Book fair to turn into treasure trove

Book lovers will love this. Interested in buying books at throwaway prices. Visit the ongoing book fair at the Institution of Engineers (IEI) held by a Goa-based book shop.

Broadway Book Centre, Panjim, is offering a variety of books in fiction, education, management, medical, children’s stories and teaching books with addition to interior designing, photography, artists’ collections and travel guides at just Rs50.

The owner of Broadway Book Centre, Khalil Ahmed, said that the month-long fair would continue till October 9. It is open from 9 am to 9 pm.

Although the bookseller has been organising such events since 2001, it is for the first time that they are selling books at such a low price to clear stocks of its three stores in Goa.

The owner has put on sale over 1 lakh books, half of which is already sold.

Full report here DNA

‘Of Mangoes and Monsoons’

Book enthusiasts will travel back in time to the Goa and India of fifty years ago to find compelling facts as they immerse themselves into author Suresh Kanekar’s Of Mangoes and Monsoons. Released through Xlibris, this book is a fascinating literary work on ideals, civil rights, independence, and a young man’s determination.

The novel is the story of Ramesh Natekar, born into a Hindu Vaishya family of Goa, who has to face the caste prejudice of people around him to the point of losing his sweetheart because of her superior caste. Ramesh holds a degree in philosophy and is committed to a life of scholarship when he finds himself drawn into the freedom movement of Goa. His participation in the freedom struggle lands him in jail for more than five years, and also into minor and major conflicts with police and prison authorities. The novel describes with accuracy the historical events of the middle of the last century and presents snapshots of the history, geography, and culture of the Goa and India of that period. The narrative is full of digressions into ethics, philosophy, and religion, along with a sprinkling of linguistic escapades.

The novel is partly based on actual events including the personal experiences of the author, who himself had been a participant in the freedom struggle and a political prisoner for more than five years. He also had the rare privilege of being present at the formal surrender of the Portuguese governor-general of Goa, Vassalo e Silva, to Brigadier Dhillon of the Indian army, on the night of December 19, 1961.

“Kanekar’s debut is both a historical novel of midcentury India and a portrait of the philosopher as a young man. India freed itself from English colonial rule and became a nation on Aug. 15, 1947… As Kanekar adds detail and depth to his protagonist’s portrait, Ramesh’s own development becomes a metaphor for the maturation of Goa, and Ramesh’s labors and triumphs mirror those of his homeland. Kanekar writes with a sure hand, artfully blending historical analysis, personal narrative and philosophical digression into a satisfying whole. A fascinating appendix to the struggle for Indian independence…”—Kirkus Discoveries

This book will be featured at this year’s Frankfurt International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, on October 6-10, 2010. For more information, log on to Xlibris.com.

Ravindra Kelekar passes away

Konkani litterateur and Jnanpith Award winner Ravindra R. Kelekar, 85, died at a hospital at Margao on Friday,  August 28, after a brief illness. He is survived by son Girish and his family.

The mortal remains will be consigned to the flames with full State honours at his native village of Priol in south Goa, around 18 km from Panaji, on Saturday, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said.

As a mark of respect, the State government announced a public holiday for half a day on Friday and for the whole day of Saturday.

Ravindra Kelekar was born on March 25, 1925 at Cuncolim in south Goa. Influenced by the Gandhian thoughts, he was actively involved in the freedom struggle and the Goa liberation movement. Though he also wrote in Marathi and Hindi, his contributions to the growth of Konkani were immense. He was always at the forefront of the Konkani movement. He fought several battles to seek recognition of the Konkani language.

Full report here Hindu

Adeus Ravindrabab

Literary giant and Goa's only Jnanpith award winner Ravindra Kelekar passed away on Friday. 

The end for the Konkani stalwart came at 11.30am and his mortal remains will be consigned to the flames at noon on Saturday. The police will reverse their arms and bugles will be sounded to the last post as the pyre is lit at his village of Priol in Ponda taluka.

