-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Wishing all Goanetters | | a Prosperous | | and | | Happy New Year - 2006 | | Goanet - http://www.goanet.org | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Victorbab gave us a nice description of his own quixotic experience. I have one of my own from a different perspective, which I want to share with you.
My perspective would be of particular interest to you because as Don Quixote said "I know who I am, and who I may be, if I choose." I have chosen to be Sancho Panza on many occasions. In more than a decade in Goan cyberspace I have realized that there are five types of characters in this cyber Ranga La Mancha Don Quixotes, Sancho Panzas, Miguel de Cervantess, Alonso Fernandess (Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda) and silent lurkers. The interesting thing is that the roles of all these characters, except the silent lurkers are interchangeable. Quixotes of yesterday can became Panzas today, and Cervantess can just as easily hop on a mule as on a thin horse to become one or the other, although most of the times they like to ride the high horse, and preach to others. Don Quixotes great and small are the heroes of any La Mancha. It is this species of Cervantic characters that provide the content, and create the scenes of all La Manchas. Without them there is no ranga in the Goan Ranga La Mancha. Panzas erect the "sancho", the material framework for their activity. But they also shake it from time to time so the Dons can fall on their faces. The other characters are dispensable, predictable and boring. Cervantess tend to be haughty and patronizing. Fernandess are mostly satisfied with copying and pasting what Quixotes, Panzas and Cervantess in other La Manchas have created. Silent lurkers are imaginary like the Dulcineas, not counting the one Dulcynthia who is a prototypical Fernandes. Nobody knows how many lurkers there are, 7000 or 9000. To Quixotes they might as well be an amorphous flock of sheep. I have sometimes hopped on my mule and trotted into other La Manchas on solitary adventures, unaccompanied by a Quixote, to find out what battles are being fought in these places. I have seen Quixotes fighting with Quixotes, Panzas with Quixotes, Panzas with Panzas, and Cervantess effortlessly jumping from high horses to low ones, at once being condescending to the hidalgos and the squires, and at the very next moment descending to their level. I once lurked in a La Mancha set up by a couple of Cervantess. This was more a royal court than a battlefield. The two imperial Cervantess were riding the two highest horses in this La Mancha, dispensing free advice to other, mostly budding, Cervantess. There were also Fernandess who wanted to become Cervantess and silent lurkers from other La Manchas. The court was in full session, when all of a sudden a Fernandes with a penchant for self-promotion, who had been a Quixote in a neighboring La Mancha, began waxing eloquent about his own experience as a self-made Cervantes. This for some unexplained reason knocked off the head honcho Cervantes from his high horse onto a skinny pony, and instantly transformed him into an ordinary Donny. This experience showed me how easy it is to knight a Cervantes in his own La Mancha. Any Fernandes can do it, that is, be his inn-keeper, so to say. Over the last few months I have had the mixed fortune of serving as a governor of my own La Mancha, nay a Barataria, which I have created. I established this Barataria as a battlefield for two Quixotes who were fighting fiercely on my cc list because their battles were barred in the main Goan La Mancha, and they were too far apart to meet in the neighboring bar. With these Quixotes, other lesser knights, and several Panzas, Cervantess, Fernandess and silent lurkers migrated to this new island in Goan cyberspace. What I have witnessed in this Barataria of mine has been quite instructive. The myth of fixedness of Cervantic characters has been completely exposed, the concept of their non-interchangeability totally shattered. With one Arch Quixotic exception, Cervantic characters are fully reversible. Individuals who were Fernandess or Cervantess and certified non-combatants in the main Goan La Mancha up until then suddenly became fulminating Quixotes on this new battlefield, the Arch Quixote being the common inn-keeper, knighting them all. The battles in this La Mancha have been particularly furious. They have pushed some erstwhile Quixotes and Panzas into silence by their sheer volume. Some Fernandess who had attained a meteoric rise to the Quixotic status have since been driven out by the uncontrollable hyperactivity and exuberance of the exceptional Quixote. They have now been relegated to the Fernandic level in the cozy lurker-heavy mega La Mancha. But on my new frontier the battles continue to rage to this day, old Quixotes and Panzas being replaced each new day by new ones, or forgotten old ones woken up as if from that which "covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It is the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap; and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise man, even." Some Cervantess have advised the lurkers to the ignore the knights-errant and their squires, expressing the quixotic hope that they will get tired of their battles and disappear from this La Mancha leaving it to the Fernandess and the occasional Cervantes. Nothing could be further from the truth. Knight-errancy will always thrive no matter what. My experience in Barataria has shown me that even if everybody else here becomes a silent lurker, the reigning Arch Don, the exceptional Quixote will continue to do battle with the windmills and the flocks of sheep until the cows come home. So please fear not any such Quixote. Pick and choose your battles, ones you want to read about and the ones you want to jump into. This human endeavor can indeed give you the uncanny feeling expressed by the original Don himself: "Even though everything should go contrary to what I expect, the honor of having undertaken such an exploit is such as no malice could dim." Cheers, Santosh -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goa - 2005 Santosh Trophy Champions | | | | Support Soccer Activities at the grassroots in our villages | | Vacationing in Goa this year-end - Carry and distribute Soccer Balls | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
