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Primordial Poroscodem
This neglected hamlet is crying for attention By Alister MirandaPoroscodem!_ What’s that_ Where’s that_ These were the questions we were asked when we spoke to some know-all Goenkars about this village. The main Patradevi-Panjim highway passing through Pernem bisects it, yet it somehow remains hidden from the gaze of the unsuspecting traveller. Quiet, unbelievably laidback, Poroscodem is a Goan village with a difference. The primitive rural flavour it emits fills up your senses and more than makes up for its lack of palatial mansions, historic sites and other standard fame-attracting accoutrements. Virtually untouched, its pristine nature would make one ghtml in astonishment. The simple, hardworking and loving lifestyles of its 800-odd inhabitants and its near primitive virginity brings about a realization about what most other Goan villages have lost. A visit to Poroscodem is like a walk back into the past, to see the Goa that once was – immaculate, rustic and having a heart of gold. A slice of history it indeed is. Situated about 33 kilometres from Panjim, Poroscodem’s boundaries along the highway are more or less marked by the Pernem-Satarda bridge and the Konkan Railway bridge at the southern and northern ends. Under both these bridges quietly waltzes the Terekhol river, in which the Tamoxi, Palu and a plentiful variety of other fishes abound. On the east lies Khaznem. The western stretch is caressed by river Terekhol. The petite villages of Amberem, Naibhag and Khaznem are incorporated in the Poroscodem panchayat. Based, undoubtedly, on societal standings, religion and occupations, Poroscodem is subtly sectioned into Christian Vaddo, Harlankar Vaddo, Mesta Vaddo and Gaunkar Vaddo. The large number of nets resting along the river bank tell a tale about one of the occupations of the Poroscodkars - fishing. The river and all it holds must surely be reaching intoxicating levels during the cashew season in summer – what with the numerous cemented cashew Feni stills, dotting the palm fringed bank, pouring out into the watercourse. The brew that is spirited out from cashew apples brought all the way from Changad and Vengurla in Maharashtra is unadulterated and reasonably priced. Toddy tapping, an occupation in which a sizeable chunk of the menfolk earlier indulged in, has dropped considerably. The badkars’ refusal to lease coconut trees for the activity is cited as the reason. Agriculture, however, continues to be their numero uno age-old occupation; beginning only after the monsoon makes its exit. A large water body surrounded on one side by hills and the highway running along the other, is transformed into a green carpet once cultivation begins. This huge expanse of fertile land is Poroscodem’s rice bowl. But until the liberation of Goa, four-fifths of the harvest had to be compulsorily ‘gifted’ to the all-mighty land owners – the Deshprabhus of Pernem. The pitiable little that they were left with could hardly provide them with a square meal. If in case the produce was not delivered, then the landlord’s men would come and forcibly take away the cattle. The same applied to mangoes, bananas and vegetables. Septuagenarian Luis Fernandes, reverentially known as Vodlo Pai candidly speaks about the villagers’ humble lifestyle in the bygone days. “We used to only wear Kastis (a red loin cloth typical to Goa) or wrap a towel around our waist. I stitched my first pants at the marriageable age of 20. We had to live off the land, as there was no other means of livelihood. Only field work and toddy tapping it was. Money was a rarity. One anna would buy us one pod of rice. We were so poor, that I clearly remember we once even bought just two paise worth of rice, and after cooking it drank the canji water. Despite our hard work in the fields, there was not enough left for us to eat, as most of it had to be delivered to the landlord in Pernem as Khandd. It was chief minister Dayanand Bandodkar who stopped this. Ever since Liberation our life has improved,” says he. For a fact, all this changed after Liberation, and the first chief minister of Goa, the late Dayanand Bandodkar, endeared himself to the Poroscodkars with the tough stand he took against the Badkars. Unshackled though they are now, like always their lives still revolve around their dear village. And, seemingly, even the present generation does not intend changing that. Even though reasonably educated, they have chosen to take up to the traditional occupations of their fathers and forefathers. Not a single Poroscodkar has found employment in the Gulf, and those in government or private service can be counted on one’s fingers. Expert masons abound in Poroscodem, which also boasts of highly skilled carpenters. Everyone plying these trades are Hindus. “Eighty per cent of us are masons,” confirms Dattaram Korgaonkar. Hardworking Bostiao Fernandes sustains his family by small time toddy tapping and fishing, while Suryakant Korgaonkar and Prabhakar Haldankar gain employment annually for a mere four months at the Sanjeevani sugar factory. Prabhakar also runs a small tea shop that helps supplement his earnings. Poroscodem is predominantly Hindu. Catholics