Cornel: I was told that the class of people who work with cows leather, viz shoemakers, were considered unclean and therefore untouchables. I am not an expert so I defer to anyone who wants to enlighten us, though I dont care one way or another. We are all equal.
Kudos to you on your personal contributions towards Goa. Maintaining an ancestral home can be quite a burden on folks in Goa. I know of some charitable institutions that have declined the gifts of people's ancestral homes for precisely this reason. But squatters have no qualms in taking over such properties. I know of a lot of items including computers, furniture, books, clothes, magazines etz. which are discarded in the West, and yet could be useful in countries such as India. But the problems associated with shipping them to India, customs, and then getting folks here to actually utilize them are sometimes not worth the trouble. I had grandiose ideas at one time, but ground realities made me channel my charitable endeavours in other directions. Vivian
