On a saving mission
A group has been formed to save Mumbais old Goan clubs called Kudds ……..Manoj Nair
At a meeting on Sunday at St Sebastian Goan High School in Dabul, Girguam, one of the issues that engrossed participants was the decline of Goan clubs in the city called Kudds.
These clubs were named after Goan villages and their patron saints. They offered cheap residential accommodation to members of the village who migrated to Mumbai for jobs. Though it is not clear when the first clubs were set up, most were established in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The Club de Notre Senora de Carmo de Telaulim (Navelim) housed in Jer Mahal building opposite Metro cinema, for instance, was founded in 1886.
Some 30 years back, there were around 250 such clubs, most of them in localities with large Goan populations like Dhobi Talao, Mazgaon and Mahim. Jer Mahal alone has more than a dozen such establishments. Over the decades, these clubs became cultural hubs for Mumbais Goan community. Members nurtured the citys Konkani Thiatr or theatre and many of the clubs were venues for drama and music events. Members would stack the metal boxes used by them to store their clothes and other possessions to create impromptu stages. Only around 125-odd clubs survive now and many are in a precarious financial condition. Most clubs that closed were sold off in the last five years, said Faust DCosta who edits a community magazine called Goan Review. Some Goans have set up an association called Goa Clubs Federation to save these clubs.
DCosta stayed at the Club of Chandor in the 1970s and remembers paying as little as Rs 20 for a months stay. He moved out when he bought a home in Mumbai. Around the time DCosta and other members moved out of the clubs, Goans joined migration routes to the Middle-East and other destinations abroad. Mumbai was no longer the only magnet attracting Goan youths looking for jobs. When the Goan community moved from places like Dhobi Talao and Mazgaon to the suburbs, the clubs lost more members. There were no managers to look after the clubs and with land prices so high, many club sold their premises, said Agnelo Fernandes, a member of the Club of Majorda located in Jer Mahal.
To survive, many clubs like Club of Majorda allowed people from other villages in Goa to stay with them. But in this process, many clubs were taken over people who were not from the clubs village. In many instances, they got together to sell the clubs, said DCosta.
Some of major clubs now have just two or three people staying there. Average occupancy at the Club de Notre Senora de Carmo de Telaulim has dropped from 25 to less than 10 in the last twentyfive years. The Club of Majorda which was founded in 1914 has over 700 members on its rolls but barely five of them are active in its day to day functioning.
Even if you assume that they pay a few hundred rupees a month, it will be difficult to pay the sweeper with the money, forget about paying the rent, said DCosta.
To tide over the financial crisis, the Majorda club now allows visitors to Mumbai from other Goan villages to stay there. Guests pay Rs 150 for staying there up to a month. The members also got the club registered with the charity commissioner so that there will be better transparency in its working.
Even though they have declined in numbers, the surviving clubs retain features like elaborately decorated altar rooms and period furniture. It is representative of a way of life that is slowly vanishing. The clubs are part of the heritage of Mumbais Goan community and must be preserved. Our forefathers in Goas villages set up these clubs for young people to stay when they came to Mumbai for jobs, said Thomas Sequeira of Goa Clubs Federation that is encouraging the surviving clubs to register as trusts. Once they are registered, they cannot be sold off so easily by members and landlords will not be able to evict them.
Thirty years back, there were around 250 Goan clubs, most of them in localities like Dhobi Talao, Mazgaon and Mahim. Jer Mahal alone has more than a dozen such establishments