A Letter To The Bleddy Goans From An East Indian Bugger
By Godfrey Pereira

Ex-SUNDAY magazine (Kolkata)
and INDIA TODAY journalist
Godfrey Pereira doesn't pull
his punches...

Recently I journeyed back to Goa. In the twenty five years
that I had been gone, there had been changes for the worse. I
could see that. Calangute, poster beach for tourism had tacky
bhel puri stalls and loud Bollywood music; and dirt -- and
dog feces, similar to the old Chowpatty Beach in Bombay
before the state government cleared the lepers colony.

Baga beach was filled with cheap Russians swilling Kingfisher
Beer. And, while Russian Grannies sunbathed topless, oil
massage beggars pandered to their drooping breasts. Anjuna
was loaded with Buddhist trinkets and thrash. And what have
you, the bloody Goans been doing while all these changes have
been going on?

The Russians have been openly running drugs in Goa? Army
deserters from Israel have put up signs in Goa clubs stating,
'No Indians Allowed?' What have you paowallahs been doing?
Eating last night's curry for breakfast? Complaining?
Sushegad?

Beach after beach is being decimated and not a peep
from The Goans. You bleddy Goan men! What has
happened to the cashew nuts between your legs? And
the Goan women don't seem to care. Their sons are
in The Gulf or Canada, sending money back home. Let
somebody else revolt. It is none of your business.
Bleddy, pass pao men. Make sign of the cross. Do
the mando. Bleddy, never mind men, if husband is
nutless! It is God's will!

In Mumbai thousands of people from the ten villages of the
Gorai-Uttan belt have been fighting Essel World. They are
protesting against the proposed Special Entertainment Zone
(SEZ) spread over 14,183 acres in the area. They know they
stand to lose the core of their culture if this happens and
so they are fighting this encroachment disguised as tourism.

At least The East Indians there are trying. What have you
Goans been doing as mining companies rape your hills and
plunder your fresh water resources? What? Have another Cashew
Feni? Talk about how Aunty Mary's daughter is now going out
with that bleddy German bugger? Or, are you'll fighting your
sisters, for property that you don't think they deserve?

What has happened to you bloody Goans? For the sake of the
good lord, please wake up; the politicians are stealing your
nuts from under you. The mining companies are copulating with
the politicians. Don't you hear their grunts? They penetrate
so deep, scouring for ore that they have destroyed many a
water table. And when the ore has been gouged out, they leave
the land, raped and bleeding red. Goa with her thighs spread,
an ugly red gash that was once green!

Have you not seen this happening? If you have not, then
perhaps you should convert to East Indianism. Ha! Sushegad.
What say you stupid? Soon there will be not enough water to
nourish the cashew trees on farms across Goa. Now you know
what I mean about stealing your nuts, you stupid Goans. One
Lone Snap Shot. Quepem town in south Goa, the villages of
Maina and Kawrem,

Cheryl D'Souza, her nine-year old daughter Aki, her
mother Dora, aged eighty-four, are fighting the
miners who have destroyed their dignity and who now
want to destroy Paikeachi Zor {Paik's Spring} a
fountain head for the villagers. They want to buy
her land, Sanfranscisco Estate and turn it into a
graveyard.

Cheryl D'Souza knows the deathly silence of graveyards well,
her husband's ashes are scattered over her farm. When the
miners wanted to rape her little daughter and take away her
very existence, Cheryl turned She Wolf, feral and snarling,
to thwart the beasts who are literally panting at her
doorstep.

She wants to keep them away. They want to rape and then eat
her daughter alive. She has pleaded, begged of the Goans to
help her fight this juggernaut that is pounding Goa but the
Goans have stayed silent. Let her fight, let her go to jail,
let her young daughter and old mother be incarnated, raped;
we will continue to dip our paos in last night's stale curry,
looking into our cracked plates so that we do not have to see
or know. What a shame! What a bleddy shame, you paowallahs!

The miners made her a monetary offer that they thought she
could not refuse. She did. They threatened her. She fought
back. They humiliated her. She snarled in protest. They
thought they had won the battle.

One bright morning she declared war and tried to stop the ore
trucks that were carting away the life blood of her Goa. They
arrested her and her daughter and her old mother. And the
Goans stayed silent watching her being gang raped by the
politicians and the miners. What kind of people have you
bloody Goans become?

