about viva Damão!
If this blog were a book, it’d probably read like Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist except that, unlike Santiago, I never ventured out of Daman, but have, nevertheless, been on the Hero’s Journey.
Like Santiago, I’ve also been lured offtrack—by modern-day shiny object syndrome—but I keep coming back ‘home’ to:
• Writing: My true calling
• Music: My passion
• HR: The shadow profession that paid the bills so I could pursue my passions as a multipotentialite.
Because home is where the heart is.
I’ve been living and working—and having the time of my life musicking—in this erstwhile Portuguese enclave by the Arabian Sea.
Originally, this blog had been launched by the late Dr Pedro Cabral Adão, Portuguese Consul General (Goa) on Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Portuguesas (Portugal Day) in 2006.
L: Dr. Pedro Cabral Adão; R: Noel Gama
Then, because of my writing style, I was offered a publishing deal by Survival Books (UK) for writing Culture Wise India and, as a consequence, my priorities changed and I abandoned the blog.
Dr Saurabh Mishra, IAS
Fast forward to 2021 when I was lucky to have had a chance meeting with Dr. Saurabh Mishra, IAS officer stationed in Daman. His keen interest in Daman’s colonial history and architectural heritage was instantly contagious. At the end of our brief exchange by the tennis court that evening, he suggested that I blog about Daman’s cultural heritage.
Dr Saurabh Mishra, Collector (Daman), speaking at the XVI International Seminar on Indo-Portuguese History
The spark that finally ignited this long-smouldering blog project came when Dr. Mishra introduced me to his colleague as “The last of the Mohicans.”
Coincidentally, I had just been awarded the highest-ever bursary by The Novelry 🇬🇧 and I had started writing the first few chapters of King Of Diamonds—a romance novel set in Damão, circa 1961.
So I thought, why not create a ‘real’ world for the characters in the novel—in blog format. It’d be a great resource for plotting the entire “Viva Damão! Romance Series.”
And that’s how the blog got its new domain name.
Come to think of it, as this blog grows, it’s going to provide me with content for two WIP nonfiction books:
📕 Viva Damão! The Insider’s Guide to the Indo-Portuguese Culture, Customs & Etiquette of Daman
📕 Fado Damão: Bluesy Memories of the Town That Built Me —A Memoir
BUT WHAT’S HR GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Everything! HR permeates life and work—not just work.
All three sections of this website are about people—only the labels are different:
Home: Living in Daman—🏷️Community
Work: Human ‘Writes’ for HR Renegades—🏷️Employees
Leisure: Musicking—🏷️Audience
I hope the Human Writes section inspires my fellow pen-wielding HR renegades to stay back in their own hometown, wherever that may be.
However successful some of our HR colleagues may be overseas, all they contribute to is, “making their country proud.” That sounds rather hollow. Because what really matters is the helping hand we lend at home, to our own hometown and, indirectly, to our own country.
At the end of a career abroad, they may be lauded for their contributions, but it’s the enduring legacy we leave behind at home that counts, and will be cherished.
You don’t have to leave your hometown to, as they say, “shake the world”—a small pebble flung into the biggest of ponds will send ripples across it.
That’s just what I set in motion when I started my first blog about Daman way back in 2006. And in return, my hometown helped me bring the trophies (listed below) home to share with my townspeople: