Tall, green-eyed, fair-skinned relatives on my father's maternal side, hailing from Ponda, have always been fodder for festa family conversation. Not being tutored in the mechanics of DNA engineering, however, they have elicited nothing more than mild layman's curiosity.
The discussion about Anglo-Indians, propelled me to do some intense research( a whole 15 minutes on the internet), in search of my genealogy. Determined to trace it back to a few Rajputs or atleast some minor princeling, I came across words like the Chitpavans and the Konkanasthas. The Chitpavans were typically kshatriya warriors of mixed ancestry. Valmiki Faleiro identified the Aguiars of Pondas as kshatriyas as well, so this could indeed be a promising start to my search. Two interesting links are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitpavan http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/people-of-mixed-race-are-the-future-of-the-world/ With discussions about preserving our Goan identity becoming more voluble in Goa, I wonder if my (possible) ancestors struggled with the melange of genes and cultures that have so obviously shaped the ethnicity of India. Did the tall, fair-skinned Anna Aquiar balk at the thought of marrying dark-skinned, sudra, Purification Cardoz. Wily Purification must have had a smart gene somewhere in his DNA closet, for while his progeny has traveled far both ideologically and materially, most of the Aguiars have languished at the foothills of Ponda. When Catholic Goans talk about preserving their culture, they invariably mean those aspects influenced by the West. The acid test of this comes when diaspora Goans are confronted by the prospect of their off-spring marrying non-Goans. If one comes home with a Caucasian, acceptance is generally forthcoming. Come home with a Malayali or a Punjabi and there's bound to be murder and mayhem. I don't resent this embrace of East and West. I'm one of those notorious Lusophiles. I celebrate my bi-culturalism and duality, sometimes dichotomy, that comes with it. But culture is incapable of being preserved except in museums. Because we are human beings, we have to be continuously in evolutionary motion otherwise we are refusing to grow both individually and as a society. selma
