The second influx that came to Goa very hurriedly along with the
Maharastrians too was the influx of most of the third class Malyalees most of whom
were rejected back at home in their own Malyali society. Some of them were so
anti-Goan that they even voted cheatingly in favour of Merger of Goa because they did not like Goans especially
the Goan Catholics because they were more patriotic towards Goa and
everything Goan, which they did not like,
they wanted domination of Goa but Catholics were refusing them this while others
were silently surrendering them because being the supporters of MGP they had no
love for Goa & Goans and precisely because they had no love for Goa and Goans they
were silenty at least supporting the non-Goan outsiders. These early Malyalis had
dislike for the Goans and according to them Goans were good for nothing, While expressing these
feelings many of them were displaying only their Degree Certificates but
practically they were totally unfit to
be worthy of those degrees. Yet
they took good advantage of their third grade degrees in Goa by getting
employment in the newly established English Schools in Goa mainly by the Goa
Church and in the bargain to prove their cheap and third class background many
of them they wooed our young girls towards them, befriended with these young
Goan girls and gradually became the “Honrad Ghor Zanvui” in Goa thereby
enjoying all the previlleges mainly the financial, inherited to them thru their
wives. Because of their higher English Education they got good advantage in Goa (In Goa then there was no higher English education, the highest point then
was only up to the Matricultion or SSC and to answer this Matriculation final
examination the students had to go to Bombay or other nighouring places).
As teachers they were unable to communicate with our students clearly
due to lack of clarity because of their faulty English accent that found our
students as confusing and difficult to absorb and secondly as human beings many
of them were rejected and disrespected in their homeland because of
the variety of reasons namely they were rough and confusion makers, number one
crooks, they loved creating disorder in the smooth functioning of the society,
They lacked peace in their hearts. The first person to be hanged in Goa after
19.12.61 was a Malyalee Kumar by name for committing a double murder in
Caranzalem, the mother and her young child baby girl were murdered, cut their
bodies into pieces and packed them in the box. This case being the first after
the invasion of Goa created sensation all over Goa and there was so much of
peoples gathering in the court in Panjim that some of them even came to assaultl
the advocate Marathe by name of Kumar but nobody knew which side Marathe
entered the court room and when and how he exited from the Court but heavy
security “bandabost” was done especially when people were asking for the blood
of Marathe for supporting the criminal, by saying “Marathe khuim gelo re to,
taka bhair haddat re hanga, amkam toch zai, to Ghantti” (Marathe was originally
from the area in Maharastra and was well
versed in Portuguese). Some of the Malyali teachers were instigating their
students to revolt against their Principals and other Goan teachers. They had no peace. They had great ambition to
have a full control of Goan affairs.
They wanted to be somebody in Goa as the administrators and protectors of Goa, their
attitude towards Goans was very low as they said Goans are useless people.
The first English High School of Goa, St. Joseph’s High School, Arpora
was the best disciplined School of Goa under the most strict disciplinarian
principal Fr. Philip Neri Mendonca. His
power was such that the noise of one thousand students would abruptly come to a
halt by only listening to a blow of his Hitlerian type of the Whistle, the
students were shivering in front of him especially if they were guilty of any
wrong doing. Inspite of this somewhere in 1963 the students of this School organized a
Strike on one Thursday by boycotting their classes. This was the first ever
Strike of students in Goa. Their demand
was “Holiday” on every Thursday because the school was conducting its business
on whole day basis, from 7.45 AM to 4.30
PM with an hour for Lunch break. When
this news went here and there, nobody believed this has actually happened to
Arpora School under that gigantic minded genius Principal Fr. Mendonca who was not only a Roman
Catholic Priest but a respectable Monsignor. The School had most of the
teachers as good yet a few of them were very funny and most of them with long
term experience namely Maths Teacher Mr. Rafael from Saligao who used to come
daily on his Cycle, for French Mr. Naik from Siolim he used to come in a
Caminhao (public transport) and if he missed this transport he would walk up to Siolim, these were
their hardships, Gen. Science & Maths Mr. Pednecar from Nagoa who used to
either walk to school and home or Cycle, for General Science Mr. Albuquerqe
from Arpora next to the School Compound, For Hindi Mr. Shirodcar from Anjuna he
too was coming in a Cycle. Besides them there were many more including the lady
teachers, they were all the most sincere teachers, first sincere to the School,
then to their profession and then finally to their students.
With the exception of few, most of the students of this school were
coming walking with a food tiffin in their hands for their Lunch and walking
from Candolim, Nerul, Calangue, Parra,
Saligao, Siolim etc. while there were many boarders too mainly from Salcette
and Ilhas. The students of this school
were good not only in their studies but also in other extra curricular
activities mainly the Sports that includes Swimming Race, Cross Country both in
Running and Cycle. Indoor games such Table tennis, Carrom and Badminton while
Out door games like Crcket, Hockey, volley ball and Foot-ball. Its annual Sports meet on School ground was
like Olympics with track and field items
with the most attractive item "Drill" as it was called and where different Tableaux were shown depicting
the world events. This was the special
item of Fr. Mendonca. All the sports
items were spread from June to December and those who stood first in any item
at Arpora School, most of the time he without any difficulty would come first at All Goa
Inter School Athletics Meet. Though it was the school for boys only yet it was
full with students from Christian and Hindu students who were very secular
because it was the principle of this school to practice broad minded secularism. The Hindu students of this school were very
broad minded hailing from all over Goa
and many of the students were staying as the boarders. There were three Dormitories for Boarders, namely one for small boys, the other for middle class and the third for big boys These
students had strong influence on them of Portugal and Christianity for this
reason even in the employment those who studied at Arpora were preferred
because their discipline, character and sincerity were very good influenced by
the Portuguese decent rule and Christian doctrine. Many of those schools in Goa were owned and run by the Priests and Nuns and since this was the case they were imparted with very good discipline as it was existing all over Goa as per the he local Portuguese laws and discipline and also as based on Christian doctrine with the highest degree of morality, self sacrifice attitude, with cool temperament, non-aggressive behaviour, spread of peaceful atmosphere not only among them in thier schools but everywhere in Goa and even elsewhere. Because of these attributes Goans brought up as peaceful citizens they always remained as peaceful turning Goa as a peaceful place compared to other places elsewhere in India where you find aggressive and communal riots creating citizens who thru these riots create a very big devide among communities while in Goa its citizens due to their charismatic characteristics they embrace others. Here lies the greatness of Goans for which one must admire Portuguese rule and Christian discipline.
