He is now Seventy-Five.  And the position he has just ascended demands lots of stamina.  A daunting task of introduction of Konkani language in schools as a teaching media, training of teaching staff, finding a berth for Konkani in state education syllabus, promoting young writers and budding literary persons and top of it all creating unity among various Konkani speaking communities in Karnataka, inter -exchange their literature and folklore.  Monsignor Alexander. F. D' Souza, President of Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy, a doyen of Konkani journalism, social worker, above all a man without a single stigma talks to Mick-Max, official correspondent of daijidubai.com / konkandaiz.com in Mangalore and clarifies whether he has taken a right decision by accepting this huge responsibility or not.

Q: When you were first made known that you are appointed the President of Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy, you were surprised, it is said.  But it is evident that a lot of spadework had been going on behind the scene supporting your candidature.  It is said that there were other candidates too, like Naa D'Souza and Paul Moras, as it is reported in daijidubai.com / konkandaiz.com, did you really have some prior intimation about your appointment?
A: It is true that I was surprised when at the first instance some of my friends came to me suggesting that I should take up the President ship of Konkani Sahitya Academy.  They might have had their own good reasons for suggesting my name, since all of them were enthusiastic workers of our mother tongue, Konkani.  But my first reaction to their suggestion was that this job was not for me to take.  It would be better that a lay leader looks it up. I suggested some names to this job.  But my friends rejected those names for one reason or the other and in the circumstances prevailing in order to unify the Konkani people and continue the good work of promoting Konkani throughout the State, they said, it was necessary that I took it up.  Although reluctantly, yet for the love of our mother tongue, Konkani, I said, I shall do whatever I can.  They prepared a list of names of the members of the Academy to be formed along with my name as a President and sent it to the Government of Karnataka.  Other people probably also sent up names of other persons for the President ship.  Hence, no body could say, I would be made the president.  I went on saying that it may be good if they appoint me, but still better would be that they leave me free.  I kept quiet on this issue leaving the outcome to the Providence of God.  The Konkani Leaders must have their own say in this matter. Finally, the appointment was made by the Ministry of Kannada and Culture with the consent of the Chief Minister.  Hence, there was a suggestion, it is true, but the appointment was never sure until it was actually announced.
 
Q: Just before handing over the reins of the Academy to your hands, Mr. Basthi Vaman Shenoy gave a press statement regarding the introduction of Konkani in the schools.  It is a fact that the Catholic Community manages well many schools.  Was that move in view of your taking up the President ship of the Academy?
A: The move to put Konkani in the schools has been there for more than 25 years in our State.  Those who worked for Konkani wanted this is a basic requirement for making Konkani stable and make progress.  The Late. Fr. Philip Nazareth was requested to prepare the school textbooks for this purpose and he did some work in this line.  When some of us had met the Chief Minister of that time, the question posed to us by him was, do you have text books in Konkani and trained teachers to teach the language?  We did not have those things at that time.  The Government then changed hands, and we were not strongly organized for this purp