Century-old heirloom stolen from Goan home of ex-brigadier stuck abroad due to lockdown
The brigadier and family had travelled to Canberra, Australia in what was expected to be a brief holiday with them scheduled to return home by the last week of March. But the Covid-19 pandemic laid waste to their plans.
A century-old family heirloom that was handed down from mother to daughter, generation after generation and worth around Rs 3 lakh, has been stolen from the Goa home of a retired army officer while the family is stranded abroad due to curbs imposed on international flights in the wake of Covid-19 lockdown.
An FIR was filed at the Porvorim Police Station by the brigadier’s brother after the servant noticed that the house was broken into. According to the FIR, the home was broken into on the intervening night of June 20-21 and goods -- mainly jewellery -- worth Rs 9-lakh have been stolen. Police have made little headway in the case.
“We had an electronic safe embedded in a wall in one of our wardrobes that they levered out with a crowbar and carried it away. It had my wife’s valuable jewellery in it. The cops brought sniffer dogs and lifted prints etc, but so far no leads. We are not hopeful of recovering anything, and have reconciled to our loss,” Brig NH Braganza (retd) said.
He said among the jewellery that was stolen was one traditional ancestral necklace belonging to his wife’s family.
“One item of jewellery in the electronic safe was a traditional ancestral necklace worn by matriarchs in my wife’s state, Meghalaya, handed down over generations, that she inherited in 2013.That necklace has immense sentimental value for the family,” the brigadier said.
The family has launched an online appeal for any news of the stolen heirloom, hoping that if the thieves attempt to pawn it off, it will trigger red flags among those seeking to buy it.
The Brigadier, who fought in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War, retired from the Indian Army in 2003 and has been living at Defence Colony in Goa since then. He along with his wife and family had travelled to Canberra, Australia in what was expected to be a brief holiday with them scheduled to return home by the last week of March. But the lockdown imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic laid waste to their plans.
M Braganza, who hails from Meghalaya, is hoping that if nothing else, the necklace can be found.
“To me, the necklace is priceless. It is a family heirloom. It belonged to my grandmother, who would have got it from her mother. I inherited it from my mother who died at the age of 95. According to family tradition, it should go to my youngest daughter and then to her daughter (who is now 11),” she said.
“Such a necklace will very conservatively cost about Rs 3 lakh. The value is not just of the gold but the size and quality of its coral beads. You rarely get beads of this quality and size anymore. In fact, it is near impossible to find a necklace such as this in the market,” she said.
The necklace is called a “U Kpieng paila” in Khasi. It forms part of Khasi traditional attire. In most old photographs of Khasi families in Meghalaya, the matriarchs can be seen wearing this necklace. At traditional Khasi festivals and dances such as the Nongkrem festival (usually held in November) or the Shad Suk Mynsiem festival in Shillong (held in April), both male and female dancers can be seen wearing several strands of this necklace. It is said to symbolize the wealth of the family or clan.
