I was sitting at Sada's browsing through a curiosity I had come across: Goa and its Future, Sarto Esteves, Manaktalas, Bombay, 1966.
Obviously, it was written in the run-up to the Opinion Poll and while being apparently well researched it is certainly a polemic. Then all of a sudden I burst out laughing making the denizens of Sada's to halt their gossip for a while and stare at me. I'll reproduce the passage that amused me and perhaps you can say whether I was sane or not at that moment: "Till the day of liberation, every action of the humblest Goan breathed an air of a cultured citizen and it left no doubt whatsoever in the mind of any visitor to Goa or anyone who came in contact with Goans that he was in the midst of highly refined people. Honesty was writ large on the face of every Goan whatever be his caste or religion; everyone considered it his sacred duty to work for his daily bread or else starve rather than live on ill-gotten goods; every Goan, whether literate or illiterate, whether educated or uneducated, whether well placed or engaged in the humblest of tasks, knew how to respect his superiors, his equals and his subordinates; he was gracious, graceful, and courteous to a fault; no Goan was ever known to have thought it right or proper to live by robbing, swindling or making a fortune at the cost of somebody else just because he could take advantage of the others' helplessness or need; the streets of Goa were clean and free from beggars, loafers and urchins; there was a plan and design behind every Goan house; no matter how humble, simple or poor. These certainly are traits which are not easy to come by in the character of a single and small race. Yet they are all there, for those who know how to appreciate them, to recognize. They are the result of history, of association of Goans with non-Goans, of the institutions in the midst of which they have lived, and had their being, of the training and education they have received for generations and for the disciplined life they have learnt to lead. It is worth knowing more about these people and their institutions." Does anyone know more about Sarto Esteves besides what is there on the Net? Apparently he was quite a prolific writer - see http://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Esteves,%20Sarto Cheers Augusto -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal, Moira, Bardez, Goa, India E [email protected] or [email protected] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
