Ignorance ad nauseum ! eric.
________________________________ From: TABP <[email protected]> To: Goanet <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, November 17, 2009 7:09:03 AM Subject: [Goanet] INDIAN TENDULKAR - By: Bennet Paes (Assolna/Goa) INDIAN TENDULKAR By: Bennet Paes “I am an Indian” was from the horse’s mouth. “first” is from the media’s. Tendulkar could have better said: “I am a Maharashtrian Indian” and it could have avoided the current controversy with the Thackeray’s, in my opinion. Let’s discuss this further. When I first saluted a flag, it was Portuguese, and I sang” Herois do mar…..”, too. When I first traveled out of Goa , it was on a Portuguese passport. When people overseas asked me who I am, I said I am a Goan. I did not say Portuguese, because I thought my very looks would betray me. And I did not say Indian because I was not, then (even though I looked like one). Soon after India’s invasion of Goa, I was asked to get an Indian passport while abroad. And I said ‘invasion’ because while Gandhi got British rule replaced by Indian rule in India, Goa’s rule by the Portuguese was replaced by an Indian army, and not by Gandhi’s satyagraha). I was not told specifically to change my passport from Portuguese to Indian. There was an ambiguity in my mind. So I had both, but I used the Indian one for residential purposes, and the Portuguese one for making world travel infinitely easier. Now, finally I am back in Indian Goa, on an Indian passport. Although I had first said I was just a Goan, now I say I am an Indian, and with a little prodding by the enquirer, I prefix the word Indian by ‘Goan’. Which means I am a Goan Indian. Footnote: My birthplace is Goa, and Goa now being in India , my nationality is Indian, (although I could also have citizenship of another country, honorary or by a freak of history). That makes sense to me. -------------------------------
