Long ago, some half-wit must have come up with the story of how Goans are like crabs. Actually I am not sure the story orginated with Goans as I had been hearing my Maharastrian friends in Bombay telling the same story long before it became popular with Goans. So it looks like the Goans just copied it.
The Goan version goes like this. If there is some Goan achiever (and our Lola Vaz-Rafearo is the lastest to repeat this on this forum), the rest of the Goans pull him or her down like crabs in a basket. Since Vidyadhar Gadgil's exhortation is to "Question Everything", I have been questioning the crab story. Now I ask you: In order to be pulled down by other crabs in a basket, doesn't one have to be a crab oneself? And after being pulled down, doesn't one start pulling another down and so on and so forth? So who is the bad crab and who is the good crab? Now, if one were not in the basket, or one were not a crab, would one not avoid the risk of being pulled down entirely? I seek an answer. Roland. -- Roland Francis Toronto +1 (416) 453.3371
