Hi Aureo, Thanks for reminiscing about Your transition from The Portuguese education in the sixties. It brought back vivid memores of my youth. I too started the first year of my formal educaton in 1962 in a Portuguse Medium School - Murida Public School(MPS) in Murida, Cuncolim, Goa very close to my house in Baga, Velim, Salcete, Goa. Going to the Portuguese medium school for me was a good time to take a nap.
I found the language so different, so foreign - often used by some relatives and friends to impress upon those that proudly spoke English or Shasti-accented Konkani and not at all similar to English which I was aspiring to learn. Also all the sports examples in the Portuguese text were related to soccer. I did have some relatives and neigbours play soccer in the fields that time and they went on to earn greater glory playing for Tatas - like Salvito D'Cruz. But these Portuguese texts never discussed Hockey, in which India my new country were world champions and in which two of my relatives were winning big trophies like John Correia at Don Bosco High School in Bombay and Vece Paes s/o uncle Dr. Pedro Antonio Paes (aka Kalle Pedro The Dhaope - The Runner, my daid's archrival for village bragging rights and a distinguished middle distance and cross-country runner in Velim in the 30s and 40s) and aunty Marlaq D'Costa in Arusha, Tanzania. Being devoid of hockey, a game I really wanted to know more about, and full of soccer, was yet another reason for me to sleep in my Premer Gra school classes. It was a welcome change when my family moved in 1963 to Bandra, a tony surburb of Bombay and put me in the Jesuit-run St. Stanislaus High School in KG -- and despite snide comments on my Shasti-Konkani accented English by my mainly East Indian schoolmates - they really egged me on in a way - I always excelled in class - often capturing the first rank in class and playing hockey goalkeeper on the vast playing fields of St. Stanislaus - I revelled in the rivalry with the East Indian guys, kept my Shastikar Goan flag flying high, unlike some Goan classmates who spoke or switched to a Bardezi-accented Konkani. I did get more insights in to Konkani when I studied the mandatory Marathi. I finally capped my school career with a Distinction in the SSC Board Exam and a place on the Bombay Junior National Hockey Team. My all-round Jesuit education was largely responsible for my rank in Bombay University, and subsequent double admission to the IIT, national level hockey and the rest they say is history ! I wonder where I would be if I had stayed behind in the Murida Public School (MPS) in Goa and continued with the Premer Gra, Secun Gra and Matric Classes. Like most of my classmates at MPS - I might have gone to the Gulf or to work on the ships or if I stayed behind to help my grandmother, I may be still feeding her pigs, tending her cattle or working in her fields or coconut plantations wearing a Kashti and eagerly looking forward to the annual Rakne-che Fest at the Marti Crucifix on top of the Hillock overlooking Baga, Velim, Salcette, Goa. It is very co-incidental that I am still wearing the hip Next Big Thong - The All-American Kashti - as I relax in an ocean-front condo in Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. I'm sure glad I did not take that easy, happy-go-lucky, underachiever career path. It sure felt sad to leave behind idyllic Goa for Bombay after the summer vacations. I am deeply grateful to those who helped me along the way and as a mark of gratitude I am looking forward to co-celebrate the Rakne-che fest in October 2007 with my cousin Demino DaCruz, who has carved a successful career for himself. I am sure glad that Goa has been liberated from the yoke of near-third-world Portuguese rule and these are the days of highly technocratic India Rising and I am sure glad that Goan primary School students these days do not have to put up with the language of Portuguese! So I often wonder why so many Goenkars are complaining about missing "Portugues Tempar" so much ! Do you still wish that Goa was a backwards, backwater overseas colony "Lo Estado da India" of a near third world country like Portugal which has never won 8 gold medals in Soccer in the Olympics as India has won in Hockey? Best Regards, Dr. Carmo D'Cruz, Shastikar, Proud Velkar Even More Proud to be a Goenkar, Indian Harbour Beach, Florida _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
