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Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Bennet, A fascinating story! I've too heard of the Abdul Razaks in Goa, but not clear about their history... When I was working at the Herald sometime in the 1990s, we had a Konkani-speaking Sikh there! He was a thin guy, and didn't wear a turban, but rather the hair-tied-in-a-handkerchief kind of thing that younger Sikhs wear. A little later, I discovered a couple of Oriyas there who could speak Konkani fluently. If I recall, one's name was Santosh. "Amkam Konknni shipkak sopem (We find Konkani easy to learn)," he told me. Later, I found a Kannadiga speaking Konkani in the most unusual of places -- the Baina red-light slum. Not just that, he spoke it with a fluent Sashti accent/diction, which had me floored. He told me he had learnt it while on the trawlers. (A number of urban poor lived in Baina then, before demolished by the Parrikar government, not just sex-workers.) If you're wondering what I was doing there, these visits were in connection with a media fellowship on gender issues which I was then working on. FN PS: What is Selma's point? That because expat Goans find it difficult/don't find the need to learn Konkani, others won't be studying/using/speaking it too? If so, I would disagree (subject to the comments in my earlier post)... FN +91-832-2409490 or +91-9822122436 #784 Nr Lourdes Convent, Saligao 403511 Goa India http://fn.goa-india.org http://goa1556.goa-india.org On 5 November 2011 11:06, PAES <bennetp...@yahoo.com> wrote: > A > Konkani speaking Kuwaiti > It was at a > photo-copying shop in Kuwait many years ago. > A Kuwaiti man and I > were standing side by side, when we ought to have stood one behind the other, > for > a turn to get our construction drawings copied. > After the client before > us was done with, the Kuwaiti, as all of them think is their prerogative, > went ahead of me to the > machine. I let him hear my displeasure, mildly though, and the man quickly > turned back and apologised: “Borem re baba, tum zalear tum voch”.