THOMAS STEPHENS KONKNNI KENDR B. B. Borkar Road, Alto Porvorim GOA - 403 521, INDIA (0832) 2415857, 2415864 e-mail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website:www.tskk.org
A MESSAGE FOR WORLD KONKANI DAY On 20th August 1992 Konkani was included in the Constitution of India. Since then our mother tongue Konkani got the official status as one of the Offical Languages of India. to remember this historical event let us celebrate it as WORLD KONKANI DAY. I have no better words than the words of 19th century Italian Jesuit Konkani scholar Fr. A.F.X. Maffei (12.11.1844 - 31.05.1899) who worked in Mangalore. In his Konkani grammar of May 1892, "Konknni Ranantlo Sobit Sundor Tallo or A Sweet Voice From The Konkani Desert" pages x to xi he has said: "In fact, Konkani is a really beautiful, graceful, and, so to say, a smiling language, but, being uncultivated, its beauty is hidden. Let us call this queen, confined to a desert, among us, by study and we shall soon perceive sounds of sweetness. Let us hope that the Konkani race, so distinguished in other respects, will one day awake to a full knowledge of the hidden treasure they possess, and beginning to cultivate their beautiful language, as all civilised nations do, add to other elements this still wanted element of civilization. Will they still bear that foreigners dig their treasures while they remain indifferent lookers on? Let them understand that what we, foreigners, do in this respect, is directed to point out the nobility of their language and consequently to ennoble their race. For this purpose their co-operation is required, but co-operation in union" This dream of Fr. Maffei has remained unfulfilled. We Konkanis (Konkani speakers or people of Konkani origin) of the world together can fulfill his lovely dream. Hail Konkani. Hail Konkanis. Pratap Naik, S.J. Director
