up started another Konkani
daily, Novem Goem. I am not sure why Uzvadd eventually
folded up.

My friend, Cyril D'Cunha, started a sports weekly
called Goal, and I was its Mumbai correspondent. I
contributed many stories till the paper went under for
reasons unknown to me. This was my direction connection
to Goa's journalism. Later on, I was offered a job at
the West Coast Times, a daily launched by the House of
Timblos. At least two senior colleagues of mine at the
Free Press Journal went to Goa to start the paper. One
of them was Y.M. Hegde and the other, P.R. Menon.

Before going to Goa and even after the paper began
publishing from Margao in South Goa, Hegde said it
would be good for me to come to Goa. I forget the year
it was launched and if I was still a freelancer at the
Free Press Journal or on its staff. By then, I was not
keen on settling down in Goa. To me, Goa was still in
the backwaters of journalism. To leave a city like
Mumbai where journalism made blood rush in one's veins,
and go to Goa, where things moved at a snail's pace,
was something I dreaded. When I wanted to come to Goa,
I was found unwanted.

After leaving Free Press Journal and joining The Hindu,
I met Raul Fernandes one day in Mumbai. He was scouting
for talent for O Heraldo, then about to be turned into
an English-language daily. I knew Fernandes, though not
as well as his brother John and his dad, Antonio
Caetano Fernandes.

The Fernandes family was close friends with my friends
in Mumbai, the Ribeiros, owners of the Goan restaurant
in Dhobitalao called Snowflake. When in Goa, my friend
and I went to see AC, as he was popularly known, at the
Casa JD Fernandes store in Panaji. And whenever John
came to Mumbai to get supplies for their store, he
would visit Snowflake where I hung out most of my time.

Raul Fernandes and I met at the Kyani Restaurant in Dhobitalao
and he offered me to come to Goa as chief reporter.
The offer was unattractive financially for me to leave
The Hindu. I was given the impression that Ervelle Menezes,
than with Indian Express in Mumbai, was joining as
editor. Fernandes was in consultation with Menezes, I
was told. At a second meeting, Fernandes informed me
that Rajan Narayan was chosen to be the editor. I was
surprised. I never had any admiration for Narayan's
journalism. I had heard some stories about his
resignation from The Mirror, a monthly publication from
the Eve's Weekly group. Even though the