Little things..

I am in Macao again. This time in better spirits. It is gonna be a shorter stay.Lectures in strange tongues are no longer to be.

Couple of days into my stay we went to a lagar. A lagar is an oil press. Olives from the cultivators around reach here and through a series of semi- mechanised processes oil is extracted in sweetsmelling barrelfulls. Dani explained to me how the system works- how the olives are washed in warm water, crushed, then spread as layers on the round weed mats, stacked and pressed to extract the virgin oil. The workman told us that a good thirty kilograms of olives yield about three litres of oil.

Its the first time since coming to Macao that i am encountering activity of this kind. People red- faced and tired from a hard days work. All we saw were shops and bars and offices and an occasional old lady working in her kitchen garden.Dullness was the rule.

The burly workman at the mill had a warm air about him. He greeted us with firm handshakes rather than the usual kisses. The best was when he warmed bread for us on embers and served it on a metal plate with a generous amount of warm oil poured on it.Dani had already introduced me to the wonders of olive oil poured over food. But nothing had prepared me for the way the flavour and smell of the virgin oil had soaked into the crisp golden brown crust of the home-made bread pieces.

Its good that the place still has surprises in store. Be it a flavour hidden in a lagar or today's evening sky with its shades of magenta and purple.For, I feel the cheer rain out of me with each passing day in Macao. Why so, I wonder! Macao it seems has closed upon itself. Despite their long stay, everyone who has come here is a perpetual outsider. This is inspite of the language, inspite of the colour. Its not as if the people are leading an unhappy life. They have their festivals an their joys.White and blue lights and christmas trees have started to line the streetsides. Its only that they don't need us here to disturb the tranquility-the old and Catholic tranquility.