The man who introduced Goa to the world

Today, it takes junkets, music festivals, hot air balloon rides and a host of other ambitious initiatives to project Goa as a global tourism hotspot. Over 50 years ago, all it took was Timoteo Fernandes and his humble cultural troupe.
Who’d have thought that an employee of the state’s directorate of accounts would’ve metamorphosed into an ambassador for Goan culture, that too, of his own volition? Timoteo says he wouldn’t have done it any other way.
“Goa’s culture was inconspicuous post-Liberation (from Portuguese rule), save a smattering of zomnivhelle khells and social club events. Having been greatly exposed to folk music and dance during my growing-up years, I felt it was my duty to showcase them for the people of Goa and pass them down to the younger generations,” he recounts.
And so, in 1965, ‘Timoteo’s Folklore Troupe’ was born. It was a novelty, considering that the concept of a cultural group was unheard of in those days. With the suave Timoteo at its helm, whether in a kaxtti or a suit, the vibrant troupe traversed the length and breadth of the state, breathing new life into the ‘dekhnni’ and ‘fugddi’, as well as songs and dances specific to the kunbi and kharvi communities. It also popularized the Portuguese ‘corridinho’. The initiative was called ‘Goa With Love’.
If that wasn’t enough, Timoteo invented what is now famous as the ‘kott’ti fugddi’, which involves folk dancers using coconut shells as a form of percussion. He subsequently teamed up with Doordarshan to document each of the traditional song and dance routines on tape.
Before they knew it, Timoteo and his ensemble began regaling VIPs, including the recently-deceased former Portugal foreign minister Mario Soares, erstwhile Tanzania prime minister Rashidi Kawawa, Vanuatu’s founding prime minister Father Walter Hadye Lini, Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja, and the CHOGM heads of state.
So impressed was Pope John Paul II with the group’s mando performance during his brief visit to Goa in 1986, that he held an audience with Timoteo and presented him with a memento. “I will never forget that moment,” Timoteo, who turns 80 on Monday, gushes, as he caresses the large, embossed gold coin.
As a mark of appreciation, the state government and a host of other organizations showered the talented man with awards. Timoteo’s Folklore Troupe even travelled abroad, letting countries like Mauritius, Nairobi, England, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates sample the allure that Goa had to offer.
Many also credit Timoteo with introducing the concept of pageants to Goa, the annual crowning of the ‘Sparks Queen’ being the earliest known.
“Sparks was more like a burst of imagination. It was the name of the band I had formed in 1963 with a group of friends. Every year thereafter, for around 45 years, we’d host ‘Sparks Night’ in May — a gala that would culminate with the crowning of the Sparks Queen. It was a resounding success,” Timoteo says.
But, what this imaginative man is most famous for is the conceptualization of the Carnival float parade as we know it today. Drawing inspiration from a Brazilian magazine he came across at then Clube Nacional president Vasco Alvares’ home, Timoteo wasted no time in gathering his Sparks group, some youth, a few bandolins, violins, bongos and a bullock cart. The year was 1965, and the people of Goa, who were still dealing with post-Liberation gripes, hardly noticed the lively albeit rudimentary parade wend it way from Linhares Bridge to Panaji’s Garcia de Orta garden, with Timoteo as King Momo.
In 1967, the Dayanand Bandodkar-led government, heeding pleas by Alvares and then tourism under-secretary Percival Noronha, constituted a state-level carnival committee and initiated the King Momo parade, with none other than Timoteo selected to reign over the merrymaking.
He also played an integral part in the state-level Shigmo committee and prides himself on being a member of both panels for half a century now.
With the mammoth contributions he’s made to the sustenance of Goan culture, is Timoteo ready to call it a day? Apparently not. A teetotaler and vegetarian, he has the energy and verve of a person less than half his age. “I’ve always been happy. I guess that helps a lot, too,” he smiles.
And happy he could be because his self-effacing wife, Helen, also a former accounts department employee, took the responsibilities of home and hearth entirely upon herself. The adage, ‘Behind every successful man there is a woman’, couldn’t ring more true. The couple has two daughters, Fatima and Sonia.
“It has been amazing watching how he’s put his heart and soul into Goan folk songs and dances for so many years,” Helen gushes.
So, every time a cultural troupe impresses you or a Carnival parade warms your heart, you know that they’ve come to be mainly because of a certain Timoteo Fernandes.