Dear Augusto, While it is distressing to read of your experience, it is one which is best learned from. The following are my suggestions.
a: While it is easier said than done, there is no real advantage from "losing it". Those are the cards we Goans have been dealt, those are the cards we Goans have to play with. b: It sometimes helps if we can get stuff like this on the net and in the newspapers. While it does not affect the 'chota chaps' directly, it does happen to affect the 'motta chap' in charge. If you think about it, there is a quiet operation going on there. As the well known adage goes: "Money talks and it talks fast". I would like to submit to you that everybody including the 'motta chap", are on the receiving end (as in ..... on the take). c: it is most likely that the "motta chap" is not from Goa or has no real reputation or family name to defend in Goa - if at all. All he wants is his job which allows him to make a little pocket money without much attention. With you making noise, this quiet set up must have been disturbed. So, the "motta chap" swung into action and made his "speech" which in code meant - "Let this fly in our ointment go. We can make our lunch money with other customers. This guy is ignorant. He probably does not know how much it costs us in Goa just for rent. He probably has a house of his own" d: Writing to the newspaper just might attract the attention of the "motta chap" and will cause him to direct the 'chotta chaps" to put their little financial enterprise on hold for about a fortnight or so. Having said that, I have always advised myself and my kids to persevere with our goals without ever resorting to 'bakshish'. It might take a little longer but (I believe) that perseverance nearly always helps. ps: Even that nut in a peon's uniform at the Portuguese Consulate in Goa tried "that" nonsense with us when we were there to see a member of the Consulate staff (it was a social call). We just brushed him off and went past. Hey ....it has reached to the peon level even there! But, just because the myriad of Desi applicants from Daman, Diu and God alone knows where else, were giving him his little 'tax' did not mean we were about to pay him any "get past me" tax. Bottom Line: it is all about money......and we should definitely fight against it. sincerely jc augusto pinto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Dears Let me narrate a bad experience I had at the Govt. Printing Press 1: I wanted some books from there. The clerk in charge of the sale of books was very uncooperative. 2: When I went there he told me to come the following week for the books I wanted. When I went there the next week, he told me to come the next week. All this while he and the peons were just sitting around doing nothing besides gossiping. 3: The next visit he told me again,"Come the next..." I lost it here and very calmly but pointedly told him that I would come and if the books were not waiting for me, I would take action against him. 4: I just went and complained to the man in charge. The fellow was called and .. was told by his boss to see that the books were there by a certain day. 5: On the appointed day I went there and took Shrikant Barwe with me as witness, but this time the fellow's chorob had melted a bit and I did not have much problem, except that he was very slow. 6: Don't go by the prices that are mentioned in the site, especially of the Portuguese books. The fellow just fires whatever comes to his head. One cannot even be sure about the availability. The problem is they do not allow you to examine the stacks yourself. This makes it very difficult to judge what will be of use to you.
