Goa Today’s Sapphire Gala By VINAYAK NAIK The whirligig of time has completed one more revolution signalling Goa Today’s ageing by yet another year - the 45th, in fact, since its foundation. This issue, therefore, is rather distinctive. I’d term it Goa Today’s Sapphire Jubilee Special.
Numerically, this is the 540th issue of Goa Today and the 312th since the ownership of the publication changed hands, 26 years ago. Goa Today’s ‘Sapphire Celebration’ is an event of mammoth import to me, personally, having figured in the last 292 of these issues. If truth be told, I’m now on the verge of attaining the 300-issue milestone, or rather – as they say in cricket – on the threshold of a ‘triple century’ for Goa Today. Intriguingly, a month preceding that, I’ll have achieved another personal landmark – that of completing 25 years with this publication – yes, my Silver Jubilee with Goa Today! By the way – it may come as a revelation to some – the closeness of my association with Goa Today has been such that I can recall all the cover stories published by Goa Today to date – and in a sequential order at that! To provide further Goa Today-related facts and figures – well, this is the 164th issue to have emerged under my editorship. And, understandably I suppose, I feel as delighted as maybe an international cricketer would after having skippered his side in 164 Test matches. Jogging my mind right back, I can’t help divulging the fact that when I made my debut in Goa Today, on that All Fools’ Day in 1987, I had not even the slightest idea that I would get stuck with this periodical the way I have. I had returned to Goa, my native place, from Bombay, to spend some time with my ageing parents. During that sojourn, an advertisement appeared in one of the local English dailies, announcing a vacancy for the post of Assistant Editor in a magazine called Goa Today. Having read it, my father kept insisting that I apply for it, since it was his wish to see me base myself in Goa. Actually, I wasn’t interested in the job on offer at all. Nevertheless, showing filial consideration for my father’s wish, I did apply for that post. And, to my great astonishment, in pretty quick time, came the reply asking me to show up for an interview at the Goa Today office, which was then located at Cortin in Panjim. When I set out for the interview, I was determined not to make even a quarter-hearted attempt at obtaining the job. Curiously, even that kind of an attempt proved to be good enough. Mr Vaman Sardesai, the then Editor of Goa Today, after having interviewed me, let me know, there and then, that he had already made up his mind not to look beyond me for the job. He further astounded me by saying that I could join the establishment from the very next day itself. When I told my father regarding my selection, I understandably came under a lot of pressure from him to accept the job. And, despite my disinclination, I had to give in to his wishes. In any case, I had resolved to quit Goa Today, within a few months, as I was keen on returning to Bombay to pick up my professional threads from where I had left them. Incidentally, over there in Bombay, I was then lecturing in Siddharth College of Mass Communications at D N Road in Fort, as well as at S M Lal Institute in Malad – where I was teaching a variety of English courses, including Public Speaking for Executives. With the avuncular Mr Sardesai around to guide and goad me to put my best foot forward, I was gradually swept off my feet by Goa Today. And I ended up abandoning my Bombay returning plans for good. Today, nearly 25 years down the line, Goa Today is virtually the breath of my nostrils – my sine-qua non of existence – without which I would, in all probability, not stay alive. As the man at Goa Today’s helm for the past decade and a half now, I would like to asseverate here that it has always been my endeavour to fight – journalistically, of course – for the just causes. One such right cause I am currently engaged in fighting for – tooth and nail, as it were – is for securing parity to English with Konkani and Marathi vis-à-vis the government grants for primary schooling. Indeed, I am totally at a loss to understand the opposition to English from some Shablis and Harmalis of Konkani. Their fatuous demand, if granted, would only conduce to spawning more people of their ilk – I mean people for whom it’s a colossal struggle to express themselves in the world’s most coveted language – English. Are these Shablis and Harmalis trying to set themselves as role models for Goa’s children to emulate? Sordid indeed! To dilate upon this subject further– after having gone through the text books meant for the Konkani primary studying kids, I have realised how