23 Jul 2020  |   04:15am IST

Gulab Awards: Meet the Tiatrist & Writer of the year

Senior tiatr writer and director of the Konkani stage, John Claro Fernandes and noted Konkani writer, Enclidas de Elly have been selected for the memorial ‘Gulab Awards 2019’ along with Curtorim MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco ‘Gulab Awards’ were first instituted by late Fr Freddy J da Costa when he was the editor of the only Konkani monthly magazine ‘Gulab’. Initially, it was only the tiatr personalities who would be felicitated for their rich contribution to the Konkani ani tiatr stage. A little later, various personalities in the social and literature field were roped in and the trend continues till date. While Lourenco, being a public figure is known, we feature John Claro Fernandes and Enclidas de Elly who won the award for tiatr and writing

‘GULAB – Tiatrist of the Year 2019’: 

JOHN CLARO FERNANDES

John Claro Fernandes, who has contributed immensely for the development and preservation of Goan tiatr since last 70 years, was born in Quepem on December 5, 1930. He started his career on the commercial tiatr stage in 1953 with tiatr ‘Camil Bottler’.

Thereafter Fernandes wrote several tiatrs, including the popular tiatr ‘Purtugez  Kolvont’, which was the first to complete 100 shows in the history of tiatr. It received applause and appreciation from the tiatr audience for its fine script and direction, apart from acting by several of the commercial and senior artistes.  

Initially, John Claro wrote short stories in Konkani periodicals, but later expressed his views on various issues through articles in ‘Chabuk’, ‘The Goa Times’ and other weeklies. He wrote extensively for the dailies ‘Novem Goem’,  ‘Goencho Avaz’, besides magazines like ‘Gulab’ and ‘The Goan Review’ and contributed tiatr-related articles to ‘The Navhind Times’, ‘Herald’ and ‘Gomantak Times’.

Fernandes has also presented several radio plays at All India Radio (AIR) Goa and has to his credit a novel titled ‘Norsicho Mog’.  He is the recipient of many awards, including the Goa State Cultural Award (1993-94) and DKA’s (Dalgado Konkani Akademi) cultural award (Sonskrutik Puroskar) in 2004.

‘GULAB – Writer of the Year 2019’: ENCLIDAS DE ELLY

Enclidas De Elly was born in Mumbai on June 20, 1942 where he completed his primary education. He later left for Delhi and completed his graduation and also a one-year course in journalism.

Enclidas lost his father at an early age, prompting him to sell Konkani newspapers and novels, and also working as a part-time compositor in a printing press during his school days. After gaining first-hand knowledge in a press, which published the Konkani weekly ‘Ave Maria’, he launched his own weekly, ‘Cine Times’ on December 3, 1963, a publication which endured for over three decades until it was closed in November 1995.

Enclidas wrote and published nearly 250 novelettes, and also instituted the ‘Cine Times Awards’ in an attempt to revive the dwindling tiatr industry in Mumbai. He was honoured by the Goan Review Art Foundation, Dalgado Konknni Akademi and ‘Jivit’ magazine for his immense contribution to Konkani journalism.

Due to the prevailing pandemic situation this year the awardees could not be felicitated on July 20, as was the tradition, to commemorate the birth anniversary of late Fr. Freddy J. da Costa, the founder editor of ‘Gulab’.  However, the awardees will be felicitated at a special function to be held at a later date.

The personalities for the awards were selected by an experienced jury comprising of Marcos Gonsalves, Guadalupe Dias, Br. John Afonso, Julio D’Silva and Vincy Quadros.