Piece of history on sale: For Rs 5 Alexandre Moniz Barbosa, TNN 17 November 2009, 07:02am IST
PANAJI: At a time when Goan antiques command a premium, there is a piece of history and heritage on sale for as low as Rs 5. Tattered, moth-eaten, yellowed with age and the binding loose, a number of books published by the erstwhile Portuguese colonial government have been dug up from the bowels of the printing and stationery departments storerooms and are on exhibition and sale in Panaji. We have thousands of books of the Portuguese period. They were printed for the purpose of selling, so I have put them up for sale. If there is a demand I will keep them, otherwise I will have to destroy them. Instead of selling all the books for raddi I thought that if there are people who can make use of these books they could buy them, printing and stationery director N D Agrawal told TOI. The destruction of books hasnt gone down too well with historians and heritage activists. Goa Universitys history department head Pratima Kamat said, These books are definitely part of our heritage and need to be preserved in some repository. They could be donated to some library, even the Goa University library could enrich its collection with the books, said Kamat. Agreeing that the books need to be preserved, Goa Chitra museum curator Victor Hugo Gomes said, No doubt these books have to be preserved. I know that Pune University is digitalizing all old books, even from private collections. If there are many copies then there may be no harm in selling them. The question here is whether the department has advertised properly and the right people are picking up the books. The departments staff at the exhibition said many visitors were picking up the old Portuguese books, but were unable to quantify the sale. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Piece-of-history-on-sale-For-Rs-5/articleshow/5238139.cms