comprise a miniscule size of the population. The Nadkarnis, being the lone Saraswat Brahmin family, over the centuries have religiously played the role of Mahajan of the age-old Shree Mauli temple. Ageing Janardhan Nadkarni currently shoulders the task of performing the Puja at the temple daily. The Naik, Chari and Haldankar families are entrusted with the other affairs of the temple. Gaunkar Vaddo residents, the sizeable Mahar community which specializes in basket making, pitch in by providing the music for all the religious festivals. They have of late christened their ward as Lokmanya Tilak Nagar. Every Friday night bhajans are sung in the precincts of the temple, which each group of families undertakes by turn. While tracing the age of the Mauli temple, Janardhan recalls: “It is a very old temple. It should be atleast 450 years old. It is believed to exist since the time my ancestors fled from Verna and Mardol during conversions and settled here. It was very small before, but over the years it was slowly built to its present stature in 1974; after its near collapse in 1954.” The temple has no yielding property, like coconut groves and fields. Neither does it have any monetary fund. For every festivity, the expenditures are met through donations. The main festivals enthusiastically celebrated are the Zatra, Utsav, Shigmo and Divzam. During the Portuguese era, a special licence had to be acquired from the Portuguese authorities to legalise these celebration. The seven-day Shigmo is the biggest festival. The last day attracts thousands of people from twelve neighbouring villages who assemble at the sacred place below the Pernem-Satarda bridge in the afternoon. The annual Zatra is held in December or, at times, in January. One dhashavadari natak is also staged by artistes that come from neighouring Maharashtra, which lies just across the Terekhol river. Utsav is homecoming time for all the married girls of Poroscodem. The sole Hindu ritual that cannot be carried properly is cremation of the dead. There is no crematorium, but, nevertheless, a concerned Christian allows them to respectfully cremate their dead in his property. The handful of Christians, on the other hand, have an old graveyard on a hillock, but no road that leads to it. The panchayat, surprisingly, turns a blind eye to both these necessities. The first Catholic settlers at Christian Vaddo in Poroscodem were three families, all Fernandes’; one each from Mandrem, Tamboxem and Parra. That was centuries ago. Vodlo Pai’s family hailed from Mandrem, Joao Jose Fernandes’s (who’s fondly referred to as Papa) ancestors came from Tamboxem and Cosma (Porrikar) Fernandes’s kinfolk family tree started in Parra. With members from these three families building new houses, from three, the number of houses have grown to ten. With no Church in Poroscodem, and only a chapel at Khaznem, the Catholics have no option but to be clubbed with the Pernem parish. In Khaznem, there were many Catholics at one time, who constructed a chapel, but now just four households exist. Devotion at this chapel is kept alive with a Mass once a month. Dedicated to the Holy Cross, the chapel feast is celebrated annually on May 3. For any religious event, whether feasts or funeral, the Catholics from Poroscodem, Khaznem and Amberem rally together as one community. The help to lay to rest the departed at an age old dilapidated cemetery situated on a hill. With no proper road leading to the graveyard, the funeral processions are a painful trudge. Highly religious, these Catholics venerate the statue of the Virgin Mary with great devotion. The statue moves from house to house when it travels from Patradevi to Pernem. Southward bound the image is venerated at every household in Poroscodem for an entire day before it moves to another. The rosary is recited at every cross, but the ladainha is not popular here. Not too long ago, Amberem housed a big Chapel, which had a resident priest to look after the spiritual needs of the Catholics of Poroscodem, Uguem, Patradevi and Tamboxem. The elderly villagers narrate how one particular hot-tempered priest, literally led to the Chapel’s downfall. It is believed that stories of the chapel being haunted by ghosts led the frightened designated priest to dismantle the woodwork of the roof and abandon it. The Catholics of Tamboxem have since used the Chapel stones for constructing a cemetery for themselves. Over a period of time, the ruins also have faded into history. No bank, primary health centre, a barber or a doctor, some half-heartedly complain. Pernem is where they always have to go to. Housed in the Panchayat Ghar, a non-delivery post office handling only personal savings accounts, money orders and outward registered mail is all that exists. And on the medical front, like it was in the beginning, it is now. In the event of dire emergencies, a doctor would be canoed from Naibag to Poroscodem. For delivering babies, midwivesDevling and Chinkem from Gaunkar vaddo were highly in demand. Education too is at a premium. It always was. There were no schools then, and even now Poroscodem has to make do with only a Government primary and secondary school which was built by the villagers soon after liberation with