Born at the end of World War I, in newly-Independent India he helped recruit officers to man the country's army. Later, Prof George V.Coelho did his doctorate from Harvard, and worked at the US National Institute of Mental Health for two decades. From 1986 to 1993, he was chief of the International Activities Program in alcohol, drug abuse and mental health administration. US's National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda-Maryland, which is a major biomedical research institute concerned with issues of mental disorders.In 1996, Coelho accompanied a team to Bangalore to exchange ideas with ayurvedic physicians, on the topic of ayurveda and mental health.

Recently, he co-edited the volume of essays called 'Goa: Continuity in Change' and after retiring a couple of years back, the Bombay-born psychologist of Goan origin has been working on literary and educational projects in Indo-Portuguese history. During a recent visit to Goa, Coelho told FREDERICK NORONHA of his work and views. Excerpts from an interview:

QUESTION: How do you see social change in Goa in recent years, and the impact this is having on the psyche of the people?

Goa, the home of my ancestors, is small in scale. It is a place where river, mountain, the sea are all very closely linked in some kind of conversation with each other. Small is beautiful in many senses. People are still very gentle. The pace of life is quiet. But in recent years much has developed, in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse.

Our multi-lingual, multi-religious culture is quite unique.

QUESTION: Tell us more about your recent work in trying to understand Goa and Goans...

Since retiring, I've been trying to spend time to understand Goan history from the point of view of the Goan writer. I've also tried to collect, promote writers from Goa who are in the United States, specially in the New York area. To exchange ideas and talk about their own work.

QUESTION: For example....?

One is Victor Rangel-Ribeiro of Saligao, who's just published a book which is to be shortly released on 'Tivolem', a Goan folk tale.

Then, there's Fordham University professor of theology Jose Pereira who has published Baroque Goa, two years ago, and now has in press 'Baroque India', which is a very monumental work illustrating the various styles and various periods of the architecture in India, which represents that Baroque period. He's also got a publication on the 'mando', which is being reviewed for publication, and will be out next year.

Joao de Vega Coutinho, who is one of the intellectuals from the Margao family of physicians and priests, has just released a book, called 'A Kind of Absence'. It's a very penetrating, searching, meditation on various issues of Goan identity, culture and history.

I think it's an important book and it's probably the most significant statement in the question-form of a Socratic dialogue, in which each one has to understand their own journey through what may be Goan history.

QUESTION: What do you find unique or unusual about this?

Now there are many important Goan writers, historians, novelists, poets writing very good work that has very good national if not international significance.

In the last 10 years I've trying to study the literary works of Goans, maybe to be able to analyze what is special or unique about Goan individuality.

Each one has to have their own perspective based on their own story. Their will vary, depending on whether they were born in Goa, like Joao de Vega Coutinho in Margao, or myself who was born in Bombay in a very cosmopolitan environment during the World War years. It was a time when there was a whole transformation of the colonial societies into nations.

There are also those who were in Africa, some of whom were expelled by Idi Amin and who have now settled in Toronto, those who went to London or elsewhere perhaps as shippies or cooks and butlers or musicians or whatever, they've done good work there and have established communities there.

Besides, there are those who are now in the younger generation, who have been brought up, say as Canadians in Toronto. Or in North America as Americans.

Each one will have a different experience as to what it means to be a Goan, and I think it's important to be able to gather their stories and make some saga out of it. If I may use the term, a Goan saga. There's not one story. There's no one way of being a Goan.

QUESTION: But after all these centuries of defining and re- defining ourselves, where how are now?

We're at that stage now where there's a lot of intellectual critical mass. My own efforts are to try to capture that in the area of NY and Washington. Two years back, we brought together some nine writers. Each of whom spoke about their work, and put together a small volume of proceedings.

I hope to have another one in New York, thanks to an invitation by Dr. Tony Gomes. He is a very famous cardiologist from Verna, who lives in Staten Island, and he has offered to have a reading of poets and a poetry sessions by Goan writers.

There is beginning to be a sort of renaissance -- if I may say -- of intellectuals, writers, educators. Who are very concerned about their own history, their own perspective on that history.

QUESTION: Emigration has obviously played a very important role in the shaping of the Goan identity. How would you view it?

I think emigration has been a very lively tradition among Goans, specially starting in the early part of this century. Partly as a result of their own adventuresomeness, their need for exploration, and maybe they were taking a page from the Portuguese.

And also because of the economic and educational circumstances in which Portugal -- having declined in its particular role in the Far East -- did not have much to offer in terms of medicine or education or literature or law.

But the Portuguese seem to have gone to sleep over their glories. Britain, a much more aggressive colonial power, was able to attract Goans. For music, for education, for services, for management of various administrative functions. Goans had the unique distinction of being attuned to Western culture. Ours is among the first non-Western nations to have entered into what I would call the modern world.

QUESTION: Do you see any new role for the Goan diaspora?

Thanks to initiatives on the Internet, I feel there's beginning to be a very lively interaction among Goans in different parts of the world -- from Africa, Goa, London, America. They're beginning to now engage in some interesting questions.

In several areas they could become helpful through small demonstration projects, or through seminars in Goa.

Specially in the fields of health, mental health, education, computer education in schools, science and technology. Knowhow and technology could be adapted to the needs of Goa.

There are very competent professionals now among Goans (based abroad). They may be looking for an opportunity to contribute. I'm trying to promote, to define some areas -- health and education, science and technology, trade and commerce, management education -- and am trying to promote the idea of expatriate Goans visiting Goa to give a lecture or two.

QUESTION: Tell us about your own initiatives for helping the aging generation and those into retirement?

I had planned a seminar on the challenges of retirement, with a focus on planning for security and serenity. My own concept of retirement, which I've begun to experience over the last year, is that it is a new adventure and a new beginning. It's an opportunity for the person to look upon a certain freedom to play the director's role in the script that he or she is writing. It's your drama, you can write your script.

You can perform the drama of retirement. You've got eight hours freed-up from the usual boss-and-office schedule and when you think about it, you've got that precious eight hours -- after you've given eight hours for sleep and eight hours for the precious survival functions, like family relations -- so if you retire in the early 'sixties, with today's life expectancy, you can expect to have at least another ten or twenty golden years.

What are the opportunities that you can use with that free time to contribute to the society which has given you something to make you prosperous. It's time to return the favour, and perhaps return it to Goa, where there are signs of development, and help it move into the 21st century with a certain kind of creativity. There is a major role for Goans. They are very bright people. I hope they diversify their interests into medicine, law, services, or management.

Frederick Noronha Journalist
House # 784, Saligao
GOA 403511 INDIA
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Email: fred@goa1.dot.net.in