-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 3rd Annual Konkan Fruit Fest, Goa - May 6-8, 2005 | | | | Today's Events include Fruit Quiz - Papaya / Banana eating | | Competition. Check out http://konkanfruit.swiki.net | --------------------------------------------------------------------------
At a function held at the Caritas Conference Hall St Inez Panaji Goa at sharp 4.30 p.m.attended by over 238 Konkanii mogis (roman lipi) organised by the "Dalgado Konknni Akademi"(established in 1989)now lately registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860 Regn No: 57/Goa/2005 with office at Institute Nossa Senhora de Piedade Near State Bank of India HO Branch office Panaji Goa 403 001, on the ocassion of the 150th Birth anniversary of a dicoesan priest Monsignor Sebastiao Rudolfo Dalgado a great linguist (over 15 languages)a scholar of international repute and first patron saint of "amchem maim bhas " a language considered otherwise by the upper castes among the Roman Catholics as the language of servants --Konkani --a son of Assagao in Bardez Velhas Conquistas Goa (born on 8/5/1855 Monday died 4/4/1922 Monday) the first award a citation and amount of Rs 50,000 was presented to Fr Vasco de Rego Society of Jesus at the hands of His Grace Archbishop of Goa & Daman Filipe Neri Ferrao late Msgr Dalgado much of whom has not been heard of by the people of Goa as most of his works are in Portuguese and probably confined to the archives in Goa and Lisboa was a linguist par excellence. He had a penchant for learning every language of the soil where he set foot on and his obsession with languages was with a mission to reach out to those he preached interacted it - thus when in Bengal he learnt Bengali Hindi, in Honnavar Karnataka he learnt Kannada, in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) he learnt Sinhale and Tamil, in Portugal he studied Arabic Persian German in Rome he learnt Hebrew Latin French Italian .. This earned him international laurels. One aspect which is not widely known is that he learnt Sanskrit and gave it international recognition. It must be noted that one who is conversant with dificult languages like Latin and Sanskrit understands the roots of any language. With this medium of communication several of his literary works earned him the nomination as Professor of Curso Superior de Letras in Portugal. It is he who gave Konkani language a direction to make it a standard language and created the first Konkani Portuguese dictionary. Today there is none to match this great linguist whose efforts earned a chair for Konkani in Lisbon and gave Konkani the pride and prestige of an international standard. No doubt there are NAGRI script Konkani linguists who credit Konkani and Goan culture with Shenoi Goembab This is only a myth . Konkani can be written in any script be it Romi Tulu Malayalam Kannada Urdu and Nagri. As a matter of fact the contributions of Msgr Sebastiao Rudolf Dalgado pales the works of Shenoi Goembab on Konkani to insignificance though the Hindu Saraswats would disagree on this. Even the learned scholar and Goa University faculty member Dr Nandakumar Kamat eulogised the works of Msgr Dalgado though he mentioned that there were several others like Francisco Luis Gomes, Cunha de Riveira who did earn international fame as emminent Goans in their respective fields. Then there is Fr Antonio Pereira who in a preface to a book mentions that Msgr Dalgado is credited with 2000 konkani proverbs. He said it was easy to propagate the Roman lipi in Goas 380 villages, and the year long celebrations "konkni uloi konkni boroi" could set the right direction to involve every Goan. The award was rightly given to Fr Vasco Rego sj Born on 8.1.1925 ironically nearly three years after demise of Msgr Dalgado, for his unrivalled contribution to Romi lipi Konkani some of his notable books are "Romi Misa Gronth" "Vachpam Gronth" "Stotram" "Sonvsarak Jezu Diat" "Nazaretcho Jezu" and "Nazaretkar Jezu" (nagri lipi) Some 328 of his songs are illustrated in "Gaianancho Jelo" and the music for another 46 of the songs in the book besides 10 devoutional hymns. There are other writings to his credit are featured in "dor Mhoineachi Rotti" "Amcho Sevadhorm" Gulab, Renovacao etc etc He is closely associated with Thomas Stephen Kendr and in several churches and chapels. He is wRector of Bom Jesus Basilica and was also associated with the Jesuit Schools Loyola High School Margao (1968 - 1973) where he introduced Konkani language in Romi lipi. Reciprocating the honour conferred on him Fr Rego praised the Almighty for the reward. " It was never my dream to earn laurels but just a service to the one above" he said. Explaining in detail what led him to be a staunch advocate of Konkani he cited an incident while he was in Europe. On a Christmas Day in 1952 he along with 120 youth of 16 to 18 countries were required to sing Christmas carols in their respective native languages. There were two Goans one was Fr Rego the natives of Congo who had just been converted to Christianity did well only the two Goans with a history of 400 years one of whom was Fr Vasco Rego could not sing any Christmas carol in Konkani. This put them to shame and he vowed from that day to do anything and everything for Konkani. Narrating another incident he mentioned that late Maestro Fr Camilo Xavier had requested him to