Mangalore: Alan Machado's 'Shades Within Shadows' Released

Pics: Brijesh Garodi
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
With Inputs from I J Saldanha Shet

Managlore, Dec 17: Author Alan Machado's 'Shades Within Shadows', a book tracing the intricate history of Catholic community in the coastal region, was released at St Aloysius College auditorium here on Friday, December 16.

Published under the aegis of Catholic Association of South Canara, the book was released by Latha Kini, chairperson, president of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In her address, she said that the book is a result of an extensive research on the Catholic community in the coastal part of the state. Creativity blended with knowledge has made the book a great read, she added.

Alan Machado said that his book dwells on the life of the Catholic community, including the festivals, occupation, culture and traditions. It is a story about individuals, of human relationships and the array of emotions one goes through, he added.

The book was introduced by Dr William D'Silva, who said that the book also relates to the history of Catholics in Goa, and their migration to Mangalore following the unrest in the state.

The story essentially revolves around two families, Konnggi's in urban Mangalore and Jaki's in rural Mermajal, he said. The book has 784 pages and is priced at Rs 350, he added. The book had been published in ten volumes in Konkani, he said, adding that 'Shades Within Shadows' employs colloquial English of the coastal parts in its narration.

David Pais welcomed the gathering, and Dr Derik Lobo, president, Catholic Association of South Canara delivered the vote of thanks.

About the Book

'Shades within Shadows' is a story of Mangalorean Konkani Catholics, set largely in the 10 month period that Tipu spent in Mangalore during his siege of the fort. Within this time frame details of the life of the community, their culture, their work, their festivals and interaction with Kanara’s Tuluva traditions. Most of all it is a very human story which weaves around individuals: little Paulu’s friendship with Chiku the home pig, his restless brother Foka, aging Natalami and drunken Bastiao, floundering Konngi, Padre Miranda of Talaulim, Goa who founded the seminary of Monte Mariano  in Farangipet near Mangalore. It handles birth and love, relationships and death with delicacy, and weaves little stories around humourous incidents and latent fears, of ghosts and spirits and other things.

'Shades with Shadows' does not ignore the links of the Mangalorean Catholics with Goa, and this is brought out in the very first chapter, the flight from Goa due to economic reasons, religious strictures introduced by the Inquisition, and political unrest resulting from the Dutch blockades of Goa’s ports and Maratha invasions. It then delves into the lives of two families, Konnggi’s in urban Mangalore, and Jaki’s in rural Mermajal, their lives and activity interwoven into the fabric of sowing and harvest, summer and monsoon, Christian festivals and bhuta lore.

And then the axe falls with their arrest on Ash Wednesday, and then the deaths multiply on the road to exile and in Srirangapatna and in Tipu’s wars. Only Joao survives and returns.

It is a story of life and death and survival, of the near destruction of the unique culture of a community, how one man’s actions, whatever his motivation, nearly destroyed a community and left the traumatic events of the Captivity forever imprinted on its psyche. Many reasons have been advanced by various authors for Tipu’s actions. Alan Machado (Prabhu) has done extensive research on this subject and his findings will be published in a subsequent book. It promises to throw new light of this sad episode on the community’s history and add to his earlier book Sarasvati’s Children, a history of the Mangalorean Catholic community, published in 1999.

About the Author

Alan Machado (Prabhu), is a descendant of a branch of the Machado (Prabhu) family, ganvkars of the 12th vangod of Aldona, who emigrated to Mermajal circa 1680. The family was decimated by the Captivity with only one known survivor, João, who returned to the ancestral in circa 1799.  An engineer by profession, Alan has worked in Australia and the UK. A passionate investigator of his community’s past and related history, his first book, Sarasvati’s Children, is a history of the community from pre-conversion times to immediately after the Captivity. Alan is currently working on a major historical work on the Captivity and its causes sourcing a wealth of information dating to those times, a work that promises incisive and new interpretations on this traumatic episode in the community’s history.