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NEW BOOK: 'PATRIOTISM IN ACTION: Goans in Indias Defence Services'
With Foreword by Gen SF Rodrigues, PVSM, VSM, ADC (retd)
former Chief of Indian Army Staff
and Governor, Punjab & Administrator, Chandigarh UT
Copies now available at:
GOA: Literati (2277740), Other India (2263306), Broadway (6647038),
Mandovi (2427904), Noel DSilva & Associates (9823120454 / 9096781714),
Confidant / Golden Heart Emp (2732450), David & Co (2730326), Vardaan
(9527463684)
SERV / RETD Def Offrs in Goa: O/o Sainik Co-op Hse Bldg Sty, Def Col, Porvorim
(2417288)
MUMBAI: David & Co (22019010)
PUNE: Manneys (26131683), Popular (25678327)
BENGALURU: Narayan (22865800)
DELHI: Ritana (24617278)
ONLINE (worldwide delivery): http://www.ritanabooks.com,
http://goa1556.goa-india.org
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Dear George, FN et al,
Let me preface this email by saying that knowing FN as I do, he genuinely cares
about the disadvantaged - which as I recall used to be a virture. Having said
that, let me put this "anti-migrant talk" into perspective by relating a very
private story:
The Story of the River Thames
One day I was walking down the River Thames in London when I heard a certain
gurgling of the stomach. At this precise moment it struck me that maybe I
shouldn't have had two hot-dogs for lunch. Being by the river, I thought I
could
get away with certain things. Taking my cue, I saw a couple of other
fellow-Indians unzip their flies as well. Hurrah I said to myself, a wonderful,
organic moment of community bonding. But barely had I curved my thighs into a
haunch, when I saw an English bobby charge towards me with a baton so thick, I
knew it would break my back into two and I would sail away into the Thames,
alongwith what was left of my hot-dog.
The moral of the story is this. In India we have come to accept every
degradation -moral, ethical, legal, environmental, aesthetic - as the norm and
not the aberration. We have infantilized an entire nation by making excuses and
abdicating our responsibility for change.
Best,
selma
