Overnight to Goa

I had been thinking about the overnight train to Goa with apprehension for months, ever since after 17 failed attempts I had actually managed to book the ticket, but actually it turned out to be easier than I imagined. Charlie managed to find a buggy that took us right down the platform and over the line and back to our AC sleeper compartment. Indian trains are LONG! 

 

We were heading up to Goa to stay with our writer/artist friend Savia Viegas and her husband Anoop, who moved back from a life in Bombay to renovate her father's family Quinta, in the village in Carmona where Savia grew up.

Here she has set up a pre-school in part of their rambling house, and the children in each class sang to welcome us. 

After a lovely Indian breakfast of apam and coconut chutney we were driven to her son's ongoing residential project 4 kilometres away in Varca, where our home for the week was a four storey town house looking onto a stunning landscaped garden and pool surrounded by coconut groves.

It's been fascinating to talk to Savia about growing up in Goa in the sixties and seventies, her memories are the inspiration for many of her books, but she twists her narratives to show a darker side of Goan life. 

So many of the old colonial Quintas are now locked up and abandoned by their owners, who can't afford to repair them, but the government will not allow them to sell the land until they totally fall down. http://www.saviaviegas.in/

Savia is also the custodian of her childhood home.
Work is underway to restore this crumbling Quinta too, and in June her school will re-open there with room for additional primary classes. Her vision to use the heritage of the past for a public social purpose will be realised!
We also visited the Goa Chitra museum where we met the owner Victor Hugo Gomes, who has built up an incredible collection of ethnographic artefacts.
He has invited Charlie to produce a series of digital collages using his collection, and also to come back in the future to do workshops with the international students he welcomes each year. 

We had a day trip to Panjim, such an elegant capital, with wide tree lined avenues and many beautiful old Portuguese buildings from the colonial era. We enjoyed all the art at MOG and Sunaparanta Art Centre, but the highlight was the best fish thali we have ever tasted, joined by our printmaking friend Hanuman Kambli.

Goan scene by Francis Souza

Chillies by Subhod Kerkah

After a lazy Sunday lunch on the beach it's now it's time for another night on the train back to Kerala!