Behind the News: Voices from Goas Press | Page 7

I believe, was The Indian Express correspondent in
Goa. I told them that Mascarenhas seemed piqued at me for wearing a
suit. If I remember correctly, Fernandes said that Mascarenhas has a
personal bias against Bandodkar regarding the withdrawal of
government advertisement. He told me that Mascarenhas and
Bandodkar were once on a friendly basis, but both had fallen apart.
I think my second adventure in getting a job in Goa came when Erasmo
de Sequeira launched his paper, Goa Monitor . I applied for a position
but never got appointed. The paper lived for a brief time.
Some years later, my uncle told me that he has an offer from the
Chowgules to start a Konkani daily. I came to Goa for a visit and went
to see Rodrigues at his residence in Darbandora. He and I designed the
logo for Uzvadd, though it may have been refined when the paper was

launched. Rodrigues never took up the position as he was to be under
the editorial supervision of Madhav Gadkari, the then editor of
Gomantak. Gadkari was fiercely pro-Marathi and my uncle felt his
efforts to promote Konkani journalism would be subverted by Gadkari.
To my surprise, Evagrio Jorge, the noted freedom fighter and news
reader at All-India Radio in Panaji, was its first editor. The paper was
well received. As expected, Jorge and the owners or probably Gadkari
had a difference of opinion. In a short time, Jorge was out and he
launched his own paper, Novem Uzvadd.
Throwing light on Uzvadd
Without the financial muscles of the Chowgules that sustained Uzvadd,
Jorge's paper suffered. I think it was also during this time that a group
started another Konkani daily, Novem Goem. I am not sure why
Uzvadd eventually folded up.
My friend, Cyril D'Cunha, started a sports weekly called Goal, and I
was its Mumbai correspondent. I contributed many stories till the paper
went under for reasons unknown to me. This was my direction
connection to Goa's journalism. Later on, I was offered a job at the
West Coast Times, a daily launched by the House of Timblos. At least
two senior colleagues of mine at the Free Press Journal went to Goa to
start the paper. One of them was Y.M. Hegde and the other, P.R.
Menon.
Before going to Goa and even after the paper began publishing from
Margao in South Goa, Hegde said it would be good for me to come to
Goa. I forget the year it was launched and if I was still a freelancer at
the Free Press Journal or on its staff. By then, I was not keen on settling
down in Goa. To me, Goa was still in the backwaters of journalism. To
leave a city like Mumbai where journalism made blood rush in one's
veins, and go to Goa, where things moved at a snail's pace, was
something I dreaded. When I wanted to come to Goa, I was found
unwanted.
After leaving Free Press Journal and joining The Hindu, I met Raul
Fernandes one day in Mumbai. He was scouting for talent for O
Heraldo, then about to be turned into an English-language daily. I knew
Fernandes, though not as well as his brother John and his dad, Antonio
Caetano Fernandes.
The Fernandes family was close friends with my friends in Mumbai,

the Ribeiros, owners of the Goan restaurant in Dhobitalao called
Snowflake. When in Goa, my friend and I went to see AC, as he was
popularly known, at the Casa JD Fernandes store in Panaji. And
whenever John came to Mumbai to get supplies for their store, he
would visit Snowflake where I hung out most of my time.
Raul Fernandes and I met at the Kyani Restaurant in Dhobitalao and he
offered me to come to Goa as chief reporter. The offer was unattractive
financially for me to leave The Hindu. I was given the impression that
Ervelle Menezes, than with Indian Express in Mumbai, was joining as
editor. Fernandes was in consultation with Menezes, I was told. At a
second meeting, Fernandes informed me that Rajan Narayan was
chosen to be the editor. I was surprised. I never had any admiration for
Narayan's journalism. I had heard some stories about his resignation
from The Mirror, a monthly publication from the Eve's Weekly group.
Even though the offer of chief reporter was not tempting, I was not
keen on working under Narayan.
I knew Narayan on a hi-and-bye basis when I was at Free Press Journal
and he was at Onlooker, a sister-publication from the Free Press
Journal group. I forget what position he held at the Onlooker magazine,
and whether Narayan was there when M.J. Akbar edited it or later
when M. Rahman took over.
I once covered a function at the United States