Book World

BookWorld A Daughter’s Story

Dr Sushila Fonseca speaks about her latest book, which is a biography of her father, Antonio Sequeira and his life during the Portuguese times in Goa

By Sybil Rodrigues

Author Dr Sushila Fonseca is the daughter of Antonio and Ermelinda Sequeira. She is a consultant pathologist and also writes as and when inspiration strikes. Sushila has authored several fictional and non-fictional works and is a Goa State Cultural Award winner (Literature in English 2018-2019)

Dr. Sushila’s father, Antonio Sequeira, took part in the freedom movement in the late 1940s and went into self-exile in Mombasa, Kenya. His wife and children followed him and so Dr. Sushila completed her secondary school and earned her Senior Cambridge certificate, over there. She graduated in Medicine in Mumbai from the Topiwala National Medical College, Bombay University and completed her post-graduation in Pathology from the same institution, where she also worked as a resident pathologist.

She later worked at Goa Medical College and resigned from her lecturer’s post, in 1983, to start Dr. Fonseca’s Pathology Laboratory in Fontainhas, Panjim, where she consults till date.

Dr Sushila is part of different associations like Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists (IAP), Association of Pathologists (GAP) and Indian Medical Association where she has served as General Secretary, IMA-Goa State.

She has a few awards to her credit, as well. She won the Manek Billimoria Prize in Pathology (1971) at the Topiwala National Medical College. She was named the ‘Best Branch Secretary Indian Medical Association - Goa State’ in 2007. She was felicitated by the Indian Medical Association - Goa State in 2012. She was awarded the Goa State Cultural Award in 201819; and was honoured by the Rotary Club of Panaji in 2019.

Dr. Sushila writes both fiction and non-fiction articles and books on topics of medical and social interest, as she sees it. Her intention is to share her extensive knowledge and experience with youth and society at large, through easy to understand and enjoyable articles and novels.

Her non-fiction work on health includes books like What I Should Know About HIV/AIDS (2005), Good Health Practices for the Family (2006), Know Your Fever (2010).

Rebecca’s Inheritance (2002), Touched by Love (2005), The Secret of The Diamond Ring (2007), Invisible Currents (2014), The Pontin Secret (2017) are some of her fictional works along with a historical fiction written in 2018 titled, Against the Tide…47 men.

Her latest book, The Journey of an Unsung Hero: Antonio Sequeira – His Quest for Goa’s Freedom, is a biography of her father.

Dr Sushila elaborates on what inspired her to write the book. “I had just published my historical novel Against The Tide … 47 Men… in 2018 and perhaps that book which is based on the revolt of the natives of Goa in 1787 (also known as the Pinto Revolt)

set my mind thinking about my father’s struggles.”

She had been informed that copies of A Voz da India, her father’s newspaper, were preserved in the Central Library and so she went and looked them up. “Then, as I was deciding on whether I should go ahead and write on his life, a friend prodded me on saying, “If you don’t, then who will?” I began writing and then his story just took over. As I wrote, I became more and more convinced that it is a story to be told to the youth of Goa for many of them have no notion of the deprivations the Goan population, especially the subalterns, suffered during the Portuguese rule, especially at the time of Salazar – for it wasn’t at all ‘hunky-dory’ as many people make it out to be.”

The Journey of an Unsung Hero: Antonio Sequeira – His Quest for Goa’s Freedom (2021) is a biography in which Dr Sushila recounts how although Antonio Sequeira had everything going splendidly for him, he took up his pen to awaken the people to the ills of the Portuguese regime. With this, although he lost everything he had, yet after spending more than a decade and a half in self-exile in Africa, he returned to his beloved Goa, determined to help in the development of the State.

Dr Sushila then goes on to speak about Goa in the 1940s and her father, Antonio Sequeira. Goa, back then, was very unlike how it is now. Goa was a colony of the Portuguese Empire and was ruled by the dictator, Antonio Salazar.

Under this dictatorship, poverty and penury, absence of development and lack of civil liberties with strict censorship of all written matter, were the order of the day. Dissent of any form was not tolerated.

“Antonio Sequeira, my father, was the editor of the A Voz da India (The Voice of India). This paper was most nationalistic and also the leading daily in circulation during the years that it survived the watchful eyes of the Portuguese Salazarist Government. Despite the strict censorship, Antonio used his pen artfully, to awaken and remind Goans about their right to civil liberties, democracy and a better quality of life.”

A pharmacist, a lawyer and well to do in his own right, Antonio Sequeira sacrificed all that he had to awaken his people to their fundamental rights and never lost an opportunity to subtly point out the failings of the Portuguese rulers.

Dr Sushila goes on to add, “As he refused to publish fake news as ordered by the government of the day, his newspaper was banned and he was to be arrested. With the help of trusted friends, he managed to escape into exile and had to begin life all over again from scratch. Through all his travails my mother, Ermelinda Figueiredo e Sequeira – a teacher by profession, stood by him, for she was as convinced as he was, of the path he had chosen to work against the repressive Portuguese regime.”

Amongst other snippets that the book offers, some amusing and interesting perceptions and perspective into the Liberation years and how even freedom of the media suffered, had to be compromised with given the prevailing dictatorship of the Salazarist regime in Goa.

Once she began writing, her father’s story just took over and the only roadblock faced by her was paucity of time as she had to double up between her medical profession and writing. Nevertheless she persisted and went on to recount her father’s story to the world