Tree & Leaf

DR MANOEL AGOSTINHO DE HEREDIA (1870-1937) ~ installment #4

Chapter IV

THE SOCIABLE MAN

Between demands of his profession and his business interests Manoel Agostinho’s hands were full enough for him to have excused himself from the social circuit of his time and place, with the plea "I cannot spare the time". But he was one who, in the poet’s words, "prized laughter and the love of friends." He drew congenial souls to his home like a magnet.

His earliest and staunchest friends were Francisco (Tio Fancu) Gomes Pereira, Nicolau Manuel (Manu) D’Sa, and Matias Xavier (Tio Motishair). Manu was in the service of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (G.I.P.) retiring as Superintendent in the General Manager’s Office at Bori Bunder (Victoria Terminus). Tio Fancu and Tio Motishair were employed in the Eastern Telegraph Company - forerunner of today’s Overseas Communications Service (OCS). All three were natives of Divar, therefore compatriots of Manoel Agostinho. They were devoted to Manoel Agostinho and Ángela Mericia, at whose home they were frequent, and always welcome, visitors. Bachelors all, there was a sort of artless, innocent gaiety in everything they did and said. Their kind would be uncomprehended in today’s supercharged world if they could have existed within such a world untouched by it. During Manoel Agostinho’s lifetime they had led untroubled, useful lives. Manu D’Sa was the mainstay of a demanding English General Manager’s office, and besides, an exceptionally competent churchwarden. They were never the same after Manoel Agostinho’s death.

Besides these three, whose personalities are remembered because they took an avuncular interest in Manoel Agostinho’s younger children, there were a host of friends whose names only come to mind fifty years after his death: Ottaviano Ferreira, whose father raised paddy on a vast scale, for export to Bombay and Africa, on a river island (Corjuem) of which he was sole proprietor; Dr Florencino Ribeiro, (uncle of the famous Julio Ribeiro, Director General of the Punjab Police), who was the friend to whom he entrusted the local direction of the Bardez Electric Supply Co.; António Maria da Cunha, Editor of the Goa daily “O Heraldo”; Meyer Nissim, suave, always dapperly dressed, financier and confidant of the great Baghdadi Jewish houses of Sassoon and Kadoorie; Ambalal Sarabhai, founder of the Ahmedabad Spinning and Calico Manufacturing Co. (Calico Mills), - whose brilliant son Vikram set up the National Physical Laboratory, the Ahmedabad Textile Industry’s Research Association, the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) and was Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission when he died; and Caetano Paulo da Cunha, in his heyday a leading solicitor of Bombay.

A Brazilian from Sao Paulo, Dr. Horacio Neves, had visited India to buy hessian (required for bagging coffee), and humped cattle called ’zebu’ in Brazil (for cross breeding with his native cattle in order to make them resistant to drought). Neves came to Bombay and made Manoel Agostinho’s acquaintance through the Spanish Consulate. Enamoured with India, Neves was able through Manoel Agostinho’s efforts, to attend a Goan Saraswat Hindu wedding, for which he arrayed himself in the traditional gala dress of a Saraswat. Neves conceived a high regard for Manoel Agostinho’s personality and talents. After returning to Brazil, he brought about Manoel Agostinho’s appointment as Honorary Consul for Brazil at Bombay, in the year 1923. As a member of the Consular Corps, his attendance at Government House balls and dinners became more frequent.

It is difficult to say who enjoyed those glittering social events more - he, for whom they afforded opportunities for conversing with persons of equal mental calibre and shared interests, or Ángela Mericia, who loved music, enjoyed dancing - the quadrilles especially - and who appreciated the musical entertainment.

A man in Manoel Agostinho’s position received numerous invitations to weddings, many of which he attended, despite other demands on his time. The lower the social status of the newly-wedded couple, the more likely that one or other partner would be a patient of his and therefore entitled to special consideration. He was much in demand for raising the bridal toast, and while his addresses were quite free from the broad humour and bombast that was customary on such occasions he was capable of holding attention and touching hearts with the simple directness of his utterances. His tact was unfailing. When, contrary to the pattern, a bridegroom began sobbing on his mother’s shoulder, during a reference in the toast to the parents’ sorrow at parting with a daughter leaving home as a bride, Manoel Agostinho quelled an incipient explosion of laughter by speaking of the constancy of a mother’s love, and extolling a son who could remember it, even on his wedding day. On another occasion, the collapse of a tiered wedding cake, cut too forcefully by the bridal pair, provoked a gathering storm of coarse jests, which he stilled by instantly commencing his toast, and characterising the event as a happy augury for the couple’s future successes in overcoming life’s obstacles.

His sociability was most apparent to house guests, to whom his home was a welcome staging post on their journeys to and from Goa. Most were, of course, kinsfolk, relatives by marriage in the main, for he numbered only brothers among his siblings, only one of whom married. All the sons of Ángela Mericia’s uncle, Julio da Costa, who were in the East African Government service, regularly stayed over with their cousins when travelling on home leave. The eldest, António Vicente, was the favourite cousin; his biennial or triennial visits were eagerly anticipated by the younger children especially, for he never failed to take them out for a cinema show and an ice-cream treat. But quite a few house guests were neither kinsfolk nor friends, they were mere acquaintances, coming with a recommendatory introduction from a relative or a close friend.

Love of music, so characteristic of Goans, drew many to Manoel Agostinho’s home for performances of classical music, in which his eldest girls took part, being fairly accomplished in the piano, the violin and the vox humana. Performers who later gained international fame, like Olga Craen (née Athaide) participated in these cosy concerts.

