In response to my column on Goan culture last week, I received a letter from a distinguished reader who noted that UK Goans are British first and foremost and they hardly have anything in common with Goans from Goa.

I'd like to ponder on this a little bit. I believe human beings yearn for a collective identity which seems closely tied in to discovering and defining their own individual identity. We are designed to find ourselves within a set of parameter defined by a larger group. I'm not at all sure that for UK Goans this collective identity of being a Goan has been diminished and taken over completely by being British.

There is a natural intellectual progression that takes place at the individual level when we live in a Western society; a shaping of the mind with a good, strong educational system, liberal values espoused in the media and television, the co-mingling and at times co-habiting of progressive ideas at school and at the work-place. But this is quite distinct and apart from the common cultural ethos we share and find resonance with as Goans. One can question whether such a resonance has any real tangible benefit to us other than a momentary wave of "feel-good" emotion, but the very fact that so many seek its comfort at community events like the Goan festival, World Goa Day, picnics and parties should tell us something.

Lastly, I'm not entirely convinced that UK Goan society has moved so far from their Goan cultural moorings as to feel completely cut off from their counterparts in Goa, nor is Goan society back in Goa shackled to a parochial mindset as to not have any currency with their UK cousins. I think the shifting of UK Goan society has been glacial, a sentiment echoed by quite a few young Goans I interviewed for an article I wrote about how second-generation UK Goans adapt to living with two cultures. It seems to me they are not at odds with synthesizing two cultures and blending them into one. As one young UK Goan said to me: "I consider myself to be a bit of both, Goan and English. I am influenced by the English at school and my life in the Performing Arts, but I still maintain my Goan background and will never deny my Goan identity, of which I am very proud but equally proud to be British."

I do believe culture exists on a continuum of time, that it is as subject to Darwinian evolution as any other organism, that ultimately it mutates into an entirely new entity and who is to define the length, breath and width of that continuity except perhaps our emotional attachment.

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