The Man-Eaters of Malgoonda and the Last Days of Louella Lobo Prabhu (Paperback)

While Malgoonda is a satirical take on Malgudi, Mangalore may be the last Roman Catholic colony on earth, and in this book of essays, fiction, and biography, even a premier socialite proudly proclaims that her confessor is none other than the Rector of the local Jesuit College. A more rebellious and plain-speaking Dennis Britto accuses the Portuguese of importing syphilis along with Catholicism, and explains that the power of the priests derived from their ability to ban a rebellious Catholic from being buried in the cemetery: an unthinkable fate. Inspired at first by a long essay by widely published author Richard Crasta, who knew Louella Lobo Prabhu for over thirty years and met her a few days before her death, this multi-faceted book depicts, at various lengths, such personalities as Dennis Britto, Malcolm Noronha, Father Claude, an unnamed and spirited Bunt woman, Reuben Nazareth, and others. It also discusses subjects such as "ethnic shame," religious and cultural colonialism, the Christians of Mangalore, the fate of Konkani (a language spoken by three million), and personal and drug-induced slavery. Recalling one of his many meetings with Louella, the author writes, "A bit cocky, I tell her she ought to stop writing plays on Catholic themes, convert herself to Buddhism, invite 1,000 proletarians to celebrate her conversion, and on that occasion, donate one apartment to a poor family." Dennis Britto: "Naturally, all the big important] families wanted their sons to be priests, and so many good families have died out because all their sons either went mad or became priests. So Heaven is full, but Mangalore is empty. Tell me, the Canon Law, does it have balls? And the Pope's gun-does it have bullets?" Whereas Malcolm Noronha says: "Now, anybody with money is a Brahmin." The author concludes: "Louella's passing away was like the passing away of an age of innocence, simplicity, one in which individuals and their uniqueness mattered, and money was not everything. She was flamboyant, one-of-a-kind, larger than life--a "Western Madam in Hindu India," as a poet friend of mine described her. She was the Audrey Hepburn of Mangalore, married, like Audrey's character Eliza Doolittle, to a much older Professor Higgins."