# Edila Gaitonde

Edila Gaitonde (born Edila Brum Dutra de Andrade; 3 November 1920 – 27 July 2021) was a Portuguese musician and writer.

## Life and career
### Early life

Edila Brum Dutra de Andrade was born on 3 November 1920 to Júlio Dutra Andrade and Adelaide Albertina Brum, on the Faial Island in the Azores islands just off the coast of Portugal. Júlio was a poet, playwright, journalist and sportsman who had published several books of his own.
Edila's parents were amateur musicians and encouraged her to study music further. She thus joined the Lisbon Music Conservatory to study music and pursue it as a career. By 1943, the family had moved to Lisbon for the same. Back then, it was rare for an Azorean woman to move to Lisbon.

### First marriage

In 1947, Edila while busy with her studies, fell ill for a long period of time, caused by her exhaustion. Her cousin then invited Pundalik Gaitonde, a doctor, to visit her. Gaitonde diagnosed her with double pleurisy. Her recovery took a year, during which she fell in love with Gaitonde.
Pundalik and Edila decided to marry, but faced stiff opposition from their respective families. However, Pundalik's father later relented and granted permission. Pundalik and Edila married in 1948, making her the first Portuguese Catholic woman to marry a Goan Hindu man. and spent their honeymoon at Peniche.
The reason why Gaitonde selected Peniche as the honeymoon destination was that Peniche was the location of the prison-fort where several activists of the Goa Liberation Movement such as Tristão de Bragança Cunha, Purushottam Kakodkar, Rama Hegde, José Inácio Candido de Loyola and Laxmikant Bhembre were imprisoned. These prisoners organised a celebration in honour of Pundalik and Edila. They hosted a meal for the newly-weds. A woman journalist from France was on a visit to the prison in order to meet Tristão de Bragança Cunha. When she questioned Pundalik Gaitonde about why he had selected Peniche as the destination for the honeymoon, Dr. Gaitonde replied, "Homage to sacrifice!"

### Life after first marriage

They soon moved to Goa, with Edila moving in with Gaitonde's Hindu family. Gaitonde then began his medical practice there, while continuing his nationalist activities as part of the National Congress (Goa). Against the family's advice, Edila started a music school with the intention of the Western classical music education in Goa. In 1952, she trained 30 candidates for the examinations of the Royal School of Music in London. The school sent an examiner to Goa only for this.
When Gaitonde was arrested and deported to Portugal in 1954, Edila travelled with him. He was initially detained in the Aljube prison in Lisbon and later placed under house arrest in Porto. Later in 1955, they moved to India, living in Mumbai and subsequently in Delhi.
In 1962, Edila moved to London to resume her professional career in music, she moved to London. Gaitonde soon followed, and he lived there till his death in 1992. Meanwhile, Edila taught music in multiple high schools and they both published multiple books.

### Writing career

Edila authored multiple books. Her first book, In Search of Tomorrow, covers her life in India after her marriage. Her second book, The Tulsi, is a collection of short stories, including about the life of a Catholic Portuguese woman and her experiences in a Goan Hindu household. Her last book, Edmund the Mariner, covers the Spanish rule in Portugal, drawing a parallel to the Portuguese rule in Goa. She also wrote As Maçãs Azuis: Portugal e Goa 1948–1961 (transl. The Blue Apples: Portugal and Goa 1948-1961), describing to her mother.

### Second marriage

Later, while visiting Portugal, she was reunited with António Nava, now a widower and the father of the poet Luís Miguel Nava. Nava and Edila were briefly in a relationship during their youth, while they lived in Faial Island. Nava and Edila got married in 2010, and lived in Leça de Palmeira, in Porto, until his death in 2017.

### Death

Edila died on 27 July 2021 at the age of 100.

## Works

* In Search of Tomorrow
* The Tulsi
* As Maçãs Azuis: Portugal e Goa 1948–1961 (transl. The Blue Apples: Portugal and Goa 1948-1961)
* Edmund the Mariner