100 Years Ago. Jubilee 2024

Hi Ben,

Hope spring is breaking out in the UK.. and you and Betty and the Beloved Family are all well.

It will be a while before we can enjoy that reality after a long hard winter but one much easier and milder than the ones my family lived through for the FIRST 21 Years in America. I chose not to write too much or too often but here is something especially for you and whoever helped you create KPZanzibar you may add it to Hazel Articles if you Or not feel absolutely Free not to.

I am looking back in the imagination to imagine life through the eyes of my Dad he had not arrived in Zanzibar It was not till 1928 He had not met or married MOm That was 1938.

Neither I think were yours? defintely not Mervyn. I lived across your Grandma 1951-64. Now we are living our own lives as Grandparents.

The Eastern Shores of the Arabian /Indian Ocean are one and the same waters as the Western , But when speaking of land and Islands it is the opposite. Eastern Africa faces Western India but there is no Land directly East of Chwaka it goes all the way to the Islands of IN Nesia and inyo POLY Nesia. nad Out into the Pacific. I am glad you wonderful site provides us a Look into the past and helps us ask and answer the various questions people ask who have never heard of Goa, Zanzibar Karachi or Bombay all Port Cities in the great Martime Era 1400 -1900

When Century 20 dawned My Dad and Father in law were boys aged 4, and 7 in India. They were generations after Traders or Fishermen and travelers 15th Century- 16 brought profund Mental Emotional Cultureal chnages into the "soul " whose language is language Music and whose response is dancing costumes drama "teatre" So we have artifacts still there that teach, preach reach souls at these shores but in time they reach those " Poor Indigenous aboriginal" inhabitants - as they did in the forests of JOZANI and in Jungles of India where MWOGLI the boy was raised by Baloo the Bear and tested by Sher Khan. in British Fantasy writer wrote about "Jubgle Book" and gave us the word "Jungli."

One Hundred years ago, 1923 1924 1925 the peoples of the earth from The Top King Emperor President CEO of whatever Big Community Selected elected and Proetectem them were givena Eye Opening series of Books Films Shows on Stage and best of all daily street activity..we now see in which little people anonymous with faces so alike and other so strange all wlaking past Towers that rise into the clouds and look excatly a once only the New York New York skyline looked. The EMPIRE STATE buildind was a Phenomenon. "Fly me to the Moon" seem less far-fetched and delusional if it was understood to be Frank Sinatra just enjoying his way of attracting attenion and $$$ unlimited. Show Biz and all that goes with it is in fact "the Way" chosen by those seeking to "make a difference" to those that say think and feel "nothing" ever can.

Air travel Aviation changed life and added to Technoly that is "Artifical Intelligence" screen delusion Iluusion deception a well asreality all mixed in and up it is that BRAVE NEW World foretold and described accurately by thinkers in the 19th Century Lord tennyson George Orwell Bernard Shaw the proponent of Fabian Socialism where a COVENT Garden Flower seller ( open air farmers market in a city) can be if a Rich man chooses it to make it as a "Fair Lady" into the same Royal Noble circles as those with Race Horses on "Ascot Opening Day" Palyed by Audrey Hepburn in Holyywood Blockbuster nad sung by Julie Andrews on Stage.. These Fair Ladies like Grace Kelly were as real as real can be.. They taught young girls their Way.

My local community know "the Pattern" Design Plan after a century of turmoil troubles trials and tests of Faith Hole and Love. Patterns and designs are repetitive and can be reproduced as can exquisite carvings, crystal glass pastries shoes etc. . Counterfeit diamonds cannot be told apart from the real thing, except by a Jeweller with the means to do so. Not so a Person. Not so. Any person just like you and I is an exquisite one of a kind that can only pass on some of it in a new Generation Not reproduction. from The Top Group ( whosever defines it ) to the bottom line ( as defined) we in Vuga saw younger brothers and sisters come into our lives our homes our schools Our Church, Mosque Temple and yes Our Clubs which by definition demand Membership enrollement and have rules for admission. Lived Experience is life GREATEST OF ALL TIME Teachers. The learning experience is not confined to building or groups or selcted elected communities. It is an individual one of akind gift each Human Being is given. We can only see from the outside someone else.. They/we see oursleves from inside. wher God created them in a "workshop" we call Mother's Womb That too is not a Biological Physiological scientific thing we can know. It is what exists the years before we came na remained for others after wards. The heart feelings emotions tendencies of a Mother is not confined to Biology or Psycholgy but has an element above abd Byond Physicality. Who do we call Mother Brother Other ? when we choose to make Homsetads Households Holdouts
so that in 100 years time from birth we live and breathe and have our being Goan Or whatever Club Ethnicty we choose in Diaspora ?

