Prava Rai, the Chorao-based editor of Parmal, mentioned plans to publish the journal of the Goa Heritage Action Group twice (instead of once, at present) each year.
Parmal is an interesting and thought-provoking publication. It always comes up with some insights that help us better understand this complex place known as Goa. One might wish
though that the definition of “heritage” could be more broad-based, to go beyond elite and middle-class concerns.
Blogged with Flock
In mid-July, one ran into Ingrid Valles Po of Parra. She’s part of one of the alumni networks (St Mary’s) at Mapusa. Currently, Ingrid is the Assignments Editor at Motivate Publishing in Dubai. Check it out via the web at http://www.motivatepublishing.com
Ingrid has an interesting story to narrate about her workplace. This firm, set up in the late 1970s, by a Brit in the Gulf, and has since grown into an ambitious venture employing 250+ persons.
She explained about the large number of magazines the firm brought out — with names like What’s On, Hello!, Gulf Business, Middle East MICE & Events, Society Dubai, Emirates Woman, Emibrates Bride, Open and a number of inflight mags for various airlines.
Not surprisingly, besides Mangaloreans and South Indians, there are quite a few Goans working in that publishing firm too. Obviously, this is a field where we, in this State, do have a lot of skills. This gives us an opportunity to enter the filed, and to consolidate our potential in it.
Book publishing is booming across India. Literacy is growing, so are markets, and English-language skills. But are we in Goa encouraging our youth to get access to the professions of writing, publishing and all the related fields? To be good writers, they need to be eager readers too. Else, as the saying goes, it’s just the case of garbage-in, garbage-out.
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Thomas Stephens Konkkni Kendr of Alto Porvorim has recently come out with Sod-9, a new issue of the Konkani research bulletin. It’s a volume to felicitate Dr Matthew Almeida SJ who completed 70 years recently.
Many would know Fr Almeida as a teacher-rector-principal in St Vincent’s (Pune), St Britto’s (Mapusa), St Paul’s (Belgaum), St Paul’s Junior College (Belgaum) and in other roles at Loyola Hall (the Jesuit-training institution at Miramar), the first director of the TSKK (when it was transitioning between Miramar and Porvorim) and as Sod editor from 2000.
Those working in Konkani may not get the attention deserved. As his colleague and confrere Pratap Naik sj writes: “Konknni lok mootbhar and toh shipdoon padla sansarbar. Tantun Konknni vachpi chimtibhar. Boroupi teelbhar.” (Konkani speakers are a fistful, and they too have been scattered across the globe. Of them, Konkani readers are a pinch-ful, and writers, and even less significant number.)
Dev b^ro dis di~v. Tu~ k^so asay? Ha~v b^ro asa~. Tuje~ na~v kite~? Mh^je~ na~v Pedru. Tu~ kh^~y ravtay? Ha~v Go~ya~ ravta~. Ko~knni Go~ychi razbhas. Tuzo bapuy kite~ k^rta? Mh^zo bapuy xeta~t kam k^rta. Tu~ mhaka ek narl ani pa~ch a~be dixi? Falya~ tuka haddun dita~. Ha~v p^rva~ tanger vet^lo~. Ami tumger az yeta~v. Tumi godd khayat ani ud^k piyeyat. Ambo godd asa. Ti kh^`y veta? Ti ig^rjek veta….
What’s that?
It’s no computer-generated gibberish. It’s the new form of writing Roman script Konkani, being proposed and propagated by the Jesuit-run Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr of Porvorim. If you haven’t seen it so far, grab a copy of the 2005 published 52-page book titled ‘TSKK Romi Lipi: Ko-knni b^ro~vchi rit)’.
After many years of supporting Devanagiri Konkani, the TSKK has recently and rather drastically come out strongly in favour of the Roman (Romi) script. But a modified Romi script it is. The ^s and the ~s are supposed to help you to get closer to the actual Konkani pronounciation. Even while making it easy to reproduce on a computer! Continue reading
