WHAT I LEARNT FROM MY GSB FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS
Pic.: Alwyn Mathias I n my home town, Mangalore, where I grew up, people from two communities - Catholics and GSB (Gaud Saraswat Brahmins) – speak Konkani. But, we both find each other’s Konkani funny… and pull each other’s legs. Throughout my school and college life, I had plenty of classmates and friends belonging to GSB community. I was close to many of them… Pai, Kamath, Shenoy, Baliga, Nayak, Prabhu, Kini… and, yes, Mallya! What I still remember about my GSB friends is: Most of them – almost all – hailed from business families… small, medium-sized and large. Rarely, they came from service families. Top banks of those days – Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank to name a few – were founded by GSB visionaries… Top educational and medical institutions (Heard of Manipal?)… even industries and newspapers - yes, all these were built by GSB pioneers. The young boys and girls from GSB community were extremely conservative… They never flaunted their wealth… They wore ...