All are Goan Catholics and I amongst them am the lone Hindu Brahmin and termed by them mockingly as minority which is accompanied by a loud laughter much to my amusement. They are possessive and very fond of me.
I guess it is more so because they enjoy my company especially my sharp tongue which they find allegory to a Knight’s sword and my unbiased grasp of subject matters on current topics which tickles their intellect espousing loud laughter until all surrender with joy and humility.
There have been many a occasion wherein hand held half empty glasses have been smashed with an absolute reason to hold my views and opinion to ransom and force a retreat upon me by a few. But until now none have succeeded due to the prevailing democratic equation.
The consensus judgement is simple ‘The dispute between the plaintiff and respondent is immaterial, irrelevant and has no bearing upon the case’. In short who is right does not matter, what is right is all that matters.
During our Goa Liberation day celebration one amongst us remarked that it would be ideal if I put pen to paper depicting my thoughts for local publication so as to present the same to the general public for their reactions.
The objective is to discover whether the resultant outcome of protests by Catholic minorities in Goa helps breed animosity and contempt from other communities was his contention.
I donned the mantle of a High Court judge imaging myself to be delivering the final judgement in an environment of pin drop silence. I stated in a firm voice ‘English’ needs to be declared as the MOI in Goa as it is observed that all educational material, books and research has been conducted in the English language as such it gains importance at every step in our lives. Culture and morals need to be taught at home by parents and elders. Schools and teachers need be excused from this kind of teaching exercise and should concentrate more on the syllabus.
Furthermore society at large should understand and accept that the English vocabulary is vast in comparison to other languages and certain words cannot be translated nor substituted in subjects like medicine and engineering which form the basics of all economics. We go to school to learn new things and seek guidance.
There was a thundering applause and one of my friends commented “We need to raise a toast for this minority fellow. Cheers”.
Later after another round the discussion revolved on scrapping of RP-2021. There were two groups affiliated to the ideology of the saffron brigade and the communal brigade. One of our friends from the later group lowered the glass down with a bang like a judge bringing down the hammer to maintain order and decorum. He shouted to emphasize his point “We need two hands to clap” instead of order…order.
Once again they descended on the minority to vote in their favour. As they all approached me with menacing faces I sadly kept aside my plate with a portion of chicken tikka for future relish. After the din subsided I stood up and argued some wisdom like a Supreme Court lawyer.
I said “Friends now if I buy a cow I am entitled to milk her right? If I sell my car is not the new owner entitled to drive this car by right of ownership? Do I have the authority to say to him no you are not allowed to drive this car in Goa, because your license was issued in another state, but you can own it. Again going a little further let us say I sell my land and then say to the buyer after the sale is executed and all financial transactions complete “Look you can till the land, build a small house for yourself to live in, but I do not permit you to build whatever you have in mind for commercial purpose as it will destroy the beauty of my village and our culture“.
I could hear some of my friends murmur and burp. They couldn’t digest my arguments but had no other choice than accept them with humility. All of them huddled themselves in a corner and spoke in low voices. After a minute they announced their verdict that your vote of opinion doesn’t matter anymore and sarcastically commented you belong to the minority.
Now they were a confused lot looking at each other for some kind of explanation. Slowly it dawned upon them that it is risky to meddle with the minority, never to under estimate them and to always treat them respectfully.
They decided to make a last minute desperate attempt to force me into surrender. How about the MOPA Airport project. Are you aware of the consequences on our future generations?
Tongue in cheek I replied “Well a majority of you guys have opted to be citizens of Portugal and have been issued Portuguese passports. So definitely it is a boon that very soon we shall have an international airport. Also your next door neighbour will earn a higher fare when you hire his taxi and on his return journey obviously he will find a foreign tourist wanting to spend his holidays peacefully in South-Goa rather than play golf or getting high on drugs.”
(The author is a freelance journalist)
