Viva's at the Goa University ---------------------------- Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk
MY ONETIME CLASSMATE Rafael Andre Fernandes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> has his viva voce -- before he gets those crucial two alphabets before his name -- at the Goa University shortly. It comes up on January 12, 2005 at 3:30 pm at the English Department. As is the practice, this viva is open to the public. So if you're interested in the subject, then just drop by. Rafael has worked on the Tiatr, and while my ignornace in the field of academics is profound, he's promised to send across a summary of his work once this crucial day gets beyond causing stress. Needless to say, Rafael has always been a diligent student (unlike me!). He was serious in understanding the syllabus. On the other hand, we wasted -- actually, in hind sight it wasn't a bad investment -- our years at the medical-college-hurriedly-turned-university mostly glued to the periodical section of the Goa University library. Rafael has been lecturing at the Goa University's English Department. While he may not be active in cyberspace, he's one of the readers of posts emanating from the Goan networks on the Internet. When we met last, he mentioned that the students there were finding the Project Gutenberg copyright-free tests -- http://gutenberg.net -- very helpful. This reminds me about another friend and former journo colleague, Seema Risbud, who's viva I happened to attend some time back. My intention was to write about it; but that never got done. My notes on her work was misplaced in the tonnes of paper that clutter my workstation. So, just to feel a little less guilty, am sharing with Goanet some fragments of the notes that somehow were waiting on my PC. May I caution you that the notes below are a highly incomplete and fragmentary account of Seema's work, who was a journalist with us, sometime in the 'nineties, before taking to academia. Her work focussed, among other things, on the main strands in the anti-colonial movement in Goa -- including the National Congress Goa and the Azad Gomantak Dal (which espoused violence as a tool). It was quite many months ago that her presentation was made, and my regret is over failing to write up on my notes earlier! QUOTE: Risbud pointed to the importance of the end of colonial rule in Goa. It ended European colonial rule in India, it give a vital nudge in the process of African decolonialism, and, she argues, it also strengthened the cause for Portugal's democratic revolution that happened in 1974. She said her research took her to archives and primary sources in various parts of India and Portugal. Besides depending on oral history, and interviewing freedom fighters and eyewitnesses, Risbud said she got a chance to peruse a lot of original material -- including the diary of the last Portuguese Governor General of Goa, Vassalo e Silva. But, she hinted, she had a problem accessing some of the records of freedom fighters, which were made available to her earlier on. She suggested that such personal records should be made publicly accessible to researchers and scholars alike. Goa's was a remittance-based economy, with the state depending largely on the remittances of its expats abroad by the 20th century. This, suggested Risbud, led to the sowing of the seeds for the destruction of Portuguese colonialism, since expat Goans got a chance to travel to other parts of India (and elsewhere), where they came in contact with the decolonisation movements there. END QUOTE Could someone reading this in Goa University help to build links between the academic life there, and the wider world in cyberspace? If you could just report -- preferable in advance -- about the vivas coming up in different fields, it could really help those interested to keep in touch. Thanks in anticipation! FN ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more ------------------------------------------------------------------- To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from Goa-Research-Net ------------------------------------------------------------------- * Send us a brief self-intro to justify your interest in this "specialized" forum. This should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (NOT goa-research-net@goacom.com) * Leave SUBJECT blank * On first line of the BODY of your message, type: subscribe goa-research-net [EMAIL PROTECTED] or unsubscribe goa-research-net [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------------------------------