Friend From Armenia

Morjim was the best place to get good clients for our business. Madhu had already created an excellent client base through many years of work. Her work ethics and professionalism was well known in Morjim. The kind of network she used to build among people was simply astonishing. She was a people magnet. One day she introduced me to her best friend from Armenia. His name was Artur. He was a chef and he would cook the best kababs in the world. He was living 5 min walking distance from our house in a huge bungalow along with two of his Armenian friends. One of them was a monk who would create classic wooden furniture pieces. Artur was a super high energetic jolly fellow. He was 5.7", white, bald, clean-shaven, always wearing a t-shirt & shorts with a big smile on his face. He was the most helpful and friendly person I had ever met. We became good friends in the first meeting only. He was a very warm-hearted person. He would always hug, touch and play around like a happy fellow with pure energy.

Best part of him was his English. He would always carry a diary where he would note down new words of English. He would speak a very funny broken English with zero consideration for grammar, verbs & tense. We would roll on the floor laughing when he would speak. He was full of emotions & expressions but couldn't convey in proper words. So he would just throw all the words which he knew of English. Sometimes it would make no sense what he would talk. He would always enter our house calling me & Madhu loudly from the main gate only. Everyone would notice his entry. One evening he came to our home very excited. He hugged and jumped on us with excitement as usual. Madhu made nice Turkish coffee and we sat outside in the balcony. Then he told us, "Girl come home evening, she beautiful, I crazy, we do boom boom, she go, I sad, no call, eat dinner, backbone pain, give stretch. What to do brother.....? Life hard." I and Madhu were in stitches. He just explained the whole incident in one crazy funny sentence. He was expert in constructing such sentences. Spending so much time with him made our English also same like him by the time we had left Goa.

Artur was a great help for us in everything. His network was solid in Morjim. He would work with many high-end restaurants as a part-time chef alongside running his own kabab business. Everyone in Morjim and around knew him well. Networking was the key factor in running a successful business. And we already had two networking geniuses. He was a generous and compassionate guy. That was the reason he would suffer losses in his business. He would give away things to the poor and needy without caring for business. I was in love with that quality of him. He was a great human being. Artur would often come to our house in the evening to spend time with us. Every time he would come with some food for us he had cooked. His visits were delicious treats for us. If there was no food then he would bring bed sheets, pillow covers, kitchen utensils or something. I never saw him coming to our house empty-handed. He would insist me to teach him English. And in return, he would offer me that he would get me introduced to some of his Russian girlfriends. That seemed an interesting deal. He always had some stories to share in his unique English. Even his sad storied would make us laugh because of his English. And then he would get angry for laughing at him. He was a character. Me, Madhu and Artur would often sit in the balcony till late night talking about life over a cup of coffee.

Memories Of Goa Are Incomplete Without Artur.