Uncharacteristically, refreshments offered on such and most occasions, at Manoel Agostinho’s home, were non-alcoholic drinks like orchata, and Xarope de brindão; he was abstemious, perhaps because his vigorous physiology and sanguine temperament needed no stimulant.

Transplanted, of course of his own wish, at the age of thirty, Manoel Agostinho bore flower and fruit in Bombay’s hot house environment, but what the social world saw always was quite essentially Goan, a sanguine, sociable and deeply religious man.

Tree & Leaf

DR MANOEL AGOSTINHO DE HEREDIA
(1870-1937) ~ installment # 3


Chapter III

THE ENTREPRENEUR

The first quarter of the twentieth century saw Bombay’s emergence as rival to Calcutta to be commercial, industrial and financial capital of India. Amongst many factors contributory to this development were the enterprise, business acumen and access to sources of capital of great merchant houses like Tata, Mafatlal and Khatau who even today are names to conjure with. These great houses were Bombay-based but their operations were nationwide.

Circumstances were consequently propitious for Manoel Agostinho to avail of acquaintances and friendships that had been made through his medical practice, in order to venture into the business world. But mere inspiration to become an entrepreneur was not, and never has been, enough; the aspirant must have a grasp of business principles and practices, and an understanding of the complex linkages between owners and users of funds; above all, he must possess credit-worthiness. That Manoel Agostinho was able to win all these pre-requisites within a decade of residence in Bombay is the note-worthy feature of his career as entrepreneur.

He was quick to realise that the accelerating tempo of business activity must inevitably spur demands for all types of insurance; that an. insurer could expect to prosper only if the risks insured were correctly assessed , and that his professional expertise and, yes, integrity, could be his contribution to the capital needed for promoting a life insurance company. Amongst his circle of acquaintances he identified two who were suitable and willing to be his partners in such an enterprise.

This was the genesis of the Asian Assurance Company Limited, whose Managing Agents were S.H. Mehta & Company. The first initial stood for Dhirajlal P. Shroff, a merchant banker of Surat, related to leading Gujarati business houses, like that of Sir Purshottamdas Thakurdas; the ‘Mehta’ was Jamnadas M. Mehta, Bar-at-Law, a brilliant lawyer and political activist who later became a Minister, and the middle initial was, of course, Dr Heredia.

Many Goan relatives and friends subscribed to the share capital of the ‘Asian’. Names of well known businessmen also figured in the Shareholders’ Register; amongst them, that of Abdul Tayeb E. Maskati after whose merchant-prince father the great Maskati Market in Surat had been named. Later, Maskati’s father-in-law, Dr. Taherali M. Kajiji, LL.D, joined the "Asian’s" management with the designation of Managing Director, his responsibility being the signing of insurance policies. Dr. Kajiji’s impressive presence, his high social standing and his reputation for probity were a shield against the spread of any damaging rumours by rival insurers.

Of cardinal importance to the stability and prosperity of an insurance company was and continues to be the wise and provident investment of funds that accrue from premium income. This function was initially assigned to the Managing Agents, that is, the triumvirate of Shroff, Heredia and Mehta. It was not long before Shroff and Mehta delegated this power to Manoel Agostinho, having been satisfied that he could be trusted. Thus, he became the de facto Chief of Investment, as well as Chief Medical Referee of the Company.

At the time of his death, the ‘Asian’ had attained the top bracket of Indian insurers, and under the stewardship of his son James Nathaniel retained that position until life insurance business was nationalised in 1956.

Pressed by compatriots to give some attention to Goa’s development, Manoel Agostinho promoted, along with an able engineer, Mr. R.D. Char, (who went on to establish a battery manufacturing company that has been a leader in this field till recently), the Bardez Electric Supply Co. Ltd., at Mapusa, and the Daman Electric Supply Co. Ltd., at Daman. Both plants took firm root in their native soil.

There never has been a successful entrepreneur whose track record is totally free from failure. Manoel Agostinho’s one failure was a steam navigation company. It was styled the "Maji Agbott Co.," because it was meant to provide Goans (and other Konkan coast dwellers) an economic alternative to the steamers that Killick Nixon & Co.( a Managing Agency firm that managed a score of trading, mining and manufacturing companies) plied between Bombay and Goa, under the flag of the Bombay Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (One of my earliest childhood memories is standing on the deck of the S.S. Britomar before it set out on the Maji Agbott Company’s inaugural voyage).

This venture challenged an established shipping monopoly, backed by massive resources and, tacitly, by British power. It would have been a miracle if it had succeeded. However, it afforded Manoel Agostinho one more valuable acquaintance - that of the redoubtable Narottamdas Morarji, founder (along with that pioneer industrialist Walchand Hirachand) of the first Indian shipping company - The Scindia Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. Many years later, when occasion arose for his son James Nathaniel to set up an organising office of "the Asian" to do insurance business in Sri Lanka, Seth Morarji arranged the necessary introductions to the Sri Lankan officials and to Sri Lankan businessmen, through Scindia Steam’s Colombo agents, Narottam Pereira & Co.

Manoel Agostinho’s earnings as a physician would not have sufficed for him to rear and educate his eleven children, to get enviably good matches for all his daughters who reached marriageable age before his death, and to settle the two sons who had acquired professional qualifications by that time - James Nathaniel, a commerce graduate specialised in actuarial science, having joined "the Asian" management as Secretary in 1932, and Albert Francis, a graduate in Medicine and Surgery, having relieved his father in the Kalbadevi dispensary two years later. It was Manoel Agostinho’s business earnings and profits that made up the difference.

His medical practice and his business ventures were each by themselves full time occupations. One marvels that he should have been able to give each occupation full attention without prejudice to his management of the other, over a span of twenty-five years. That he did this, and also led an active social life, participating in every significant event, in the Goan community in particular, seems incredible.

