My grandfather, Alex De Souza, from the Goan village of Sangolda, was a typical early emigrant to Burma. At his parish school, he had studied Portuguese, Konkani, Christian doctrine and sacred music. He went to Rangoon in the first decade of the 20th century. This was an era of silent movies, when live musicians with excellent sight-reading skills were needed to provide the background music to the films being screened, from printed scores provided by the producers. Musicians were also needed for the orchestras that played in hotels and clubs, and in British military bands. Talented Goan musicians found ready opportunities in the large cities of British India, of which Burma was then a part. In Rangoon, living in a 'chummery' (bachelor lodgings) to begin with, Alex joined a string quartet of violins, viola and cello, playing light chamber music such as Strauss waltzes, Hungarian dances, Gypsy airs, Italian ballads (cancions), Iberian tangos and the like for formal luncheons and dinners at the Strand Hotel and Pegu Club.
He soon was offered more-lucrative opportunities to play background music for silent films in larger orchestras at the Excelsior and other movie theatres in Rangoon. Socially, he came in contact with a well-off, and much anglicised, De Souza family, residing in the Indian upper-class Bauktaw suburb of the city. They also owned a holiday home in Kalaw, a lovely hill station perched at nearly 4500 ft on the western rim of the Shan plateau, to which they would retire every sweltering Burmese summer. The family had four well-educated and stylish daughters, Mary, Maud, Kate and Agatha.