prepare the lyrics for an Italian song to be sung on all India Radio on Christmas Day Fr Rego gave a blunt no. Instead he prepared some 6 pages of Christmas carols in Konkani got them cyclostyled for Rs 2.50 a copy and with the help of seminarians distributed at Rs 3/- per copy them in all villages of Velhas Conquestas while serenading on Christmas night. He was also guided by his superior in Europe to instil in the mind set of Goans the need == never ever to alienate from ones mother tongue and this he vowed to follow till his end. Another witty incident was when he met one of his fellow men who sought his congratulations for a newly born child whom he named after a day Quin de jesemal which is synonymous with a day of Carnaval as per the Almanac de Parade-- what Fr Rego wished to tell that we should be proud to use Indian names and Goan names. It is useful to chose the best of the west and also the east not discard the east for the west. Another snide remark was about calling Palm Sunday as "Rama cho aitar" this led to confusion; he recollected an instance where some Hindu bretheren spoke of their Ram and our Rama and how because of the two Rams he too participated in Palm Sunday festivities. And in a concluding note he said why not give "Ash Wednesday" its literal transaltion in Konkani. He agreed that the year long 150 anniversary celebrations from today to 8/5/2006 should be carried with a mission the harder you kick the higher one goes he said. Archbishop Patriach Filipe Neri Ferrao also spoke on the ocassion and expressed confidence that the Church would collaborate with the Akademi to make the year long celebrations a success. He cited an instance of the missionary zeal of late Mother Theresa who in her singular effort left an indelible mark among those suffering. A small story of two frogs who on a walk fell into a pond while the others frogs bemoaned their fate the two in the well kept attempted to climb out -- one felt frustrated and died while the other succeeded in coming up. The others on top who had presumed that illfate would befall the two asked him what inspired him to come up ---the frog replied that since he was deaf he felt that the cries from top were one encouraging him to come up and therefore he tried and tried and suceeded In reality being deaf he could not understand their negative cries. In short it was a message to the members of the Akademi to pursue their mission with the right zeal oblivious of bouquets or brick bats. The President (Prof Tomazinho Cardozo and eminent votary of Konkani in Roman lipi hailing from Candolim ) of the Akademi demanded of every Goan to ensure that during the year long celebrations we ahve a function to celebrate the cause of Roamn lipi writers to give recognition to their works -- a website will be open shortly. Infact early this morning in amidst of 65 to 70 villagers a road in village Assagao Bardez was named after Msgr Dalgado. Some of the sidelights a) the function started on the dot and many late comers were taken by surprise b) the two hour long function had interesting moments with press and TV crew covering the ocassion c) a beautiful incident narrated by the Master of Ceremonies about a Goan lady seeking admission for her child in a school claiming that the child spoke well in English won guffaws of laughter when the Principal asked the child to open his mouth thrice but the child did not -- only when the mother said "baba say "aaah" the child opened his mouth -- the message was that even the english spoke by todays mothers is broken and hence it is better to teach them konkani d) this writer had the privilege of meeting the award winner Fr Rego after over thirty years as a student of Loyola -- it was this Fr Rego who asked this writer whether he could recite "Amchem Bapa" in Konkani as a criteria for admissions having come from Bombay with a no --this writer was deprived of admissions but given it only when he parrotised the Amchem Bapa in Konkani' e) Fr Vasco Rego obliged all and sundry posing for photographs with his award in tow. f) there was an invocation song and the national anthem sung at the beginning and end of the well organised function. g) with the temperatures at 34 to 35 C the audience did turn up in large numbers which won the appreciation of the organisors. f)Fr Pratap Naik recollected how Msgr Dalgado was born and died on a Monday which is significant. g)there is a plaque lying near the Church at Assagao in Roman lipi crediting the works of Msgr Dalgado according to Patriach Archbishop Ferrao h) one of those present remarked to this writer that the Catholic Church in Goa is responsible for the demise of Konkani in Roman lipi by giving wholesale support to nagri script and encouraging English masses for nuptials. i) the Patriach and the editor of Goan Observor Rajan Narayan (ex editor Heraldo) were seen in animated discussions over a chapel in South Goa for a long time j) meanwhile the Patriach assured this writer that the Church was considering the developments in Anjediva in June by constituting a specially empowered committee -though this writer brought to his notice that the inuaguration would be underway tommorrow at Sea Bird Anjediva from the Caritas Conference Hall GODFREY J I GONSALVES Borda Margao Goa [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! 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