People’s Carnaval in our Village

Much before the Panchayat had made its presence felt, the governing body in villages used to be the Regedor de Aldeia, a man of standing and much respect, sorry it was a patriarchal society so I cannot recall a single lady Regedor.

 One of the highlights of the Regedor’s importance was that Carnaval was heralded in the village with the khell-tiatros enacting their first play of the season at the Regedor’s house, lucky were the people who sat in the front row watching these rustic plays. The tradition continued when the Panchayat started, the season was opened at the Sar Panch’s residence, here we were in luck, the Sar Panch’s sons, Buchulo and Celio were our great pals, we needed no second invitation, we were at the Lume Pereira residence in the afternoon, given balcony seats at a bedroom window, we were the guests of the Sar Panch, Senhor José Joaquim Lume Pereira.

Khell-tiatros were rustic and very topical; the personages were the evil batkar ready to fleece the mundkars and take advantage of their daughters, the church vicar a person to be feared and obeyed chastising the batkar for his meanness and philandering ways, local romances hardly disguised everyone knew who was being referred to and delicious songs laden with innuendo, all this accompanied by a rudimentary brass band. As there was no stage, the actors enacted the play in a large circle with the respective ‘houses’ set around this circle. The ‘church’ was a part of the circle so was the ‘batkar’s house’ and so was the ‘mundkar’s’, the entire village represented in a large circle. One of the personages said

‘Now what should I do? I will go to the batkar’s house and ask for help’ the band struck a tune and the man reached the ‘batkar’s house’ in a jiffy. Oh how we loved these little interludes.

Now, no respectable girl or woman was going to act in a Khell-tiatro  full of men, their reputation would be in shreds, but many men loved doing women’s  roles, all they had to do was stick a very artificial plait of hair to their head, decorate it with flowers, smear those rough cheeks with layers of powdery pink rouge, a very red  lipstick took care of the mouth, however, the part we loved the most was when two very polished, identical in shape and size coconut shells were produced and slipped under the tight bodice of a flowery much pleated dress, we now had a Josefina where earlier there had been a José. As this was done in front of us it added to everyone’s titillation.

Of course khell-tiatros are very much in vogue even today, they are larger and better, women and girls love to act in them and surprisingly people take great pride in their acting abilities, people say ‘oh don’t you know her ? She is from Cortalim, she acts in Khell-tiatros!’ As these Khell-tiatros are sponsored heavily by the local politicians, a small but a nice wooden stage is provided with the banner of the troupe as a backdrop, the music is a modern band with a synthesizer.  

Of course, one of the personages still says

‘Now what should I do? I will go to the ‘contractor’s’’ house and ask for help’ the band strikes a tune and the man reaches the ‘contractor’s’ house’ in a jiffy.

The batkar has lost his teeth and clout, he is a caricature. The priest is now a friend in Jesus. Everything is still out in the open under a large tree, chairs and snacks are provided at a small price and housie is played when the actors take a break.

The saddest part however is that religion has reared its ugly head, in one scene a Catholic boy in love with a Hindu girl, both deeply in love, both determined to marry, surprisingly both parents agree without even a discussion. The Catholic boy’s mother has one condition, that the Hindu girl marry in Church, the girl and her father agree wholeheartedly, the Hindu girl converts and becomes a Catholic, as an evangelist she converts all her Hindu friends and with large doses of Bible readings converts her own father who promptly discards his dhoti for western wear which turns him into a civilized person.

The mother-in-law ends the scene with gratitude for the daughter -in-law who has now brought respect and honour for the house and in the bargain brought ‘lost’ souls into the fold.  

There is a lament that Carnaval is no longer what it used to be, that it is no longer a people’s Carnaval whatever that means, to these people I say come to the villages, we enjoy ourselves we always have, some of us even stitch new clothes for this wonderful festival