Sammelan – ‘Amchem Daiz – 8’ at Rachol Seminary
“Eduardo Jose Bruno Desouza was the first Konkani news reporter and the first novelist in Roman script in Konkani literature.” This was fondly remembered by Dr. Harischandra Nagvekar, the chief guest for ‘Amchem Daiz -8’(Our Heritage), a Konkani seminar, organized yearly by LACARS (Literary And Cultural Activity of Rachol Seminary) in collaboration with the Goa Konkani Academy on February 21st, 2013, in the seminary auditorium. The dignitaries present were Pundalik Naik, the vice president of Goa Konkani Academy, Fr. Dennis Fernandes, the rector of Rachol Seminary and Fr. Victor Ferrao, professor of Rachol Seminary.
Welcoming the dignitaries and the students, Fr. Dennis said that Rachol Seminary has contributed a lot in the propagation of Konkani language, referring to Fr. Thomas Stephens and Eduardo Jose Bruno Desouza, who was an alumnus of Rachol Seminary. Dr. Harischandra Nagvekar, ex executive member of Goa Konkani Academy and now the editor of ‘Gomant Kalika’, a Marathi monthly magazine, in his speech gave a brief gist of ‘Kristanv Ghorabo’ (The Catholic Family), the first Konkani novel in Roman script and also credited the European missionaries for helping us to lay the foundation of the Konkani language.
After this there were paper presentations on Eduardo Bruno Desouza and his contribution to the Konkani language. Sem. Sanford Rodrigues, 1st year philosophy student, presented the life and the work of Eduardo Jose Bruno Desouza while Sem. Alfi D’cruz, 1st year Theology student, spoke on his ‘mahakavya’ i.e. on his journalistic views, the founding of ‘Udentichem Sallok’ (first Konkani newspaper) and on his poem,’Ev ani Mori’(Eve and Mary). Fr. Luis Gomes, assistant parish priest at Santa Cruz and a student of Goa University, sociologically analysed ‘Kristanv Ghorabo’ while Sem. Peter D’souza, 2nd year Philosophy student, spoke about the linguistic part of it. The speakers later interacted with the audience and Shri Prakash Parienkar, associated professor of Konkani Department at Goa University was the moderator for this session.
As an attempt to preserve the folk tales heritage, the evening session dealt on folk tales and their significance on the heritage of the language development. Many students from the neighbouring schools participated in the ‘Folk tales telling competition’.“The art of storytelling in our language is slowly dwindling”, lamented Dr. Jayanthi Naik, a member of Goa Konkani Academy, who was the chief guest for this session. She also spoke about different types of stories in our culture. The completion was judged by a panel of judges along with the chief guest. Ashustosh Kamat of Our Lady Of Carmel High School, Curtorim bagged the first place while second and third place was bagged by Roslin Silva of St. Joseph’s High School, Shiroda and Vaibhav Majalikar of Our Lady Of Snows High School, Raia, respectively.
Sem. Alroy Gomes and Sem. Mario Noronha both compeered the function while Sem Roman Rodrigues was the cog in the wheel for the entire programme. Many students from Goa University of the Konkani section and from other neighbouring colleges also showed a lot of interest by taking part in the entire seminar.