Daijiworld Media Network - Kochi (AF)
Kochi, Feb 3: The second day of the 26th All-India Konkani Parishad organized by Kerala Konkani Academy at Ernakulam here began with a seminar at 9.30 am on the subject 'Konkani Samaaj, Ek Samaaj – Garaj aani Ghadann' (Konkani Community, One Community – Need and Formation).
The session was chaired by Dr Tanaji Halarnkar. Edwin JF D'Souza from Mangalore,
N Shivdas from Goa and Arun Abhayankar from North Kanara presented papers.
While Edwin D'Souza opined that 'to bring together all the konkani people under one umbrella, using Konkani as the common denominator is a gigantic task,' Shivdas said, 'It is a hurculean task when problems like caste discrimination still exists in the Konkani community.' Arun Abhayankar suggested that there is a need to reach out to all the cross sections of the society and bring them to the main stream.
Hema Naik, Fr Francis Rodrigues, editor of Raknno, R Gopinath Naik and Prakash Thali participated in the discusión.
The second seminar began to 11.40 am on the subject 'Tarnaatyaam Madhem Konkanicho Prasaar' (Spread of Konkani amongst the Youth). The session was chaired by Fr Eric Crasta, president, Karnataka Konkani Bhasha Mandal. Speaking on the occasion he said, 'a new culture has been evolved due to the tremendous growth in the field of IT and communication and we need to understand this situation to unify the youth in order to inculcate in them the love for Konkani.'
Papers were presented by Dr Narayan Desai and Dr PR Hareendra Sharma. A discussion followed in which Prof NN Anandan, Wincy Quadros, P Suchit Rao, Dr Jaywant Nayak and Dinesh Manerkar took part.
After the lunch a poetry session was held for the up and coming poets. Philomena Sanfransisco from Mumbai was the chairperson.
Martin DSouza, Wilfy Lobo, PS Vajrabahu, Gladys Rego, Wilson Kateel, Rita Albuquerque, Chittaranjan Naik, Gwadalup Dias, Kavita Sawant and Meera Kankonkar participated in the session.
The third seminar was held at 3:30 pm on the subject 'Jaagatikaranaachya Sondharbhant Konkanicho Vikas' (The Growth of Konkani in the context of globalization), chaired by Uday Bhembre.
Presenting his paper Melvyn Rodrigues for the session, director operations Daijiworld Media Pvt Ltd said 'We need to see Konkani's growth not from the linguistic point of view but through economic, political and educational points of view. Without the cultural, political and social strength, any language will not survive in the long run.'
Sandesh Prabhudesai, editor of Sunaparant supported the views expressed by Melvyn. He further said, 'Konkani might survive, but as a mere identity symbol and not as a language.'
Dr Balagopal TS Prabhu opined, 'We should not fear that our language is going to die. But we need to think positively.'
The session was followed by a discussion in which Prakash Kamath, Dr PN Muraleedhar Shenoy and Sheetal Gauns Desai participated.
At 6:30 pm a seniors' poetry meet was held, chaired by Prakash Padgaonkar.
Renowned poets PG Kamath, Surya Ashok, K Ananth Bhat, Nayana Adarkar, Nutan Sakhardande, Jess Fernandes, Maya Kharangate, KK Subramaniam, Bhakta R Kanhangad, Shusheela, JB Sequeira, Richard Pereira and Neelba Khandekar participated in the session.
The day came to an end with cultural programmes which included music and dance performances by Elvis Goes and troupe from Goa. There was also ''Ghantti'' drama by Chinna Kasargod and group.