Romance on the Airwaves - A book review

Written by Sharbelle (Aguiar) Fernandez,

Published by Published by: Frederick Noronha for Goa 1556, 2026, 204 Pages. Price: Rs 500/-

Picture by Harihara S S

This is the story of love, determination, strife and fortitude. This is the story of a family that has been through the scorching flames of the times it finds itself in, politically, socially and economically. It is also the story of a mother, toughened by her circumstances and the story of a young woman in love, determined to scale the highest peaks to get to the man she loves. As our soft-spoken, erudite author tells us in the Prologue, “It is not just their story, but a story of Goa and the Hubli of those times. Through their lives, we get more than a hint of the momentous changes taking place then.” We are in the 1950’s. India has just shaken off the shackles of British imperialism. Goa’s time is yet to come.

“Technology has taken us beyond our expectations today, but it makes interesting reading of how the dear radio, back then, began its journey into our homes and hearts.” 

We are engaged in how to restrict our children's access to mobiles and social media today. I don’t remember ever being told to switch off the radio, go out and play or do my homework! I would be glued to Radio Ceylon or Vividh Bharati almost all afternoon after school. We listened to music, to news broadcasts right through the day. We had it on when we were in the kitchen, in the bathroom, and during homework and studying for the exams! We knew what speed writing was when we ran around with pen and paper trying to write the lyrics of our favourite songs!

We must thank the author for mentioning two key Goan figures in the book, even asides. One is Dr Victor Manuel Dias, whose father Surgeon General Miguel Caetan Dias’ bust is in the small garden across the Tobacco Square in Panjim. Dr Victor Dias was not just a physician, he was also an inventor and Goa’s first radio broadcast was from his house (Casa da Moeda) in 1946. (He was also responsible for saving many lives as he invented an incubator for premature babies.) The other important figure is the Jesuit priest Fr. William Robert Lyons who founded Goa’s first English medium school (Arpora, 1883) and integrated sports into the curriculum. Fr William is responsible for bringing football to Goa!

This brings us to Rodrigo Aguiar, Sharbelle’s dad. He was a footballer of note, a musician of repute, a journalist and a poet. This, besides working for a pharmaceutical company during the day and perhaps answering over 20,000 fan letters a week! “How beautiful it is to be able to write a letter,” says our author. How innocent is she, I say, to marvel at something we used to take for granted! 

And now we come to the letters, exchanged between Rodrigo and Marge painstakingly sequenced and put together by a loving daughter. It all started, we are told, with song requests over the radio Emissario de Goa or Radio Goa but it was the writing at both ends that brought these two beautiful, stunningly talented people together. To give us an example, Sharbelle says, “Don’t get the wrong idea that I’m trying to dictate to you” (from Marge) to which Rodrigo replies, “ I was expecting some side-splitting jokes from you but did not get any. My humour sometimes may give you the impression that I’m a great bundle of joy; but frankly speaking, I’m a parcel of paradoxes.”

This was the nature of their penmanship-elegant turn of phrase, beautiful handwriting, hand-picked paper, as stain-free and smudgeless as their new-born remotely conducted friendship. In the days that followed, with more letters “Hubliwards” recipes and cookbooks were included in the "blitzkrieg". “Guess I’m gonna polish my gem of politeness so that it will shine”. Neat.        

The letters are not without their sense of dry humour. “So there! I don’t want you to give me a pear-shaped swimming pool or drive off the Empire State building into a fishbowl, to show that you appreciate them.” Hah! The American influence! However, all good things must have their twists. In 1956, Rodrigo was asked to resign from Radio Goa as his employer in the pharma company was placed in an awkward position with all the anti-India propaganda that the announcer was instructed to spew on air. The employer had business dealings with India and could not afford to jeopardise them.

As diplomatic relations with Portugal were nearing open hostility, the young lovers, now intending to marry, were faced with censorship, suspicion and censure from both sides of the border. Through several days of interrogation and patriarchy and pitted against the formidable Ashok Mehta (Smt Vijayalaxmi Pandit’s son-in-law and holding the highest office in the Ministry of External Affairs at that time) Marge nevertheless stood her ground and was finally allowed to travel to Goa. Alone. None of her family members were allowed to travel with her to attend the wedding. 

Sharbelle looks at her family from a distance. She speaks candidly about how her mother admonishes her father for his smoking and how he found her disorderliness disconcerting. All in all, she says, (they) “had their share of squabbles and their making-up moments.” Sharbelle was five when they lost Rodrigo. What followed was a long and painful period of financial difficulty, strife and near-starvation. Yet, we read about fresh cream and sprinkled sugar as rare treats and most of all, the music. Sharbelle is part of the STUTI choir and it comes as no surprise that the legacy both her parents left her is alive and well. 

Towards the end of this memoir, for the book is as much Sharbelle's story as it is Rodrigo’s and Marge’s, we see Sharbelle walk with her children through all the neighbourhoods that they had lived in, as children. They met old neighbours, shared stories, memories and of course, food, the universal language of love. And longing.