-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goan Dreams and Penguin Kisses
By V. M. de Malar She's a real-life hometown hero, a fiercely loyal daughter of Verna who studied entirely in Goan schools before heading off in pursuit of scientific excellence. Here, we're taking down the bright lights of IFFI and turning into the peak of high season. Meanwhile, Dr. Helga do Rosario Gomes is aboard an icebreaking ship near Antarctica, surrounded by giant ice floes and penguins, and the apparatus of a world-class scientific expedition. She corresponded with us by e-mail, you can get exciting updates from her illustrated online diary (or blog) at www.goantoantarctica.blogspot.com. Early on, the going was rough. Helga wrote, "conversation in the dining hall is monosyllabic. Seems like everyone is on a bad date! All around us is debris of ice, monster chunks which our ship has overturned... I feel we are not on this planet. The horizon is almost invisible and the 24 hour blinding light scatters off the white ice and makes it look like we are under giant floodlights." But things have improved, the blog reports that the scientists had even set up a party this weekend. "Much coveted beer was set up on the ice.... but as we disembarked everyone except a few diehard alcohol lovers lost interest. For there, almost within touching distance, was a huge group of Emperor penguins watching us curiously." The scientists are strictly forbidden to touch fauna, but not the other way around. So, Dr. Gomes writes, all these high-powered researchers lay down on ice like Sleeping Beauty, and "for the rest of the night the Emperors toyed with our hearts, coming real close to us while we lay immobile and freezing on the ice, and just when we thought we would wake up as princes/princesses they would lose interest and walk away. No one got a kiss." Serious scientific work is rather removed from the realm of fairy tales, but it's hard to resist the homegrown charm and happy endings in Dr. Gomes's story, which comes complete with a Goan hero who looks suspiciously like Errol Flynn by her side. Her husband, the improbably dashing and world-reputed scientist Dr. Joaquim Goes, is team leader on this expedition. Their groundbreaking research on the impact of ultraviolet light on marine phytoplankton has profound global implications, especially in understanding the impact of the continuing depletion of the ozone layer. Our intrepid Goan duo has engaged in this critical research for years, they've attracted funding from the leading scientific agencies in the world including NASA and the prestigious National Science Foundation of the USA. Even with all that, even isolated in the frozen ocean under a midnight sun, Dr. Gomes writes that "there's never a day when Goa is not in my mind" and quotes an African proverb, "every man has a map in his heart of his own country, and the heart will never allow you to forget this map." The compass of the true Goan soul always points home, and this brave daughter of our soil doesn't hesitate to give credit to the roots that have nourished her growth. "Goa has contributed to everything I am and would like to be," she says, "and my ties to the village, my friends and my relatives in Goa have given me a safety net." Dr. Gomes has demonstrated by example that we in Goa are perfectly capable of the highest achievements. She writes, "there is nothing in our culture..to prevent us from being world class achievers. We shouldn't believe or teach our kids that parochialism, communalism, or the caste structure, can prevent us from giving our best." But she also sees a worrying dark cloud on the horizon for future generations of our community, warning us about the increasing likelihood that "young Goans will inherit a troubled Goa of severe environmental destruction and blatant corruption." Anyway, some time in the coming weeks, a car will turn into the old Verna road and there will be an eager, perhaps slightly frozen-looking, face carefully checking the old neighborhood for changes. All that forbidding ice and those fickle penguins left far behind; Dr. Helga do Rosario Gomes will be home again. Till that happy moment, our thoughts and prayers go with her into that frozen frontier. We're rooting for you, Helga, stay warm. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * G * O * A * N * E * T *** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Spread the Christmas cheer - even when you're not here! Send Christmas Greetings to your loved ones in Goa. 2005 Christmas Package - Flowers, Bubbles and Layers of Love. http://www.goa-world.com/expressions/xmas/ -----------------------------------------------------------------------