door, a tiny gold-coloured snuffbox in his hand. As each friend arrived, he would pour a small quantity of snuff onto his palm and offer it to the newcomer.
Taking snuff, they say, is one of the rare occasions when the hand that giveth rests beneath the hand that taketh. Each villager would take a pinch of snuff between his thumb and his forefinger, put it in one nostril and then the other and sniff deeply. I would watch the exercise fascinated, hoping for a chance to mimic their actions.
One evening, I summoned the courage to ask my uncle to allow me to sample the snuff. I had watched the three-step sequence so often I felt I could do it with my eyes closed. At first, my uncle demurred, contending that I was too young for these adult indulgences. When I persisted, he relented and let me sample the powder.
I pinched. I pushed. I sniffed. I began to sneeze loudly, uncontrollably. My throat was on fire. My face hurt. Water poured out of my eyes. As the mist before my eyes cleared, I caught a glimpse of the expressions on the faces around me. They oscillated between concern for my well-being and amusement at my predicament.
I never went anywhere close to a snuffbox again.
...............................


Experience life as it was lived in Goa, India just before its Liberation from Portuguese rule 50 plus years after Goa became part of the Indian Union 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 elseqhere in this blog

Growing up Goan in a land buffeted by newly free India and a Salazarist dictatorship

Short Takes Long Memories

By

Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat

(New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2011).

Price: Rs. 195/- ISBN_PB: 9788129118219

Short Takes Long Memories is a ringside view of Goa’s passage to India after 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule. Published by Rupa Publications, this is based on the reminiscences of Mr. Prabhakar Kamat, a retired IAS officer and diplomat based in Goa. The book is an account of Growing up Goan in a land buffeted by the conflicting claims of newly free India and a Salazarist dictatorship unable to reconcile itself to imperialism’s waning appeal.

A set of evocative images characterise Goa in the 1940s. As the global conflict rages on, in Goa the caminhão lurches along narrow lanes even as the funcionário público sips his ardha single in a safed cup of tea and the bhatcar berates the local layabout in pidgin Portuguese.

The end of the war allows the narrator to travels to Europe for graduate studies. In Lisbon, he adjusts to life under Dr. António Salazar, the Portuguese strongman as famed for his tight fist as for his tightfistedness. He learns why the Portuguese love coffee houses and is reminded that stepping out sans necktie is an egregious breach of etiquette. His interaction with freedom fighters from the larger Ultramar Português makes him privy to the unswerving resolve of men like T.B. Cunha, Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos Santos.

As the 1950s proceed, he returns to Portuguese Goa and joins the colonial administration. Indian efforts to dislodge the Portuguese culminate in a blink-and-you-miss-it Army action. As Goa joins India, he gets to contrast the administrative styles of a colony with a free land.

The loss of the ‘swaggering capital of the Portuguese Empire of the East,’ to quote William Dalrymple leads to momentous changes in Portugal. Democracy is ushered in by the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Restoration of diplomatic ties between India and Portugal allow the narrator to return to Lisbon as an Indian diplomat. He gets to witness Portugal savouring freedom after 40 years of dictatorial rule - right around the time Emergency is imposed in India.

Humorous and thought provoking, Short Takes includes rare photos from Mr Kamat’s private collection. Priced at Rs 195/-, it is available in major Goan bookshops, online and at Rupa’s site: http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx

Two prisoners...One jailer .... a ringside seats to both releases

"It falls on but a few, to put it quite immodestly, to be on hand for the release of two prisoners, shackled by the same jailer, on opposite sides of the globe," as Short Takes Long Memories grabs a ringside seat first at the Liberation of Goa in 1961 and then, 13 years later, at the Carnation Revolution in Portugal as a colony and its coloniser are freed from the same jailer - the dictatorial Salazarist regime of Portugal, on opposite sides of the globe.

http://www.rupapublications.co.in/client/Book/Short-Takes-Long-Memories.aspx

A ringside view of the passage to India of Goa from prized jewel in the Ultramar Português. It chronicles the tale of a land caught between free India and Salazarist Portugal based on the reminiscences of a civil servant and diplomat.

An amusing memoir.... an affectionate rambling account - In the Times of India Crest Edition

on Short Takes Long Memories

http://www.timescrest.com/culture/gallery/quick-review-5904

See also: http://mangomood.blogspot.com/2011/10/short-takes-long-memories-on-goas.html

Written like a comedy film - Review of Short Takes Long Memories

Provides a view of colonialism - compares governing styles pre and post Liberation Goa

Review of Short Takes Long Memories in DNA

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

Written like a comedy film - Review of Short Takes Long Memories in Goa Today September 2011 issue

Narrated with a smile and many winks  by former administrador turned IAS Officer and diplomat

Review of Short Takes Long Memories by Augusto Pinto  in the September 2011 issue of Goa Today

A walk down the times that tells a story that is both quaint and informative

See the review of Short Takes Long Memories under Reading in Goa in the latest issue of Planet Goa (August 2011)