------------------------------------------------------------------------ * * * * * * * * * ANNUAL GOANETTERS MEET * * * * * * * * * ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goanetters in Goa and visiting meet Jan 6, 2009 at 3.30 pm at Hotel Mandovi (prior to the Goa Sudharop event, which you're also welcome to). Join in for a Dutch dinner -- if we can agree on a venue after the meet. RSVP (confirmations only) 9822122436 or 2409490 or [email protected] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are some names on Goanet postings that I now studiously avoid, and do not allow to get my blood on a boil. I have contempt for fundamentalists of all sort. While I thought Samir Kelekar's comment that 'God Sucks!' a little over the top, my black sense of humour wanted to correct him and say this ought to have read 'Gods Suck!' but I restrained myself. However when Sandeep Heble casts aspersions against my old friend, comrade and colleague at Patriot newspaper, New Delhi, I am afraid I must ignore my distaste for fundamentalists and jump into the fray. Heble writes: "However, John Dayal's credibility in wide Hindu circles is a bit poor where he is seen as a religious/political campaigner having his own vested agenda"... John has a rock solid reputation in the media, and I can think of at least twenty prominent journalists in the country who would rally to his side and protect his integrity. Heble, going by his writing, appears both brash and young. He may not know that till 1993, John has covered every single incident of major communal violence in the country. In the riots against the Sikhs in Delhi, John and I juggled our day to day reporting with driving in the office transport to warn and in at least two instances, come to the aid of Sikhs under attack. Doing this with us were Hindus and Muslims. One suspects that it is difficult for someone of Heble's ilk to understand the 'vested agenda' of someone like John Dayal. As John himself has often said, when he covered events in Palestine, he was the only Indian journalist who came in on the PLO jeep and did not hitch a ride on an Israeli tank... One could go on and on with unmasking Heble's obvious Jan Sanghi/RSS roots, but this is, frankly, of no use. To understand India in a 'modernist' way we need to grapple with those traditions that make some of us exclusivist and still divide the world in terms of caste and creed and colour and gender. The greatness of this country is the fact that in spite of its many syncretic traditions and practices, we can allow a bigot like Heble have his say, and indeed echo Voltaire when he wrote "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it". Hartman de Souza
