Biography

- Manohar Malgaonkar

He liked being in London. He was earning good money and had made many friends. In December 1961, he had been in London for all of two years, and looking forward to the Christmas festivities when something which he and other Goans had been dreading for years, did happen. It changed Mario Miranda’s life.

On 19th December 1961, Indian troops marched into Goa. The takeover was both quick and bloodless. Portugal moved out and India moved in. Nonetheless for Mario and other Goans, it was a truly traumatic event. After four and a half centuries, Goa, from being a colony of Portugal, had become a part of India.

For days he could think of nothing other than to go back to Goa and see how his house, his village, his friends had come through the ordeal. Goa was an ‘occupied territory’ now under military rule. How would these new masters of Goa treat people like himself who lived abroad on Portuguese passports; and who were by definition, the subjects of Portugal? He personally, had good reason to feel that he might be in disfavour because he had been befriended by the Portuguese regime.

It was with some trepidation that he called at the India Office and applied for an Indian passport. He was both surprised and delighted when after no more than a routine delay, they gave him a passport.

He flew to India early in January 1962. From Bombay, he went on by train and hired car to Goa.

The old house stood just as he remembered it, dignified and welcoming. But he found its door firmly shut. It turned out that an Army unit was in occupation. They were polite but firm. He could not go in.

At least the house was there, undamaged, and for that he was thankful. He had to make arrangements for somewhere to stay. Such was his homecoming.