Manoel Agostinho as a ‘Sociable Man’ is as much a phenomenon as he appeared as ‘Physician’ and as ‘Entrepreneur’.

Tree & Leaf

DR MANOEL AGOSTINHO DE HEREDIA (1870-1937) ~ installment # two

Chapter II

THE PHYSICIAN

A dictionary defines ‘physician’ as ‘a doctor of medicine other than a surgeon’. Nowadays, the category of ‘doctors of medicine’ itself is subdivided into specialists in the branches of medicine - paediatrics, gynaecology, psychiatry, and the like. Numerous and ever-proliferating aids to diagnosis are also available, offering the apparent certainty of objective, quantified tests of every part of the human organism, by high technology processes and apparatus. These aids naturally outweigh the unaided judgement of an individual medical practitioner, in the eyes of even those who can ill afford their expense. And so medical treatment today is, worldwide, impersonal and unfeeling for all its efficiency.

Dr Heredia was one of that near-extinct class of physicians known as ‘general practitioners’ (‘GP’s for short) who were able to diagnose and prescribe treatment for most diseases and ailments, referring to specialists only such cases as needed major surgery or specialised medical advice. With few technical aids to assist him in diagnosis, a GP had to have a considerable (and constantly expanded) body of knowledge and experience in order to be a successful diagnostician of a wide range of diseases and ailments. From successful diagnosis to the achieving of his patient’s cure, the GP needed, besides knowledge and experience, ability to inspire a patient with faith in his own recovery, a potent if little understood factor in curative medicine.

That Dr. Heredia commanded all the requisite qualities of a GP is apparent not only from his large practice, but also from his successes in treating cases that other doctors and even recognised specialists had deemed to be hopeless.


In the first few years after qualifying to practise medicine, Dr Heredia served as Medico de Partido (Panel Doctor) to the village communities of his native island Divar and of the neighbouring island of Chorão. That the people of Chorão contributed materials and labour to build him a dwelling on their island is evidence of their desire for his professional services. But he felt drawn to Bombay by his recollections of an earlier visit there, undertaken at the invitation of his co-brother-in-law, Major Caetano Fernandez (‘Tio Caetaninho’, who had married Ángela Mericia’s elder sister Analia) to be locum tenens for the duration of the latter’s travels in Europe. *[This history, as related by Julio da Costa in his memoir, is more full than the one here set down. Tio Julio’s account follows, in a different coloured type to differentiate it.]

IV
ESCAPE FROM PERSECUTION

[interventions by EMRH in italics between square brackets]

Agostinho's friends and well-wishers were many, and from all strata of Goan society. Among his highly-placed friends was Frederico Salvador Ferreira, lord ('Senhor') of an entire island, fertile and extensive in area, called Corjuem. Frederico Ferreira and all his family had great regard for Agostinho's skill as a physician; and personal esteem for him as a friend. This 'Grande Senhor' had three sons Carlito, Octaviano and Heliodoro, and a daughter [Herminia] who was married to a lawyer of Margão [José Felipe Alvares]. In the house of Frederico Ferreira, no party, however intimate, ever took place without an invitation to Agostinho, and invariably the Ferreira's own steam launch or pinnace was sent to fetch him to Corjuem and take him back to Chorão. But Agostinho was not merely invited to dinners and galas; he was also consulted as a medical practitioner, and his advice was sought in financial matters. He was adviser as well as friend of the entire Ferreira family. This friendship came to his rescue in the year 1895, when an incident took place that became a turning point in Agostinho's life.

In that year the President (i.e. Mayor) of the Municipal Chamber of Ilhas was a Portuguese official named Gomes da Costa, - an ambitious man, hungry for power. This official wanted his salary to be increased~ The Municipal Councillors were disinclined to support him, and several, amongst them Agostinho, voted against the proposal. Gomes da Costa was infuriated, and sought an occasion for revenge.

In that same year a mutiny had taken place in army units stationed in Goa, in which both Goan and Portuguese troops participated. In fact Gomes da Costa himself had been responsible for this mutiny. But he accused the Municipal Councillors who had voted against him of having been in league with the ring-leaders of the mutiny, and sought to have them arrested on this false charge. He approached the Governor of Goa for this purpose, and in Agostinho's case he cunningly reminded the Governor that Agostinho's priest brother Antonio José had made a representation to the Portuguese Minister for Colonies against the discriminatory treatment of Goan missionaries vis-a-vis European missionaries in the Patriarchal Mission of Aleppey. By playing on the Governor's feelings in this manner, Gomes da Costa succeeded in obtaining from him a warrant for Agostinho's arrest.

Before the warrant could be executed, Agostinho's well-wishers in Panjim had warned him what was afoot, and advised him to flee Goa. At this very juncture my sister, Ana Conceiçao, was to take her daughter Analia to Bombay, where Analia was to wed Dr. Caetano Fernandes, from Honavar, North Kanara, who had a well-established practice in Bombay. This circumstance decided Agostinho to seek refuge at Bombay until the storm over his head blew over. I determined to keep him company. It was known that henchmen of Gomes da Costa were lying in wait for Agostinho at Panjim, expecting to have him arrested at the ferry wharf itself, in case he attempted to flee Goa by the steamer plying between Panjim and Bombay. Agostinho therefore decided to escape overland by walking over the border to the port of Vengurla (in British India, Ratnagiri District), where he would be able to board the same steamer en route from Panjim to Bombay. As the authorities were presumably watching the road as well as sea and rail routes out of Goa, Agostinho chose to use jungle tracks through Pernem and Neibaga, over the border into Savantwadi.

