Aghô Milagrin, Londonkaram amghê khobrô kortai mugho, Saiba bhôgosh…

Here I am at a Saturday Mass, furtive glances , eager to see who has dressed to kill and there are many and I breathe enviously, London... the priest enters.

If it is that burgundy bag without any embellishment to distract you from that unbelievably beautiful colour...It is London.

If it is that flared white dress with stripes so crazy that a zebra would recognize it in delight...It has to be London.

And if it is those navy blue ballet pumps with just a teeny hint of white...It decidedly is London.

As I sneakily peer around to find out what’s new in London, are there any of my favourites clothes, I lazily listen to the homily, the sermon drones on full of exhortations, wearisomely repetitive, the priest extols about his, by all accounts excellent trip to US of A.

All of a sudden I snap to consciousness, in a foul voice dripping with malice and odium he intones;

‘Tumim tôr Londonak vetat sirvisek, tinga sirviseio nam.’ ‘If you are going to London for a job. There are no jobs there.’

 A pause, a deep breath, (Priests always pause, when about to pronounce something specially vile) he waits for moment and then

‘Matt tumkam toilet saf korpachi sirvis zai zalear, tieo zaiteu assat’ ‘But if you are looking for a job cleaning toilets these are in plenty.’ 

Wow. Flashes through my mind and I glance around, faces stoic and calm, carved in stone. The look of people around me says it all, what’s new about this oration we have heard worse, so much garbage has been flung at us through the ages.

A profound sadness fills me, will nobody think of the struggles people in my village have endured, the long protracted fights to get a plot of land to build a house.

Battles fought with landlords reluctant to yield land that has been in their possession for centuries. Struggle, bitterness, acrimony on every side.

But then again everybody needs a house to live in; it is not possible to exist in a hut all your life.

A chance to make it good, the gift of a Portuguese Passport, the opportunity to explore different horizons, and To London...To London

@ https://zorotmorotgoesmyvillage.blogspot.com/2018/12/to-londonto-london.html

 A Meeting with a group of Africanders left me astonished. They too were very cross and repulsed. They flung a tirade at me, to my question, ‘Why do you guys dislike the EU Goans’.

My take on this @ https://zorotmorotgoesmyvillage.blogspot.com/2019/07/agho-milagrin-londokarancheo-dhirio.html

When Cecil Pinto posted a link to the post, there was of course a great deal of animosity, some people got in touch with me privately, full of antagonism, How could you? They said.

There were those who wrote most vociferously, in answer to these threads on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/sonia.d.gomes.37/posts/10156444898474562

https://www.facebook.com/sonia.d.gomes.37/posts/10156444898474562

But to Gilbert Lawrence.

Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2019 11:44:22 +0000 (UTC)
From: Gilbert Lawrence <gilbert2114@yahoo.com>
To: Goanet Org <goanet@goanet.org>
Subject: [Goanet]  Aghô Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiri chollotai mugo
Message-ID: <862363938.431354.1563018262937@mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

From GL:
Sonia Gomes' article could be submitted as a thesis on Goan culture in England.? Of course the author should add a few references, only because Goans love references?
Sonia makes her points, yet from an academic perspective there is one group of UK-Goans that the author has thrown under the bus.? These are Goans who immigrated to UK after leaving Goa and spending time in parts of India or Middle East?

If fact belonging to this group is the central character in the drama described in the original article "Aghô Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiri chollotai mugo"? The spoof and play was written by a Bombay-Goan on the various UK-Goan groups.
To make this very perceptive article useful and this post a teaching moment, I would submit that both the EU- and Africander-Goans are demonstrating the usual (sodanchem) "Goaness or Goemkarpon."
In my view Goas are quite clickish with comparatively poor skills at socializing?

 At social events Goans hang around with the same 3-5 Goans they spend every weekend rather than meet new Goans, expand their social network and widen their perspective of life?

The Goemkarpon permits Goans in their coffee-clatch to? continue their nasty social habit of gossip and bad-mouthing other Goans, displaying the old crab gene, which Sonia so well describes.
Another social deficit Goans have is the inability to smile and have a sense of humor? A smile displays self-confidence!
Just my observations
Regards, GL

Hi Gilbert, good to have met you, and thank you for reading my Blog, I am grateful.

´ Sonia Gomes' article could be submitted as a thesis on Goan culture in England? Of course the author should add a few references, only because Goans love references?

