Earlier this year, as I walked down Manuel Gonsalves Road, close to the Cotton World store, a signboard caught my eye. It was outside the entrance of the Hostel for Working Women. Something, however, was amiss with the sign. The sign read “Manual Gonsalves Hostel for Working Women”.
It occurred to me that being situated on Manuel Gonsalves Road, and named after the same person as the street was, the irony lay in the spelling of the first name. “Manual”, after all, refers to either a type of engine transmission, or a book of instructions. “Manuel”, on the other hand, is from “Emmanuel”. After the initial chuckle, it was fairly obvious that no one had noticed this rather obvious slip up.
An email to the person in charge of the Hostel for Working Women, Mrs. Fonseca, followed. While I was initially disappointed at not receiving a response, I was soon pleasantly surprised to find that in a week’s time, the board had been corrected. An errant alphabet had been changed to reflect the person’s correct name.
While we often use the road that bears his name, not many in Bandra know who Manuel Gonsalves was. The “Bombay East Indian Association 1887-1937 Golden Jubilee Souvenir” released in the year 1938 mentions him as “an East Indian philanthropist, from Malla, Bandra; whose charities cover many institutions. He was the moving spirit in building St. Anne’s Chapel. St. F. Xavier School, Sherly; and Manuel Gonsalves Widows’ Home, Pali Road”.
Indeed, Manuel Gonsalves is perhaps best known for rebuilding St. Anne’s Chapel (now Church) in 1896. The stone tablet at the entrance of the church mentions him too, though, as “Manoel”, due to Portuguese phonetics of the day. On his passing, he was granted a perpetual grave, with an inscription in Portuguese, acknowledging his work in renovating and expanding the Chapel.
The document from 1938 also goes on to mention that “he donated and bequeathed large sums of money to various religious and charitable institutions”. After his demise, his wife, Mrs. Maria Francisca Gonsalves carried out his philanthropic work in his name.
The name of Manuel Gonsalves, one of Bandra’s once well known resident quickly being restored on the board of the Hostel for Working Women, brought me the realization that all of us can make the effort to correct an oversight. An alphabet can restore the good name of a good man. So the next time you spot an anomaly, make the effort to try and correct it. The result might pleasantly surprise you.
Debasish Chakraverty
