Claudia’s is a simple story, unpretentious and average. She is a village girl who wants to see life beyond the convention but fears the taboos tied to a subjugated society.
Sophia Lorena Benjamin writes against the backdrop of Portuguese colonised Goa, besides Daman and Diu. Benjamin sets the pace of Claudia’s story in the first chapter that begins with the conflict between audacity and conformity, freedom and servility.
Claudia breaks all rules, once again, on the first day of October 1961, when the independent Indian government’s liberation movement had started. She is not afraid, at least not when she is going to meet her Portuguese master and secret beau Damiano Bab.
Oroshim is a sleepy village that sits amid green hillocks in a remote part of Goa. For the villagers, the Portuguese are caring masters who made them civilised, taught them social etiquette and “how to greet with a tight handshake and a warm hug”.
“It was all a confluence of the best of Portuguese culture and traditions that merged with the local atmosphere,” writes Benjamin, who was born and brought up in Tonca Miramar in Goa. The natives, especially women, are enamoured by their white-skinned masters. Women often cross the social boundary to experience life beyond the penury and live for love. Blasphemous it is for the village elders and ostracising is the punishment. But hearts beat and life goes on in the village.
Claudia, however, is different. Though she steps out of the ring of fire, she never loses her honesty and integrity. Her heart beats for one man. And so the news of liberation and the thought of never seeing Damiano, the young and handsome son of her employers Oliviera Bab and Paklin Bai, break her heart. The political churning creates ripples inside her. She is part of the struggle, both within and outside.
Claudia’s father, who is dear to her, is a victim of poverty and gradually falls into decadence. The family is a victim of the village’s wrath that followed her two sister’s promiscuity.
Claudia, the youngest and the most intelligent among sisters, is the only hope for the family to restore their lost respect in the village. It is a simple tale, of love and life. The linear narration is lucid and humble. For a non-Goan it is an interesting read to know the place from a different perspective.
Benjamin describes the Goa village and its culture and tradition vividly — the village wedding and its rituals, food, the power of community service in times of need and the villagers’ existence under a foreign master. For the villagers, whose needs are modest and rules stringent, there is no place for violence. A flabbergasted Claudia puts it aptly, “Our Oroshim is full of order. This village has no room for either war or love.”
The political subtlety cannot be missed as the story progresses. In fact, the change in political power has a deep impact in Claudia’s love life. Liberation is not only for Goa but for Claudia and her family too. Annexation is the way to freedom for those people who have been living under their colonial masters. For Claudia, the passage to freedom is an arranged marriage. Should she give in to convention finally or dare to rise against it and validate her liaison?
A war rages outside. And within, Claudia is in turmoil. “Claudia wondered if the war would change Oroshim’s natural beauty. Would the bombing destroy the thatched huts? What about the haystacks and fields? The thought of a possible destruction worried her.”
But she is strong enough to protect her family after Father’s death. She is also sensitive to understand what is best for her mother, sisters and herself. She conforms but not under pressure but out of free will.
A drawback of the book is its editing. There are repetitive descriptions, which could have been avoided keeping the quintessential Goan flavour intact.
~ NM
Book: Claudia; Author: Sophia Lorena Benjamin; Publisher: Niyogi Books; Pages: 251; Price: Rs 395