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

Replugging Short Takes Long Memories by Sharmila Kamat and Prabhakar Kamat

http://southasiabooks.com/short-takes-long-memories-p-71611.html

Short Takes Long Memories by Sharmila Kamat and Prabhakar Kamat now available in Canada

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

For the Francophone World and where Deutschland is Uber Alles

http://www.amazon.fr/s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-fr-intl-us&field-author=Sharmila%20Kamat

http://www.amazon.de/s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=books-fr-intl-us&field-author=Sharmila%20Kamat

Goa - What Happened Then - Learn about Goa pre and post 1961 in Sharmila Kamat and Prabhakar Kamat's Short Takes Long Memories

Fifty years later, we wonder what was life back then? Was it a ‘golden Goa’, as the discourse sometimes suggests? Or, was our tiny region dominated by everything negative, as those allergic to everything Portuguese today suggest?

A book review of Prabhakar and Sharmila Kamat's Short Takes Long Memories by Frederico Noronha in Planet Goa

http://www.planet-goa.com/content_details.php?id=489

On Amazon: Short Takes Long Memories by Prabhakar Kamat and Sharmila Kamat

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

Short Take Long Memories in Pudhari newspaper (Marathi)

Goa Lit Fest: Meet the authors of Short Takes Long Memories with Gulzar

As well as Lokmat Goa edition

And Navprabha

And in the Navhind Times - Buzz

http://www.navhindtimes.in

http://www.navhindtimes.in/iwatch/book-goa-s-passage-india-released/watch

Coverage in the Gomantak Times

Short Takes release announced in The Hindu

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article2743939.ece

Photo/video coverage of the release of Short Takes by Oscar winning songwriter Gulzar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0zbYZeaPRg
http://www.goaartlitfest.com/galf2011/photovideocoverage_2011.htm

Book on Goa's passage to India released

http://www.navhindtimes.in/iwatch/book-goa-s-passage-india-released

More pictures of release of Short Takes Long Memories by Gulzar on 19 December 2011 at Goa LitFest, International Center, Goa

Photos courtesy Pratima Kamat

The release of the book Short Takes Long Memories by Gulzar, noted lyricist, Padma Bhushan and Oscar awardee

Mr Damodar Mauzo, Sahitya Academy Award winner speaks introduces the book and the authors

As Goa enters its Golden Jubilee as part of free India, Sharmila Kamat takes the audience on a tongue-in-cheek tour of Goa- past and present by reading extracts of her first book, "Mango Mood"

Dr Kiran Budkuley, author and academic, presents trends in Goan writing in English

The book reads like a film  observes reviewer and academic Augusto Pinto as he allows the audience to get a flavor of Short Takes Long Memories by relating some choice passages from the book.

Gulzarsaab, maybe that is a suggestion for you!

The unfurling.....

And here it is ... Short Takes Long Memories

The author taking tips from the award winning writer and Oscar winner on how to wield the pen

Short Takes Long Memories released by Gulzar at the Goa LitFest on Golden Jubilee of Goa's Liberation

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.
Picture courtesy: Galileo Fernandes

Short Takes at the Goa Lit fest Dec 17 - 22, 2011 at the International Center, Goa

http://www.goaartlitfest.com/galf2011/participatingauthors_2011_II.htm#Prabhakar

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

Short Takes Long Memories at the Goa Lit Fest December 17-21, 2011

http://www.goaartlitfest.com/galf2011/participatingauthors_2011_III.htm#Sharmila

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

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