Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JS)

Mangaluru, Jul 20: Noted Konkani writer, litterateur and short story writer J F D'Souza, Attavar was awarded the Late Victor Rodrigues Memorial Konkani Literary Award – 2015 at a ceremony held at Samanvaya Conference Hall, Urwa Store here on Sunday July 19.

Addressing the gathering, Fr Ronald Cutinho said, "It has been over 15 years since Samanvaya was started. This organisation has conducted many activities in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts all these years. God has been grateful and helped and protected this organisation, thus it has grown by many folds."

Listing out some of the programmes taken up by Samanvaya, he said, "Scholarships worth over Rs 1.5 crore have been awarded to 800 students. More than 25 books have been published. Training in tailoring has been given to over 400 people and 40 plus machines have been given free of cost and embroidery training has been imparted to over 90 people. Many more activities have been conducted by this organisation all these years."

Speaking on the late Victor Rodrigues he said, "Victor in spite of being a very good writer was not able to address the audience in programmes. We made him sit on the dais and made him talk. We asked him to prepare his biodata, once he did so awards followed him. He passed away due to illness. His wife wanted to do something in his memory and thus this award is being given to deserving Konkani litterateur every year."

Dolphy Lobo Cascia introduced the awardee J F D'Souza and said, "J F D'Souza is a very good children's story writer. He was born in Milagres. He had been in government job, serving in the forest department. He joined as a clerk and rose to the position of superintendent by the time of retirement." Dolphy Lobo also spoke about the works of J F D'Souza and his achievements in the field of literature.

Acknowledging the honour, J F D'souza said, "I am really happy to receive this award. I started writing in 1960. At first I wrote articles to Konkani magazines, mainly comedy, and questions and answers. Jo Sa Alvares supported me and I regularly took guidance from him. He is the reason I started writing. Dolphy Lobo insisted that I publish my book and that book won an award. I thank him. I did not start writing to win recognition or awards, I started writing because my brothers too used to write. I thank everyone for their support."

Fr Pius Fidelis Pinto in his presidential address said, "I started reading Victor Rodrigues' work because I wanted to learn writing in Konkani. Victor Rodrigues was a hard working and dedicated writer. He was an inspiration to me. He never wasted his time and always thought new when writing. I thank Victor Rodrigues' family for instituting this award to keep his memories alive."

A documentary on the late Victor Rodrigues was displayed on the occasion. Dolphy Lobo Casia compered the event.

Celine Rodrigues, wife of the late Victor Rodrigues was the other dignitary on the dais.