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I DISCOVERED X’MAS IN GOA!
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I DISCOVERED X’MAS IN GOA!

Uncategorized December 19, 2025 , by

After traversing a long road of Christianity – from my days at convent schools to working closely with Christians – I truly discovered and experienced Christmas for the first time in Goa…

By Rajan Narayan

ALL my life I have studied in the so-called convent schools. Whether run by nuns or priests, these schools go by Christian orders and are called convent schools. However poor they are, Brahmin parents always ensured their children got the best education they could afford. My parents were Tamil Brahmin Iyers, somewhat impoverished, but they wanted their children educated in convent schools.
The missionaries made a class distinction. One set of schools were for poor kids and another set of schools for rich kids. So, I did my kindergarten and studies till Class IV at St Ornellas, while the rich kids went to St Vincents – the Goa counterparts would be St Auxilium convent and Don Bosco schools in Panjim.

“STRAY DOG” PERSONA
EVEN when we moved to Bangalore, there were the St Joseph’s Indian School and St Joseph’s English School. I, of course, being a “stray dog” was in the Indian high school. In all fairness, no Christianity was forced upon us by the Jesuits, who ran the schools.
I did once wear a cassock and carried a gilded cross; but that was only because I was acting in a play called “The Bishop’s Candlesticks.” I played the bishop, who forgave a thief and even gifted him candlesticks to pay for his mother’s illness (for whose treatment he had stolen the candlesticks).
THE die was cast. I got elected to be the good guy all my life. Through college, and even during the early part of my working life in Bombay, my exposure to Christianity was limited.
Indeed, my first encounter with the Church was not very pleasant. I was working as the editor of a monthly magazine called “Imprint.” Ironically, owned by an East Indian, who called himself R V Pandit. He was a hard-core Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and wanted to have an inter-community faith meeting.
I was asked to invite Cardinal Valerian Gracias, who was from a poor backward class family and was afflicted with cancer. I approached his secretary Fr Simon Pimenta – a “bammon” (Goan Catholic brahmin). He discouraged me as the cardinal was an “ayahar’s” (backward community of traditional cattle-keepers) son.
I was told he was an alcoholic and so why invite him? I was disgusted with the pompous secretary. I managed to get through to the cardinal, who I discovered was the epitome of Christianity. Later, I heard that the Portuguese Bishop of Goa, before Liberation, used to treat him very badly.

ENTER PASCOAL MENEZES
IT WAS the late Pascoal Jose Menezes of the Cosme Matias Menezes (CMM) group, who used to look after him. Then, I did not know that, one day, I would settle in Goa and become a sort of messiah of Catholics.
I left Bombay and came to Goa at the invitation of cartoonist Mario de Miranda who owned ancestral property down south Goa in Loutalim. Perhaps, what is not widely known, is that the great R K Lakshman was meaner than the crows he drew. He could not stand competition and had Mario Miranda thrown out of the “Times of India.”
I was then the editor of “Imprint.” Mario readily agreed to do several covers for me. The first of these was a colourful cartoon “Goodbye Bombay, Hello Dubai.” He told me some Goans wanted to convert a century-old Portuguese paper into a full-fledged English daily in Panjim, Goa.
Then, the “OHeraldo” owners had a small organisation with a stationary shop and a printing press. I came on a recce to Goa. I found the only English paper was “The Navhind Times” – a pro-Hindu and pro-government newspaper. The 40% Catholics, at that time, had no voice.
I positioned the “OHeraldo” as the voice of the Catholics. It was an instant success. Fortunately, I was very familiar with the Bible. Luckily, the late Pope John Paul visited Goa just after “OHeraldo” was launched.
I WROTE a series called the “Call of the Pope for Ecumenical Unity” on the front page. The convener Fr Almira Souza put me in charge of the international media. I even had a 15-minute audience with Pope John, who was of Polish descent.
No, I did not kiss his ring. We shook hands and discussed the liberation of Poland. Pope John presented me with a gold-plated medal, which last year I gifted to a Catholic friend of mine from Mumbai who called on me, much to the consternation of my wife.
I went to midnight mass, put up a Christmas tree in office, went to post-mass dances in a jacket and yet no invitation to any Christmas lunch came my way. That was strictly a family affair. I had a friend, Fr Oscar Quadros – a priest. He was in-charge of the chapel of St Thomas near the “OHeraldo” office at Fontainhas district near my office He was the first to invite me for a Christmas lunch at the ancestral house of his aunt, who was in her 70s.
IT was an anticlimax. There was a roasted pigling with an apple in its mouth. Its eyes haunted me. There were sannas – steamed spongy rice cake – and sorpotel – rich and fiery meat curry. There was a lobster. Nothing for a Brahmin vegetarian like me. So I stopped going for Christmas lunches long back.
Only once in a way as recently, when I was 76 years old, I went to the Marriott Resort & Spa at Miramar beach in Panjim, where I skipped the turkey, ate pure fried puri special courtesy the executive chef, and lots of dessert temptations. My wife and staff with me feasted and were over the moon. There’s nothing to beat the Marriott buffets, everything for everyone.

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