Hi Edwin,
You are probably Mercy's brother and probably from around the same place in
South Goa that I am from. The Goans vs East Indian Friendly Latent Rivalry
exists and you feel it esp if you are competitive and sensitive to it.
You have dropped a lot of names in your email. But there are some
questionable facts and inconsistencies in your message, which I too like to
put on record once and for all:
1) Hilary (Timmy) Gomes was the younger brother of Clarence (Clarry) Gomes.
If I am not mistaken
it was Percy ->Clarry -> Timmy. Timmy was also a competitor of my cousin
John Correia for Bombay Sr. National goalkeeper. How come your are stating
on record that Timmy was the elder brother of Clarry ? What kind of bull is
that ? Just hearsay or what ?
The Gomes family is a prominent East Indian family from Bazar Road, Bandra.
They really helped me hone my inherrent Great Goan hockey goalkeeping
skills. We really enjoyed our friendly rivalries (whether it was for the
School Goal or the State Goal or the Bombay Goal), hung out together, played
hard and got the Best of Bandra !
I just talked to my contemporary (same batch of 1975) and fellow Stanislaus
goalkeeper Nigel DeSales in Miami, he confirmed your atrocious inaccuracies
(like Timmy is elder brother of Clarry, Cedric D'Souza, etc) and he said he
never ever knew a Bandra or Stanislaus hockey goalkeeper named Edwin
Fernandes. We the hockey goalkeepers of Stanislaus and Bandra are a very
close-knit fraternity and very close friends despite our very intense
rivalry. Nigel is the son of Abel DeSales, one of the greatest goalkeeper of
his time in 1948. So its more than just playing hockey goalkeeper - if you
noticed from the names of the goalies in this email we are all keeping up
our inherited family goalkeeping tradition that is usually passed down the
generations, and goalkeeping secrets shared between cousins. Its an
exclusive Goalkeepers Club (EI or Goan) and we dont let outsiders in that
easily unless they prove themselves. Dont let anyone tell you that the
Desales hockey goalkeeper family is East Indian. They are Goans from Mapusa.
BTW Marcellus "Markie" Gomes although my junior in school was often my
teammate in school and roomate during tournaments. (His brother and
goalkeeper Wency Gomes was my contemporary in the Stanislaus teams -
although a senior by one year). Markie and I travelled together on train
trips to/from camps/tournaments and our families knew each other because
they came to see us off at the railway stations. And as soon as the trains
left VT or Dadar stations (unless he came on board at Ambernath), everyone
went for fellow teammate Merwyn Fernandes' bag as his mother always prepared
tasty cakes for us to have on the trips and they did not last long. My
mother baked nice cakes too, but they were always under lock and key !
unless Merwyn stole my bag and did'nt know what to do with it ! At NIS
Bangalore in 1980, we religiously took the same rickshaw to church for
Sunday morning mass and were sometimes joined by Alan Schofield and Merwyn
Fernandes (fellow Bandra guy Joaquim Carvalho -(of St Andrews-SSC and
Stanislaus -HSC) joined the camp about a month or so later that year). I
know fellow Stanislites like to claim Joaquim as a pukka Stanislite and
forget that he studied in St. Andrews for his SSC and came over to
Stanislaus for HSC. I feel we should give St. Andrews due credit for
producing an athlete like Joaquim. He was also their Best All-Round Athlete
at their annual atheletic meet in 1974. BTW Joaquim and Merwyn (from Parra)
are Goans too - dont let anyone claim them to be East Indians or
Mangaloreans.
2) Cedric D'Souza (originally from Siolim, Goa) was my Bandra neighbour - he
also lived on 9th Road Bandra and went to Sacred Heart High School in Santa
Cruz. If I am not mistaken, Cedric was goalkeeper of the Bombay Junior
National Hockey Team at Bhopal in 1974 along with fellow Velkar the late
Tennyson Colaco. He played for Sacred Heart when I was in goal for St.
Stanislaus in the 70s. In all probability he graduated from Sacred Heart
High School in 1974. He couldnt be your contemporary (same year that is or
even a year or two off) if you graduated from St. Stanislaus in 1971 ? What
kind of bull is that too ?