The Soul in Diasporra is formed in a Mysterious way. With no visible Markers it cannot be seen and cannot be imitated or Re Produced. It is something Divine "out of this world" and chosen by the people who work to create it over time by simpley eating drinking togther and enjoying themselves. The KPZanzibar Soul is essential as I have noted before Benito is indeed Your Dream, Your vision, Your memory, Your Lived experience with Your Family and that of Your Beautiful Loving and Beloved Betty - and has videos Photos and audio Music to go with it.

Though I last looked down on that island as I flew off N NW to Nairobi JAN 7 1964 - from our humble simple Airport Your KPZan SOUL lives on fresh, and full of life, Joy and happiness. In Memory Understanding and Will. Only the Willing with a Will to persist, insist, resist all to the contrary and say "God Willing I shall never forget, never reject, never regret being who I am, and was once" will soon be freed from the challenges and temptations that assailed Our Parents.

My Dad died aged 94 in Vancouver BC far far from Poona Bombay Goa Zanzibar but the Day Date and time he left this earth became so significant to who I was from then on. Good Friday at 3'pm March 29 1991 with nurse family and others looking on in a Public Hospital ..Dad's Soul rose up to meet me flying TWA, across The USA from St Louis Missouri where his youngest brother had died in 1985. I was accompanied by Mysterious grace, till I touched downed in Seattle at SUN SET in the WEST as far WEST as that can be with the great Pacific Ocean Horizon before us. I ran to the Phone and called my Youngest brother nd he confirmed Dad was gone it was 6 pm by then an I would arrived at his home to meet my Mom and the family at 9 pm. I had left home 24 hours earlier to drive to Boston then catch my flight early Friday Am. No direct flight then and no nearby Airport. My daughter came from Boston to look after my youngest ones and help her Dr Dad.

Easter Season begins with the Octave like Christmas * days is a Spiritual Mystical "Day" when we feel the Manfestation of Divine Majestic Authority. Not something we can dismiss or overcome Entire cities town and Villages are swept into it. I came home at the end of that 10 days to be told of a Mini revolution in our local Parish Church. Nuns left with no warning to go back to their Headquarters after a loing battle with Priest who rulke under a differnt jurisdiction than Nuns. My young son was in grade 3 and my youngest soon to enter K KINDER Garten as they say in Germany but I like the idea of a "Kinder" Garden where Kindess is lived in lovely garden where children can enjoy nature, flowers Birds little animals and the beauty in other little children. VICTORIA Gardens comes to mind. We all were The "children of God" Toto ya Mungu BabaYetu in Mbiguini (?) Newborn to 80? 90 all could enjoy this botanical wonder where you Benito and I and the other, mostly, but not all "Goan" children played games. It was in that Hall/ auditorium on the raised up section St Joseph Convent children performed their simple plays and songs and whatever else to the delight of their parents. Our Parents. It is there The Foreign British Colonial Servants of the Queen of England ( after 1953) demonstrated the meaning of Garden Parties. She gave sQueen's Garden Party every year and it goes on.

It was not obvious to me then, but is now, that if a POOR man had no son, he was not destitute or sad because a daughter or others willing to do son could help him enjoy Zanzibar when he was old. Poverty is really the fruit of meglect and omission in nations, countries and cultures where Name and Fame Identity is everything.

Now the global power G7 G 20 G 50 ? all agree, and Tanzania has proven that a girl child can rises to the Top of the Political Spectrum because Her SOUL magnifies the Lord God Mighty Power within her. She does not have to be married, nor educated in any great University, nor expert in any craft, nor a winner of lotteries or contests. She just has to do what she can do, with those who live around her. Father HOOD Mother HOOD Boy HOOD Girl HOOD child HOOD are all made one in One Neighbor HOOD.. That is how we "become" or became or as Michelle Obama writes in her Book a"BECOMING" are in the Process..

Imagine a Kind of Bubble of Divine Protection given to all who chose to see it that way..and then we are Becoming what we imagine ourslves to be. So it was is and will be for us - who say Karibuni to VUGA SQUARE the small Green grassy Knoll to which I am transported right now.

I would take my occasion walk past Greek Bakery Papa Constantino, Portuguese Martins to the Little DUKKAH to get that much desired "coconut and chololate' treat my Mom would permit me to go buy once in a while. So that 's when I saw You Benito playing marbles and plucked up the courage to ask if I could join ? How I loved those tiny glass objects Little things mean a Lot. Even now it's little things.

Only Now I see why My Dad and most old men over 85 just stare into the distance - they are remembering, understanding and willing to stay on that Path, strewn with those "tiny little things."

I used to tease my Mom 19 years younger than Dad and say "I think I am looking at Patience, Smiling at Grief" some poet or song gave me that. The world seemd hopeless war torn and bent on self destruction in 1980-90 To me and Mom It seemed all so sad. Grief would enter..But there was Our Big P Pinto Patience Patrimony Patriarchal - saying nothing just looking intoi the distance. Life is repetivie the same pattern comes back. Our first Grandchildren arrived and now 7 have gone past 18 - and yeat five under 12, who came later will never know what it was to be GEN Z .. we are Now a Gen A .. Nation.

That's it for now.