Our History

SIX HUNDRED YEARS AGO ….

 

Six hundred years ago

(Or more),

They came

With long stockings and short breeches,

tomatoes, tapioca and pumpkins.

They took away our land

And gave us their Rosary.

They took away our coconut and banyan trees

And gave us their Cross and Crown.    

They took away our

Vitals and Vaikunts, our Sharadas and Shyamalas    (1)

And

Gave us their sour faced saints

And erotic martyrs

Sprawled across the ceilings of their

White devasthanas

(As white and paste-y as they were),

Whose names dropped down to our children:

Marku, Pedru, Bastiao, Joao, Zuan, Zobel, Esthu, Katrinn, Muggie; (2)    

The same children of our's

That the Church took away

And

flung to the corners of the world-

A Bishop of Jaipur

A helicopter-flying priest in Serbia

A foundress in Australia

A missionary-nurse-sister in Tanzania

(Only one became a saint.

In Sri Lanka). (3)        

 

They took away our Mother Saraswati (4)

And

Our pride and honour

And replaced it with

Silence, shame, guilt enough to cry

Mea culpa three times a day. (5)

 

And

When their taxes grew

Heavy and dangerous,

We

Fled from their Eastern Lisbon (6)

And

Squatted

On the land

Embraced by the Gurpur and the Netravati,

By the sea. (7)

 

And

Their foreign faith

(Only one god, no goddesses; but this one god has a mother)

Became our own,

Like the leitao and the pada and the sorpotel and the macaroons. (8)

It

Preserved us and fortified us

through Tipu's captivity (9)

And

Indira Gandhi (10)

And the Church attacks. (11)

 

Today

They have come back

In green cotton-paper notes,

Making us fight with our brothers, (12)

Sell our old portico houses (13)

And

Once again pack up from our homes

To seek our fortunes elsewhere.

 

Laudate Dominum omnes gentes

Laudate eum omnes populi. (14)

 

 

(1) common Gaud Saraswat Brahmin first names   

 

(2) common names of Konkani Catholics in Mangalore;  they are the Portuguese-Konkani equivalents of Mark, Peter, Sebastian, John,  Joane, Isabel/Elizabeth,  Esther, Catherine, Magdalene/Margaret respectively.  

 

(3) St Joseph Vaz, a missionary from the Konkan coast, who was martyred in Sri Lanka. His canonization was  in January 2015 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.       

 

(4) The Goud Saraswat Brahmins claim their ancestry back to the mythic Saraswati river.

 

(5) Mea culpa (roughly translates to "Have mercy on me" in Latin) is repeated thrice during the daily recitation of the "I confess".

 

(6) Goa was referred to the Lisbon of the East, and was the center of the Portuguese Empire after Lisbon.

 

(7) The urban area of Mangalore is bound by the mentioned rivers and the sea.

 

(8) Popular Mangalorean Catholic foods that have heavy Portuguese influence.

 

(9) reference to the captivity of the Mangalorean Catholics by Tipu Sultan at the end of the 18th century.

 

(10) reference to the land reforms enforced by Indira Gandhi's government, which led to the dismantling of the traditional land tenancy system and subsequent social mobility and the exodus of the community to the Middle East.

 

(11) reference to the Church attacks on 2008, which has lead to a tacit suspicion and discomfort between the  Konkani Catholics and the other communities in Mangalore.

 

(12) the Catholic community has become infamous for land disputes between siblings.

 

(13) the old lime washed mud houses, characterized by red oxide floors, Mangalore clay tile roofs and columned verandahs.

 

(14) the first verse of Psalm 150. Roughly translating to "Praise God all you people", Laudate Dominum is a popular hymn, which is sung as per tradition, at every auspicious occasion including weddings, christenings, engagements, housewarmings, etc.

 

 

HE

 

 

Some say He was

The Son of God,

The Lamb of God

(No,

The real one.

Yeah,

Before the band),

The Messiah.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

 

Some say He

Is a misrepresented political leader,

Who married,

Had children,

And

Died.    

Wholly blood, wholly male.

 

Some say He

Spent

His hidden years in India,

Or

Egypt,

Under Buddhist scholars;

Or

That He was whisked away to

Kashmir

(Don't they have problems enough?)

To die an old wise man

And

Add to the retinue of  Indian godmen and saints.

Holy God, wholly fail?  

 

But I'd like to believe

When I go to heaven,

He won't offer me unleavened bread

And

Grape wine.

No,

He'll give me vadai-sambhar.

Holy God, wholly mine!!