ON her part, Ermelinda, our Mae enjoyed cooking. Entertaining people came naturally to her kind nature and she always had a warm welcome with her broad smile for any guest; no matter at what time of the day it was!
In the kitchen, she loved to innovate and try out new recipes. She jotted these down carefully in a book, which as the years went by became voluminous. In those days in Africa, traditional Goan sweets were always home-made. She made these regularly for her children during the holidays. Although the hot, spurting mashes of Doce da Grao and Doce Bhaji were a challenge to stir over the electric hot plate, she did these for us, with love. Her favorites, however, were the puddings which anyone who had the good fortune to taste remembered for many years thereafter for their delicious flavor and beautiful presentation. Mae, often and willingly, shared many of her recipes with family and friends.
In our family, each child’s birthday was a special occasion with a birthday party, where ten to fifteen children were invited. Games were played on the terrace attached to our apartment. They were mostly children from our parents’ friends circle and our neighbors. After the children were done, their parents were expected to wait for dinner. Everything was made at home, from the tea-snacks to the sumptuous dinner. Mae liked to make something different, every time. Now, in retrospect, I really wonder how she managed it all! The birthday cake was not only baked by her, but also decorated very artistically with fondant and icing sugar. I clearly remember the pink and blue doll-cake she made for me. It was the first time I had seen one and was enchanted by it! I thought it was such a pity that we had to eat it up!
My only regret is that in-house photos were not a common happening; Pai was not keen on photography. The first camera that entered the house was his gift to me, when in 1966, I passed my Senior Cambridge examination with flying colours!
Mia’s talent in singing was phenomenal but she didn’t make much of it. There was this occasion when she took part in an operetta for charity at the `Little Theatre’ in Mombasa. She sang the song `Blue Moon’ solo to a thunderous applause from the audience.
“You should take part in these programs more often, Mae!” I exclaimed, when we got home.
“And who will look after all my children?” she said, with her radiant smile and twinkle in her eyes. Yes! Her words opened my mind! Her sacrifice for us was done so unassumingly that we took it for granted and never gave it a second thought or appreciated it. Mae had got her priorities right and this became a life-time lesson for me.
At an inter-school students work-shop I met and interacted with some of my mother’s students. At the end of the work-shop, one student sidled up to me and said, “Your mother is a very kind teacher.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
The student giggled and said, “Even when she scolds us, she ends by saying so sweetly and softly, `my girl.’”
With her dexterity at the piano and her vocal talent, Mae trained children for the annual day concert, in her school. Towards the end of her tenure, by which time there were many more African children in the school, she was excited to discover these students were naturally, extraordinarily musical and had most melodious voices. She thoroughly enjoyed training them and even did extracts of the operetta, `Pearl the Fishermaiden’ with them.