Regarding Jose Lourenco's question:
My Brother:
Not all who left were Great Goans or Great Intellectuals. Some of us little
Goans just left because the spirit so moved us....and there is no guarantee we
will not return either because childhood memories of sweet mangoes and warm
breezes and bright skies and friendly faces still persist.
We love comfort zones! and what better comfort zone is there than the one you
were born and raised in? Not everybody likes to get out of their comfort zone
and move into the unfamiliar zone! and yet, Mr. Genographic tells us:
You've come a long way baby! a 75,000 year journey form the fertile African
Rift valley to the busy banks of the river Sal - and on and on? Should you
desire to decipher the reasons why, consider the carrot and stick theory, which
requires more carrot and less stick....no point in blaming the noble bystanders.
Best Regards,
E.
by Jose Lourenco
[email protected]
Did the gauddis and kunnbis toiling
In yonder fields throw you out?
Or did the kharvis on sandy shore
Weigh you with fish scales
And find you wanting?
Did the escrivao frown
Over horn rimmed glasses?
Did the posorkar hold back his sugar
And did the toddy tapper fail
To read your footnotes?
Did the bent backs at the tavern
Scorn Descartes and Proust
The smell of earth and their sweat
Intolerably incomparable with
Champagne and Chardonnay?
Did they not pay for their matchbox
And their candles and their jaggery?
Humble tax to the great exchequer
That would pay for your books
And the noble flights of your mind?
Did the primeiro grau school teacher
Cast thee out with stern rule in hand
Or the bhat, singing of god?s glory?
Did the baker shove his be-jingled staff
Up your enlightened arse?
You left, O great Goan
To walk with kings and poets
And to shine like a martyred star
With glowing angst and exile-chic
But They, unmindful, toil on.
NOTE: Jose Lourenco, engineer-turned-writer and editor of Goa Streets[1]
recently shared this poem of his on the occasion of World Poetry Day via
the Goa-Book-Club, an open-archived network promoting the book and the
written word in Goa. You are welcome to join this network by signing up
here [2].
