I've just heard the first two chapters of Willy Goes' KHAND, the first ever audio novelette in Konkani. The experience has been unexpectedly delightful. The narrator's voice seems pitched just right, and the musical accompaniment is restrained and unobtrusive. But best of all is the Konkani, which sounds so very familiar and friendly (even though I speak and hear more of Sashtti where I live).
I think Khand is a noteworthy contribution to cultural expression in Konkani because, at this point in time, the language movement needs to emphasise the spoken and the audio-visual, more than the printed page. It is imaginative essays like this which can give the Old Conquest variants of Konkani a little more validation in the minds of their harried speakers. This means giving them a public presence beyond just parochial tiatr performances and recitations in church. Participating energetically in the annual youth festival organized by the Konkani Bhasha Mandal and other events hosted by the Dalgado Konknni Akademi would be a nice start. Another would be holding forth unabashedly on TV in the dialect of choice. Yet another would be a strong showing in the legislative assembly by the members from Salcete, Tiswadi and Bardez. (It’s not too late to give Mickey Pacheco and Babush Monserate some friendly tips on public speaking in their mother tongue). Thanks to Khand, it is possible to visualise people all over the state, and throughout the globe, downloading entire books in Konkani now than just songs and jokes. Audio books could be a great way to the sensibility that one is supposed to acquire from extensive reading of printed books. Incidentallly, did Willy narrate the story himself, I wonder? If so, he seems quite adept in doing voices too!
