Thank you Dr. Gilbert Lawrence for observations you have made in your dissertation of Goa' colonial history which I find very interesting. i.e. ''' Goa post 1510 brought immigration from Europe: those like Camoes ( criminals who could stay in a Lisbon jail or go to Goa ) and others who did not fit into European (*i.e. Portuguese ) society. '''* ** *In the late forties or early fifties* there was in Goa a Portuguese gentleman surgeon called Dr. Baptista who was , I think, a ''Desterrado'' or exiled from Portugal to Goa for harbouring socialist views. I believe he was from an influential Portuguese family and hence Salazar did not dare to throw him in jail.
He was a very popular surgeon in those days. A tribal girl from South Salcete who had undergone an operation in Panjim under his hands, was recuperating when one fine morning there was Dr Baptista at her home to enquire about her health. He had motored all the way from Panjim and believe or not , he did something that even a staunch man of of God would never do , he shared with her family members breakfast which was an earthen bowl full of ambil, a sort of nachni tizan.
