69-Year-Old Saves Goa's Heritage Homes Through Stories

At 69, Heta Pandit has turned Goa's most beautiful homes into living history books, and the stories she's uncovered will change how you see every old building.

For nearly three decades, this former chimpanzee researcher and tea plantation manager has been knocking on doors across Goa, asking families to share what their homes have witnessed. Her latest book, "Stories from Goan Houses," celebrates 21 families who turned preserving their heritage into acts of love.

Take the Costa Frias House in Candolim, where Nirmala has lived since 1969. Her dining room features a pink marble washbasin imported from Italy, a detail that whispers of an era when families spared no expense to honor their gathering spaces. Her son Jose now spends his days crafting a family tree that breaks tradition by including daughters' names alongside sons.

Or the Gaunekar House in Bandora, painted in yellow ochre and burnt clay, where children who once rode British-made trucks down dusty roads only recently replaced their wood-fire stoves. These 250-year-old walls still stand strong, cradling memories across seven generations.

When Heta first started documenting Goan homes in 1998, families were reluctant to open up. They didn't trust outsiders with their stories, and many felt shame about the financial struggles of keeping old homes alive. But something shifted over the years.

"Now they want the whole world to know about it," Heta says. Families who once hid their challenges now proudly share how they overcame them, preserving not just buildings but entire worlds of culture, food, and tradition.

Sunny's Take

What makes this story shine is how Heta found purpose in every chapter of her unconventional life. From studying chimps in Tanzania to managing tea gardens after communal riots drove her from Mumbai, she kept reinventing herself. When she arrived in Goa at 41, she discovered her life's work: proving that homes are more than brick and mortar.

The Dempo family, living in their ancestral Dempo Nivas in Calapur, captures this perfectly. Yogesh, who grew up there, says simply: "I am who I am today because of this house." These walls witnessed first steps and last breaths, wedding celebrations and whispered secrets.

Through 11 books and the founding of the Goa Heritage Action Group, Heta has watched awareness grow. Tourists now see beyond Goa's party reputation to appreciate its extraordinary cultural tapestry. Even Goans themselves are rediscovering the uniqueness of their own heritage, looking at their family homes with fresh eyes.

These aren't museum pieces but living homes where families still cook, laugh, and build new memories while honoring old ones.

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