Meeting Mr. Marius Fernandes- The Festival Man Of Goa
One fine sunny morning, in the month of February, my family and I decided to go on a tour to Divar- one of the most remote islands of Goa located on the banks of the river Mandovi and not very far from the capital city of Panjim. All of us packed up and got ourselves ready to head on to a vehicle that would take us to the island and places in and around it. As we headed off to the vehicle, we saw a lot of decorations put on display somewhere if I can remember at the roundabout in Panjim on the occasion of the Carnival- a festival very much celebrated every year in Goa usually before the arrival of the Lenten week.
On reaching the ferry station at a place in Ribandar not very far off from Panjim, we had to board the ferry that would take us to the island of Divar. So we had taken our vehicle onto the ferry boat which then boarded off to sail across to the island. Once we reached the island, we were then accompanied by one of the tour guides from Soul Travelling, a tour company that was handling our tour to Divar to take us to the place where we would stop to have lunch before we could begin with our tour and that was none other than the house of- Mr. Marius Fernandes who is often referred to as 'The Festival Man Of Goa'.
Mr. Marius's house was one of the most important places that has formed a part of my memory of the Divar tour. He had a lot of 'Ghumot's'- the traditional instrument of Goa as well as some pottery work and some handicrafts that were all kept on display in his house. With his enthusiastic spirit and vibe, he goes on to speak about how is grandfather had escaped to Kenya in Africa from the torments of the Cloistered Nuns of Divar and how he fought his way to survive and raise a family in the jungles of Kenya amidst the locals as well as the ongoing troubles that they were facing from the 'Shiftas' who he says were a remnant of the 'Al Qaeda' force that used to always keep them on constant alert before they could then move to another safe place in Africa. He then went on to speak about how his family then migrated to UK and how his experience was staying in that place and bringing up his children which was around 20 years back which was really amusing and at the same time interesting to hear after which he finally decided to the make the decision to come down to Goa and settle with his family in particular his mother who was growing pretty old with age. His arrival to Goa, has and will always be a great success story for him as in Goa his native place, he has founded the 49 festivals that we would all celebrate today some of which include the Pathoichem Fest, Poderachem Fest, Ghumtachem Fest and many other festivals which we all celebrate today but all of them were usually under one theme- that there would be no drugs, no alcohol, no chief guests, no sponsorships, no fees all of which formed a broad mantra of what his festivals would usually represent and would be celebrated as well. It was also interesting to note how he spoke about how he had his own version of the Carnival in the island of Divar that would incorporate those same principles as well as a well known festival celebrated in Divar- Potekar festival where people would dress up in costumes with masks almost replicating Halloween on similar lines celebrated in Western Europe and North America.
It was indeed really great to hear all the stories he had to share about the experiences that he had in Africa, UK and in particular how he lent a hand into bringing about many of the festivals that we all celebrate in and around Goa. We were happy to have a stop back at his place again in the evening, after we had taken a tour to all the possible sites in and around Divar as he had along with him a person to assist to show how we make the Goan pancakes as we often call them in the Konkani language- 'Alle belle' which was really interesting to see, as well as another story he shared of how through his ingenious festivals, he came across some very interesting people and many years ago met an African tribe living in the Western Ghats who used to be used by the Portuguese and has now adopted some of them and given them a new life. He also happened to have with him a small African girl and showed us how she has become so fluent in the language of Konkani which was really interesting and intriguing to know after which he gave us some natural instruments- two coconut shells bound together with a small rope which you put round your neck and beat them together to give a sort of rhythm to which he had asked one of the people from the African community to sing two African songs. What was really interesting to note was how the sound of the instruments that we were given, were paired along with the Ghumot which someone was playing and it sounded really nice and is something that I would definitely look at as a takeaway or a memory from Marius's place. After that we had bid him a good bye to which we were all feeling really sad, but I was really filled with great happiness that he out of his humility and kind gesture, gifted me a book on his life story and I'm definitely looking forward to reading this book as I write this blog......
Hope you'll enjoyed my writeup on one of the greatest highlights of the tour to Divar. I have attached below some pictures of our visit to Marius's place.
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