Last year ended with a slow, quiet, and contemplative assignment—photographing an uncommon landscape crafted by Varna Shashidhar Landscape Architects, that embraces a retreat home in the village of Parra, North Goa. The 130-year-old structure has been tastefully and sensitively restored by Rochelle Santimano and her team at Studio Praia. Replete with beautiful terrazzo floors, slatted windows, and a large, inviting porch with colonnades, it made me wish that late afternoons would stretch endlessly.
A wild English herb garden hems in the front, brimming with snakeweed, cat’s whiskers, lavender, and periwinkle, each lacing the breeze with its own aromatic concoction. The repetitive, reassuring call of a visiting tailorbird echoes across the patio. Panicles of desho grass glow in the winter sun. A variety of ferns colonize the laterite walkway, while a large mango tree stakes its claim over the courtyard.
The home shares a wall with the mid-seventeenth-century St. Anne’s Church, where the hum of carols keeps me in constant company. It takes me back in time—visions of palm-lined streets in Dongorpur, Calangute, flicker before me, along with the silhouette of a studio where I made my first salt prints. Dappled light, Kings beer, and a momentary pang of loss.
In the evening, the people of Parra gather outside the church for Family Day rehearsals—the strumming of acoustic guitars, the bursts of laughter, the encouragement of fellow performers. Konkani sounds so pleasing to my ears. I slowly venture into the crowd, eavesdropping on conversations, feeling as though I am walking through a Damodar Mauzo story.
The taxi is here. It is time to leave. Carefully, I pack a little bit of Parra in my backpack.