For this plan, a guide familiar with the ways through the jungle was required. It was Frederico Ferreira who came to Agostinho's rescue; he provided a trustworthy guide, and provisions for the travellers (whose number had by this time swelled to four, by the addition of the guide and a friend, one Francisco Paulo Gomes). We set out from Corjuem and reached the border the same night. After an overnight rest, we resumed our journey and reached the ferry wharf at Vengurla late at night, just in time to board the steamer from Panjim. Among the passengers who had embarked at Panjim were my sister Ana Conceiçao and her daughter; also Frederico Ferreira's youngest son Heliodoro, who was to seek specialist medical treatment for his ailment at Bombay, under Agostinho's supervision.

We attended the wedding of my niece Analia which took place soon after we arrived in Bombay. Her newly-wed husband, Dr. Fernandes, was a shrewd judge of men: he had a flourishing practice, and discerned in Agostinho one with sound knowledge and much experience of medical science. He invited Agostinho to work as his assistant during his stay in Bombay, and Agostinho accepted. We remained at Bombay, in the house of my brother- in law Jujut Simoes at Mazagaon. After the Goa Government's suspicions regarding Agostinho were dispelled, Agostinho and I returned to Goa, where he resumed his duties at Chorão.

V
SUCCESSFUL CAREER IN BOMBAY

Dr. Caetano Fernandes had not forgotten how ably his co-brother-in-law Agostinho had performed as his assistant during his enforced stay at Bombay. Dr. Fernandes' practice had grown, and he planned to travel in Europe. He offered Agostinho attractive terms to look after his practice during his absence from Bombay, and thereafter to work as his assistant on a permanent basis. Agostinho accepted the offer, and moved to Bombay in the year 1900. After settling down in his new assignment, he secured accommodation for his family and brought his wife to Bombay, along with their two infant daughters. In order to raise funds for furnishing his new house-hold, he sold his Chorão dwelling and all its contents.

By the time Dr. Fernandes returned from foreign travel Agostinho's reputation as a skilful physician had spread, attracting more patients than before to Dr. Fernandes' consulting rooms. His co-brother-in-law was not entirely pleased with Agostinho's success as locum tenens. It was not long before Agostinho found it expedient to set up in practice on his own.
etc. [A romantic detail omitted by Tio Julio is that there were some small creeks and brackish streams requiring the use of a tona (a sort of canoe made from bark); and the crossings were made possible by the ready cooperation of fishermen and hamlet-dwellers.]

Tio Caetaninho readily agreed to transfer to Manoel Agostinho that sector of his huge practice that was based at a dispensary on Kalbadevi Road. According to a cousin, a sum of Rs.13,000 was the consideration paid, the equivalent of not less than five lakhs of rupees today [1987!]. Manoel Agostinho could not have raised even a fraction of this sum from his savings from a few years of community service, nor from his wife’s dowry, for he had foregone it. He could only have raised this amount by borrowings.

However, it was an investment that repaid itself many times over. Kalbadevi was then the hub of a greater business centre than the Fort. The great merchant houses – predominantly Gujarati-speaking Vaishnavas, Jains, Bohras, Khojas and Kutchi Memons - were clustered in the three or four city wards adjoining Kalbadevi. The Goan community, too, was settled within the same wards in the parishes of Cavel, Dhobitalao, Sonapur and Dabul. The Cathedral, founded when Bombay was Portuguese, was in Bhuleshwar, scarcely four furlongs from what had become Dr. Heredia’s dispensary.

His practice soon grew, encompassing at the high end, rich merchant families, who rewarded his services with business insights worth far more than his fees, and Goan seamen, waiters and domestic servants, at the other end poor patients whom h treated at nominal or no cost. From his wealthy patients he derived inspiration, ideas and collaboration for subsequent ventures into business. From his poor patients the returns were hardly less rewarding: enduring respect, regard and esteem for him, and for every descendant of his name.

It was not merely his professional skill and the high percentage of patients cured, that won him such rewards. His bedside manner, comprising the courtesy, consideration and sympathy that every patient received from him, not only hastened recovery, but won their grateful affection.

Many were the "hopeless cases" that recovered under his tender care. When the only son of his former tutor contracted tetanus, (for which there was no known cure) it was Dr. Heredia who undertook to treat him, and saved his life. His son-in-law, C.M. Correa’s first-born infant son, William Raymond, went down with pneumonia, and the leading physician of the time, Dr .Judah, had told the anxious parents that he had no hope of saving their child. Refusing to acquiesce in this expert’s opinion, Manoel Agostinho took charge of the case, and the boy recovered.

Manoel Agostinho’s professional integrity ensured timely referral to specialist consultants of cases in which a second opinion seemed to him expedient in the patient’s interest. Thereby, he came to know every one of Bombay’s many specialist consultants in every branch of medicine and surgery. With many of them, acquaintance ripened into enduring relationships of mutual esteem, even of friendship. Soon, his reputation attracted patients from Goa to Bombay in search of better facilities for treatment than those available in Goa or in the many Indian mofussil towns that had sizeable Goan communities.

Again, it was his reputation for integrity that led to his appointment as Medical Examiner to the Government of Iraq by Mr. E.W. Perry, an ICS officer, who acted in the capacity of Agent to the Government of Iraq (then under the aegis of the British Crown.) Once again, it was the reliability of his opinions on the medical examinations of life insurance prospects that inspired confidence in the quality of business underwritten by the Asian Assurance Company Limited, which he helped to found in the year 1910.

There is no doubt that Manoel Agostinho’s professional abilities were the foundation of the thriving practice that he built up within a decade of arriving in Bombay, and that relationships which grew out of his practice in turn provided the bases for his subsequent successes as an entrepreneur.

