I've just returned from a three day trip to small-town America. With the Mississippi onto one side and the great bluffs on the other, the air lightly scented with apples, it was a trip designed to make a theist out of any hard-nosed atheist :)) Some of the leaves had yellowed and the last of the summer-green was putting up feeble resistance against the onslaught of Fall, which in Northern America, produces a veritable melange of orange, reds, browns and golds cutting through the green.
I love small-town historic America. This particular town had a population which at one time was 50% Polish. The buildings had been preserved but certainly nothing else spoke of its rich Polish heritage. Until I visited the Museum. Every dog-eared calendar, every crochet doily, every painted doll, every footstool, clothing item, book, and other things one would call miscellanea or trivia had been lovingly conserved and proudly displayed. Which got me thinking about Roland's museum. What scares me is that so much of our Goan heritage will be lost only because we are unaware of the value of the things that we have lying around in our houses. I have been to houses that serve fish croquettes on beautiful irreplaceable blue & white china. They don't know neither the price these dishes could fetch on the antique market or of their rarity. How often do we throw out old calenders, old furniture, old cutlery, old bishpots, thinking they are a nuisance in the house. The things that are of value, like intricate filigree crosses, hand-carved home-altars, four-poster beds are sold for a pittance and make their way to distant shores through the grey market. We must cultivate this idea of a museum, of several museums infact, that catalogue our way of life and bear testimony to it. More importantly how do we create awareness in Goa, to preserve what seems like trash to the untrained eye? Selma __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
