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Introduction and History.
Though it is not clear when the first clubs were set up, most of them were established in the last decade 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. These clubs were named after Goan villages and their patron saints. Members nurtured the city’s 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.
“Goa is divided into villages; each village has its own club. Anyone who wants to become a member of this club should have been a Goan. They can come here and stay for as long as they want. The rent starts from Rs 2 to Rs 50 for a month,” says Gomes. Jer Mahal is part of the North Goa Club and houses members from that part of Goa. The residents point out that there are around 210 such clubs across the city in Dhobi Talao,
This club does not include expensive lounges, drinks or gymnasia. In fact, at the first glance one might dismiss Jer Mahal as any other ordinary chaw. The clubs all have similar interiors: wooden or steel boxes called Pattis that line the walls, shoe stands, huge trunks and TV sets. Each room also has a kitchen where the residents can cook their own food. Another interesting feature of the club is that each club will have a special altar, housing the patron saint of that area of Goa.
Changes
These days the clubs are characterized by broken walls, protruding cable wires and worn out arches. "A decade ago there were 14 people at our club, but today there are only four," adds Aranjum. Four clubs in the past few years have merged to form one United Club of Assondra. Most clubs at Jer Mahal have downed their shutters while others have been lent to chawls.
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 twenty-five 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 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 Mumbai’s Goan community and must be preserve
They offered cheap residential accommodation to members of the village who migrated to Mumbai for jobs
Over the decades, these clubs became cultural hubs for Mumbai’s Goan community. 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 D’Costa who edits a community magazine called Goan Review. Some Goans have set up an association called Goa Clubs Federation to save these clubs.
Hegemony:
Most of the Goan clubs have unwritten codes of conduct. These differ from certain specific timings for prayers to different timings for meals.
The members indirectly fall under this code, wherein the manager and a committee is formed in the club to take care of all the club’s activities.
A member is just inducted into the lodging as a cog in the wheel, and has to take care of the present cycle of activities in the club.
There are a list of unwritten rules for most of the Goan clubs in Mumbai wherein we have specific prayer timings, dining times and also sometimes, a lights off curfew.
Ideology in culture; belonging
Each member of the club, or “kudd” as it is popularly known has a distinct sense of belonging to the particular club. Even in spite of being able to afford better quality lodging, most Goans arriving in Mumbai still prefer clubs for the sense of togetherness it gives them. The clubs offer all the members a place to come back to, a place they can call their own. And at most times, they do not mind paying the nominal fee.
TO mention an example, most of the NRIs temporarily settled in the Middle East also come back to Mumbai, spend some time at the clubs and get in touch with childhood friends. More than the “residential” aspect is the point of coming back to the roots, to sights and smells that are familiar to home.
Kinship
With relation to Kinship, the Club culture works magic around those involved in it. The reason? Even though the members’ own privacy is put at risk while residing in these clubs, they do not mind it as the oneness and togetherness acquired by living together is far more precious to the members than putting a little of their privacy at risk.
All the residents of a club manage to get a feeling of unity, firstly, because of the fact that all of them hail from the same village and know each other quite well, and secondly because, they are willing to give in to the gaze of the others.
Women aspects: clubs
With respect to the clubs in Mumbai, a very important point to be noted is that all clubs are essentially only meant for MALES. Only the gents of the village are seen living in these small residential quarters. The Opposite Sex doesn’t figure out in the population indices for any of the clubs. What initially happened is that when most of the males migrated from Goa to Mumbai initially, the women preferred staying back at home as the journey to the metropolitan city stretched up to 15 hours. This practice turned into a well-developed habit as women rather refrained from travelling alone to Mumbai and the result was the absence of any residential clubs for Goan women within the vicinity of Mumbai. They did start their migration to the city later on, but entered directly into the households as aiahs. Since then there were very few Goan females coming into the city who actually needed places to stay, and hence there was never demand for female clubs.
In todays time, on the other hand, we have a breakthrough with the first ladies’ Goan club which has sprung up in Mazgaon. This club is managed by the Goan cultural society in Mumbai.