When a man does not care about his very nuts being endangered
there must be something fundamentally wrong with that man.
And the Goan women, so many of who depend on the land for
their existence watch the men and do nothing. They watch.
It's not their problem. Pass Pao Men. Say Rosary! Go Church!

At least the East Indians in Gorai have the spunk to protest.
You stupid sushegad Goans are watching your state being
turned around on its face and brutally buggered. Three women
fighting a beast. You watch from afar. Is this entertainment?

My old friend Bal Thackeray once told me, "Sometimes it is
better to throw a few stones." It is a pity that the Tiger
cannot fight with the She Wolf; maybe; just maybe, it would
turn the mining beast around.

And all you despicable Goans, who will not fight to
save your nuts, go ahead have another feni. Or
maybe, maybe, you will start to throw a few stones.
Never mind what the Bible says. You can go to
church in the morning, go to confession, say three
Hail Mary's, but please do something, before your
Goa is Gone. I say to you gutless Goans. The East
Indians have bigger nuts and their sorpotel is
better. Bleddy, What Say You Men? If you still have
nuts, go on, throw the first bleddy stone!

"Couldn't agree more with Rajdeep. Maybe it takes a Goan away from Goa to realize Goa's true value and the degradation that is taking place everyday. I personally don't care for Scarlette or her mother or her allegations. May her soul rest in peace, but there are million more heinous rapes and murders committed in the heartland of India every day. No one notices when a brown skin is raped and murdered or burnt alive for nonsensical reasons in Bihar or UP. Atleast their mothers don't leave them with strangers to go "गांवार पड्पाक". The Scarlette case was a simple matter of choices, and their consequences.

Long live Goa."

- Abhijit Verekar in an email response to Rajdeep Sardesai's article http://www.goablog.org/posts/goan-with-the-wind-rajdeep-sardesai/

I am getting to the point where being a nomad is not so much fun anymore. Back in Cleveland for 2 weeks now, I have been thinking a lot about how and why I am living the life that I am. And again, it was my choice to come back for better opportunities for self redemption and actualization within what I do for a living. What that also brought to the table, was more time sleeping on someone else's couch, a realization that all that I own and have can fit into 2 large suitcases, and that I can keep only one of those bags with me at one time.

That's what has been on my mind for the last two weeks... how do I improve the quality of my life while keeping my current free cash flows? After living on client funds for the last year and half, I come to the realization that there is no such thing as a free lunch, free rent or free drinks... there is always a price to pay... For now, I realize that people pay for rent, utilities, groceries for a reason... to live a good life away from work. I know my thoughts are all over the place for now, but I am just an occasional blogger trying to get out of the couch and into my my own bed... someday.

"The wind blows hard and the sun sets fast in the desert." Its 2.23 am here in Palmdale, California... a place where the Mojave desert starts and stretches out endlessly. Why I am still up at this hour is a mystery... but this happens every Friday night as an unwritten rule, whether I am out getting drunk or at "home" staring alternately at my laptop and the TV. Sleep sits on my eyelids and makes them heavy... I try not to blink... what if I fall asleep? There is nothing to miss, nothing to look forward to tonight... but what if I miss something? Questions float around my head... not even in my head... unanswered and untouched... but definitely heard. I may not remember I wrote this in the morning... but I guess I'll see you on the dark side of the moon someday. Goodnight my friend, the lunatic in my head...

And we are back! I know it has been a while since my last blog, but because the last blog was so intense and deep that I thought I'd rather give my "fans" (the two or three of you who do read my "blog") some time to recover. Jokes apart, blogging is serious business... not because it indulges your literary and creative senses, but only because you need to get off your lazy butt and take time off from chatting and "orkutting" to "pen" down your thoughts. But here I am, giving it another shot!

So what have I been up to since December 2006? A little bit of this and a lot of that. In February, I moved from the Seattle area to the Los Angeles area because of work. When I say move, I packed out of Seattle in 2 hours with two suitcases and arrived at Palmdale, California to work on some projects here. That's right, I can pack my life up in two hours and in two suitcases and MOVE! Doesn't that explain the name of my blog? "Nomadic Pondian". In March, I went to Mexico for a couple of days to get my visa stamped. Was a good two days where I roamed the streets of Nogales, drank cheap Corona, bought a "Mexican" hat, rode a donkey and relaxed. April and May were horrendous months in terms of work where I found myself staying up late every night looking at and working on millions of dollars that belong to someone else who could not manage them effectively. The super consultant that I am, I came close to getting stuff together for that client.

