-Brian Mendonça
At 3 a tarde
The markets
at Agasaim
Bambolim
and Pilar
are closed in Goa
blue plastic sheets
tied down on
slabs selling
local produce.
So I can’t buy
the red chillies,
the garlic
or the shallots.
Instead
I pick up
pork sausages
from Margao.
At Nuvem
wayside sellers
sit in the sun
-aunts with umbrellas-
selling mancurad and apus
peeled jackfruit
and carvanda.
‘Atam
khaopache’
-she says.
A bottle of vinagre
wedged in between
the chitki-mitki
converses with
the kokad in my tiffin.
I arrive home
in Porvorim
-the mixer blaring
for the green chutney
to go with the idlis
tomorrow-
to bhendi masala
and halwa fry.
(4 May 2020
Margao-Porvorim
NH 66, Goa)
Notes
a
tarde: ‘in the afternoon’ (Portuguese)
mancurada and apus: varieties of mangoes
Atam
khaopache : ‘Now is the time to eat it.’ (Konkani)
Chitki-mitki: cluster
beans
Kokad: Goan
sweet made of desiccated coconut
halwa: black
Pomfret
Pic courtesy: goanflavour(dot)wordpress.com
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