A Gandhian activist and freedom fighter who participated in the Indian freedom movement and Goa's struggle for liberation, Kelekar also led from the front in the anti-merger campaign of the newly-formed Union territory with Maharashtra and in the battle for recognition of the official language.

Paying rich tributes to Kelekar's immense contribution to Konkani literature and Goan culture in general, chief minister Digambar Kamat declared a public holiday on Saturday and all government offices closed after lunch on Friday as a mark of respect to mourn Kelekar's death. Sources said the holiday is applicable only to government offices and educational institutions like schools and colleges.

Full report here Times of India 

The difficulty of being a Mughal emperor, and Mr Roy

If you have not read Sudhir Kakar’s analysis of Indian character, you have missed out something very precious. I have read every book he has published and eagerly await for the next one. He is India’s best-known psychoanalyst and a veryhandsome man to whose charm many beautiful women have succumbed.
He now lives in Goa with his second wife, a German psychiatrist.

You can start with his latest The Crimson Throne (Penguin-Viking) which I think is his best work. It is about the last year of the reign of Emperor Shahjahan and the  war of succession between his four sons. It is based on the observations of two European adventurers — the Italian Niccolai Manucci, a semi-literate fellow from Venice with an appetite for women. He worked as a deck cleaner and arrived in Goa in 1675. He recorded his experiences in Storia Do Mogor. The other was a Frenchman Francois Bernier, a more perceptive observer who arrived in Surat and wrote about the state of affairs in the Mughal Empire. Kakar has based his work entirely on these secondary sources and what he said about India in the 17th century is true about the India of today.

To whet your appetite, let me tell you how Manucci travelled from Goa to Delhi and made his name as a magic healer. He received the hospitality of Jesuit priests who found him lodgings on top of a hill. His sole companion was a Hindu vaid practising Ayurveda. He told him that the stomach was the repository of all ailments and an examination of a sick person’s faeces before prescribing medicine was vital.

Full report here Hindustan Times

Book on Vibrant Konkani Theatre Published

‘When the curtains rise, understanding Goa's vibrant Konkani theatre’, a book by Dr André Rafael Fernandes has been published with the financial support from Tiatr Academy of Goa (TAG).

Based on a PhD thesis, the work traces the growth of the tiatr (or tiatro) right from its diverse, sometimes overlooked, origins. It unearths references to the earliest Portuguese plays in Goa. It helps understand theatre in Goa, the region's culture history, and the role of Diaspora communities in keeping the Konkani language vibrant.

The book contains some rare illustrations. For instance, the front cover illustration depicts a handbill for the 1904 performance of Batcara. List of characters confirms the early participation of women in the tiatr, at a time when this was not prevalent in other Indian theatre forms.

Full report here Daijiworld

Borges-bab, "picture speaks thousand words!"

I witnessed the recent 2nd Konkani (Romi Lipi) Sahitya Sammenalan. Though it is in its infancy stage (just second year) I was thrilled see the enthusiasm in people who attended the Sammelan. Morever it was a very pleasant surprise for me to see, so many collections of Konkani books in Roman Script. I enquired about the books with the person who was managing the stall and was very delighted to learn that most of those books were published in just one year.

Number of people discouraged Konkani (Roman script) because of the dirty lobbying in Goa who wanted just to grab Govt money for their selfish purpose. Thus the interest in Konkani (Roman script) was diminishing. But because of the lift from DKA I am very happy to see the trend in Konkani (Roman script) flourishing. This is indeed a good sign.

Full report here Bellevision

REVIEW: The Dreaming House

REVIEW

The Dreaming House
Tanya Mendonsa
HarperCollins
Rs. 299
pp 148
ISBN: 8172239165

Blurb
Conceived of as a journey within a book, a journey in both geographical and spiritual terms, The Dreaming House is an anthology of poems in two parts. The first, titled ' The Voyage Out', is composed of poems on people the author has met – whether in real or imaginary life. The second, 'The Country Beyond', focuses – almost in a trance of delight – on the natural world and its ability to change human beings. Tanya Mendonsa's language, by turns poignant and muscular, is lyrical and contemporary, yet it is obvious that she is rooted in poetic traditions going far back in time. Here is a strikingly individual, strong and joyous voice raised in poetry, graced with rare charm and insight.

