All for the love of His 'Mai Bhas'
It is indeed rare to find a person so patriotic and passionate, that he
would sacrifice so much for his mother tongue. Brazinho Soares has an
enviable collection (rather a treasure trove) of printed material in the
Konkani language and has done much for this language in Romi script,
especially as a writer and researcher.
By Elvis Sequeira (Herald)
If one comes across the short stature, thin built Brazinho Soares from
St Cruz Tiswadi at the Shravani General Stores, in St Cruz market where
he comes to buy his copy of the Herald every morning, one would not even
give him a second look. But, deep within his unimposing physical frame
and simple and unassuming nature is a great lover and collector of
Konkani books, a tiatrist and a prolific writer of Konkani in the Romi
script.
Right from his childhood Brazinho spent a lot of time reading Konkani
magazines, periodicals and novels called “ Romansi’ published in Romi
script from Mumbai but were available in Goa. After reading the books,
Brazinho would not sell them as ‘ raddi’ or throw them away, but would
preserve each one of them with great care as something precious.
What started initially as hobby, turned into a consuming passion and it
soon overtook all his other likings when one of his poems was published
in the weekly ‘ Aitarachem Vachop’ on February 9, 1958, by its Editor Fr
Caitano Lobo who was the driving force behind Brazinho and encouraged
him to write in Konkani. Since then he has collected more than 1300
Konkani books in Romi script, besides newspaper copies, Konkani novels,
magazines and periodicals.
Recalling an incident which took place way back in 1962, Brazinho
reveals, “ I visited Mumbai in the year 1962. Initially it was planned
as a two day trip, but turned out to be a month long stay as I spent all
my money plus Rs 150 which I had borrowed from my relatives in Mumbai to
buy every Konkani book that I could lay my hands on. In the end, I had
no money to pay for the steamer ticket to return to Goa which at that
time cost Rs 15, so I had to extend my stay in Mumbai till I could
collect money to pay my return fare.” ‘ Gorvassi voiz’ a book on
medicine for lay people and ‘ Bail’ published in 1917 are some of the
oldest books in his collection. When asked which book he considers his
prized possession, he names ‘ Historia de Goa’ and ‘ Gomantak’ written
by Jose Manuel Pinto and published in 1915. The initial price of the
book was Re1, but Brazinho had to shell out Rs 50 to add it to his
collection.
Brazinho not only collected books and periodicals, he also collected and
preserved handbills of tiatrs printed on ordinary paper which in olden
days were strewn from a moving car fitted with a loudspeaker to announce
a tiatr. Today, he has a collection of over 1000 such handbills which
provides us with an insight into tiatrs staged from the time it came
into existence. When asked if he would ever sell or donate his
collection to any Institution he says, “ I am very possessive about my
books and as long as I am alive, I will not give them to anybody. Let my
children decide what to do with them after I am gone.” Besides being a
passionate book collector, Brazinho has contributed news reports,
stories, poems and other articles to various Konkani publications
besides publishing books on his own. He has won several awards and
felicitations for his writings from various institutions including the
government of Goa which conferred on him the State Award for Literature
in the year 2006, his name also features in the book “ Who’s Who Of
Indian Writers” of Sahitya Academy New Delhi as one of the best Konkani
poets.
Brazinho’s role as a tiatrist has not been widely acknowledged as he has
mostly worked behind the scenes to ensure that a tiatr runs smoothly. He
has written, directed and staged three tiatrs namely ‘ Mogacho xevott
Ximeterint’ ‘ Konn To Khunni’ and ‘ Butanchem Ghor’. He has also acted
in many tiatrs staged in the late 1960s. Brazinho concludes, “ Tiatr has
improved a lot, in terms of stage setting, acting and other aspects, but
still lacks in variety. As far as songs are concerned, tiatrists of
today also need to have a proper dress code as many times they (
especially ladies) wear hi- fi dresses whilst enacting the house scenes,
this looks out of place.”
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