The Last Mile of Braganza Reign (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798894468785)

The three south Goa villages were the last bastion of resistance to the Portuguese conversion drive during their colonial rule in Goa. By the final decade of their rule, the same villages became a stronghold of the converts' descendants, many of whom were families of seafarers. As fathers went to sea, the children were left under mother's supervision.

Two boys meet at a village school and turn into unlikely mates by fate. 15-year old Bruno, a studious disciplined kid is stirred by empathy for 17-year old Caetano, a boisterous restless soul who longs to have a friend that he feels he never had.

Bruno accepts Caetano's friendship with a commitment: to help him out with his studies and wean him off an alcohol addiction that Bruno suspects. But the wayward Caetano drags a naive Bruno into messy encounters of his freedom-fighter uncle Stalin. Getting wind of it, Bruno's father packs off his son to a far-off Belgaum school leaving his doting mother heartbroken.

Two years on, in the wake of a consular, trade and travel blockade of Goa, the besieged enclave is put to extreme hardship. Passing his matric, Bruno comes home to sail to Africa while Caetano has dropped out of school and plans to join the ship. As their paths cross again, a freak incident put their plans on hold. The boys head for the foothills in search of a quick getaway - the illegal forest route.

A tale of errant boys, a mother's bond and, whispers in the wind from the shadowy past.