Gilbert I take this at face value and thank you for considering this post good enough for a thesis.

Now for the references that any in-depth article requires, I can only quote the Africanders I met, who continue to be my sole undisputed source of information.

However I am terribly confused, You say ‘If fact belonging to this group is the central character in the drama described in the original article "Agh Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiri chollotai mugo?"

 The spoof and play was written by a Bombay-Goan on the various UK-Goan groups.’

I have never set my eyes either on this spoof or on the play written by a Bombay-Goan on the various UK-Goan groups.

I refuse to share my Milagrin with anyone, she is mine. But who the f@#$k is this usurper who dares oust my Milagrin from me?

Psst, let’s get him Gilbert, wrest him to the ground, are you brawny Gilbert? And insist on some spoils, (Royalties Gilbert) That’s done and dusted then, now that you are taking care of it. Knew I could depend on a Fellow Africander.

Sigh, I too am not a very good mixer myself, at coffee- klatches here in Amchem Goa, I stumble and stutter, hum and haw, particularly when awkward questions are flung at me,

 ‘How did you reach here for the coffee-klatsch?’ ‘I ask because it’s raining’ continues the well-intentioned person full of concern.

Psst. Gilbert I don’t own a car and everybody else does. At least my stammering and stuttering response gives everyone a snarky feeling of contentment. See, you can make everybody happy.

But Gilbert Bhava em kitem rhê?

Message: 3
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2019 10:25:21 +0000 (UTC)
From: Gilbert Lawrence <gilbert2114@yahoo.com>
To: Goanet Org <goanet@goanet.org>
Subject: [Goanet]   Agh Milagrin, Londokarancheo dhiri chollotai mugo
Message-ID: <228780316.496662.1563099921359@mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

GL responds:
In the UK and likely elsewhere in the diaspora, the 400 percent Goans meet the cent-per-cent Goans? But likely neither of them knows the history or geography etc., of Goa beyond their own village.
Every Goan group will have its fidalgos.
Regards, GL

What’s all this about Fidalgos? Who are these Fidalgos?

The only Fidalgo I know is Dom Quixote and his lovable side kick Sancho Panza.

Thanks Gilbert for the very lucid reply to my meanderings ani Mog assundi bhava. 

Message: 2
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2019 14:28:41 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Vivian A. DSouza" <socorrokar@yahoo.com>
To: "Estb. 1994! Goa's Premiere Mailing List"
        <goanet@lists.goanet.org>
Subject: [Goanet] Africander Goans
Message-ID: <2129379664.1343878.1563028121069@mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

‘those of us who lived in the British East African territories, pine about the good old days. ? Most of us have moved on and wholeheartedly embraced the new environment we are living in. reaching out to all Goans and the Community at large.

Some secure in their new environment find solace in the company of their old cronies. But the old generation is slowly passing on to the next world?

The new generation with fewer hang-ups will assimilate and the old Hang-ups will disappear? Time and tide wait for no man..?

It has been my observation that the hang-up prevalent among Africanders is less likely to exist where there are smaller Goan communities. We Goans are clannish (birds of a feather flock together)?

First because we have a common link to Goa, then by where we lived and made a living, then by village, and then perhaps by caste? But all these small minded values will dissipate in time.

Vivian thanks ever so much for your kindness and a reply that tries to tie all loose ends together, to make sense of why sometimes we treat people the way we do.

Yes I hope with all my heart that these small minded values will be erased from our lives, leaving a world, if not everything, at least a small portion of it with kindness and friendliness.

And now to quote, Fausto de Sá on a very positive note. Psst, Fausto, couldn’t resist quoting you, knowing how much you have worked to ameliorate the lives of some of the EU Goans

‘Rather then look down on these people it is for the likes of us to educate them to finer things.

I know of a few families where the matriarch worked as a maid and educated the children who came to the UK via their company sponsorship and have had kids educated in top Universities putting some of our families of privileged backgrounds to shame. Good for them I say.’

Thank you very much for all the responses, discussions always make you think, maybe turn your world upside making you look at things from a totally different point of view.

If you are in a good frame of mind, if you have a plateful of pulao and sorpotel in front of you, a glass of feni at your side you could perhaps listen to 

Bob Dylan @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ

Choll iea Milagrin, cansar zalim amim...