I dont mean to humiliate a fellow Stanislite in a public forum - but these
are the bare facts and there are glaring inconsistencies. You are not doing
a good job of dropping names. And if you did not live North of Hill Road or
away from the Mount Mary's area as I did - you were probably in or near the
East Indian enclaves where every one was considered a "Bandra Mac" and there
was not much granularity in the "Katlik Community" there. Also it is quite
probable that you were not as competitive or as sensitivie to the East
Indian vs Goan rivalry as I was, whether in hockey or studies to compete
with these guys head on.
I will be reaching India around Dec 9. After visiting Goa Dec 10-21 with
Balbir Singh, I will be in IIT Powai Dec 22-25 where we will be presenting
our paper "Using Systems Engineering Principles and Methodologies to Help
India regain the Hockey World Cup and Olympic Gold." I hope to be at
Stanislaus Dec 26 - 31 and participate in the Stanislaus Ex-Students
Inter-decade Hockey Tournament, in which as 1971 and 1975 graduates we may
be teammates on the 1970s Hockey Team.
BTW I expect your timely, expedient response tommorrow to this email
rebuttal.
Best Regards,
Dr. Carmo D'Cruz
Stanislite, Class of 75,
Indian Harbour Beach, Florida.
Attn Bosco and Fred of Goanet:- this is my rebuttal to Edwin's post below
that was full of name dropping and factual inaccuracies. Since you accepted
that post, please ensure that my above rebuttal is not rejected - otherwise
Goanet will be viewed as taking the side of inaccurate posts to embellish
and that is not fair. Thanks.
Best Regards,
Carmo
Message: 7
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 14:09:54 +0100
From: "Alfred de Tavares" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Goans VS East indians of Bandra
To: [email protected], [email protected]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Hear! Hear!! For God´s sake pray Hear!!!
AT
Alfred,
What is this nonsense ? Are you sensationalizing Name Dropping and Factual
Inaccuracies for personal embellishment ?
Goanet will be a lot poorer with Sensationalisms like Yours and Factual
Inaccuracies like Edwin's !
Please respond to the contents of my rebuttal. I can guarantee its accuracy
!
As I learnt in the Patiala Hockey Camps from my Sikh friends/coaches and
fellow players "SAT SRI AKAL - JO BOLE SE NIHAL ! FYI Truth Alone Prevails
- He who speaks the Truth shall be Exalted ! Thats exactly what I Feel Right
Now !
Its about time that Goans like you and Edwin learn some Punjabi (and some
advanced level hockey !). WAHE GURU !
Best Regards,
Dr. Carmo D'Cruz
Indian Harbour Beach
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2006 00:19:50 -0500
From: "Fernandes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Goanet] Goans VS East indians of Bandra
To: <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original
Dear Goanetters,
This mail is with reference to the spate of balderdash being posted by the
apparently erudite and controversy loving Dr. Carmo D'Cruz on the absolutely
superfluous debate, Goans VS East Indians of Bandra.
I too am a Bandra boy and a proud Stanislite (batch of 1971). I too played
hockey (Mama Mia, also as a Goalkeeper). Cedric D'Souza and I were
contemporaries in College and needless to say both competing for the
goalkeeper's post. He also coached me for a team called the Hill Road Boys.
Hillary Gomes (Timmy ) was my senior, his sibling Clarence was my
contemporary. They have a more famous cousin , Marcellus Gomes who played
for India with distinction. Francis D'Mello the first Indian school boy who
played in the 1st Hockey World Cup of 1971 in Barcelona, was my class
mate.That much for my humble credentials, which is just to make a point to
the good Doctor, that I do know what I'm talking about.
I would like to put on record once and for all, that I have never
encountered any so called rivalry between Goans and East Indians. In those
halycon years of our youth, caste and community hardly mattered. You played
to win, you played tough. You learnt to take the smooth with the rough.
That's it. Till today I'm quite ignorant of the fact whether so and so
player was an East Indian, Goan or a Mangalorean. It hardly mattered. So I'm
really at my wit's end trying to make some sense of this senseless mythical
debate. Let's give it a decent burial. There is far too much of communalism
in this beloved country of ours, let us not add to the poison, rather seek
mitigants. Dr. Carmo please stick to your mission to improve Indian hockey
with Balbirji. We will all pitch in, in this noble endeavour. Viva.
Edwin Fernandes
Proud Stanislite, prouder to be a humble Indian
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