Love Goa? Love Dogs" Read Eddi & Diddi

Goa has gone to the dogs, some say. Well, dogs are an essential feature of any Indian landscape. It is true that, with the increase in human population, dogs have increased too. 

Before the British arrived to colonize us, only royal families bred dogs, mainly for hunting. Even in Europe then, pet dogs were not popular. 

In the past, besides royal dogs, there were village dogs who served as guards. If some typical Indian villages still survive, one will find such dogs. They are fed stale rotis in the wheat-eating north.

In towns too, especially those that retain a rural ethos, one can find dogs per area who will set up a chorus of barks at night should a stranger enter the territory. Indian cities also follow such a pattern.  

However, there are variations across the country. Kerala, for example, appears to have had next to no strays even into the nineteen eighties when I used to visit Guruvayur and Trichur and the rare pet dogs were housed in cage-like dog houses. 

But, by the 2000s there is a visible surge in the canine populations across the nation. The number of stray dogs in cities has become fodder for news at an almost daily rate with reports of dog bites, dogs killing babies and dogs attacking people.

Along with the increase in stray dogs, the number of people who feel for dogs has grown. In Pune as well as in Goa, I have observed people who appear at regular times in the day to feed strays. There are societies dedicated to strays as well as individuals. Some even connect with veterinarians to care for wounded strays and such people help with efforts to sterilize strays.

But there is a larger population, influenced by media, who buy pedigree dogs. Often they soon find that they don't like the dog and abandon it on the road, creating new strays. 

Besides the people who want fancy breeds from other regions, there are people who are interested in Indian breeds. I suppose the typical Indian dog with any sort of breeding would be of the hunting variety – slim and a long snout.    

The caravan hound is one such. 

Caravan hound Dolly1, Wikimedia Commons

In the complex in which I now live, there is a dog called Chillar. And I was told that it might be a hybrid of that breed. 

To throw more light on the issue, someone told me to read Eddi & Diddi by Savia Viegas.

Like Chillar, the book is slim and elegant and like her other book that I recently reviewed on this blog, it is a must read if you are visiting this part of Goa – Camona, Orlim, Varca, Mobor…

The book is also bound to enchant dog lovers and while Goa has a healthy share of this breed of humans, visitors to Goa too tend to contain a significant number of dog fans.

Since the book is so slender, I will not offer any spoilers.

Buy it here: Eddi & Diddi 

Some illustrations from the book

Savia's Song Sung Blue: a Carmona primer

 It is nearly seven months since we moved to Carmona in Goa. And somehow it has brought me back to books. 

Perhaps it's just a fact of new beginnings. I remember that moving to Pune had reignited a reading and writing spree. But, unlike Pune, Carmona has rapidly introduced me to at least three writers. I've covered one in my last post and remain in close touch with the author, a kind and interesting person. 

Interestingly, it was when I was with him at Rosie's pub, just outside the gate of the complex in which we live, that I found Savia's book. Since I'm now fairly indigent, I made him buy a copy. 

That was months back and, the other day, when I dropped in on him, I saw the book and borrowed it. 

Before I move on to my journey through Song Sung Blue, I have to tell you about the third author that I met here. Jacqueline is from Kenya, married to a man from Vienna and they both play a medley of musical instruments. Jacqueline makes games and books for children and she also takes things like ropes that the sea washes ashore and under her deft fingers they metamorphize into beautiful trinkets. She's made a bunch of tiny books for children 

I do hope I'll be able to do a post about those but am yet to get a chance to flip through them. So let's get back to the book that brings Carmona to life. 

At first flip it brought Marjane Satrapi to mind but, unlike Persepolis or Chicken with Plums, Song Sung Blue is not a graphic novel.

Or is it? From the first page on it is graphic and not merely because it has pictures. The descriptions of events and people leap out from the pages splashing visuals on the mind's eye. 

Song sung blue

Everybody knows one

sang Neil Diamond back in the day. 

But hardly anybody, alas, knows about Savia's Song Sung Blue. I wonder why? 

Diamond croons on

Song sung blue

Every garden grows one

Nope. A Savia sprouts rarely here as anywhere. 

Why, we wonder. when Goa appears to be slightly more favourable to books than many another Indian state? Most vacation places in Goa keep a smattering of books in the reception area. As do the eateries. And there are frequent book events too.

A quick look at the types of books reveals a part of the why. A good many of the books at the hotels and restaurants are left there by tourists from other, mostly European, countries. Most of these tourists come from a certain class. A class whose reading tastes rarely venture outside random detective or romantic fiction. Now and then one can spot a classic or serious work of nonfiction but it's more a then than a now. 

Neil Diamond sings

Song sung blue, weeping like a willow

I soon ended up weeping like a willow as the book rapidly plunged into painful truths of the here and now. Perhaps that's why Song Sung Blue is in the red? 

Me and you are subject to
The blues now and then
But when you take the blues
And make a song
You sing 'em out again

- Daimond's take on dealing with the blues.  

Song Sung Blue is a kind of Carmona primer. 

From the start where we encounter turtles and cobras, we're soon rushing down Carmona roads in a bus, listening to Goan songs. 

It's be a pity to come to Carmona without this book. But, alas, I don't know where you can get a copy. 

  "To order Song Sung Blue, please contact saxtti@gmail.com." says a book review by Augusto Pinto