Re: [Goanet] Request from Selma Carvalho
People, a few general thoughts upon reflection on Eddie Fernandes' posting of Selma Carvalho's letter. + + + Behaviors are as we all know to varying degrees are not easy to pinpoint. We are constantly changing hopefully for the better (among what entails change). One way is to always look at oneself and see how consistent one has been. Speaking for self such has not been the case. In fact I can see distinct as also overlapping stages in my life that span a gamut spanning fears, anxieties, sense/s of belittlement, knowing where I stand in what I do, frustration of being taken lightly, calls not returned (important ones, not koss' ass tum), promises that never materialized, arcane expressions of "I do not understand this that or the other man," despair at being seen wrongly, feelings of being manipulated, lack of being celebrated in turn when almost my entire life I have done just that and some--of course when things have moved me, and towards certain efforts. We choose what we do, or rather make choices (in the same way we utter: Well thats your choice!), and in doing so shape our being, as also our engagements with our fellows. Its not always necessary to do so but we do so for many reasons, which hopefully each individual becomes aware of, although in general most are indifferent although a lot of text is typed in such fora. Epicurus said: "Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." With affection to one and all, Venantius J Pinto On Sun, Jun 1, 2014 at 7:34 AM, Eddie Fernandes wrote: > Gabe and Rose, > > The whole of May and now evidently going into fair June, I have watched the > two of you try to tear down the new book 'A Railway Runs Through: Goans of > British East Africa.' In the process you have taken sniper shots at me and > my friends and anyone who so much as dares to speak a word against this > seemingly endless madness. > > I don't quite understand what the point is, that you are trying to make? Is > it that I shouldn't have undertaken the project and the book? Have I > misrepresented the East African Goan community in the book? Have I shown > them in a poor light? All of those might have been good reasons to > challenge > my writing. However, the criticism is disparate, and like a blind frog > without any direction. Rather a general angst that I - a non-East African > Goan - has written about East Africa. Well, East Africa happens to be part > of my personal family history. My grandfather laboured in Nairobi for > nearly > twenty years as a bank clerk between the 1910s-1930s. Much like many of > your > relatives, he was a pioneer Goan in Africa, and my mother's ancestral house > in Goa is to this day known as 'Afrikar Ghar.' It is my profound love for > my > own family history which led me to investigate about a part of me which > remained unknown. Is it a sin? Am I not a Goan to understand > transformations > which take place within Goan society wherever they may be? Are you > absolutely sure that the Goan settlement in East Africa was so unique and > esoteric; it has no parallel in other diaspora settlements? You might be > surprised to learn the progression of Goan settlements is almost inevitably > the same. If people are interested in the East Africa story now, it is in > no > small part because I have spent the last 6 years of my life starting with > my > first book, Into the Diaspora Wilderness (Goa, 1556) bringing this story > back into the public consciousness. > > You say you don't find any parallel in the book with your own experiences > in > East Africa. That's fine. This is just a book, one book. If you can't find > any resonance, stop reading it. Read something else. There are other books, > better still write one yourself. Mine has been a labour of love. It is a > bit > surprising though that you found nothing to validate your experience > because > the book contains 16 (let me spell that out sixteen) interview extracts > from > people who lived in East Africa, some long, long before you came into > existence. > Literally hundreds of East Africans Goans have felt validated by the book. > Near 500 copies have vanished in three weeks since its launch on 3 May, > 2014. People have read the book and ordered more copies for their children, > their parents, their families and their friends. Non-Goans have been > ordering the book, Patels and Karims from Zanzibar, and English families > who > lived in colonial Nairobi, libraries which I have never contacted (among > them the University of Toronto Library and faculty of the School of > Oriental > and African Studies, London) have been ordering it, and at a recent dinner > held by the British Kenya administration, I am told everyone was 'talking > about the Goan book.' Goans still living in East Africa (Kenya and > Tanzania) > have written in to tell me, and I quote from a message received this > morning > from a prominent member of
Re: [Goanet] Request from Selma Carvalho
On 2 June 2014 14:18, Santosh Helekar wrote: > I think the month-long duet on Goanet has boosted the sales of Selma's > book. Selma should wish that it goes on forever, and that she has many more > such best friends. > > Cheers, > > Santosh RESPONSE: For once, I whole heartedly agree! So why are they attempting to curb what is of obvious benefit to sales? These people are not into marketing. -- DEV BOREM KORUM Gabe Menezes.
