So for the week gone by, a migrant malyalee fish monger was fascinated with goan crabs. The migrant malyalee fish monger who like Vasco da gama strayed into goan waters some years ago, has for long been exploiting the turbulence of the waters by specialisng in marketing scorpions (vinchu) as lobsters. One of the reasonably realistic lobster domesticated by the malyalees and Delhi-ites in Goa, has classified common agitating goans as extremist environmentalists. The lobster that got displayed on the dais at Azad Maidan on 18th December 2006 before a massive crowd of goans (benevolently drawn to Panjim by church bodies), it perhaps had never seen at goan weddings, now believes it is a mermaid that drew the crowds with its dance. It also seems to have mastered the art of turbo-political engineering at the malyalee fish market. The malyalee fish monger and madgaon salvage crew seem terribly dejected that goans are now beginning to distinguish a scorpion from a lobster and vultures from peacocks. To their misfortune the lobster remains a lobster and fails to convince the goan crabs that it is a mermaid. Jai ho, the malyalee has for long earned his livelihood by duping unsuspecting goans. Centipedes get sold as tiger prawns and venomous snakes as earthworms to goans. And the latest addition in the malyalee market, is a butterfly soap manufacturer that descended into Goa from Calcutta. Reports reveal that this butterfly slipped on a moira banana skin and dislocated its spine. This accident is the cause of its amnaesia and blindness. In the process it's not able to distinguish scorpions from lobsters. That is why goans get mistaken for crabs. Except that all this is not accidental this time. It is part of the soap opera scripted by butterflies for elitist scorpions which is due to be released any moment before the next assembly elections in 2012. These stray migrants forget that goans are fish eaters and can well distinguish tiger prawns from centipedes, scorpions from lobsters and snakes from earthworms. The common konkani adage, SMP' is apt for the malyalee and his assembly of cross-bred lobsters and butterflies.
-Soter * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Now available in Toronto, a few copies of *Into The Diaspora Wilderness* by Selma Carvalho. Contact Bosco D'Mello bo...@goanet.org (416) 803-7264 http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/
