Salcete vs Barzez Round 1 (revised) Hi Roland,
Thanks a lot for sharing your very personal family experiences with us. These are so very typical of Bardezkar-Shastikar mixed families ! Your Shastikarn mom was a True-Blue Goan and she appears to have tried her best to convert your Bardezkar dad to a True-Blue Goan too! All her mannerisms are very typical of Shastikars even today ! I dare not imagine what your family would be like if your mother too was from Bardez - Maybe you all would have had patio furniture and vinyl chairs in the formal living (sitting, sala) room ! - Just like the Southerners in Southern USA as compared to the Boston Brahmins of New England - no caste implications here although Salcete was settled by 66 Gaud Saraswat Brahmin families as compared to only 12 in Bardez and 30 in Ilhas, Even if we combine the Ilhas and Bardez GSB settlers - Sashtikars outnumbered them 66 to 42 ! We have also had well accomplished Chardos and others too from Salcete like famed journalist Frank Moraes who was originally from Becleamvaddo in Cuncolim in Salcette - although the Bardexkars and others claim him to be from SantaCruz, Ilhas. Cardinals Valerian Gracias from Navelim and Ivan Dias were also Sashtikars before they attained greatness in Bombay and now Cardinal Ivan Dias (from the Verna-Velsao area) who narrowly lost in the last papal horse-race is at the Vatican as Pope Benny's right hand man. As far as attire is concerned, we Shashtikars are always suited and booted for every ocassion - we always prefer to be overdressed than underdressed ! Same with the women. Its well known that our sorpotel is more zestier that the relatively balnd stuff from Bardez and Illhas and that the Bardezkars were still eating their unleavened Kundia Bhakors, when we Sashtikars had switched to the Sashtikar-Poder-delivered Portugues-style Leavened Paos - that have become so synonomous with Goans. Culturally, we have more Tiatrs and Tiatrists from Salcete than from Bardez ! I must admit that with our bountiful land with fertile and well fertillized big bhats, etc. we Sashtikars are more laid back than the generally uptight Bardezkars who are perennially seeking to venture outside Goa to make their fortune. You must also remember that our enterprising Sashtikars have maintained Margao as the business capital of Goa. So with all these attributes of the Sashtikars, I have never admitted that BardezKars claim to have SUPERIORITY over Shasticars as far as links to Europe and Europeans are concerned. That would be an unjustifibale bald-faced lie ! and we Shashtikar would never go for that ! See above list for justifications. However, I did observe that Bardezcars through their dominance in the various media CLAIM to have PRIORITY over Sashtikars as far as links to Europe and Europeans are concerned- whether it is the ill-informed setlement of 12 GSB families from Central Europe to Bardez. What? Where did that come from ? or the more recent adoption of Fish Mayonaise from the Portuguese ! On the political front I must admit that we Sashtikars haver had giant political figures and freedom fighters, but we seem to have lost the edge to Bardezkars in recent times with Bandodkar, Kakodkar, Manohar Parrikar (the first IITian to become CM of an Indian State) and Dr. Willy D'Souza who is a respectable medical doctor and long serving CM/Dty CM/Minister. These days our lofty political clout appears to have been hijacked by uneducated Sashtikar Goan Gaon Goons like MP Churchill Alemao and MLA Mckey Pacheco who are making a GAAN of the place - It's about time that we send these guys to their early retirement and return Salcete to its pride of place in Goan Politics ! In closing, I must admit that Bardez is fortunate to have produced recent Internet Journalistic giants like Frederick Noronha and Joel D'Souza who are harnessing the power of the Internet to Give Bardez yet another edge over Salcete and we Sashtikars must be ever cognizant of such moves, esp when they affect our prominence! Many years ago, when I was accompanying a young Sikh friend of mine through Goa, he commented that allthough there were strong differences, to him Bardez appeared as an appendage of Maharashtra while Salcete with its strong Roman Catholic tradition and other customs appeared distinctly different -maybe its through subtle observations like these that we Sashtikars get our Superiority feelings over the Bardezkars, of being the Tue-Blue, Asli Goans - but we should all remember that despite our differences, we are all GOENKARS ! Best Regards, Dr. Carmo D'Cruz, Proud Goenkar ! INDIAn Harbour Beach, Florida. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
