After I retired and returned to Goa, practically everyone in Anjuna, including all the policemen but excluding senior citizens call me uncle and I dont mind it at all. I know they use it out of respect for me. Males and females in their Forties address me as Domnic uncle. In short, I have become Anjuna uncle. Even when I visit Mapusa market, the shopkeepers and vendors address me as uncle; maybe because of my white hair. Nowadays, even senior citizens dye their hair black and think they are sweet sixteen! It is these people who dont like to be called uncle and aunty!
In the days of yore, the word uncle was used mostly by Bomboikar (Bombay Goans.) The local Goan used Konkani words like titiu for fathers brother; mama for mothers brother; mavxi for mothers sister; timaim for titius wife, etc. please read my article of March 2005 in the link below: http://lists.goanet.org/htdig.cgi/goanet-goanet.org/2005-March/112492.html Unfortunately, the present-day generation does not even make an effort to use Konkani words of relationship. As a result, they use uncle and aunty for every relationship. Moi-mogan, Domnic Fernandes Anjuna, Goa Mob: 9420979201 http://www.goanet.org/post.php?name=News&list=goanet&info=2009-November/thread&post_id=186125
