You can take a Goan out from Goa but you can never take the Gõykarponn out from a Goan.
He was born into a family devoted to art and culture. His grandfather Socorro de Verna, an artiste decorated with the chequered Goa State Cultural Award, was a cherished ‘fellgoddo’, a doyen of Konkani khells or fells presented during carnival days predominantly in Salcete. In the yesteryears, the fells were more in song than dialogues and he grew up listening to the tokad played by the brass band before the fells.
His childhood and youth days were spent around the church of Nagoa, where he lives at a stone's throw distance. Inclined towards music and coming from a family that adorned music and has music in its veins, Cajy began singing in the church choir, where he trained his vocal cords to bring out a voice in thanksgiving to the Almighty for the favours and gifts bestowed upon him. He went ahead praising and thanking God and is today known in the Tiatr world as Cajy Pereira!
An engineer by qualification, Cajy could not leave behind his gift of singing that he lovingly nurtured in the precincts of the church. Being a professional and doing well in his career, his friends persuaded him not to make a foray into singing on stage as it would affect his career since the educated look down upon tiatr. But the cultural heritage that was deeply rooted in his concept of Gõykarponn, and the music flowing in his veins along with blood, he decided to give vent to his creative life and created a place of pride for himself acting for directors like Com Ambe, Com Domnick Coelho, Menino Mario, Mariano Fernandes, AM Pacheco and others.
I had the honour of working with Cajy and then was pleased to have him singing in our Kala Niketan troupe tiatrs and in the classic tiatr Ghorabo of Nelson Afonso, which I was privileged to direct during the 125 years celebration of tiatr. Cajy is a great asset to any director. He is so down to earth and pleasing to talk to that directors would request him for help knowing well that he will always be available in times of need while staging a tiatr. He is a brilliant singer and is well known for his unique melody and exceptional style of singing, that is his own!
Migration is an inevitable stage in an achiever's life and Cajy landed in the United Kingdom to make a decent living. As he settled into a job, his presence got noticed. With the Goan diaspora in London growing, tiatr performances too began in right earnest. Directors were putting up their performances and Cajy became a prized possession to these directors. The directors knew the forte of Cajy; composing duets duos trios and quartets that drove the tiatr lovers to the auditoriums and village mattovs to watch the tiatrs staged by the legendary tiatrists of yesteryears.
Before Covid-19 struck and the whole world locked themselves indoors, Cajy performed in the tiatrs written and directed by Peter de Merces, Fr Lucas Rodrigues and Lawrence Camelo among others and in numerous musical shows. Post-Covid he was part of the commercially and critically acclaimed tiatr by S Caitan, titled Hi Dekh Konnank. The contribution and involvement of Cajy for any director is 100%. As the need arises, Cajy ends up composing songs for other singers too besides composing soothing kantos for the tiatrs.
Besides the tiatr stage, Cajy joined the multitudes in rendering his voice and uploading his composition on the YouTube channel. His latest composition, a Konkani-English bilingual, 'All Alone' featuring his son Declan and Anoushka is currently trending viral on the channel.
Cajy is blessed and carries on his work thanking God for his innumerable blessings. These blessings have come to him in magnitude enabling him to render his compositions in Konkani travelling to Dubai, France and USA besides India and UK where he lives. His compositions have also been rendered by the Goan Nightingale Lorna Cordeiro!
Cajy believes that…
We need to keep our traditions alive and in the same breath should evolve with the times.
Youngsters today are more interested in modern music rather than tiatr songs which are uploaded on YouTube. But none can match the music and lyrics of the compositions of our legendary tiatrists.
There are wonderful Konkani musical productions on YouTube with superb music and videography but the songwriting is not up to the mark.
To remedy the situation he feels that we need to dig our roots and be proud of our rich cultural heritage. We need to read books of poetry and other literary works so that our vocabulary and composing skills get updated.
Cajy is today an inspiration to youngsters to compose meaningful lyrics that they could be proud of even after two or three decades. He believes that the sky's the limit and aims to keep soaring higher and higher, flying high the flag of Konkani culture and music.