Review
Sensuous feast Hindu
Poems that are painted with an artist's brush, bring many motifs together on a single canvas, says Smitha Rao
Remember Arundhati Roy's famous claim post-Booker that all of The God of Small Things just flowed continuously onto paper and there wasn't a word as much to be edited or re-written later? Debutante poet Tanya Mendonsa gushes similarly, “… like a water source unblocked, the words flowed onto paper, as effortlessly as the sweet air…” Seems then that creativity rushes out unbridled, chiselling is so bourgeoisie.

Changing locales
The Dreaming House, a collection of a sizeable volume of poems, lends credence to suchlike claims with its raw tone and tenor, no prolix prose here. A new entrant on the canvas of Indian poetry, Tanya Mendonsa has oscillated from Kolkata to Paris to Goa with her exhibition of paintings but it was the Goan village of Moira where she found her voice and calling, manifest as The Dreaming House. Any work of art like a painting, sculpture or even poetry, is really about engaging and teasing the imagination of the viewer/reader and her interpretation, so here is Mendonsa's elegiac painting on the book cover and her writing. Here then in brush strokes is this woman with dark circles under her eyes and slender fingers, beneath the moonlight, time passing, a unicorn there, and in pen strokes on the pages is this war within, against a sinister world which divorces you from the green, forever.

Free books replace free booze at Goafest

Goafest 2010 has arrived at some significant decisions based on the feedback that the Festival is becoming "too much of fun and frolic" and "too little about knowledge sharing".

The Goafest 2010 committee has therefore unanimously decided that there will be no free booze served at this year's edition of the festival. Instead, delegates will be able to benefit from a wealth of literature on advertising, consumer behaviour and social media that will be made available free of cost for delegates. Colvyn Harris, CEO, Goafest and president, AAAI has confirmed the development.

"Goafest, besides being a celebration of the best of Indian advertising, is also a great platform for sharing of knowledge within the industry and for young adlanders. We're focussing on knowledge as the main take-away from this fest and not tanned skin and empty beer cans. Knowledge is God and God is in the details. It is always important to look at seemingly minor issues such as spellings and dates," Harris said.

Full report here Campaign India

REVIEW: Maria's Room

REVIEW

Maria's Room 
Shreekumar Varma
Harper Collins
Rs 299
Pp 332
ISBN: 8172238541
Paperback

Blurb 
Goa. Beyond the sunny beaches, the music and the feni, lies a hinterland caught between the past and present. Here, soon after Liberation, the beautiful young Maria is swept off her feet by the French artist Marcel-an affair that ends in tragedy.

Decades later, it is this dark, rain-lashed Goa that writer Raja Prasad arrives in as he flees from the dreariness of his own life. It is here that he encounters Maria-a name that is whispered into his ear from a past as treacherous as the ghosts he dares to confront; a woman as enigmatic as the land itself. As he settles down to write his second novel, Raja stumbles on to the mystery surrounding Maria's death. And in the process he uncovers secrets of his own

Dramatic and intense, Maria's Room is a tale of love and memory; of the drunken Fritz and the inscrutable Milton, the delectable Lorna and the frail Ruma; of a father's fear and a son's turmoil. It is the story of a man's struggle to make sense of himself and the world.

Review
Imagination that haunts Deccan Herald
They come as multi-talented painters of life, the Indian writers of the post-Salman Rushdie generation. Shreekumar Varma is one of them: poet, playwright, editor, teacher, short story writer for children and adults, and what else. Ah, a novelist too. A decade back, Lament of Mohini was a good find for the browser of recent arrivals. Now Maria’s Room. Is it going to be depressing as the blurb implies or will it be a Shreekumar dish, a mixture of humour and tragedy?

