1975-76 in Goa... Help me find my father

khaadu75

AMAZING ... I logged onto IM after a long time and I somehow stumbled onto this thread !!!

It seems that you have found quiet a few serious leads and Im sure one of them will get you to the end of your search . Great going ... !!

WISH YOU ALL THE BEST ..... !!!

birds

It should be worth coming to Goa as there are plenty of people living here more or less the whole year, who were also here in the seventies. There is cat-Karen, Australian John, Rosa, just to name a few.

If I where you I would also go to Auroville. It seems that plenty of people shuttled between Auroville and Goa in that time. And lots of them still live in Auroville.

Is there not an IM member who is a journalist in Goa? A chap/avatar with a beard and a last name starting with an N (Noronha, Norohya, or something like that) and first name something like Ferdinand or so. I think he is also active on GoaNet and some other Goa orientated websites. With his profession he should know a lot of people in Goa and might even be able to help getting this in the press or so.

Good luck!

machadinha

Frederick Noronha yes http://fn.goa-india.org/ , that's actually not a bad lead, would be worth contacting.

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Tarotray

I doubt if Frederick can help unless he wants to do some investigation on your behalf. He doesn't live in Anjuna and is a bit young to remember those days.

I was unfortunate enough to have known your father well. When he left, he dissappeared completely, leaving in his wake an enormous amount of debt. I remember the day and its consequences, well.

He lived on air & confidence and he was possessed of zero concience about the high life he lived, on the backs of honest working people, and the arrogant disdain, he often showed to them. In short he was not a nice person and he wouldn't dare return to Anjuna, because I know for a fact that the people there haven't forgotten him.

Ask Nelson. Yes, Nelson's Bar is actually still (last I heard)run by a guy called Nelson, who was there back then, also. Dale 'rented' a huge old Portuguese mansion, which got to be known as "The Big House'. There were lots of wild parties there. I attended many of them. It is now the quiet and elegant guest house 'Palacete Rodriguez', after the Rodriguez family managed to renovate what was left of the house, with what was left of the money. What more do you want to know about him? I remember a lot about him and those bitter-sweet days.

Tarotray

Sorry. I should have read the entire thread before posting. I have further knowledge, about some other things, mentioned:

steven_ber: I could name one or two people in that photo, on Gil's site, but I won't. They may wish to be anonymous. The chap with the straighter darker hair, second from the left, looks like it was probably me.

As far as Bom Shankar Baba was concerned, I was greatly honoured to have been a friend and companion of his. He was a wonderful man. He was one of the few Sadhus, hanging around with the westerners, who was a real Sanyasin - a Naga Baba, in fact. He was trained in Ahmedabad, in Gujarat and that was not his real name, but what we westerners called him. I can't remember his true name, now, but I remember I saw his documents, once. I travelled extensively, in India, with him and others . He made us laugh all the time. In the eighties, he actually came to Europe and travelled in Spain, France & the UK. He never changed his appearance, for the travel. I always wondered how he got through all the customs & immigration posts. I know there were photos taken at the time - maybe even some Super 8 film - but I wouldn't know where they are.

PeakXV

I think he is only trying to locate his Father and tips/leads associated with ..... probably not to interested in any personal feelings or character analysis .... I'm sure most ex-Goa Hippies are/were not all so squeaky clean and thus have a few skeletons in their closet if you look hard enough.

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Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

Nick-H

Better to be prepared. maybe?

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PeakXV

True .... although I would take with a grain of salt an out-of-the-blue & extremely generalized character assessment cum assassination - that is now 30+ years on ...... better just to stick with the game plan and keep trying to locate.

Nick-H

I guess that when a person is on a hunt like this, all sorts of things are going to come his way, and they may not all smell nice.

A lead's a lead, though. Could be a useful one.

PeakXV

Tarotray claims he has lots of info on DH's Dad .... although he chose to lead with some "dirty laundry" which may or may not be as a result of money/women/contraband quarrels between the two ..... who knows

I (probably alone on this) would have PM'd him(DadHunter) "the personal views/assessment stuff" and/or any news of concern .... and put some interesting tidbits of which he claims he has .... on this public thread for others to add to & help on the search with.

bijapuri

hey, Tarotray, ya remember Gopal Swami from Hampi?

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Haze

No, PeakXV, you're not alone. That would have been the gentler approach. Perhaps it just didn't occur to Tarotray to go about things that way. Still, the fact that someone (claims to) remembers DH's papa is a lead. Mind you, his assertion that the guy 'disappeared' into the blue might suggest it's a cold lead. <shrug> who knows?

I just hope that DH finds what he's looking for. Whatever that may be.

Hazel

Tarotray

I accept the criticism of being negative about the past, but the things I wrote about are my memories. My memories aren't perfect and I am biased. At that time, unlike most foreigners, I was a working-man, in the village, trying to bring up my family, honestly, without outside help and endeavouring to stay away from illegal or immoral activity. We ran a health-food business, as part of the tourist trade.

I do remember that, after Dale left, my landlord came to me to tell me that there had been an extraordinary meeting of the Panchayat (village council). This is probably on record at the panchayat office. Since so much sudden bad debt had been involved, all the landlords had agreed to end credit for all foreigners. We relied on credit, since our business was so seasonal, so we were plunged into many problems, ourselves.

Let me clarify, because I may have given a false impression. Dale was far from the worst person in Anjuna and the vast majority were reasonably honest persons. Many were fun, spiritual and full of integrity. There were also much worse, even violent people around.

Dale was a con-man, a charmer. He could talk his way into anything he wanted. The Goan people were full of naive trust and most people didn't betray that trust. Unfortunately, Dale did. He was still funny to be around.

I never did business with him. I was wise enough not to trust his word and paying cash wasn't his way.

DH doesn't have to believe my stories. He doesn't have to take on board any doubts I may raise about who Dale was, but I agree with Nick-H, "Better to be prepared, maybe?".

BTW I don't have much more info on him, really. I do have many memories, though. I remember, for example, the argument about who's hair was the longest - his or mine. We both wore our longer than waist-length hair in either poney-tails or convenient buns, at the back. In the end, we never did check, so we never found out.

Haze: In reply to your "Perhaps it just didn't occur to Tarotray to go about things that way.", that's absolutely true. It didn't occur to me. You're all probably right, but it is also in my nature to be open & honest about my thoughts, so I don't care. It was 30-odd years ago, after all. This is mere historical memoire, at this point. If it is any boon to DH, that I knew and remember him, that's good. But, since he disappeared, it is, indeed, something of a cold lead.

Tarotray

No. I don't. Should I? I only went to Hampi, once.

machadinha

OK can we try and keep this neutral folks?

My misgivings about this thread have been that aside from a legitimate-looking search it causes a lot of names etc. to be thrown about. Some tact please, people and circumstances can often be circumscribed, the details dealt with in private if necessary.