May I also confess to being a phoney Goan? When I worked for Deccan Herald (Bangalore), I had this strange experience with another Noronha (who just couldn't place me, and kept guessing ... for caste or other reasons). After he probed for awhile, he just gave up, saying, "OK, you must be from Mangalore."
My son is the first one (in an extended family of eight or more) to be born in Goa in over 75 years! I was born half-way around the globe, and believe any connections to Goa by ancestry are only incidental, if not accidental. I accept that all claims to Goanity depend on accidents of history -- i.e. Portuguese conquest, and territorial deals they worked out with neighbouring feudal leaders of the time. If I'm based in Goa and write about it, it's because I understand this part of the globe better than most others (again, accidents of history). My immediate family has been more closely connected with Belgaum, Kharagpur, Sao Paulo, Phoenicia (NY State), Bombay and elsewhere, rather than with Goa. So please do grant me phoney Goan status too. -- FN 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 (phone calls after 1 pm please) Free the airwaves... for India's sake (see the article at the URL below) [http://www.tehelka.com/home/20061111/20061111.asp?filename=18.jpg] _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org