trashy they are. The quality of the Konkani ‘texted’ in them is anything but standard! If the Konkani votaries say those books are bound to give a sound academic base to our kids, then they are surely kidding! My observation is that the children who learn those texts could be in danger of going thoroughly baseless – academically. My question is, why press for a ‘handicapped academic start’ to our children when a ‘full-bodied’ start is easily available via English? Under unremitting attack from the cognoscenti, the Konkani-Marathi-Syndicate members are now saying that they are not averse to English being taught, as such. But they insist that its teaching should begin after the primary schooling. But that’s exactly where they are going wrong. Primary education is the very foundation on which the child has to build on, educationally. But when the foundation itself is so very fragile, whatever built on it can never be firm! They may not admit it, but these Shablis and Harmalis of Konkani have been living with a huge inferiority complex all through their life because of their failure to come to terms with English. Check it out for yourself! Why should these gentlemen insist on passing that ‘inferiority’ to posterity? Fortunately, the venom that these Shablis and Harmalis are spewing in print against the upholders of English has not proved to be too damaging because of the fact that the readership of their writing is limited to a small coterie comprising Devanagari-Konkani writers only. Put differently, their ‘toxin’ is virtually for their own ingestion. Nothing really alarming about it! I find the demonstrations organised by the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Mancha (BBSM) really disgusting. Since most of the BBSM members themselves are ‘defaulters’ in respect of MOI, they ought to have conducted these demonstrations in front of their own houses first, before moving onto the streets of Goa. I am also wondering as to how so many of the demonstrators – who are in their teens and even while protesting, are to be seen in their modish tee-shirts and jeans – could be rooting for the utterly regressive and seemingly Stone-Age suiting primary education system in Goa. Furthermore, I find the action of some of the BBSM guys, who have apparently made it a fashion of returning the State awards, rather amusing. That, one of them, because of the profusion of such State awards he has garnered, has been returning them in a phased manner, tells its own tale. In the first place, how could the guy in question acquire so many State awards when several others – far more eligible candidates – have been consistently ignored? For sure, that needs to be probed! Take the case of Goa’s Journalism colossus, Mário Cabral e Sá. He ought to have been justly decorated with the Lifetime Achievement Award, considering his highly precious contribution to the literary field for well over five decades. Ironically, he has now been conferred a State award of sorts, which even some of the ‘babes of Goan Journalism’ have bagged years ago. Can there be a bigger joke than that? That’s a commentary on how grossly devalued these State awards are. Now, returning to our Sapphire Celebrations – after a huge digression – I would like to place on record my sincere appreciation of that nonpareil nonagenarian, Lambert Mascarenhas, for not only siring Goa Today, but also for seeing it grow till the completion of its ‘teens’. One other gentleman I would like to single out for commendation is Goa Today’s proprietor, Dattaraj Salgaocar, whose liberal and laissez faire attitude towards the editorial aspect of the magazine has helped me function as the person in command of Goa Today, for so many years, sans any inhibition. Finally, I’d like to tender oodles of thanks to Goa Today itself, principally for providing me the chance, over the last 25 years, of dialoguing with numerous ‘first fiddles’ of diverse fields – to name some – the late Bharat Ratna Bismillah Khan, numero uno Odissi exponent Sonal Mansingh, Super scientist Raghunath Mashelkar, Justice Gurudas Kamat, ace architect Gerard D’Cunha, ‘A one’ modiste Wendell Rodricks, master musician Remo Fernandes, crackjack cartoonist Mario Miranda, legends of World Soccer – Eusebio da Silva Ferreira and Bobby Moore – champion shuttler Prakash Padukone, not to forget a virtual constellation of cricket stars, including my most favourite cricketer, the late M. L. Jaisimha, and a shade less favourite twosome – Sunil Manohar Gavaskar and Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Happy Ganesh. ---------- The editorial above appeared in the August 2011 issue of Goa Today magazine. Vinayak Naik can be contacted at <vinayaknaik59 at gmail dot com> =====