only a thirty per cent grant from the government, they say. But, much before Liberation Janardhan started a small make-shift school in the tiny Shree Vetal temple and taught his village brethren for free for five years. The Government school building is in a dilapidated condition. And the shocking revelation is that the school has no toilet. So can one imagine the plight of the students and teachers – more so the ladies_ The education department authorities never visit the school, we are told. A Balwadi operates from a private residence. The only notable improvement the villagers point to is the highway. In days gone by, there was no road leading to Poroscodem. A kutcha road ended at the police outpost at Naibhag. The villagers had to tread it by foot to Pernem inorder to avail of some transport. Armed with a packed lunch they would start walking. Poroscodem, although hardly accessible, had its share of the freedom movement in a fairly good measure. Ramkrishna Bicaji Naik, the village’s first Sarpanch (he won the first elections in 1963) who held the post non-stop for 25 years, and his brothers were in the heat of it all. His elder brother Uttam Bicaji Naik (74), who was appointed Regedor of the area in 1947, switched roles from Regedor to Freedom Fighter. “When the Satyagrahis came here, some villagers left in fear. We too feared the worst. Our relatives from Sawantwadi advised us to flee, but we decided not to go, for if the worst did happen to us, are wives would be widowed here. I also had standing instructions from the Mamlatdar to arrest the Satyagrahis and take them to him. It was tough on me, as the passion to be freed from the Portuguese rule burned brightly inside me,” recounts Uttam, who was a Regedor outwardly, but at heart a nationalist. In 1954 when Satyagrahis led by Mark Fernandes from Calangute, and joined by a poroscodkar Namdev Prabhu, first reached Poroscodem, they were not arrested by the Regedor. He did not even carry out the order to blow up the bridge that led to this village from Naibag, as Hindu religious activities centred around the area. “In fact, we treated them to some tea, hoisted the Indian flag, joined them in singing patriotic and nationalistic songs and my brother Ramkrishna and others clandestinely led them through the hills to the Naibag police outpost. For this I was made to give my statement at the Panjim Tribunal,” narrates the Regedor-turned-freedom fighter Uttam. In 1957, when the freedom movement had intensified, noted freedom fighters Apa Karmalkar and Surendra Pai had fled Goa and were in hiding in Satarda in Maharashtra. Country bombs were prepared at a Muslim’s house in Banda and smuggled across the border into Goa. The bombs used be brought in by daring swimmers who crossed the Tirekhol river from Satarda into Poroscodem. The bombs were then dispatched to their various destinations under the unsuspecting supervision of Uttam. A lady from Poroscodem played the role of a message carrier from Banda, until she was caught. The message she carried read in Konkani: “Logn tharlam, pun murtuch tharunk nam” (The wedding has been arranged, only the time of the ceremony isn’t fixed). Which meant that the bombs are ready, only the place and time isn’t decided. Tortured, the otherwise brave lady spilled the beans. One name led to the other, and soon enough the finger pointed to Regedor Uttam. At 10 am on Dussehra day, October 3, 1957, the Portuguese soldiers came to Poroscodem to arrest Uttam. It was the shrewd presence of mind of his ageing father Bicaji, who at that time was manning their little roadside shop, which saved Uttam and his three brothers. Bicaji misled the arrest party towards Pernem, while his four sons swam across to Satarda. Uttam spent six years in self-exile in Satarda; before returning to Poroscodem and his beloved Goa after Liberation. In absentia, he was charged, tried and sentenced by the Portuguese regime to three years of imprisonment and was debarred from his voting rights for 15 years. Not all the villagers though were against the Portuguese. Sixty-four-year-old Papa, recounts happy memories of the Portuguese era. “The Portuguese used to often come over to our place. They became good family friends. They would be thrilled when I took them to Patradevi and Torsem in my canoe. I used to also take them fishing. One of my Portuguese friends, who married a lady from Uguem, makes it a point to visit us every time he comes to Goa,” says Papa. With the rains having taken a bow, agricultural activity will soon start in Poroscodem. But, “whether Hindu or Catholic, no farmer will start tilling the land before a Murth is performed. No plough will scratch the Poroscodem earth until those designated from Gaunkar Vaddo perform a customary ritual of cooking rice near the field, sacrificing a cock and two menfolk ceremoniously pulling the plough by doubling up for the oxen,” informs Sitaram Gaunkar. Superstitious, sleepy and primordial, will Poroscodem remain like that for long_ PHOTO CAPTIONS Photo 1: THE MAHAJAN & THE TEMPLE: Sri Mauli temple is the hub of Hindus’ religious activity. Photo 2: PRISTINE FISHING: Fishing by canoeing is still the in thing in Poroscodem.
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