Tree & Leaf

In response to the cache of old photographs received from a cousin, Monica Rebello Gonsalves, this memoir, illustrated by a precious photograph lost to the family in a fire that consumed Asian Building, Bombay, in 1947, and now most wonderfully made available by Monica.

DR MANOEL AGOSTINHO DE HEREDIA (1870-1937)

By Frederic Joseph Heredia

[extracts from Prologue]

Happily, my grand-uncle Julio da Costa’s ‘Personal Memoir’, an English translation of which was published in April 1981 for circulation to Manoel Agostinho’ s descendants, records nearly all that could be said about Manoel Agostinho’s personality and traits, by one who was his boyhood companion and later his uncle-in-law.

To one who knew him in his lifetime, my cousin Peter D’Souza, I am indebted for many details of Manoel Agostinho’s life in Bombay, that only he could have known or confirmed. For the rest, the facts must speak for themselves: a Goan physician who migrated from rustic surroundings with no resources other than his talents and his character, carved a notable niche for himself and his family in the commercial life of a great industrial city, and in its exclusive social milieu, without compromising his faith or his ideals.

[all parentheses in italics between square brackets are by FJH’s daughter EMRH]

***********************************************************************

Chapter I

THE MAN

Early photographs of Manoel Agostinho show him with a beard, neither trimmed nor full, but following somewhat closely the lines of his face, and apparently curly. In my earliest memory he had no beard, but wore a moustache of the fashion called ‘toothbrush’. His hair was cropped close to the head, and was brushed, not combed. For his times, when men’s average height was appreciably less than it is now, he must have been considered tall. His height was not less than 5’ 9", and he always held himself straight, so that he seemed taller.

A high forehead, aquiline nose, and deep-set but brilliant dark eyes could have made his countenance intimidating, but for a mobile mouth, and an unexpectedly sweet smile.

His broad, arched chest evidenced the vigorous physiology of a man given to walking fast over long distances. In the first few years of his stay in Bombay, he used to walk a great deal - three miles from home to dispensary, and thence on visits to patients (and they were many) who could not send a private carriage or a hack victoria to fetch him.

Weekdays, he left home after an early breakfast, to return at nightfall. During epidemic seasons of enteric fever, cholera, smallpox, plague, he would return even later, and then change into clean clothing before greeting his children. These would flock around him seeking his blessing - the bênção customarily sought in Goan homes, from parents and elders, usually after the evening ‘Angelus’ or after recital of the family rosary at nightfall.

Those of us children who were at school and college rarely saw him on weekdays. And on holidays other than Sundays and great feast days, the uncertainty of his return for a mid-day meal entailed our eating lunch separately. It was only in his declining years that he took an afternoon siesta on weekdays. Family gatherings were consequently possible only at dinner times.

It was at the dining table that he indulged his abiding interest in his children. Etiquette required children to keep silent and to speak only when addressed by a parent or an elder. So he would speak to each child, listen to their responses, and would draw upon his wide ranging knowledge of science, history and literature to foster their intellectual curiosity.

I never saw him moody or abstracted when dining en famille. He was ever lively in his conversation, sometimes gently teasing, and fond of humorous anecdotes over which he would laugh till tears came to his eyes.

Being prevented by the exigencies of his profession from joining his family in daily prayers, he would be all the more absorbed in his devotions at Mass on days of obligation and especially during Holy Week observances, which in those days were more taxing than they are now. He always carried a missal to church and followed the liturgy with unobtrusive devotion.

While it was Ángela Mericia [his wife] who taught the children to pray, to shun misbehaviour, and to know their catechism, it was from Manoel Agostinho’s deep faith that his descendants have gained some intimation of the treasures laid up in heaven for the believing Christian.

He dressed well, and without being dandified, cut a fine figure, especially in evening dress: only ‘tails and white tie’ in his time were worn for a ball at Government House, or for a night at the opera, usually one staged by an Italian company at what was then the ‘Royal’ Opera House. In summer, he wore cream tussar silk suits, with waistcoat, and in winter cashmere woollen suits. To daytime receptions such as a wedding or a garden party at Government House, he would wear morning dress - black cut-away tailcoat, ‘pepper and salt’ striped trousers, spats, and the regulation white sola topi.

On such occasions Ángela Mericia dressed in the height of fashion, sometimes in gowns ordered from Europe - from Au Bon Marché, and Oxendales. Nor were the daughters left out in the acquisition of finery; arrival of a parcel from France or England was greeted with cries of joy, and distribution of its contents with shrieks of delight. Doubtless, the sons also shared in the ‘goodies’, but not in my time!

Manoel Agostinho had a pleasant baritone voice, which was never raised in excitement or in anger. His English was fluent and grammatical, and spoken with a barely noticeable Continental accent. He spoke and wrote Portuguese better than most Portuguese, and was much at home in French, having absorbed most of his scientific, historical and literary education through French authors.

He had no hesitation in taking to the dance floor at balls and weddings. But he did not possess what is called ‘an ear for music’, and was probably an indifferent dancer. What he lacked in both respects was more than compensated by Ángela Mericia.

Manoel Agostinho the man was physically vigorous, mentally active, of equable temperament, ever inclined to the optimistic view, and open-hearted with all. Altogether a vital and attractive person. No wonder he had a very large circle of friends, besides being respected and adored by his children.

scribendi cacoethes

MIND'S EYE

for CS and TS

The pup he strained upon his leash,
Whiskers stiff, eyes fixed, ready to leap.
Sunflowers dropped petals, stirred by the breeze
That ruffled cypress, bent corn, lofted crows,
Rising, rising, to set some stars a-spinning.

She watched them, pain receding,
As the breeze dropped, stars paused,
Corn, crows, cypresses and sunflowers stopped
Pretending to be real;
While the pup -
Went back to being stuffed.