Re: [Goanet] Request from Selma Carvalho
I think the month-long duet on Goanet has boosted the sales of Selma's book. Selma should wish that it goes on forever, and that she has many more such best friends. Cheers, Santosh On Sunday, June 1, 2014 11:29 PM, "roland.fran...@ymail.com" wrote: > > >For Selma: > >Well stated though your reasoning my be, it has always been my view that there >is no benefit to shaming the shameless. > >Their replies will prove me. > >Roland. > >Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android > > > >
Re: [Goanet] Request from Selma Carvalho
For Selma: Well stated though your reasoning my be, it has always been my view that there is no benefit to shaming the shameless. Their replies will prove me. Roland. Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
[Goanet] Request from Selma Carvalho (Response to Selma Carvalho via Eddie Fernandes from Rose Fernandes)
Dear Eddie Perhaps you would be kind enough to can pass on the following response to Selma Carvalho as she has chosen to write to me and Gabe on goanet through your office: Quote Dear Selma First of all may I politely remind you that it was your doddery "interface" with EAST AFRICAN Goan people that led you to bid a fond farewell to goanet. Are we all now to shop for "welcome back" banners and Rose wine? Secondly, may I politely remind you that during the course of the project, you and your Public Relations Officer gloated to everyone on goanet the high level of popularity this project was receiving and the great enthusiasm shown by volunteers on the project. In fact at one stage when Melvyn was questioning aspects of your project, your Public Relations Officer wrote to him saying he was losing his credibility. Of course, Melvyn did the needful and replied back with one word "incredible". It has therefore come as a surprise to me to see you write in this post "a few of us bore the brunt of this enormous project which stretched over three years". Perhaps now that the project has concluded, in between taking your book to market, you will find some time to dig out these goanet posts and refresh your memory. Thirdly, may I politely remind you that Melvyn wrote privately to you offering his assistance in marketing your book and he heard nothing further from you. Fourthly, I would like to point out to you that if I spent my valuable time scrutinising every line in your book, I would not have time for anything else in my life. To tell you the honest truth, I picked out just ONE line in your book which is meant to be a historical document NOT a fictional novel, this was the line "District Commissioner Wyndham Wild, Marsabit, 1950" and it came to light then that this was not the case in that year. The reason for that was I doing a search as to find out how many Goans lived in that region at that time. Interestingly, I came across one document that recorded early years to 1950, in the Marsabit township in 1929 only 1 Goan lived there and by 1935 it had gone up to 5 Goans. I guess there would have been an increase in the number of Goans in the years that followed. If the issues of gender dynamics, caste and class consciousness, the struggles in the civil service, the building of the churches, the politics, the prejudice and the pain of migration had affected our community so very much, surely they would have packed up their bags and left East Africa and gone back to the paradise of Goa after just a few years! If you really analyse these issues, we still face them today, do you see many of us packing up our suitcases and move permanently to Goa? Once again, I repeat, we did have our struggles and face discrimination, one of the major hazards were tropical diseases particularly "malaria" but I can honestly say that most of those who lived around me had a life full of community spirit, laughter, fun, helping each other and were more than capable of rising above everything and living life to the full with our never ending picnics, drive in cinemas, dances, sports, childrens plays, etc. etc. My father the majority of the time (sometimes he was strict) was a happy jolly man with a tremendous sense of humour and great love of life and travel, as a child I remember constantly packing up the car to go here there and everywhere. Again, I repeat, those who found their life unbearable and like hell always had the opportunity of doing something about it and returning back to Goa and if they did not do this when they had this opportunity, it is now too late to complain! You have written about interview extracts from people who lived in East Africa, some long, long before I came into existence. May I also politely remind you that I spent the most formative years of my life in Mombasa, Kenya during the period you have headlined in your book so I am expecting this book to cover not only my story but all those of my generation. As I have indicated, I have seen no parallel as yet in the pages I have read and hope this may come in the following chapters of the book. It is good to hear that your book is moving fast, fast and may not need the strong publicity engine of goanet, perhaps you can share the secret of your success with other struggling authors in getting their book sold and read. Finally, we are now on the same hymn sheet, I too refuse to believe some of the writings you post on other social media that inadvertently turn up on goanet, I would have expected you to have evolved beyond that, that too to me is a tragedy. Rose Unquote Thank you Eddie for passing this message on. Rose Fernandes Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom 1 June 2014
