Alan is a descendant of the Machado Prabhu family, ganvkars of Aldona who emigrated to Mermajal circa 1680. Only Joao survived the Captivity. An engineer by profession, Alan has been a passionate investigator of the history of his community and author of Sarasvati’s Children, and The Captivity of 1784. Alan is currently working on a major historical work on the Captivity and its causes, citing a wealth of new information and offering incisive interpretations on this traumatic episode in the community’s history.