This is what
the battle for Konkani was all about. It wasn’t about letters, or words, or scripts. It was about the
essence of Goan identity. After years of struggle for Konkani as Goa’s official
language, On Feb 4, 1987. the Goa Legislative Assembly passed the Official
Language Bill, making Konkani the official language of Goa. In four days, Goa
will observe the 33 rd anniversary of that historic occasion, keeping in mind
that this recognition was for Konkani in Devnagiri script
While this was necessary, because the language and its
protection has faced challenges, it has been kept alive also by those who write
in the Roman script. Konkani- artists, writers, theatre and tiatrists have
played a big part in keeping Romi Konkani alive. And it has never been more
urgent than now to hear them, especially those who write and do their work in
the Roman script
Which is why, when the Dalgado Konknni Akademi organised fourth
annual conference of writers, to understand the challenges faced by the Konkani
writers, it assumed immense significance.
With 60 participants, the conference was educational as well as
enlightening for writers who would love to see their works published in a book
someday.
The conference also passed two resolutions, ‘The Government
should recognise Konknni in Roman Script’ and ‘ The Sahitya Academy consider
literature in Roman Script for Literary Awards’.
On the literary
front, a major push has bene given to encourage new writing. Dalgado Konknni
Akademi (DKA) supports new writers with its scheme called ‘Kombri’ where DKA
bears 100 per cent cost of the book while the second book of the author is
supported with the ‘Pikavoll’ book scheme where 90 per cent of the cost is borne
by DKA.
The DKA President
Tomazinho Cardozo, Secretary Vincy Quadros and Treasurer Celso Fernandes were
present at the conference.
Chief Guest of the
conference, Dr Cosma Fernandes, is the first and only tiatrist to be awarded a
doctorate on Tiatr related topic and the head of the Konkani Department in MES
College, Vasco da Gama.
While giving a brief
history of Romi Konkani, Dr Fernandes explains that Romi Konkani helped to
preserve different forms of Konkani over the years and gave suggestions on how
to continue with this legacy. “Those who fought for Romi Konkani have not got
what they were expecting. They have not received the right benefits for their
struggles even after Konkani became an Indian language, and was included in the
8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution and declared as the official language
of the State of Goa. I hope that young writers don’t get disappointed as
writers are always fighters who have the capacity to change society,” says Dr
Cosma.
essays. Even existing
literature which can motivate this generation to read and write should be
published. I feel all the problems Romi Konkani is facing right now will be
solved if the script is introduced at school level for children,” adds Dr
Fernandes.
There were two main
sessions at the conference. Vincy Quadros, Sahitya Akademy Awardee spoke about
‘Konknni Literature and Writers’ while Premanand A Lotlikar spoke about
‘Schemes for Konkani’ as he explained in details all the schemes of DKA and
noted the suggestions made by the writers. Irene Cardozo on story writing,
Anthony Menezes on novel writing, Daniel F De Souza on poetry, William
Fernandes on essay and Sonia Gomes on young writers.
“Romi Konkani is
attracting a lot of youth and we have young writers like Sonia Goems, Edwin
Fernandes, Menin Almeida, Michelle Coutinho, Selza Lopes, Fr Socorro Rebello
and Fr Myron Barretto who have published literature in the language. We want
more youth to take it seriously and write regularly for magazines and
newspapers besides publishing their own books. One problem that most Romi
Konkani writers are facing is that they don’t read from other languages. They
have a limitation in reading from other world languages and should explore
literature to increase their knowledge,” says Vincy Quadros.
Justina Costa was
also present at the conference and shares her experience, “I’ve attended a lot
of conferences / conventions before, but this one on Konkani literature, was a
very good initiative by Dalgado Konkani Akademi, opening up a wider window for
our upcoming Konkani writers. As for me, I found this very educative,
interesting and beneficial especially as I often write my own scripts for my
various Konkani programmes.”
Besides Justina,
other writers Dr Glenis Mendonca, Velma Fernandes and Menino Almeida conducted
various sessions. Besides addressing the opening and the closing sessions of
the conference, DKA President, Tomazinho Cardozo also guided the participants.
Daniel F De Souza
spoke on poetry and felt motivated that young talent have a huge potential in
Romi Konkani. “There are Konkani poets who write beautifully in Romi Konknai
and they show a lot of promise. They should explore new avenues and topics to
write about and one gets inspired when they are good observers. There are so
many issues that poems can be written on instead of just love and anger. They
can write about the environment, tourism etc in Goa,” says Daniel who published
his first compilation of poems, ‘Niyallunk’ in Devnagri and Romi Konkani and is
soon to release his next book on poems.
With
conferences like this, there is hope both for the script and the language
