There were in the Goa of yore a few Catholic families who no doubt occupied
positions of power and privilege pre-1961. This sense of entitlement was upheld
by notions of caste, with little or possibly no regard for merit. Nonetheless,
in time, education and economics played their part in insulating this coterie
from the rest of Goa. Doubtless in time they solidified their positions, made
possible by inter-marriage. In time they became almost a clan. Implacable.
Their reputations and lifestyles, however debauched, protected by a wall of
silence, maintained in part by loyalty, in part by fear and sadly in part
through unfailing reverence from all those that called them bhatkar.
Those days are gone now but that sense of bhatkarponn has not died in these
families. Over the course of the four years I have been on Goan forums, I have
come across it again and again. Yes, to a large extent caste is defunct in Goan
society but it is not dead. It is merely dressed in a more egalitarian garb.
In my four years on Goan forums, ultimately it is the Gulfkars, the tarvottis,
the Afrikars, the tiartrists who have taken me to their hearts. Perhaps in a
very small way, I have become their voice because I come from them, from that
belly of Goa which grows in its villages. I know them. I can see them in my
grandfathers, my father, my cousins and my friends. Hopefully, I will continue
being their voice.
The other Goa has remained closed, zip-locked with constant innuendo, here on
Goanet and elsewhere. We Goans today are as divided as we were a few centuries
ago. Let's not be mistaken about that. Neither education nor economics has
fundamentally changed our way of thinking.
I've had a good run. Great fun. But I now request the moderators to change my
listing to a digest. After four long years, I need some air to breathe.
Best,
selma
