On 06/11/06, Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > You can't just tell us that you are a "phoney Goan" > and not tell us where your ancestors hail from. Please > don't tell me you're an East Indian :0)and by the way > according to Oscar you better be grateful to be > breathing the free Goan air. heh heh heh!
When I was working for Deccan Herald (Bangalore), I would often be asked the question, "So, which village are you from?" Because of its implied caste implications (Cecil Pinto's pretence about not knowing the same notwithstanding) I would just duck the question with a, "I *live* in Saligao" reply. Of course, it was, and is, true. I still *live* there. Geographically, an accurate and unbiased answer, if ever there was one. And, minus caste, Goa's villages are still somewhat/pretty mixed. In other words, you could have a modest house in a snob village. Or a snob house in a modest village. It's not like in Selma's US, where ZIP codes co-relate closely with race and class :-) I would be equally cagey about replying without ambiguity whether I am from Goa, or not. With such a mixed up ancestry, can anyone be certain? I could swear there were Afro genes in my family, just as Miguel believes his has Japanese! And, of course, I don't subscribe to the view that man/Adam/Eve (sorry, Kevin!) originated in Goa. And we're all migrants here, at some or the other point of history. Neither have I had, nor currently want to have (it might change in the future!) any truck with the ideology of Goan chauvinism/racism/racialism. Tell you what: people actually respected me more when they believed I was from Mangalore! Or wherever (provided it was from outside Goa). I guess it's the inverted snobbery of a small state, which assumes, "If you're posted here from outside, you must be good at your job! Else, you're just one of us, gaunties (a local, local)!" So, Selma, I hope you have got a full and comprehensive (if saying-little) answer to your question. Like religion and politics, I guess caste and ethnicity should not be discussed at the dinner table too! --FN PS: Will someone pay me for breaking in the Goan air if we could show it to be increasingly polluted? My friend Dr Nandkumar Kamat has been raising the issue of high SPM levels in and around Panjim/Panaji/Pangim/Ponnje for some time now :-) Sorry for all this name-dropping, mates! -- 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