------------------------------------------------------------------------ * G * O * A * N * E * T **** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjoy your holiday in Goa. Stay at THE GARCA BRANCA from November to May There is no better, value for money, guest house. Confirm your bookings early or miss-out
Visit http://www.garcabranca.com for details/booking/confirmation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Great post Selma ! Nice to hear that your husband is fully grounded in who and what he is and does not need to make excuses about his ethnicity, being proud to be an Indian. Throwing in my two cents worth.......when I immigrated to the USA with my young family in the 1960s, finding a fellow Indian was a rare occurence. Though many Indians that I know of immigrated before me, we were still a miniscule contingent in the magnificent tapestry of races and national origins that make up the United States of America. Not long after I arrived in the USA, I was having a coffee in a drug store. All drug stores had restaurants within the store in those days. The waitress, not sure what to make of me, asked me if I was "Indian Indian". I was taken aback, and then realized the import of the question. I responded yes I am. That immediately differentiated me from the Native American, still known as Indians then. In retrospect, I laugh at the episode. Fast forward, several decades later, there are over a million Indians in the USA. Finding an Indian restaurant or an Indian grocery store or a fellow Indian is very easy. Most Indian immigrants to the USA came there as Professionals, in the early years there were mostly doctors. Later came the Engineers and the Computer professionals, all highly skilled and highly respected and able to hold their own in any situation. Often, at a party, someone finds out that I am of Indian origin and then proudly share the fact that their Doctor or Surgeon who they highly respect and admire is Indian too. Of course we Catholic Goans with our Portuguese surnames are an enigma at first, and at times are assumed to be Hispanic. That is until we speak and folks figure out that we are somehow different. Since the US was very selective in its Immigration criteria and did not get as many of the poorly educated immigrants that countires like the UK got in the beginning, Indians in the US are a highly respected lot as most people see Indians in professional jobs of one kind or another. But we Goans or I should say Catholic Goans tend to be stand-offish vis a vis other Indians, as though being Goan makes us superior to other Indians. Or perhaps it is our composite culture, part Western, part Indian. We have no dietary restrictions, we share the same religion as the majority of the Caucasians, speak English in our homes, play and enjoy Western music in our homes and therefore associate and socialize with them more than we do with our fellow Indians. Small wonder that many Goan catholic offspring end up marrying Caucasians. While we first generation Goan Catholic immigrants hang on to our "Goan-ness", the ties will wither with our passing and our children will be totally assimilated Americans with Goa a distant memory. I for one, though not born in Goa or India, nor having lived in India for a very long time, chose to return to Goa in retirement so that I could immerse myself in the village life of Goa. I am in heaven, and glad that I chose to be here. But with my children and grandchildren in the USA, I will continue to bridge the continents and return there to visit. I revel in the fact that I am an ethnic Indian and a Goan and proud of the strides that India is making economically, but equally despondent when I see the vast majority of Indians still living in penury. I hope that the trickle down effect will reach everyone, so that India will stand proudly among the community of nations and regain its past glory. Vivian _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org