 |
| Friends for life. |
 |
| Three's company. |
 |
| 'Praise the Lord and pass the feni.' |
-Brian Mendonca
It is raining outside now and I hope our friends from Bombay who came to visit us today are safe. They had planned to visit a friend in Calangute for dinner.
Nazareth, Rosy, and Abigail were good company today. Rosy is her gym friend from Bombay since 2000. When we are in Kharghar we never fail to meet up.
A Goan buffet was prepared by Queenie with prawn curry rice, fried prawns, chicken in green masala, feijoada, and cabbage bhaji. Laced with miscut pickle made out of raw mangoes, the lunch was delicious. Vonn for dessert was sourced from Maple Leaf, Porvorim. The ladies happily sipped on Vinicola's signature red wine, Muscatel. We spoke about dad and made his concoction with cashew feni because they were curious what feni tastes like.
The late lunch took us into an impromptu music session of keyboard, guitar, ghazals and old Hindi film songs. In the deepening twilight Nazareth regaled us with hits like 'Mein Shayar toh Nahin' and 'Yaadon ki Baraat.' (Queenie's request). I made a mental note of seriously widening my repertoire of Hindi songs to keep pace with him. Nazareth has had varied experience in the music industry; insurance; sales; and communication. Rosy is a teacher in primary school.
Rosy and Abigail were a big help in washing up and clearing the table. Nazareth chatted with Dwayne about his 3-day vocational boot camp in Benaulim from which he had returned tired yesterday. He advised him that roughing it out in these years makes it easier to face life later. They also chatted about religion vis-a-vis humanity.
 |
| Rangoli design outside our door. |
As they prepared to leave, I presented them with a copy of my third poetic offering titled Jasmine City: Poems from Delhi (2023). When I did so, Rosy remembered my poem written for Queenie titled 'An Evening in Paris' (2010)
As a parting gift - since they would not take the feni - I read the poem for them from my second book, A Peace of India: Poems in Transit (2011). They presented us with a premium wine bottle - a Shiraz Cabernet - from Sula vineyards, Nasik.
Comments