VOYAGE OF DESTINY

Goans have always had a penchant for travel far and beyond the borders of our homeland in search of work. Some traveled to the eastern shores of British and Portuguese Africa in the days of colonial past.
Those were the days.

The Voyage of Destiny
Beneath my feet
The timber deck  rumbled
And leaving in its wake
A surf trail
Its way out
It gently nudged
From the quiet and serene
Marmagoa harbour.

The legendary “Kampala” 
So white and sleek
In the hot afternoon sun gleamed;
From the grand pier’s edge
My folks waved tearful adieu;
More then a thousand score
From the aft deck I waved out too
Till my arm was sore
And could see them no more.

Fifteen days and nights
Seemed like a year
On the ocean waves
We pitched and rolled
Into the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea;
A plain horizon eventually
Yielded to landfall finally
And amid apprehensions aplenty
I set foot on the golden shores
Of the East African country.

Familiar faces
Friends of my family
At the docks I recall
They came to greet me
‘Jambo’ they said, ‘Habari’,
‘Ashante’, ‘Karibuni’,
The very first words
I heard in Swahili.

Hard work and good times,
picnics and safaris galore
Under a canopy of skies so azure;
Wildlife from lion and zebra,
Parrot and sparrow,
To hills, glens and lakes 
And the snow-capped peaks
of the Kilimanjaro
I still reminisce and adore.

While history took its course with uncertainty,
To embark on yet another voyage
Must have been life’s destiny;
I rejoice today as I look back and see
How we still dwell in great harmony;
I thank God for this great country
That welcomed me and my family,
While for a better future I pray
For one and all
Now and beyond this century.