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2008 Toronto International Goan Convention
Theme: Goan Identity And Networking Today.
http://2008goanconvention.com/index.php
Mario Miranda Festival, July 24-26, 2008 Old GMC Building
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2008-July/077732.html
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Cheers Dears
By Augusto Pinto
The Beggars Meal
Dears,
My charming little village of Moira is well known for its old folk tales
about its wise men. But when I look into my crystal ball I see that in the
future too, my fellow Moidekars will continue to be wise, and will continue
to generate more tales.
This is one that will occur in the year 2018. There will live a saintly
Moidekar, named Xannappa.. The poor fellow will have fallen on difficult
times, and will be struggling to make ends meet, and to eat one square meal
a day.
By this time all the rivers of Goa will be infested with casinos, although
the controversies about gambling will not have completely died down. Some
will be happy because they bring in revenue to the state and to the
politicians and to the bureaucrats and of course to the big businessmen who
own casinos; while others say that the gambling dens will ruin the morals of
the people. In order to find out the truth for himself, Xannappa will decide
to see things for himself, for Xannappa, though a virtuous man, will always
try anything once - for without knowledge how can there be wisdom?
Selling off his meager life's belongings, he will go on board one of the
casinos and buy his chips. He'll try out the slot machines and to his great
surprise will begin to win over and over again. Bored with this he'll try
out the different games, now playing poker, now playing the roulette wheel.
Everywhere he goes he will hit the jackpot - and in next to no time he will
have cleaned out the entire casino.
The upshot of this will be that wise Xannappa will now be the richest man in
Moira. With so much of wealth, he will begin to wonder what he should now
do.
Vhodli Mae, a wise old crone, will come up to him and say "Xannappa before
you do anything with all your wealth, you must honor your ancestors"
"Vhodli Mae, how should I do that?" 'Xannappa, you must give a beggar's
meal. You must find the most hungry people you can, and feed them. By doing
this the bellies of your ancestors will be filled too, and they will bless
you and your descendents"
Xannappa being a bit of a thinker will try to figure out how to give his
ancestors a real bellyful, so that they would bless him in abundance.
Knowing beggary, he will realise that beggars do not have very healthy
appetites, and so if he were to feed them, his ancestors might not get a
stomachful. Then who should he feed?
Like a flash it would come to him: he must feed our politicians. For their
appetites will be very healthy indeed. And there would be further reason to
do this because during this time there would be one of those periodic
uproars about them helping themselves to free dinners at the cost of the
public exchequer. [As a result of this uproar, there would have been a cap -
cap, mind you, not ban- on the amount of free lunches and dinners they could
help themseves to - so they would be very hungry indeed.]
So Xannappa will call all the politicians he can find, and their hangers on,
and many many senior government officials, and the big businessmen who they
dote upon, and he will take them to the finest five star hotel. There they
will begin to eat the most exotic of foods, caviar and lobster and all the
delicacies one can imagine, and wash it down with the finest of liquors.
But the more they eat, the fatter they become, and the fatter they become,
the more hungry they get, and the more hungry they get the more they will
eat and drink. And to Xannappa's amazement in next to no time his fortune
will dwindle to nothing. And once more Xannappa will be reduced to a life of
penury, scrounging from whoever feels pity for him, a meal here and there.
The moral of this story dears is that one must choose one's beggars with
care.
Till next time then...
Cheers (ENDS)
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The above article appeared in the July 24, 2008 edition of the Herald, Goa
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Tri Continental Film Festival 2008
July 25 - 30, 2008
Goa, India
http://www.moviesgoa.org/page/tri_continental/
http://www.moviesgoa.org/tricon/schedule_2008.pdf
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