~ E.M.R.H. 8 February 2010

scribendi cacoethes

EGO COMPLAINS!

How needful to hope that I will be read

Long after this feeble body is dead.

To dream that the words which danced in my mind

Another, a stranger, will pleasing find;

One whom I never can speak to or meet

Will be my friend - that thought is sweet!

The truth, alack, is a tale oft told:

My books will never be bought or sold,

But remain unfinished, incomplete, unread,

For I'm remaindered before I'm well dead!

~ E.M.R.H. 6 February 2010

scribendi cacoethes

CHARITY

Lazarus lay at the rich man's gate
And dogs did him surround,
From whom more kindness he did get
Than in his kinsman found.

~ E.M.R.H. 31 January 2010

ATTIC TROVE

Some light on SAINTE by Stéphane Mallarmé 

A word for word literal translation into English of this small miracle of a poem would produce gibberish.

One way to appreciate it is first to acquaint oneself with what is known and what is surmised about the poet's intentions when he wrote it – or them, for there are two versions, the following being the earlier one:

Sainte Cécile jouant sur l'aile d'un chérubin
(chanson et image ancienne)
A la fenêtre recélant

Le santal vieux qui se dédore

De la Viole étincelant

Jadis parmi flûte ou mandore,

Est une Sainte recélant

Le livre vieux qui se déplie

Du Magnificat ruisselant

Jadis à véprée et complie,

Saint à vitrage d'ostensoir

Pour clore la harpe par l'ange

Offerte avec son vol du soir

A la délicate phalange

Du doigt, que, sans le vieux santal

Ni le vieux livre, elle balance

Sur le plumage instrumental

Musicienne du silence.

What do we know about version 1?
In December 1865, Mallarmé wrote to a friend to say that he sent him a small musical poem requested by Mme. Brunet. To another he wrote the next day charging him to pass on a letter to (Monsieur?) Brunet and to read to Mme. Brunet "a Sainte Cecilia which I promised her". Mme Brunet's given name was Cécile, and she was godmother to the poet's daughter, Geneviève.

It is worth noting that M. Jean Brunet was a master glass-maker.

Mallarmé seems then to have laid the poem aside until 1883, when he showed his revised version to his fellow poet, Paul Verlaine:

Sainte

À la fenêtre recelant

Le santal vieux qui se dédore

De sa viole étincelant

Jadis avec flûte ou mandore,

Est la Sainte pâle, étalant

Le livre vieux qui se déplie

Du Magnificat ruisselant

Jadis selon vêpre et complie:

À ce vitrage d’ostensoir

Que frôle une harpe par l’Ange

Formée avec son vol du soir

Pour la délicate phalange

Du doigt que, sans le vieux santal

Ni le vieux livre, elle balance

Sur le plumage instrumental,

Musicienne du silence.

What do we know or guess about the picture in the poet's mind?
It appears that the poet intended at once to evoke a dream of time long past (jadis), and to blur it, mixing up the images evoked as dreams do, so that a simple cut-and-dried explanation is not possible. But we can glean first an outline: we are looking at a window (fenêtre . . . ce vitrage) which for the nonce functions as a monstrance (ostensoir) – that which reveals something holy. In the window is a saint who we know (from version 1) is definitely Saint Cecilia. The window also shows an angel, an old (vieux) missal or book of hours, and some old musical instruments of gilded sandalwood (santal). Also, it is evening, and this is undoubtedly a church because once (jadis) evening prayer would have been sung here.

Add the details and this is the picture that suggests itself:

At evening (du soir) in a church where once were sung Vespers (vêpre) – including the Magnificat – followed by Compline (complie), is Saint Cecilia in a stained-glass window. She is pale, her colour drained perhaps by the failing sunlight which has also first flaked the gilt (dédore) from the formerly (jadis) sparkling (étincelant) viol, flute and mandora, all now concealed (recelant) as the light fails to come through them. In one hand the saint displays (étalant) an old book, unfolding (se déplie) at the Magnificat – possibly shown with its musical notation as in this similar image:

The Magnificat once 'streamed' (ruisselant) during evening prayer but there is a sense that the rippling pages of the unfolding volume are also now concealed by darkness, hence the repetition of jadis.
The saint's other hand has a delicate finger (la délicate phalange/ Du doigt) extended in a pose not uncommon in medieval art, pointing – but not intentionally – in the direction of an angel – almost always shown along with Saint Cecilia – who has at least one wing outspread as if in flight (vol) – again a not uncommon pose – and this wing has the shape of a harp (une harpe par l’Ange/ Formée avec son vol du soir). The saint's extended finger barely brushes (frôle) the wing whose ranked feathers might suggest the strings of a harp (plumage instrumental).
And now comes the magical part. One might suppose that a trick of the withdrawing rays of sunlight lights up the harp-like wing and the saint's finger in such a way that – presently deprived of her musical instruments and her hymn (book) – she makes music on this imagined harp. Only, the music must also be imagined, for naturally it will be silent music, yet the music was silenced anyway when services in the church ceased. And this circumstance is perhaps symbolised by the 'concealment' of the viol, flute and mandora, as well as the Magnificat-bearing page. But, after all, the poem itself is now the music. . . .

*****

To have this exquisite poem explained in such a fashion is rather like having Hercule Poirot explain the Mona Lisa. Leave explanations here and simply read the poem aloud, listening to it. (Maurice Ravel set it to music as a song.)
There are many other aspects to, and details about, this poem which need not concern the lay reader. It is only necessary to enjoy it, seeing it as a picture brought to life by the slanting rays of a setting sun first piercing a stained glass window and later causing apparent movement in that window; then smelling its fragrance as of aged sandalwood mingled with ancient dust; but most of all hearing its music – an old, gentle music.

