Dear Goanetters, My favourite book ( and according to the blurb on the edition I own , the # 2 all time bestseller after The Holy Bible ) My favourite line in the book ( Atticus saying to his daughter Scout ) : " If you can learn a simple trick , Scout , you'll get along better with all kinds of folks . You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view -- UNTIL YOU CLIMB INTO HIS SKIN AND WALK AROUND IN IT " Marshall-bab made a very valid point when he said that I should look at the Goan political scene from the Catholic point of view in order to comprehend better as to why the BJP is not a savoury political option for most Catholics in Goa. I am trying my best to " climb into the Catholic's skin and walk around " It may help a lot if the other BJP / RSS / Hindutva supporters on this forum try to do the same. Vice versa , the staunch Congress / Catholic supporters on this forum would do well to climb into my skin and try to fathom why mild /moderate persons like me are so strongly in favour of a BJP government in Goa in spite ( and NOT because ) of their obvious Hindutva agenda and / or their well known links with hardcore pro-Hindu organisations.And I say persons rather than Hindu's because there are increasingly more Goan Catholics who are switching loyalties to the BJP ( for instance, in the June assembly elections , it was pretty evident from ward wise voting patterns that the Catholics saved Manohar Parrikar's bacon in Panaji ) Another important Goanet related issue was raised by Philip-bab when he said in his initial comment to me that there will be the usual one liners and attempts at one upmanship. It is very easy indeed to get caught up in this culture . I spite of resolving at the onset that I would try not to do the same , I have become a more than willing subscriber to this tendency. My sincere apologies are due to all those who I have taken personal swipes at . I may be missing some ....but my apologies are due to Philip-bab , Frederick-bab , Edward-bab , Miguel-bab ( who proved he is a real gentleman with the polite explanation he gave to my ungentlemanly comments to him ). And with regards to Selma-bai , all I can say is that after her last affectionate posting to me , my guilt at having seletively picked her archived message to highlight a broader issue has been been amplified severalfold. I may have made some caustic remarks about the moderators as well . While I do find their reasons for rejecting my posts not very easy to understand ( at times ) , I do not feel they are biased or unfair towards any particular individual or viewpoint . I do not grudge them the thankless task they have decided to accept when they all have their own professional and family commitments. If I am in credit with anyone on this forum , it is Reena-bai who I felt was a bit unfair in trying to undress me further when I had already pulled my own pants down by admitting publicly that I had been stupid to say that Modi had not used the Hindutva card. But I will let that pass as just another instance of the one liner / upmanship culture which is not just part of Goanet but human nature per se. All in all , while I cannot claim to be Atticus ( who is my idea of a perfect gentleman ) , I shall try in the future to be a bit more like him in my Goanet adventures / misadventures . luv and regards, anand ( Dr Anand Virgincar ) _________________________________________________________________ Free games, great prizes - get gaming at Gamesbox. http://www.searchgamesbox.com