[Goanet] Request from Selma Carvalho
Gabe and Rose, The whole of May and now evidently going into fair June, I have watched the two of you try to tear down the new book 'A Railway Runs Through: Goans of British East Africa.' In the process you have taken sniper shots at me and my friends and anyone who so much as dares to speak a word against this seemingly endless madness. I don't quite understand what the point is, that you are trying to make? Is it that I shouldn't have undertaken the project and the book? Have I misrepresented the East African Goan community in the book? Have I shown them in a poor light? All of those might have been good reasons to challenge my writing. However, the criticism is disparate, and like a blind frog without any direction. Rather a general angst that I - a non-East African Goan - has written about East Africa. Well, East Africa happens to be part of my personal family history. My grandfather laboured in Nairobi for nearly twenty years as a bank clerk between the 1910s-1930s. Much like many of your relatives, he was a pioneer Goan in Africa, and my mother's ancestral house in Goa is to this day known as 'Afrikar Ghar.' It is my profound love for my own family history which led me to investigate about a part of me which remained unknown. Is it a sin? Am I not a Goan to understand transformations which take place within Goan society wherever they may be? Are you absolutely sure that the Goan settlement in East Africa was so unique and esoteric; it has no parallel in other diaspora settlements? You might be surprised to learn the progression of Goan settlements is almost inevitably the same. If people are interested in the East Africa story now, it is in no small part because I have spent the last 6 years of my life starting with my first book, Into the Diaspora Wilderness (Goa, 1556) bringing this story back into the public consciousness. You say you don't find any parallel in the book with your own experiences in East Africa. That's fine. This is just a book, one book. If you can't find any resonance, stop reading it. Read something else. There are other books, better still write one yourself. Mine has been a labour of love. It is a bit surprising though that you found nothing to validate your experience because the book contains 16 (let me spell that out sixteen) interview extracts from people who lived in East Africa, some long, long before you came into existence. Literally hundreds of East Africans Goans have felt validated by the book. Near 500 copies have vanished in three weeks since its launch on 3 May, 2014. People have read the book and ordered more copies for their children, their parents, their families and their friends. Non-Goans have been ordering the book, Patels and Karims from Zanzibar, and English families who lived in colonial Nairobi, libraries which I have never contacted (among them the University of Toronto Library and faculty of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London) have been ordering it, and at a recent dinner held by the British Kenya administration, I am told everyone was 'talking about the Goan book.' Goans still living in East Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) have written in to tell me, and I quote from a message received this morning from a prominent member of the Nairobi Goan Gymkhana, 'it has enlightened us on so many things.' I think a lot of people are finding themselves in this book. And I'm happy because above all this was a community project. Lastly, thank you for taking time to scrutinise it minutely for errors with such diligence and zeal. Since I am already in the process of getting the second print ready, tiny and insignificant as the error is, I will ensure that the amendment is made. I do wish such alacrity was shown when I was asking for volunteers for the project. Sadly none were forthcoming then. Everyone was too busy with their own lives to spend a few hours volunteering for a community project. A few of us bore the brunt of this enormous project which stretched over three years and had many firsts including the first oral project in the UK to have video recordings archived at the British Library, the first Goan seminar at the Royal Geographical Society, the first Goan genealogy workshop at Bexley archives, the first East African Goan video documentary, the first East African Goan exhibition for which Secretary of State for Business, Dr Vince Cable chose to attend and solid documentation through a book. What a pity that instead of scrutinising the book, you didn't engage in productively discussing the transformations highlighted there or the issues of gender dynamics, caste and class consciousness, the struggles in the civil service, the building of the churches, the politics, the prejudice and the pain of migration. What a sad reflection it is on Goan society that an entire month has been consumed on Goanet with such superfluous engagement of ideas. I refuse to believe that our society hasn't evolved beyond this level of discourse. That perhaps m