Goa has been in the news recently for unsavoury items in the dailyspread.  The backcover of Maria’s Room is no comfort either, as it splashes a bushelful of affairs and tragedy, a treacherous past with perhaps a spine-tingler thrown in. Certainly not a novel for smiling gaily and whispering delectable anecdotes. Remember Bimal Roy’s classic? Dilip Kumar’s car getting stuck in a strange area on a rainy night and the driver suggesting a dilapidated house nearby for the night’s stay. Those curtains flapping around the hero as he recognises the portrait of Ugranarain from a dim past. The entire scenario of Madhumati came back to me as I read the opening of Maria’s Room: “It drained its edges into shimmering slabs that had probably been paddy fields until last week. Black branches, leaves and a few anonymous objects crossed the road, migrating hurriedly from one slab to the other.


Great atmosphere, foggy view Hindu
In spite of a narrative flaw, Maria's Room manages to take the reader along…
Not many novels are able to combine good writing with good story-telling. Maria's Room comes close — which makes the shortfall easier to sight. This atmospheric, highly literary novel is also an example of a mis-crafted narrative, which, while containing all the elements of a powerful story, doesn't effectively arrange them.

But the elements are there. Shreekumar Varma sets his book in rain-lashed Goa, an inspired choice of setting for a protagonist on a breakdown. Far from the revelry of sun and sand, this is a Goa of overflowing streets, vivid foliage, lonely, courteous hotels. It is the perfect place to brood, and that is our narrator's intention. Following his arrival in Goa, he takes us through his sojourns to the town, his encounters with locals and fellow guests, and his abiding introspections. He is Raja Prasad, a novelist searching for material for his next book, while wrestling with the failure of his last — and more than that, with the scars of personal tragedy. Soon he shifts into ‘Maria's Guesthouse', and drifts into an affair with a young girl, even as he learns the story of another love, from another time. But the events of the past are impinging on the present, and the novel that Raja is writing begins gradually to lay bare his own predicament.

Govt lost in translation on Konkani

While the state government wants to implement the Goa Official Language Act in right earnest, it appears it will not able to do anything significant unless Konkani terminology is ready.

Translations in official language Konkani are difficult to make in the absence of Konkani terminology. “It takes long to translate in Konkani as there is no terminology”, pointed out  G D Padgaonkar, Director of  Official Languages. The Department of Official Language, has, however, initiated  work in this direction, it is estimated that it will take some years before terminology in six sections in Konkani is ready for reference.

“We would be happy even if one terminology is ready in a year,”  he said.   The five sections include legal terminology, legislative terminology, political science, public administration and terminology in general.  And  three sub-committees have been constituted.

“The main problem is to find the right people to draft Konkani terminology. We need knowledgeable persons and experts in Konkani language and there are few of  them, he said. Therefore, there was considerable delay in constituting sub-committees and even now not all sub-committees have been constituted.

Full report here oheraldo

But he did not have a shirt

I have been seeing him for so many years; he would slip out of his car and slowly walk towards Delhi's India International Centre's well-stacked library. One of the last surviving Indian Civil Services (ICS) officers, till he died on January 28, 2010 at the ripe age of 97, SK Banerji did not mind the anonymity that isolation of old age brings to people when many of their friends, admirers and relatives have long died or gone their own ways. On occasions when I met him at his house in Vasant Vihar, I found him surrounded by his Jamini Roys and nursing a glass of his favourite whiskey.

He was remarkably alert for his age and gave a quiet chuckle when I presented him Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book Memories of My Melancholy Whores on his 92nd birthday. The protagonist of Marquez's book is a 90-year-old man who makes one last visit to his favourite whore believ¬ing that a 90-year-old could perform better than many of those young 80-year-olds. Indeed, I could never really check with Banerji what he thought of the venerable magic realism litterateur's interesting submission. Banerji was a nationalist. He was not one of those types who remained mired in the past and celebrated the goodness of the British Raj. He joined the British steel frame of administration, ICS, in 1937, and retired in 1972 as secretary in the ministry of external affairs. Before his retirement he played an important role in building support for India in the Bangladesh war. Save for a brief assignment as the Lt Governor of Goa, where he donated a major part of his famous art collection, he did not really chase any other job and remained an astute observer of national and international happenings.

