Goa is breathtakingly beautiful in August. Every tree, bush, sapling and rice field stands in its amazing green glory. The rivers, ponds and the Arabian Sea simply brim with awesome beauty.

Paula sat in her grandmother's teak rocking chair in her balcao, or porch. She was in her forties. Yet her fair, square face was beautiful despite the few wrinkles it accommodated. She watched the huge bulldozer raze through the grand palatial house of the Mirandas. Her heart sank and her mind was a whirlpool. The bulldozer mercilessly rampaged over the house which once commanded the attention of the entire village called Benfica.

Charmingly narrated, A Matter of Time is a memoir, full of simple episodes that might have been experienced by any child who grew up in a Goan village in the 1980s. Yet, at another level, it gives a picture of the stark reality of how much the topography of most Goan villages has changed over the last few decades... how the lifestyle has changed from simple rural living to a 'modern' one.