To Goanet - Quick & brief -
On the way back to Panjim this morning from an early photo shoot in Loutolim, I saw a Goan farmer selling fresh vegetables by the roadside in Agacaim. Gaunthi vaingim - http://www.parrikar.org/images/samples/vaingim.jpg Looking at these magnificent brinjals I couldn't help but reflect on what might have been if Goan agriculture - and with it our traditional farmers, mostly gaude - had not been systematically destroyed and diminished. You can't get this quality of produce and its taste anywhere in the world, not even in fertile California. Goa could have been self-sufficient, and farming could have been an export industry as well. We could have employed all our traditional folks, saved our open spaces and fields, and thwarted the take-over by ghatis. Shame on us. The thug Monserrate has destroyed live cultivable fields in Taleigao to make way for monster concrete buildings, mostly to be lapped up by outsiders. If you have sampled the vaingim from Taleigao you will know what real vaingim taste like. Regards, r