*****

"Sainte" was first drawn to one's attention by Dr Jaysinh Birjepatil, then (1970-71) Reader in (or Professor of) English at Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda. In acknowledging a debt to him it seems appropriate, too, to acknowledge others – Head of Department Professor V. Y. Kantak, Mr R. N. Mehta, Rev. Fr I. Echaniz S.J. and Sr Mary Rafaella F.M.M. All of them, each in a different way, opened doors and windows in the mind, not only imparting knowledge but making one aware of the possibility of joy: joy in knowledge, certainly, but beyond that the joy of self-expression and self-fulfilment. As one grows old and the end of one's days draws closer, one turns to look back down the long road one has trod, at its turning points and the people who stand there smiling encouragingly. They are too far away to hear, but one may at least wave a hand in salutation and in thanks for kindness shown. 

Ruth Heredia is the originator and holds the copyright to all material on this blog unless credited to some source. Please do not use it or pass it off as your own work. That is theft. If you wish to link it, quote it, or reprint in whole or in part, please be courteous enough to seek my permission.

Message
A year that went awry from the beginning and got progressively worse with relentless ferocity had some moments of respite: activity on the Rafael Sabatini front, and private satisfactions at Christmas, namely Midnight Mass, the Christmas Crib, and the new-made ornaments hung in the living-room window.
Midnight Mass was in the lovely chapel of St. Joseph's Boys' High School where, in spite of ragged singing by the choir, and concessions made to an increasing trivialisation of all-important things which is characteristic of modern life (PowerPoint presentation to keep hoi polloi amused during the Vigil before Mass, decorations more suited to a home than to a chapel), it was possible to participate fully in the celebration of a holy Mass, to hear exhortations that went home, and - most blissful of all - to join in singing loved Christmas carols after twenty years!
The current year is unlikely to be different from the last in one key respect, but it will be possible at least to refresh the spirit with the memory of a Crib which turned out well in spite of all the imperfections of construction such as would never have passed muster in yesteryears. One grows old, clumsy, tired, and must accept the consequent deficiencies in one's work. But the mind urges endeavour where the body resists, and here is the result - first a panorama, then details, and finally another panorama:

(22 of the first 23 photographs are by Berenice da Gama-Rose)
















"He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit" ~ (the Apostles' Creed)





















"there was no room for them at
the inn" ~ (Lk. 2:7)














"The keeper of the gate . . . said, respectfully, "Rabbi, . . . if you care to go with me, I will show you  that there is not a lodging-place left in the house; neither in the chambers, nor in the lewens, nor in the court - not even on the roof."

















































"Then he took the leading-strap from Joseph,and said to Mary, "Peace to you, O daughter of David!"
Then to the others, "Peace to you all!" Then to Joseph, "Rabbi, follow me."
"The cave to which we are going," he said to her, "must have been a resort of your ancestor David." ~ from Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace









"She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger" ~ (Lk. 2:7)













"About midnight some one on the roof cried out, "What is that light in the sky? Awake, brethren, awake and see!" ~ Ben-Hur














"there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God" ~ (Lk. 2:13)












"And they came with haste, and they found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger." ~ (Lk. 2:16)













"and falling to their knees they did him homage" ~ (Matt. 2:11)
"ever 'gainst the season comes/ Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated/ This bird of dawning singeth all night long"
~ Hamlet (I:1)









"So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt" ~ (Matt. 2:14)


















(see the Christmas legend of the spider below)


















Christmas: (photograph by Sonali Bhatia)

And the Logos who gives the mind word and thought entwined to bring forth artefacts that are symbolic in a kind of poetry:

Refreshing, too, will be the memory of celebrating the Creator in the spirit of the jongleur of Notre-Dame, by the sub-creation of ornaments to hang up, six of them new this Christmas:




His Light




















His bounty (new)






















Music (new)

















Mirth (new)













Christ our Light (new)



















Mary, the new Ark who bore Christ
(new)














the Paradise Tree (new), reminder of Paradise lost and Paradise to be regained, the unalterable promise of which was made at the Nativity.











This is the story of the spider at Christmas, which a mother used to tell her small daughter while they decorated the Christmas Tree.
There was an old lady who lived all alone but for a cat and a dog. On Christmas Eve she would lock them out until she had cleaned the parlour from rafters to floor, and set up the Christmas Tree with the Crib arranged below it.

When all was ready, she let in her pets and they went about inspecting everything, wagging a tail or purring as was appropriate to each. Then all three went off to early supper and bed, for the next morning it would be Christmas Day.

Once it happened that a single little spider escaped the old lady's broom and hid in the rafters. From there she could see very little, but she knew that something very fine had been arranged below for cat, dog and old lady all seemed so pleased. So after they had all left she climbed down and began to inspect the Tree from top to bottom, for she was a tiny thing and could not take it all in at a glance.
When she reached the manger below she looked up and saw a dreadful thing. The beautiful Christmas Tree hung with shiny ornaments was covered now in cobwebs and looked so very shabby. The little spider began to cry.
But it was midnight now and the Baby in the manger wasn't going to let the spider be unhappy on his Birthday. He smiled, and as he smiled a bright light spread out and up - up - up to the top of the Tree. And lo, the filaments of spider webbing had turned to finest threads of silver and gold! The Christmas Tree was far more beautiful now than it had ever been before.




















And that is why we wreathe our Christmas trees with tinsel threads.....

Ruth Heredia is the originator and holds the copyright to all material on this blog unless credited to some source. Please do not use it or pass it off as your own work. That is theft. If you wish to link it, quote it, or reprint in whole or in part, please be courteous enough to seek my permission.

