Dubai: Rs 50,000 MickMax Memorial Award for playwrights

Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai/Mumbai

Dubai / Mumbai, Jan 22: Daiji Dubai, the noted Konkani Writers' Forum of Dubai have in a press release announced the launch of Daiji Rang Mandir MickMax Memorial Best Konkani Drama Award. The award will be officially declared at Daiji Dubai’s 15th Anniversary celebration at Dr M Vishveshwarayya Smarak Mandir at Matunga-West, Mumbai on Sunday January 26 at 10 am. As part of the celebration, Madhusudan Kalelkar’s critically acclaimed, entertaining and thrilling drama ‘Aami Nathlyaa Vellar’ will be presented by Daiji Rang Mandir Artistes.

Daiji Rang Mandir MickMax Memorial Best Konkani Drama Award will be bestowed every year with effect from 2014 to the most excellent newly written Konkani drama of the year. The award will carry a prize of Rs 50,000 with citation and certificate of honor. Rules and regulations will be communicated in due course of time.

Nelson Rodricks and family

The late MickMax’s well-wisher, Dubai-based Nelson Rodricks and family will be sponsoring the award on annual basis. "MickMax’s legacy in the field of Konkani music, art and literature cannot be forgotten and this is my small attempt to keep it alive for generations to come," said Nelson Rodricks, who hails from Mangalore.

Eight years have passed since the departure of an artistic soul to heavenly abode. But the memories of his charismatic smile and boyish charm still remain afresh in people's mind and hearts. MickMax, a name which evokes a plethora of emotions in the world of Konkani. Ranging from admiration, pride to love and adoration, this gentleman created a mass of fans, well-wishers, and admirers solely on the basis of his infectious genial nature and an intense god given talent to write, compose, and act, articulate and sing.

Michael Maxim D'Souza started his journey as a prolific journalist in Navbharat, a Kannada daily from 1970-76. His beginnings were simple, humble and almost threadbare, but his friends were prosperous in their love for him. In his youth, he was an active member in ICYM, and was a prominent figure in the choir and amongst musicians. Under the tutelage of Cippa Maisthry and the friendship of his son the late Bennet Pinto, he composed several Konkani jewels. His strong competitive spirit won several prizes in Konkani Natak Sabha for his beloved Bejai parish. He was a voracious youth leader and was almost hailed as the hero of Bejai parish by his peers. He has had the privilege of compering the first 25 Wilfy Nites in Mangalore, for which he drafted his own jokes and monologue mimicry and scripts.
 
From 1977-79, he stepped on the sandy shores of Muscat to work in a company called INCHCAPE, after which he procured a position as a marketing head in Air India.                 

Fondly called as Konkani’s "Thambdo Tharok" , this gentleman was an artiste who yearned for a developmental revolution in Konkani literature. His steadfastness, devotion and dedication to the language proved him to be a man of integrity and straightforward thoughts. When it came to Konkani literature, he was not one to mince words. His love for literature was multilingual. He has been well known among Kannada litterateurs, and his presence in Tulu koala Muscat has been prominent. He has joined his hands with many well-known and much loved Konkani artistes in a mighty effort to bring Konkani language on a global platform.            

He has been awarded and felicitated numerous times, during his lifetime and posthumously as well. Two of his novels have won the Konkani Bhatia Paris had Award and one drama has also bagged a Sahithya Academy award which put him in spotlight throughout the Konkani world. He knew no anger, ego or jealousy, his heart like his demeanour was childlike and humble. Humorous and zealous, his pleasure lied in bringing smiles and laughter to people’s faces. Emotional and sometimes highly sentimental, he was always a dreamer in the face of hardships. With years, his body aged, but his eyes never lost that Fire. They raged with talent, intensity and new ideas to adorn Konkani till they closed for the last time on the January 24, 2006. That was 8 years ago, and we stand here with mere vestiges of the man who once walked the earth with the quest of revolutionizing Konkani literature.