Goa; how I rediscovered my roots... (part 1)

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Hi,
Am starting this blogs by going back a few years when I visited Goa my janamabhoomi after almost 30 years...
The Year was 2005, month was Nov... was sitting at home getting bored had started to rethink my priorities...
I was a young member of the Indian National Congress who had joined the Anti Reservation group - Youth for Equality and after a exilariting Strike in which the medical n Engineering guys played a prominent part(we had shut down the AIIMS) and brought the debate against reservation to the forefront, we faced defeat in court... Reservation was enshrined as a policy by our law makers who said that we must fight poison by poison, centuries of caste based discrimination(which was slowly atleast in urban quarters fading away) can be undone by more caste based discrimination(the policy for reserving seats based on caste not merit)...

Any way we had lost and I having sworn to never vote for the Congress party unless it changed its stand was unable to justify being a member of the same party I could not vote for...

I must here mention that was just a grassroot member not a party bigwig of the Congress Party( was considered to be an upcoming young grass roots chap in Delhi, some even had said would be the next member of The MCD from our area and could slowly grow big enough. There were people in our group who wanted us to stay put and work slowly after becoming somebodies to change policy). Well they were right was given a chance to fight the elections very next year or to choose the person who would fight the local body elections...

And to everybodies suprise I decided to quit politics after 18 years of long work for the one thing that mattered getting the Party Ticket... people said was crazy... but y did this happen...

Well I visited Goa in the early part of 2006, Jan to be exact...
30 years had passed when I had with my MOM n little sis driven in a rickety bus from Goa to Pune to join my father who was posted there(he was an Army Officer) and from then on never came back to my Janamsthali...
I was born in 1972 Nov, in Ribander Hospital, St Cruz, Tiswadi, Goa...

wanted to do something different was kind of disgusted with things genrally and wanted a change...
Was in the real Estate field for almost as long as I had been in Politics and had heard that the development scene in Goa was HOT... so decided to take a Dheko, would get to meet my cousins(I mentioned my Mom was a Goan didn't I...) look at the place people call El-Dorado! The Hawai of India and get to have a look at a hot new business opp, so what the hell! just upped and came down to Goa...

My memories were faint but I remembered a beautiful Land, lovely people, horse riding on the beach with our neighbors(they very very rich n had horses), I remembered sitting on the Lap of our family friend who had a Taxi(in those days Taxis in Goa were mostly Mercs) and learning to turn the steering of the car, remembered faintly a wedding(it was my uncles i think) with music, singing, the Pork being roasted slowly while wonderful other cooking smells were there in the Air, my Mom was incharge of the Kitchen as she was then too a most worderfull cook as she is now and was reknowned for her cooking as well for her Looks! She was a most beautiful n Graceful female as borne out by her pics that I had no wonder my Dad fell for her, he too was a damh good looking bloke and add to that the dashing factor of his being an Army Officer... theirs was a story of a young couple from different backgrounds falling in Love and getting Married against the odds n their families wishes, I am grateful to both of them....

Any way 37 years back I was born a wild boy with a charming nature who looked like an Angel and had Girls gushing over him, no wonder was so popular with the neghibourhood boys who used me as bait with all those lovely Lasses... no girl who could resist a sweet angelic chubby kid who would smile and tug at their skirts n ask to be kissed, I guess many guys also ended up getting pecks and I enjoyed the spoils of Cokes n Chocolate's that i got from the wicked chaps! not that I minded being fussed by pretty girls who took me for an lost angel n promptly kissed me on both my cheeks!!!

Wow! didn't even know remembered so much...

Landed in Goa with faint recollection of my relatives only knowing that a uncle of mine would be there to collect me, Goa was a bustle of a small airport with all the Charters and Foreign n Domestic tourists thronging it... It was Peak season with the maddening crowd it brings to Goa and I had chosen that very time to visit, my what a change the sleepy dreamy Goa of my memories had been replaced by a maddening tourist destination and bang I had to redraw the memories fast!

Nothing was as I remembered I thought initially even my Uncle looked different he had a Black shock of hair and a beard when i had last met him and now a almost Bald man with a thin Moustache was in front of me, only the beaming smile he had and his warmth won me over... in an instant we became nephew n Uncle once more and that is one thing I think made Goa worth to visit the Warmth of its people to total strangers too...

We had a quick bite as it was late afternoon my flight was delayed for more that 3 hours n he had come half n hour early so had been waiting for long in the hot afternoon, then we drove towards our family village of Candolim...

My Aunt won me over in an instant by giving me the same warm welcome n fused me over like a small child who had traveled half way across the world to come to his home...

My Mothers Family, they were Barreto's(Catholic Khatriyas - I think this term exists only in Goa, here there are Catholic Bhramin & Khatriya families who though they converted to Christianity 400 years back or so had still not left their roots and had still clung to some remanants of their castes- some by even sending annual gifts to their Kul Dev/devi's), The were Bhatkars - Land owning Families are called such in Goa...
And my Uncle Agnelo and Aunt Lima were still called same by olden families of workers even though they Lands were now no longer there...
He was my Mom's youngest Brother, she had 4 brothers Messiahs, Antonio, Rosario, Agnelo and an elder sister Fatima(she had passed away some years ago...

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