Post liberation, many Goan parents named their children after Bollywood stars e.g. Amit/Amitabh, Rajesh, Shashi, Sharmila, Rekha, Madhuri, etc. Even Goan priests took up Hindu names. I had a friend of mine, Fr. Sawant, from Sant Estevam. He passed away about ten years ago. For the past three decades or so it has become a fashion for Goan Christians to use Hindu names, especially those of Bollywood stars.
In Pakistan, Christians are forced to take on Muslim names but it is not so in Goa. We choose our names and christen our children. Off-subject: What I am going to write here is not related to Christians with Hindu names but to Christianity: Post India's independence, when the Hindu-Muslim massacre took place, my father worked for the Green Hotel in Bombay - he played for a resident band there. He told us how Hindus and Muslims killed each other mercilessly, especially at night when employees returned home from their work. The only way for them to escape death was to pretend that they were Christians. With this in mind, many Hindus and Muslims opted to wear a cross or a scapular in their necks. When attacked at night and about to be hacked or stabbed, the victim would display the cross or scapular in his neck and claim to be a Christian, and it worked; thus, many escaped the clutches of death by displaying signs of Christianity. My father would have turned 100 years old last April. I am sure there are people around who can vouch for what I have stated above. Moi-mogan, Domnic Fernandes Mob: 9420979201 http://www.goanet.org/post.php?name=News&list=goanet&info=2009-September/thread&post_id=183512