I bought a spanking new Nikon D80 for my dad and while it was here with me, I spent some time practicing photography, something that I really am into. Some pictures that I took while i was in the US and some from India have been uploaded to http://flickr.com/photos/verekar. Make sure you check them out and leave some comments to encourage me. (At this moment, donations are being accepted into the "Buy AV a new camera" fund;))

May was eagerly looked forward to because of the impending vacation in India. I spent almost a month in India with family and friends and rejuvenated my mind, body and soul to the fullest. That I had to come back, and the thought itself took away my rejuvenation, is a completely different story. My visit to India was both fun and bizarre at the same time. Another blog would do it more justice!

For now, I am back in the Antelope Valley, with infrequent trips to Cleveland. Over the last couple of months there has been a lot of soul searching. What I want from life, what I aspire to be, and the ground realities of being a grown up man with responsibilities is an on-going conflict that is very new to me. I know one thing for sure... Big things will pop soon ;) See you soon!

P.S. I have tied up with Google to display some advertisements on my blog that you may find interesting. Keep clicking on the banner right on top of this page and one right at the bottom. If they agree to my demands, I may let them add some more banners here and there...:p leave me a comment to tell me how I can twist Google's arm better!

I rarely watch movies... let me rephrase... I rarely watch good movies, because they are rarely made. I like a variety of films, comedy being my favourite. The last good one I watched was "Borat". It is unbelievably stupid and hilarious. It deserves another blog. But this one is about a movie I watched over the Christmas weekend, a very wierd weekend to say the least. "The Pursuit of HappYness" is one of those movies that make you think, make you cry, make you laugh, stick with you, and make you salute the human spirit and the power of the individual. I absolutely loved the movie for it portrayed the kind of man I would like to be. Someone who thinks that no matter how low you are, no matter how much in the depths of dispair your life is, it is up to you to set it right. Like the real Mr. Gardner (Chris Gardner, whose life inspired this movie) says, "The cavalry isn't coming", and as an old saying (by which I try to live) goes "If it is to be, it is up to me."




The pursuit of happyness made me cry. Not only because it is the story of a smart man who was down in the dumps and then rose to riches, and protected his son against all odds. This movie made me cry because the father in this movie taught his kid the same values that my father taught me, and I, someday will teach my kids. Be strong, be who you are, and if you get into shit, get yourself out of it. But no matter what, I'll always be there... will always be your Daddy.

Another movie that revolves around the same ideals and that has stuck with me through the years is "Life is Beautiful". Roberto Benigni's timeless classic about the holocaust created a lasting impression on me not only because it was a well made movie, but because it showcased the relationship between a father and son. A relationship that is so complex that it deserves another post (and another time). Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni) uses his vivid imagination to shield his son from the grim realities of a Nazi concentration camp. He tells his son that its all a big game, the winner of which will get a tank as the prize... I can't write about the whole movie here, but go watch it. Its amazing. What's more amazing is as I grow up, I see how my parents have been so much like Guido. The sacrifices they made and continue to make are phenomenal. As I grow older, I realize the magnitude of the little things my parents gave up so I could have what I wanted. Life is a big game... and what I am today, and what I will be tomorrow, is the tank that I've won. Get it? No? Watch the movies I mentioned above :)

Graduation day would normally mark the culmination of 2 years of rigorous study that leads to a specific degree. I should have been elated, jumping up and down, throwing my cap in the air... just like in commercials. But I wasn't... Graduation to me was definitely a milestone. Yes, its true that I came to this country to be an "MBA", and today I have a piece of paper that says I am one... but I am so far away from truly being a master of business!

The last two and half years have been very eventful. In many ways, life started when I came here with a few borrowed dollars and my self-belief. Since then, its been a rollercoaster of a ride that has made me a better person.

Anyway, it feels good to wear the cap and gown and partake in the fanfare... people are proud of me... my family and friends. They say I came here and I did it. And I did... but at what cost? I don't think it's a big deal.... it would have been if you were here.... how I wish you were here!