MARGAO: Senior tiatrist and well-known Konkani writer Cirilo Domingos Fernandes from Benaulim passed away on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 81 years old and was under medical treatment in one of the private hospitals in Margao.
Hearing the news about the demise of Cirilo, several personalities from the Konkani literature and Tiatr fraternity have expressed shock.
Cirilo has got eight Konkani books to his credit, including ‘Soddear Vompil’li Jinn’, ‘Mhojea Bannavle Ganvant’, ‘Vason’, ‘He Jinnent Kanttech Kantte’, ‘Conductor Pirluk Mar’ etc. ‘Mhojea Bannavlechim Adlim Kazaram’, was a research book written about traditional and cultural aspects pertaining to Goan weddings.
A tiatrist and a poet, Cirilo Fernandes was born in the year 1941 at Benaulim , Salcete. He completed his elementary education in Portuguese and thereafter completed his tenth. At the age of 12 he wrote his first poem stepping into the world of literature. In his lifetime he had written short stories, poetry, one act plays and tiatrs. ‘Obsoeg’, ‘Surokxa,’ ‘Dekhlem Mhunn Chaklem nhoi’ are some of his short stories. ‘Imtto Bhattkar’, ‘Duddvank Lagon’, ‘Niraxi’, ‘Durdoxea’, ‘Dusreponni Kazar’, ‘Favo Tem Mevonam’ are some of his famous tiatrs which were staged at many places.
He was a good actor too and had acted in his own tiatr as well as, for several professional tiatrist. The Tiatr Academy of Goa has honoured him with their prestigious ‘Life Time Achievement Award’. The Department of Art and Culture has given him ‘Kala Gaurav Puroskar’ for his contribution to tiatr.
He had also written many one act plays for which he had been awarded several prizes. ‘Goan Review Foundation’ and at Dalgado Konknni Akademi contest he had bagged first place. ‘Jivit’ magazine had honoured him with ‘Kovita Sahitya Puroskar’ and ‘Konkani Bhasha Mandal’ with their prestigious Literature Award of 2010-2011.
He is survived by his wife Joaquina, daughter Zeena, and sons Joe and Vivek.
