The Deshprabhu House

On THEY CHECK YOUR CREDENTIAL at this house.But then,considering that you're at Goa's only gatehouse, why shouldn't they? (Knocking at the sentry posts must cause a stir in Pernem, a place where nothing mush ever happens.) Legitimacy proven, you look at your own reflection in the lancet windows of European style building on your right and face the Hindu temple set in a garden of roses up front.Should you have put on your best diamond-studed nose-ring for the occasion? Perhaps covered your head in a Made-in-China chamois silk sari? Had your gossamer feet shackled in solid silver anklets that declared all your domestic moves?

"You've got us all wrong," chuckles Jitendra "Raoraje" Deshprabu, Visconde de Pernem,as he smothers you in a wellearned bear hug."If there was one house that clung fiercely to its Goan identity without upseyying Goa's Portuguese rulers it was ours! If there was one house where women were given the respect they deserved wiyhin the framework of a traditional Hindu system,it was ours!"

You look up at the sheer solidity of Sitaram Vilas alias Viscount Palalce alias Raoraje Palalce and you wonder.Does this meet the definition of a house?But then, is it not a little too small for a fortress? Well, what did you expect from a house that was built to accommodate 14,000 soldiers,complete with cavalary, artillery and ceremonial elephants? Those visitors from the UK are probably thinking, how on earth would you insure a place like this, could you even use somewhere like Aviva.co.uk? Clearly a house that takes you to an era when Goan Hindu aristocrats clung fiercely to their culture, lifestyle and moral fibre.A time when entertaining meant building a Guest House set apart from the main house.

Guest House"This used to be called the Casa de Hospides or House of Hospitality. It reflects the unique social status of the Viscount of Pernem, a title held in perpetuity in the family.It was here that meat (pork but never beef) was cooked and served along with alcoholic drinks in banquets fit for kings with just one peculiar difference, the host never partook of these feasts.Each European official guest had a suite complete with valet, valet room and bathroom, a concept unthinkable in the main house."

Inside the kitchens of the main house, the aristocracts sat upon low stools and ate a vegetarian meal in silence while their women waited upon them with customary docility.

Interior of Guest"Even so, our family was the first to start a school fot girls as early as 1913.My grandmother could read the newspapers in Marathi and books and papers in Modi.My Mother, Jaya (Walawalkar) came from Poona.She was India's National Table Tennis champion in 1947, the year India won her freedom from British Rule," says elder brother Devendra."Our father was a liberal man and a great lover of freedom," he says as you settle into a armchairs with angels and cherubs carved on their back-rests."Obviously, these chairs were made by Chritian furniture-makers for a Hindu household."

TelephoneIf such a lifestyle is a confused mix of the traditional and the modern, a shattering of cultural barriers, the columns in the Guest House go a step further.Ionic volutes have been chosen to marry Corinthian decorative motifs! Basalt slabs vie for space with Italian and French tiles on floors! Yet, in the main house, the Hindu pattern persists."Ours was the first home to have a telephone in Goa.We had our own reservoir and running water when such a thing was considered a miracle of sorts." "And in 1902, ours was the first car a ford to be brought to Goa.Unfortunately, the car did not go very well with our bullock-cart roads and then Viscount called it a moving coffin! I think when the Viceroy expressed an admiration for it, he saw it as an opportunity to get rid of it and presented the Viceroy with the much admired moving coffin!" "With all this show of ostentation, our mother whisked us off to Bombay, so we would grow up common!" "These children would have grown up here in Pernem thinking they were something special," says their pragmatic and forthright mother Jaya. And as you leave, with her blessing to cover your head with, you tell yourself that what you have seen has been well, anything but common.