I am sitting in a printer's office at the Panjim Market, thinking how much further my research into Konkani-laced English could have gone, had I not made all kinds of commitments on all kinds of projects. But that is life.
So as I missed my football-eavesdropping this evening, let me entertain myself and narrate a couple more of real life incidents. If you're a Cafe Prakash regular, you can't miss Dinesh Dias. Dinesh is a well-educated chartered accountant who, like me, preferred to retired before he touched 40 (and unlike me, decided to go on to savor the good things in life, by way of a holiday to Europe, and what not). How many of our hardworking Goenkars can afford such luxuries as they slog "for their children's sake" in some other part of the globe? But, I'm straying... Often when we shared our incredible tales, the conversation would go on these lines: "Really?" "Of course, that's the way it was!" "Shut-up, men!" (At which point, Nagpur-born Dinesh -- though he's also fluent in Konkani -- would explode, accuse me of being verrrry rude, of not believing him narration, and so on... I always wondered why he responded so negatively. His argument was that "Shut-up" is not to be used in polite discourse. It took me quite some time to marshal my arguments. Finally, I got down to telling him that "shut up" is only English for the Konkani, "Oggi rao reh!", a way of expressing disbelief at a fantastic story. I'm still not sure if I've convinced him adequately.) At home too I ran into a similar problem. "What you mean *just* serve me food!" my better half would occasionally say angrily. Finally, it was Konkani to the rescue. This, to my mind, is nothing but a translation of the "matxhe" (or Kannada 'solpa'), a polite form of requesting! As in, "Matxhe jevonn vadd." Did that convince you? FN PS: I hope I got the details right in my above narration. Anyway, as someone has said, why let a few facts come in the way of a good story :-) Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------