Selma - If only, one of the 'fair maidens' had been conferred on Piety ! He has known much sorrow over what he percieves as life's indignities, and insists on sharing the pain with us, and most of all, with a bishop. The 'B' word was rarely used by us, even in private, it was always that single word in Konkanni that connotes 'one of us', but i dont believe that made us unique. The conduct is universal, we seek comfort and consort with the familiar. Taking that a step further, a person would typically 'book' a cousins', or even a sibling's child, soon after it's birth, to determine a future match for his own, explaining the common phenomenon of close marriages wihin our tribe. I was only fifteen when i 'discovered' that an aunt had 'saved' a daughter for me ! Noronha was carted to Lucknow by his bulls, but we were typically compelled to get around on foot; matchmakers felt compelled to return home before dusk, they feared ghosts and snakes more than anything else ! This probably explains the consanguinous village clusters - "Assagao,Porvorim, Saligao", "Aldona,Moira,Uccassaim". I try to understand our traditions, and continue to respect them. They are a little different, for example, from the culture of some folk in places like Dharavi, Soho, and the Bronx: a client had nine children, each with a different surname, on the New York benefit card. On a personal note, people in Assagao only get it when i tell them that my mother is a daughter of Antonio Seth, since there several DSousa/Fonseca clans in town. We refer to the hindu Seths in the vaddo, goldsmiths by tradition, as our cousins, even as we infused a healthy dose of Marrano blood into ourselves. I must advise our inhouse sociopath that Seth is not a four letter word, and kashti/bhatcar derogate. Our greater tribe has had some not so pleasant precedants in it's conduct in India, but then he may also want to nail us for what happens in Kandahar in this age, and poor Gilbert will have to skip his Christmas festivities to respond. eric.
Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: --- Roland Francis wrote: > Also interestingly, most villages in Bardez boasted > of Bamons while only a > few villages in Salcete would make that claim. In > Ponda of course there were > the Aguiars, a name I vividly remember due to the > beautiful Sulana with whom > I recall a few pleasurable brushes. -------------------------------------------- How strange Roland that you should be familiar with my own family line. Perhaps the world is flat afterall. Some of those beautiful Aguiar girls with fair skin and green eyes, were married off to sudhirs, who might have had a penny or two more than their fathers. Strangely then, while part of my family spoke impeccable Konkanni and Portuguese , held positions as officers during the Portuguese era (not a mean feat), and one went onto become a nationally renowned tiarists, another part of my family still faced the stigma of caste. It would be an interesting project to trace these family roots and write about them. This caste thing is a lot more complicated than we imagine it to be, and the depths of its complexity are only being unraveled now that we have loosened its clutches. However, we mustn't fall into the trap of examining it with 21st century sensibilities. Personally I feel Goa has come a long way and caste today is relegated to the matrimonial ads. Any form of discrimination is ultimately a matter of power, mostly economic and the Bamons of Goa are not in a position of power to perpetuate this artificially erected hierarchy. That said, other forms of discrimination have arisen in Goa which are far more insidious, but that discussion falls outside the scope of this one. selma ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping --------------------------------- Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.