BOOKWORM
If any reader is curious about Rafael Sabatini, or wishes to know more than is found in the brief note on the cover of a paperback or on a dustjacket, you could not do better than to visit the website dedicated to Rafael Sabatini:
www.rafaelsabatini.com
or to join the mailing-list in Yahoo Groups, whose link is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rafael_Sabatini/

ORATORY

Thought for Christmas

CHRIST IS BORN - AGAIN AND FOREVER

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What is the meaning of the Incarnation? We picture Christ coming from far, down through the ranks of angels, down from the battlements of heaven; far, far beyond the sun we picture Him leaving His eternal seat and "coming down" to save the world. Then we picture Christ's departure. Back by the way He came, beyond the sun again, once more through the shining hosts, until He takes His everlasting seat at the right hand of God. There is truth in such pictures. But have we not caught more of the spirit of the Incarnation if we think of it, not as the bringing to us of a God who had been far away, but as the showing to us of a God who had been hidden? It is as if the cloud parted and the tired and thirsty traveller saw by his side a brook of clear, sweet water, running along close by the road he travelled. Then the cloud closed again, but the traveller who had once seen the brook never could be faint with thirst again. He must always know where to find it and drink of it. Christ was not a God coming out of absence. He was the ever-present God, revealing how near He always was.

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~ Bishop Phillips Brooks (who wrote ‘O Little Town of Bethehem’)

ORATORY

Thought for the fourth week of Advent

Some verses from an old Christmas hymn by Thomas Ravenscroft (c.1592 - c.1635):

Remember Adam’s fall,
O thou man, O thou man,
Remember Adam’s fall
From Heaven to Hell!
Remember Adam’s fall,
How he hath condemn’d all
In Hell perpetual,
There for to dwell.

Remember God’s goodnesse,
O thou man, O thou man,
Remember God’s goodnesse,
His promise made.
Remember God’s goodnesse,
He sent His Son sinlesse
Our ails for to redresse;
Be not afraid!

In Bethlehem He was born,
O thou man, O thou man,
In Bethlehem He was born,
For mankind’s sake.
In Bethlehem He was born,
Christmas-day i’ the morn:
Our Saviour thought no scorn
Our faults to take.

Give thanks to God alway,
O thou man, O thou man,
Give thanks to God alway,
With heart-most joy.
Give thanks to God alway
On this our joyful day:
Let all men sing and say,
Holy, Holy!

ORATORY

Thought for the third week of Advent

Advent – "the coming". Whose coming? The coming of Christ Our Lord.
But surely he has already come – and gone, too? Yes and no. In historical time he has come, as a baby who grew to be a man; as a man who suffered, died, rose again and returned to heaven. That part is finished. But in each of our hearts, in each life he comes again – and again, and again. Why is it necessary for him to come so often; why not stay the first time?
Why, indeed!

Perhaps when the door is opened on Christmas Day he finds the house cluttered with celebratory bric a brac; so cluttered that there's no room for him.
Perhaps he is welcomed in – for a while. But, like a guest who overstays his welcome, Christ finds a certain indifference taking over, and then a coolness, and finally he is all but pushed out the door by the fascinating visitors that have been ushered in. Out goes Christ to stand near the door, patiently waiting to be invited back inside.
And so, like children endlessly repeating some jingle, we go through the cycle of Advent and Christmas and back to hedonistic self-centred living, year after year, with a short, perfunctory mea culpa during Holy Week immediately forgotten in Easter feasting. A sad cycle. A poor sort of life.

But once in a while troubles beset us and suddenly that beautiful Advent hymn, most ancient, most poignant, resonates in our hearts, and with the Church from centuries past we cry out:
O come, O come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here Until the Son of God appear Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.

What does Christ reply?

There is a tradition coming down to us from the Church in the Middle Ages; seven short verses are sung antiphonally before the Magnificat during Evening Prayer, from the 17th to the 23rd of December, each antiphon beginning with "O" and including an Old Testament reference to the Messiah:
O Sapientia, quae ex ore altissimi . . .O Wisdom, you come forth from the mouth of the Most High. You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner. O come to teach us the way of truth.
O Adonai et dux domus Israel . . .O Adonai and leader of Israel, you appeared to Moses in a burning bush and you gave him the Law on Sinai. O come and save us with your mighty power.
O Radix Jesse qui stas in signum populorum . . .O stock of Jesse, you stand as a signal for the nations; kings fall silent before you whom the peoples acclaim. O come to deliver us, and do not delay.
O Clavis David et sceptrum domus . . .O key of David and sceptre of Israel, what you open no one else can close again; what you close no one can open. O come to lead the captive from prison; free those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae . . .O Dayspring, you are the splendour of eternal light and the sun of justice. O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
O Rex gentium et desideratus . . .O King whom all the peoples desire, you are the cornerstone which makes all one. O come and save man whom you made from clay.
O Emmanuel, rex et legiter noster . . .O Emmanuel, you are our king and judge, the One whom the peoples await and their Saviour. O come and save us, Lord, our God.

The first letter of each antiphon may be taken from the Latin to form an acrostic in reverse. Thus the first letters of Sapientia, Adonai, Radix, Clavis, Oriens, Rex, and Emmanuel, give us the Latin words: ERO CRAS . This phrase means "Tomorrow I will be there" – almost as if it were the response of Christ to our plea.

And so we await Christ, year after year. He comes. And we send him away again. Why?

Ruth Heredia is the originator and holds the copyright to all material on this blog unless credited to some source. Please do not use it or pass it off as your own work. That is theft. If you wish to link it, quote it, or reprint in whole or in part, please be courteous enough to seek my permission.