A SHORE THING

Annalea Barreto and Mavrick Cardoz eschewed the big fat Goan wedding for a DIY, intimate, seaside affair that was true to their individual selves.

- NIDHI GUPTA

DEEP IN SOUTH Goa’s Canacona district lies a pristine beach shrouded in casuarina trees, where Olive Ridley turtles go to hatch every spring and only the most adventurous tourists venture through the year. On a late January afternoon in 2022, Mavrick Cardoz asked Annalea Barreto, his girlfriend of eight years, to accompany him to the beach and help him find a beloved watch he said he’d lost.

“We were walking on the beach, him a few steps behind me. At one point, I turned around and there he was, on his knees. He was choking, he couldn’t get the words out. He’s always been the more emotional one of the two of us,” Barreto remembers with a laugh. But it wasn’t like she was expecting this proposal either. “I had brainwashed her into believing that I was not ready,” grins Cardoz.

“Then I’d organised this huge family event for Christmas and New Year’s, arranging for her family and mine to fly in from different parts of the world,” Cardoz continues. “But I knew that if I made a public declaration, she’d die of embarrassment. So I proposed in the privacy of this deserted beach, while my brother lurked behind the trees flying a drone to capture the whole thing.”

They had met, also around Christmas, back in 2013—in a universe where online dating was yet to become a thing—as a result of the expansive networks of Goan families and the urgent need to use a washroom at 2 am. “After a few social meetings and a date, she kissed me without saying a word,” teases Cardoz. “I would have never done that if it weren’t for the fact that we were both getting out of existing relationships. Plus, he was tall, dark and handsome, and he could play the guitar—exactly my type,” Barreto shoots back.