Have you ever wondered why there are no nursery rhymes in Konkani? Many may never have given any thought to this, but the fact is you can well travel to any state in the country, and you will notice that children relate to nursery rhymes in their own regional languages. In Goa, we come across English or Marathi nursery rhymes. The state's mother tongue, Konkani, doesn't seem to come into play. Keeping this in mind, Konkani Bhasha Mandal has decided to compose audio tracks and animated video albums for Goan kids to learn and sing Konkani rhymes, so that they start bonding with Konkani from a very tender age. Stalwarts of Konkani are attempting their best to promote the language by leaving no stone unturned. “Our motive is to now teach Konkani to children by way of nursery rhymes. This has come about because we have realised that our kids are drawn to English or Marathi nursery rhymes. Owing to that, we have decided to develop their love for Konkani as a language by providing them with rhymes and animated videos that they would be able to sing along to,” says Saiesh Palondikar, who was instrumental in giving tune to the rhymes. “As of now, we have not worked on the animated video albums, but there are plans to make them too,” adds Saiesh. “Our biggest achievement was getting not only Konkani medium students to sing these songs, but also English medium students and non-Konkani speaking kids; all of which have lent their voice for these albums,” says Sidhanath Buyao, music arranger. “Almost 80 students who have sung for these albums are from different schools across the state of Goa; from Pernem to Canacona and from Vasco to Valpoi. Some students are also from Gujarat, Bihar and other states,” informs Saiesh. There are altogether four albums set to be released at the end of the month of November. Sidhanath explains, “The dates have not been finalised yet, but it will most probably release by the end of November. As of now, 80% of the recordings have been completed. Only 20% is still pending.” “The four albums are broken up as follows: Each album has 50 songs. There are three categories (lower KG, KG1 and KG2). Also ‘Shani Masti Part III’ will be released. This will be a big function organised by Konkani Bhasha Mandal, under the able guidance of Chetan Acharya, its President. There would be release of 400 short story books at this function too,” says Saiesh. “These nursery rhymes would be from the new textbooks introduced for the lower KG, KG1 And KG2. There are also songs which are not available in the textbook, but newer releases,” says Saiesh. The lyrics have been penned by Ratnamala Divkar, Nayana Adharkar, Prasad Lolienkar and others. All recording mixing and mastering has been