Feature 19
Thursday, October 31, 2013
By Charlane Pereira e Rebello
D
r John Carmo Rodrigues’ foray into winemaking began at sixteen years of age, below the legal drinking age, when he made wine with jambools. Today, at almost eighty, his collection of wines - over 200 bottles - contain the nutritional benefits of the aloe vera, hibiscus flowers, mulberries and guavas he uses to make them. Dr Rodrigues was a young man of 75 when he bagged the first prize at the Konkan Fruit Festival for his ambado wine. “We had a lot of jambool trees at home. It would get real messy with all the jambools fallen on the ground. That is when I made my first wine – jambool wine. And it was good,” he tells me. Who is Dr John Carmo Rodrigues? He is many things: medical marvel, yoga guru, author, social worker and yes, grape stomping wine maker par excellence. It’s fair to say this elderly gentleman belongs on any list of the ‘most extraordinary Goans.’ And that’s not just because of his accomplishments in the field of medicine, pharmaceuticals, alternative therapies and wine. It’s also because the good doctor has spent a lifetime being just that: good. For him, the concept of giving back to the people he loves has always been a way of life. Dr Rodrigues, a graduate in medical microbiology, was studying to be a doctor when his participation in the Goa Liberation Movement cut short his medical studies and forced an early exit from Goa. He later did his doctorate in alternative medicine, becoming a yoga expert, author, social worker and donning
many other hats, including the one as stomper of grapes. After graduating, Dr John joined Hoechst (Germany’s largest pharmaceutical company) and worked there for over three decades. He reached a senior managerial position, but then decided to take early retirement, return to his roots, and dedicate himself to the good of the community. Today his achievements are many: setting up Konkan Sevadhan, an NGO working for the welfare of landless labourers, introducing the Foot and Mouth and Candur Rabies vaccines into Goa and organising the aerial spraying of cashew and mango crops against the dreaded T-mosquitoes in Gujarat, Ratnagiri and naturally, Goa. He has also organized medical camps in his village, Chinchinim. Other accomplishments include starting a yoga therapy centre and publishing three books on the benefits of urine therapy and other alternative healing practices (“Amaroli”, “Damar Tantra Shiva” and “Energy Healing”). He has trained many world famous personalities in Asthanga Yoga. Dr Rodrigues is fluent in several languages – Portuguese, French, German, Marathi, Konkani and Hindi, and knows a smattering of Gujarati.
Speaking of his father’s positive influence on him, he says, “My dad was born into a wealthy family but preferred to work hard and make his own way. I’ve tried to follow his example.” The glow radiating from the gentle doctor’s face is an endorsement of the philosophy of living life with a positive outlook. As he states with a wise smile, “I have dined with princes and lived with beggars with equal pleasure and ease.” Of all Dr Rodrigues’ extraordinarily diverse pursuits, perhaps none is more notable than his devotion to wine. Having a collection of two hundred exotic wines to his collection, he proudly claims the healing properties of each of them. He picked several bottles of wine lined up against the window sill and showed me the label displayed on each of them. Each tells of the composition, nutritional value and other health benefits, and contains references and website links. His wine
collection is impressive - jambool, ginger, papaya, cashew, aloe vera, muskmelon, custard apple, mulberry, chickoo, caronda, guava, onion garlic-ginger, mango spice and many more. As he showed me his collection, I was amazed at his knowledge and his innovative bent of mind. A wine made from hibiscus (what we commonly refer to as the shoeflower in our gardens) caught my eye. Then there was the curry patta wine! Most of the fruits that he uses for his wines are from his own orchard. His wines sell under the name of Goan Homemade Wines. He let me sample a few of them, and I immediately understood what all the fuss was about. And that Dr John understood the health benefits of moderate wine drinking well before medical science proved it in recent years, somehow didn’t surprise me. On a parting note, he says, “Don’t be attached to worldly things. Attachment is the cause of sorrow. ” He has a special message for our young Goans, “Chase the permanent things of life. Be one-minded no matter what you do.”