His book, From Dependence to Non-alignment, provides an interesting sweep of India in transition from 1937 onwards. Besides detailing many foreign policy issues in his book, Banerji provides enough evidence of the mindless hunting of tigers by the British and how it contributed to bringing down the population of the big cat.

Full report here Hardnews

Konkani literary and cultural convention held

Dalgado Konkani Akademy organized the Second Konkani (Roman Script) literary and cultural convention at Ravindra Bhavan, Kudchodem, in Margao on February 20 and 21.

A colourful venue was set up for the programme which was named after the well-known Konkani film personality late Frank Fernand and the main stage was named after late Albert S Carvalho. The programme started with the procession accompanied by traditional music.

Former Goa assembly speaker and the first president of newly formed Tiatr Akademy of Goa Tomazinho Cardozo spoke about the problems associated with language and scripts in Goa. He said that it is important to preserve Konkani written in all sects and all scripts so that it can flourish in all angles and directions.” Only Konkani language in all script and not in a particular script can save Goan culture and Goan identity.” He affirmed. He also stressed the need of uniting the broken society by uniting all scripts of Konkani and giving equal importance to all.

Full report here Daijiworld 

Renowned Konkani writer Prakash Thali dies

Noted Konkani writer and Sahitya Akademi award winner Prakash Thali expired on Wednesday, Feb 23. He was 65. Thali is credited for translating the Indian constitution in Konkani up to the 85th amendment and contributing to the Konkani-English dictionary.

Born at Chorao in 1945, Thali has written works in Konkani and Marathi. He has also translated Bengali dramas 'Sagina Mahato' and 'Badal Sarkar' and Kannada play 'Hayavatani', besides a Marathi drama into Konkani.

He was a professor who taught English at P D Lions College, Mumbai and Damodar College, Margao.
Thali was also editor of the Konkani monthly magazine Kullaghar and worked as assistant editor and news editor with Konkani daily Sunaparant. Among his achievements is a Sahitya Akademi award for a translation of 'Sanskar' - a book by Kannada writer U R Ananta Murthy. On February 8, he was admitted to the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim due to ailing health.

Full report here Times of India

Books on Tamil, printing efforts in 18th century

Documented history refers to Vocabulario Tamulico com a significa am Portugueza compiled by Antão da Proença printed in Goa in 1679 as the oldest Tamizh–Portuguese dictionary. Constanzo Giuseppe Beschi (Viramãmunivar; Constantine Joseph Beschi 1680–1747) also compiled the Tamizh–Latin, Latin–Tamizh–Portuguese, and Tamizh–French dictionaries.

The key contribution of Beschi was the Tamizh–Tamizh çatur-agarãti (a four-way lexicon), which included words, synonyms, categories of words, and rhymes. Beschi’s çatur-agarãti was constructed on a mixed design: the general layout was similar to that of a Tamizh nikandu, whereas the contents conformed to the style followed in European language dictionaries, viz., alphabetization and in prose style. Due to various reasons, Beschi’s çatur-agarãti remained a manuscript until 1824, after which it underwent several printed editions.

Because Tamizh was the first south-Asian language to develop printing capability, Madras commenced printing of books earlier than the other three major Indian cities.

Full report here Express Buzz

Enroute to Goa

Orhan Pamuk has not been a frequent visitor to India. That however is likely to change as he heads for Goa with his new partner, Kiran Desai.

Even as his latest book, The Museum of Innocence is acclaimed throughout the world, the book acknowledges the role Desai played. And the two are headed to Goa to work on their respective books. His book however will be on Istanbul.

“I’m going to Goa with my girlfriend Kiran," he said. "She is a beautiful and intelligent person. India should be proud of her.”

Related articles:
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'No secret, Kiran's my girlfriend' Times of India
'When you are in love, you're also egoistic and calculating' DNA
Orhan Pamuk unplugged Hindustan Times