When Goan personalities contribute to the betterment of society in any field, they
do so without the desire to attain any sort of fame, especially literary
accolades. However, late Vandana Seth thought of compiling a book on famous
personalities in 2015, selected through a study conducted over a period of 60
days, taking into consideration popularity, transparency, Google coverage,
Facebook and media coverage.
The book features 200 famous Goans in the
fields of arts, culture, theatre, sports, literature, films, politics,
business, singing, music, medicine, etc. The book contains photo introduction
of the personalities of Goa and their respective field of work. Historian
Prajal Sakhardande has written the foreword for the book. The personalities who
found the top ten spots in the book include Manohar Parrikar, Lata Mangeshkar,
Asha Bhosle and Varsha Usgaonkar. The other noted Goans include Dayanand
Bandodkar, Kishori Amonkar, Hema Sardessai, Ragunath Mhashelkar, Shripad Naik,
Pratapsingh Rane, Vasantrao Dempo, Dilip Sardessai, Dattaraj Salgaoncar,
Shivanand Sagaonkar, Natasha Palha, Shadab Jakati, Mario Miranda, Dayanand
Narvekar, Lorna Cordeiro, Rajdeep Sardessai, Mathany Saldanha, Ivana Furtado,
Subhash Velingkar, Bruno Coutinho, V M Salgaonkar, Eduardo Faleiro, Digambar
Kamat, Prince Jacob and others.
Kishor Arjun is the founder of the publishing house Sahit
Prakashan, which has published Vandana’s book. “We lost Vandana in a major road
accident and though I never met her, I learnt about her work and study through
her friends on Facebook. I got all the details of the study and as she had just
started on the book, she had managed to collect only a few photographs of the
200 Goan personalities. With the help of her Goan friends like John Aguiar,
Jyoti Kunkalienkar and Sampada Kunkalienkar, they collected the photographs of
the remaining personalities,” says Kishor, who has published eight books by
Goan as well as other Indian writers.
The publisher has plans to add information about each
personality besides their photo introduction. “This could be the beginning of a
new book comprising more Goan personalities with details. We have already begun
work on it, where there will be a short introduction in English as well as
Konkani,” adds Kishor.
John Aguiar, a noted Konkani writer and poet, is also included
in the work. “The book was compiled by late Vandana till May 31, 2015. It was
over a limited time frame and many feel that noted personalities over the
history of Goa are left out. I have written books before 2015 and I’ve had more
books since then,” says John. However, the book features Goans pre and post
Liberation.
Kishor
also has plans to highlight the contributions to Konkani literature without
limiting it to Goan Konkani literature, through a website. “We plan to launch
the website on Opinion Poll Day, January 16, 2020. It will be the first website
in Indian literature dedicated to authors exclusively and featuring the works
of award winning Konkani writers across the region. The website will feature
the literary works of Konkani writer Mahabaleshwar Sail, who was honoured with
the Saraswati Samman in 2016; Ravindra Kelekar, a noted Indian author who
received the 2006 Jnanpith Award for his contribution to the world of
literature; and 44 authors who received the Sahitya Academy Award for Konkani
language across India,” says Kishor.