Though it is not clear when the first clubs were set up, most of them were established in the last decade 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. These clubs were named after Goan villages and their patron saints. Members nurtured the city’s 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.
“Goa is divided into villages; each village has its own club. Anyone who wants to become a member of this club should have been a Goan. They can come here and stay for as long as they want. The rent starts from Rs 2 to Rs 50 for a month,” says Gomes. Jer Mahal is part of the North Goa Club and houses members from that part of Goa. The residents point out that there are around 210 such clubs across the city in Dhobi Talao,
This club does not include expensive lounges, drinks or gymnasia. In fact, at the first glance one might dismiss Jer Mahal as any other ordinary chaw. The clubs all have similar interiors: wooden or steel boxes called Pattis that line the walls, shoe stands, huge trunks and TV sets. Each room also has a kitchen where the residents can cook their own food. Another interesting feature of the club is that each club will have a special altar, housing the patron saint of that area of Goa.
Changes
These days the clubs are characterized by broken walls, protruding cable wires and worn out arches. "A decade ago there were 14 people at our club, but today there are only four," adds Aranjum. Four clubs in the past few years have merged to form one United Club of Assondra. Most clubs at Jer Mahal have downed their shutters while others have been lent to chawls.
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 twenty-five 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 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 Mumbai’s Goan community and must be preserve
They offered cheap residential accommodation to members of the village who migrated to Mumbai for jobs
Over the decades, these clubs became cultural hubs for Mumbai’s Goan community. 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 D’Costa who edits a community magazine called Goan Review. Some Goans have set up an association called Goa Clubs Federation to save these clubs.
Hegemony:
Most of the Goan clubs have unwritten codes of conduct. These differ from certain specific timings for prayers to different timings for meals.
The members indirectly fall under this code, wherein the manager and a committee is formed in the club to take care of all the club’s activities.
A member is just inducted into the lodging as a cog in the wheel, and has to take care of the present cycle of activities in the club.
There are a list of unwritten rules for most of the Goan clubs in Mumbai wherein we have specific prayer timings, dining times and also sometimes, a lights off curfew.
Ideology in culture; belonging
Each member of the club, or “kudd” as it is popularly known has a distinct sense of belonging to the particular club. Even in spite of being able to afford better quality lodging, most Goans arriving in Mumbai still prefer clubs for the sense of togetherness it gives them. The clubs offer all the members a place to come back to, a place they can call their own. And at most times, they do not mind paying the nominal fee.
TO mention an example, most of the NRIs temporarily settled in the Middle East also come back to Mumbai, spend some time at the clubs and get in touch with childhood friends. More than the “residential” aspect is the point of coming back to the roots, to sights and smells that are familiar to home.
Kinship
With relation to Kinship, the Club culture works magic around those involved in it. The reason? Even though the members’ own privacy is put at risk while residing in these clubs, they do not mind it as the oneness and togetherness acquired by living together is far more precious to the members than putting a little of their privacy at risk.
All the residents of a club manage to get a feeling of unity, firstly, because of the fact that all of them hail from the same village and know each other quite well, and secondly because, they are willing to give in to the gaze of the others.
Women aspects: clubs
With respect to the clubs in Mumbai, a very important point to be noted is that all clubs are essentially only meant for MALES. Only the gents of the village are seen living in these small residential quarters. The Opposite Sex doesn’t figure out in the population indices for any of the clubs. What initially happened is that when most of the males migrated from Goa to Mumbai initially, the women preferred staying back at home as the journey to the metropolitan city stretched up to 15 hours. This practice turned into a well-developed habit as women rather refrained from travelling alone to Mumbai and the result was the absence of any residential clubs for Goan women within the vicinity of Mumbai. They did start their migration to the city later on, but entered directly into the households as aiahs. Since then there were very few Goan females coming into the city who actually needed places to stay, and hence there was never demand for female clubs.
In todays time, on the other hand, we have a breakthrough with the first ladies’ Goan club which has sprung up in Mazgaon. This club is managed by the Goan cultural society in Mumbai.