We the Goan students of The London School of Picture & Frame Conservation are in the thick of things! Each day, holds new expectations! Although I retired to bed last night with aching muscles all over my body joints (a result of being in variety of positions similar to doing extreme yoga), I sprung out of bed this morning looking forward with eagerness to today’s work. Time is flying past so quickly in to the future and yet I feel being trapped in a time bubble, with artisans of the yesteryears, enjoying their work so intricate and meticulous that one is left in awe while inspecting the wondrous images, in the form of paintings, frescoes and carvings that we see at the oldest seminary in Goa or even Asia, if I am not mistaken. Our subject thus far has been the enormous oil on canvas of ‘Don Sebastian on his horse’, in battle and victory over the Moors. The painting is in a very bad shape as we all are aware by now, but what has been totally amazing for me is the method Caterina has used (with little resources) in handling the painting, using her acquired skills and intuitive intelligence to handle the sagging canvas, a method almost akin to holding a baby in swaddling clothes, with such care and discipline. This morning was a brain-storming session with all giving various ideas, but Caterina was immaculate in her approach, listening to all, and ensured that the old and heavy canvas would, by no measures, be taken lightly. She ensured that it was securely wrapped before it would be turned over with its back facing up. Without any notice at all, Caterina suddenly asked me where she could find brown paper. It so happened that my cousin brother was in Margao and upon my orders, thanks to Caterina, he quickly set off to find the much needed paper, pronto! The brown paper turned out to be of right quality, thank God!  Caterina never even whispered that she would be putting the paper to a test, for bleed of colour. Piero, as jolly as ever, undertook, the task of testing the paper on white paper in warm water, and as luck would have it, the paper didn’t bleed any orange or red dye, and therefore the 20 sheets of brown paper that were purchased were saved and put to use, failing which they would have perhaps gone down to covering some exercise books of the brothers (soon to be priests) in their theological studies. Brown paper fixation for extra care to the painting Finally, with great pride, we had the painting face down on the cleanest floor I have seen for some time. The old patterned square floor tiles were shining, thanks to our enthusiastic Joanna. I was humbled to see Christopher and Caterina too on their knees, cleaning the floor. What an example this couple is setting to all of us Goan students! Fr. Aleixo Menezes is his usual brilliant self. He keeps storming in and out of our main concourse which we call now, the workshop. He is beaming with energy and happiness that brings joy to my heart too. He is also taking such good care of us and our tummies, leaving no stone unturned. Today we feasted on delicious fresh salad prepared from organic leafy vegetables grown on home soil, fish tandoor, pan-fried fish named Korli (silver-bar fish), curry and rice. To top it, we were offered miskoot (raw mango pickle, yummy!) Sumptuous lunch for us Indian Silver-Bar Fish is a very tasty fish, it has fine long bones all through its body and requires a special technique to cut into slices, let alone the technique to eat it. After turning over the painting on its back all of us students set or shall I say sat to get the PVA glue (left by  previous restorers) off the canvas with due care and gentleness, but the glue was so thick and stubborn that it reminded me of the technique I used to single out the fine bones in the fish at lunch today. I had to be ever so tactful and careful with the scalpel. With precision so as to not get stuck in the throat with fish bones, I extracted the synthetic glue away from the canvas. Securely wrapped before turning it over face down, and ready for relining A little mistake from the past, much time lost! Could have been even more damage to the painting with this awful synthetic glue. My thoughts ran off to the very first day at Picture Conservation school at Altinho, Goa, when I met Caterina in January 2016; her opening lines were, that we would never use irreversible materials, period. Old glue from a previous restoration Piero, has been excellent, and we get by with sign language and his devout efforts at English. He was divine in his preparation of broth (paste), especially made for tomorrow’s relining. His recipe sounds delicious although I have no intentions of tasting it; I am certain it will be a welcome treat for the sagging dying canvas. Again, here we have gone completely natural, which is brilliant! The Picture Conservation team in the form of Christopher, Caterina and Elizabeth are doing a great job here in Goa. Joanna is immaculate in her work and efficient documentation (I got to learn the latter to be disciplined like her). Lovely to have Caecilie from Denmark with us, the students of Goa and I believe that more students are expected as days go by, and I and my colleagues are looking forward to share ideas, moments and goodies with them. I am truly grateful to the almighty and happy to be in company of such a great teacher as Caterina and with Piero, both of whom in turn have surely learnt their own lessons well from their aging restoration aficionados.