The Day The Earth Was Formed.

By Maria Colaco

Ernie had just come home to his family home in Ucassaim, a small village in Bardez, Goa, where his grandmother lived. In the evenings, all the children would gather in the courtyard in front of the house, and granny would tell them a story.

It was the month of May and as usual, the family would take their vacation in Goa.

Ernie was twelve years old and studied at the Parish school in Mumbai. He enjoyed this trip to Goa, it meant a lot of sweetmeats like Dosh, Bebinca and his favourite Cocad Gons basically a sweet made of Coconut and sugar syrup dried in the sun. Ernie was a tall boy, lanky with black hair and was very handsome. He loved to swim, play cricket and read a lot in his free time. Video games and PS4 which were gifted to him on his 8th birthday were never brought on any of the family trips. They were meant to be gadget free trips to enjoy the outdoors and nature.

If one was bored of eating the sweets there was a room full of Mangoes – Afons, Mankurad, Jackfruit and plenty of Bananas and tender coconut.

He had a band of friends all local boys from the village with whom he played various games such as Goddyaani, Logoriyo and Koinde Baal.

“How nice to see you my dear boy”, the warm voice of granny resonated in the empty house. Ernie hugged his granny and kissed her.

He loved his granny, though she didn’t smell of roses the warmth of the earthy smells of the fireplace always embraced her warm body.

“Bring their luggage in and keep it in the guest room”, granny instructed the helper – a young boy of fifteen.

“Freshen up and come for lunch “, granny told mother and me. “Please don’t stand on ceremony, we will manage, Mai,” my mother said.

The lunch was a lavish meal - Ernie’s favourite was the kingfish red curry served with the typical goan brown rice, bangda’s made with reichad masala , tisrio and tendli bhaji.

The dessert included Goan Vonn and a batch of Afons sliced.

Ernie felt he was in heaven. His mother was a teacher and was mostly working in Mumbai, except for Sundays and special days nobody had the time to make such a lavish, delectable spread.

After lunch granny put out a mat on the patio, mother retired to her room for an afternoon siesta. Granny put out the lounge chair for me to rest. While she sat cleaning the dried prawns to make balchao for us to take back to Mumbai. She was already drying Bombay duck and fish to make para (a goan pickle ) .

In the evening I went with my friends to the riverfront for a walk. There were many stalls there one of them was selling lemonade and soda. I quickly had some, the Jetty was nearby and a fresh catch had just come in it was being segregated into baskets. The smell of fresh fish always brought happy memories to me.

We reached home by 7 pm. Granny was heating water in a big black pot and everyone in the household had started taking their evening baths. “There you are “, said Granny “We all were wondering where you had gone”, added Mum. “I have prepared your favourite dish for dinner – Chicken Xacuti and Sanaa’s – both sweet and savoury versions”, quickly finish with your bath and we will say the evening rosary.

After the evening rosary, the soup was served as the first course followed by dinner all washed down with some yummy wholesome fruit salad custard.

I went into the living room where the television set was, I could hear the evening news it mentioned something about a new star discovered. I was curious and asked my mother who was a science teacher what had happened.

She told me a story I will never forget, “ Once the stars, planets, comets and asteroids all decided that they were the most powerful and started fighting amongst themselves, a shooting star passing by asked them why they were arguing and they narrated the whole story. “Why don’t you just go to the King – The Universe and ask him who is the most powerful? , said the shooting star.

They all went to the court of the Universe and asked him who was the most powerful, so he told them that the entire Universe all started from a point and became bigger and bigger. This is what humans call the big bang theory.

“Where were we in this whole theory?” asked the star.

“It is a simple explanation said the King- I (universe) was nothing more than hot, tiny particles mixed with light and energy. The universe looked nothing like it does now. When everything expanded and took up more space, it cooled down. Then stars were born and galaxies were crashing and grouping together. As new stars were being born and dying, then things like asteroids, comets, planets, and black holes are formed!”

“Mummy that is an interesting story”, said Ernie.

It was finally time to go to bed.

As Ernie looked out his bedroom window he could see the stars wink down at him from the heavens.

The holidays went by quickly and soon it was time to return to Mumbai, but Ernie had learnt a lot of new things about the night sky which he had written in his daily journal and was all excited to get back to school to share it with his friends.

By Maria Colaco