Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jun 25: The new office of the Institute of Konkani, St Aloysius (autonomous) College, and Mangalore was inaugurated today by Fr Leo D Souza, former Principal of St Allosius College, Mangalore. The new office will henceforth function from the 1st floor of the Red Building in the High School premises of the college.

Fr Leo D Souza, who is also the Director of Laboratory of Applied Biology (LAB) blessed the premises. Fr Swebert D Silva, Principal of the college formally inaugurated the programme by lighting the traditional lamp along with other dignitaries present on the dais.

In his inaugural address Fr Leo D Souza recalling the services of Fr A F X Maffei said the foundation for the Konkani Institute of the college was laid by him more than a century ago. “Fr Maffei was a foreigner who after coming to Mangalore mastered the Konkani language within a short span of time and started the Konkani Institute in an old building of the college. Credit goes to him for promoting the growth of Konkani language and for putting a strong edifice for the Konkani Institute which got a fillip in 1980 with the reopening of the institute under the capable leadership of Fr Herbert Noronha”, he said.

In his address Fr Swebert said Konkani Institute of the college has done humungous contribution for preserving and promoting Konkani language and literature. However, he expressed his displeasure at the lack systematic research in Konkani language and said the Institute should work hard and focus attention on research in Konkani language.

In his welcome address Executive Director of the Institute Edwin J F D Souza lamented the lack of interest shown by students to come to the library at the institute to read or to refer to books. He called upon Konkani speaking people to make use of more than 9000 Konkani books available in the library so that the whatever efforts the institute puts in to promote Konkani language and literature do not go waste.

Fr Walter Andrade released the bi-annual Konkani journal “Amar Konkani” during the occasion. H M Pernal, Editor Kittall.com delivered the vote of thanks.

Inauguration of the new office was followed by a symposium which was held at the audio-visual room of the college. In the forenoon session, Guru Baliga, Assistant Director of World Institute of Konkani Language gave a power point presentation on “Interscript Transliteration Utility for Konkani Language – Challenges in implementation and Usage”.
Guru Baliga pointed out that in the absence of a common script for Konkani, transliteration is the best alternative to enable readers to easily read the literature written in other Konkani scripts by converting it into their own script. “Transliteration is a process of converting the word written in one to another. Since manual translation is time consuming, laborious and expensive, transliteration is an option which gives interested readers to read Konkani literature written in other scripts”, he emphasized.

Giving examples of developing this transliteration and the challenges his team and he has been facing in terms of orthography, he explained the various problems they faced from time to time especially in converting certain letters and swaras including the challenge posed by “Schwa”.

He said developing this transliteration will be completed within a month and invited suggestions from people on the ways and means of improving it. The presentation was followed by interesting discussion and question & answer session.

In the afternoon session papers were presented by Florine Roche and Edwin J F D Souza. Florine Roche, who is in-charge of Konkani programmes at All India Radio, presented her paper on ‘entry of Konkani literature in radio and its role’. She highlighted the essential part played by radio in promoting Konkani literature and providing a stage for Konkani writers and poets and thus enriching Konkani language and literature.

Edwin J F D Souza presented his paper on Konkani literature and Internet, its entry and role in promoting Konkani. He said “literature should uplift people and guide them in the proper path. But sadly we find more and more people are misusing internet for this narrow personal gains which has hampered the growth of Konkani literature in internet”. He said the scenario can be changed only if the misuse is prevented. Any medium, be it print or internet should encourage people to express their feelings and not for venting out their personal feelings and frustrations alone, Edwin stated.

H M Pernal who moderated the symposium said that Konkani Journalism is plush with articles and letters with pseudo names which is encouraging writers who lack sincerity and courage to come out in the open. “Some writers use their names for writing articles. But when it comes to writing letters to the editor they use a fictitious name, which shows the double standards and their lack of honesty”, he said. He also stated that it is high time all editors of newspapers & websites stop publishing such write ups written by anonymous people with anonymous names so that such a trend of hiding behind the mask does not arise. He also expressed sadness at the “Facebook kind of literature” resorted to by some well known Konkani writers and said Konkni literature will not benefit by such people.

Edwin J F D Souza, Executive Director of Konkani Institute proposed vote of thanks.