In our good old golden years in the 60's and as a young person I was often taken by my parents to Café Central a proper coffee restaurant which was situated and where now stands the horrendous bharati era Filhos da mae building. Bun pao coated with Polson butter, was the order of the day. As the years went by our standard of living slowly degraded. It was goodbye Polson and Café Central and welcome 'be indian by indian. BC
A consideration: Most Christian homes did not have butter on the table. Perhaps such was the case in certain enclaves. I know many people who did not, and nether did I don't quite agree with Eric that this was because of India's 'socialistic' approach. Rather, this was a country just emerging out of colonialism, with little or no industrial base (my dad had just finished a contract with helping Kaiser Engineer's build a steel plant in Jamshedpur and was taking on the offer to take up a job with the next at Cubatao, Sao Paulo state (later on to become one of the 10 most polluted places on the planet!) Besides, there was a lack of skills. Doctors who took their education in India and migrated Westwards were reminded, I recall, that their education had cost the taxpayer Rs100,000 -- a huge sum in those days. Famines were know (around 1967, if not mistaken). The US/Indian solution was the Green Revolution (anything to avoid Red!). In fits and starts, the US-India relationship was on the rocks, and post-colonial defiance at times wasn't making things easier. We could occasionally afford butter. Fresh milk was cheap, but there were queues (in Goa till the early 1980s), and one was lucky if you got a 250 ml plastic bag. I remember we occasionally ate Dalda (a kind of ghee) with sugar on our bread, as it was cheaper. Eggs were easier to come by, probably because these were locally produced. Our family brought back a fridge with us from Brazil, but till 1970 we didn't have an electricity connection at home! Those were those trying times. Nonetheless, I look back wistfully. The tough parts tend to get edited out of our memories. FN End of Goanet Digest, Vol 11, Issue 507 ***************************************
