Home and away
John Razana
In her letter ‘Very special status (Herald, February 20, 2013), Sue Smith asks why do Goans oppose migrants. I felt she was speaking about me! I have lived overseas for 50 years. My experience is that Goans should not go abroad. If anyone had told me that then, I would have been very offended. But I now realise that the greatest blunder of my life was my decision to migrate. Perhaps if we had special status, I would have stayed in Goa. It is not about special status, but about the promise made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to give us special status and we believe he should have kept his promise. Aside from this, the issue is not whether countries should open their borders to Africans and Asians, but rather why people migrate. Look at the migrants who come to Goa. From which state do they come and why are they poor? Who is responsible for their poverty? Surely it’s the politicians. If their states were prosperous, would they come to Goa to live in slums?
As for Goans abroad, all of them are not rich. There surely must be many happy Goans , but I have not met even one happy Goan abroad in 50 years. All of them are lonesome and they long for the time when they can holiday in Goa. It is in Goa that I see them genuinely happy. We can’t be happy abroad, because we are children of the sun; abroad we crave sunshine. We are all witness to the fact that foreigners bask happily in the sun on our beaches ~ a luxury that is royal! There is also the fact that psychologically Goans and NRIs are unhappy. Although they are treated equally, they feel out of place. This feeling is only natural. It is the NRIs who really know what the cliché `there is no place like home’ really means. NRIs may pretend to be affluent, but they certainly don’t feel they are part of the society in which they live overseas. Yes, we are outsiders. When Goans shout at me here, I don’t feel inferior. But if a white man doesn’t bow down to me I call him a racist. Sue Smith says we live in the comfort of our homes. What comfort and what home?
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I am not talking about a few millionaire Goans and NRIs.The vast majority live in small rented apartments that are cold most of the year, unless they turn the central heating on. And that’s expensive. And which home abroad is better than my own home in Goa? We earn a greater amount of money, that’s true. But the cost of living is also high. When we come to Goa, we spend like rich men. That is an illusion, because we stay only a few weeks here and a dollar or euro is converted into a lot of rupees. But once we’re back, we think carefully how we spend our dollars. There, suddenly one euro is like one rupee.
If all Goans and migrants to Europe and America had stayed in their own land, they would have been inspired to do something to make their land prosperous and thereby be truly happy, instead of pretending to be happy, as I do. I am not ungrateful, but I wish the white man had not accepted me in his land. I would have been happy here in Goa, where I don’t have to wear two woolen pullovers, gloves, a cap and an overcoat and where the cold air from my breath does not turn into a visible mist as I speak.
(This letter reflects my experience and opinions.)
