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Filomena's Journeys
English
298
About The Book
Filomena’s Journeys is a daughter’s moving tribute to the mother who held her world, and that of her six siblings, together through long years of insecurity and hardship. It is also an often heartbreaking attempt to come to terms with the painful memories of her father.
In 1935, Filomena Borges, aged twenty-six, married for love and moved from her grandmother’s village, Raia-where she had arrived as an orphaned child-to one of Goa’s most prominent and fashionable towns to the time, Margao. This move, from rural peace and simplicity to urban buzz and formality, from a modest landowning family to one of formidable eminence, was to transform her life, but in ways she could not have imagined. Chico, the man who had charmed her with his wit and intelligence, turned out to be as trouble as he was passionate. An unusually gifted musician, he lacked the discipline and conviction to rise above the limitations of great but vanishing privilege that was the bane of Goa’s Catholic elite in the twentieth century. The frustration broke Chico, and his decline threatened to destroy his family. Until Filomena took a leap into the unknown and moved with her young children to Dharwar, a town across the border, in Karnataka. Here, in unfamiliar surroundings , with no source of income apart form a share of the harvest from dwindling family lands back in Goa and rent from students whom she took in as lodgers, Filomena raised her seven children, shielding them from tragedy, and gave them the best opportunities to fashion secure futures for themselves. In her last year, when they were all settled the period of her quiet triumph she chose to live alone, sustained till the end by the qualities she had absorbed as a young gir
298
About The Book
Filomena’s Journeys is a daughter’s moving tribute to the mother who held her world, and that of her six siblings, together through long years of insecurity and hardship. It is also an often heartbreaking attempt to come to terms with the painful memories of her father.
In 1935, Filomena Borges, aged twenty-six, married for love and moved from her grandmother’s village, Raia-where she had arrived as an orphaned child-to one of Goa’s most prominent and fashionable towns to the time, Margao. This move, from rural peace and simplicity to urban buzz and formality, from a modest landowning family to one of formidable eminence, was to transform her life, but in ways she could not have imagined. Chico, the man who had charmed her with his wit and intelligence, turned out to be as trouble as he was passionate. An unusually gifted musician, he lacked the discipline and conviction to rise above the limitations of great but vanishing privilege that was the bane of Goa’s Catholic elite in the twentieth century. The frustration broke Chico, and his decline threatened to destroy his family. Until Filomena took a leap into the unknown and moved with her young children to Dharwar, a town across the border, in Karnataka. Here, in unfamiliar surroundings , with no source of income apart form a share of the harvest from dwindling family lands back in Goa and rent from students whom she took in as lodgers, Filomena raised her seven children, shielding them from tragedy, and gave them the best opportunities to fashion secure futures for themselves. In her last year, when they were all settled the period of her quiet triumph she chose to live alone, sustained till the end by the qualities she had absorbed as a young gir
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About the author
Maria Aurora Couto
4 books9 followersMaria Aurora Couto is an Indian writer, historian and educationalist from Goa. She taught English literature in colleges in India (particularly New Delhi) and has contributed to periodicals in India and the United Kingdom. In 2010, she received the Padma Shri award.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 15, 2015
A beautifully rendered account of the extraordinary life led by an ordinary woman of Goan heritage.
The author captures the troubled marriage of her parents, and the ability of her mother to brave the odds, very well.
It was a pleasure to read about the Goan heritage and culture of the time and a profound learning from the experiences of the main characters.
The author captures the troubled marriage of her parents, and the ability of her mother to brave the odds, very well.
It was a pleasure to read about the Goan heritage and culture of the time and a profound learning from the experiences of the main characters.
Displaying 1 of 1 review