THE SENIORS OF CUMBIEM MOROD
(The Talented Seniors
of Yesteryear)
By Tony Fernandes
Late 1950’s.
My little and lovely ward of Cumbiem Morod.
Call it the north-west silent ‘Bairro’ (Portuguese
for neighbourhood) of the village of Guirim, bordering the village of Canca to
the north-west, Parra to the south,
Sorvem and Figueira wards of Guirim to the east. Sleepy and quaint
community with hard-working folks. Sparse Christian and Hindu family homes living
peacefully.
Almost a forgotten
little ward of Guirim – referred to and known for some reason as a part of
‘small Guirim’. There was no road passing through the village then, but a
well-trodden path for many of the people of Candolim, Calangute, Nagoa and
Arpora who wished to cut short through our village to Bastora and to the hills
and villages beyond.
Though a sleepy ward
as it may have seemed, it was a very vibrant one in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The
village of Cumbiem Morod consisted of about 15 Christian and 15 Hindu
households. Most of the men of Christian homes were employed in Bombay and returned
home every year, mostly during the months of April and May.
These men were literate,
and very adventurous, having first left their families and homes as early as
the beginning of the 1900’s in search of employment in other parts of India besides
Bombay (now Mumbai) like Jodhpur, Ahmedabad
and Surat in the north, and even as far down in Kerala in the south. During
those days it was difficult to find employment in Goa.
Likewise, the sons of
these pioneers later often followed their fathers to work out of Goa. Though
these great and adventurous men are no longer with us today, we owe them a lot of
thanks for their guidance, for setting good examples in everything they did,
for teaching us the good ways and values, and inspiring us in turn to do our
best in whatever we attempted to do.
The women folk took
care of their children in Goa, and made sure that they got education by sending
them to nearby schools, sacrificing the companionship of their husbands. They
worked in the fields cultivating two crops a year. Rice was harvested by the
end of the monsoons, and various vegetables were grown at the end of the following
season in autumn, in allocated patches in front of my ancestral home in Cumbiem
Morod (now generally called Kumya) before the onset of winter. This
agricultural cultivation provided sustenance during the summer and monsoon
season, and even some more to spare, kept in storage until winter. Part of this rice would be especially used as seed for the next crop, along with a variety
of produce like sweet potatoes, corn, eggplant (aubergine/brinjal), beans,
onions, chilies, cabbage and radish. A water-melon patch was planted separately
along the raised pathway leading to Monte de Guirim.
