EK-ANKI UPDES ANI SONDEX

Tiatr ani nattkulim Gõyant khub famad. Halinchea kallar tiatranchim vo nattkuleanchim hat-borovpam chhapun yetat (chodd korun Tiatr Academy-ntlean) hi gozal bhov khuxalkayechi. Osleach borpavollinchem ek pustok mhollear Arso: 26 Nattkuleancho Jhelo jem Pri. Michael Fernandes hannem boroilam. Hea pustokachem khaxelponn mhollear sovis-ui nattkuleanche mathalle, A-Z hea 26 Inglez okxoranche volleri promannem asat.

            Pri. Michael Fernandes-achem borovp Jivit, Gulab, Goan Review, V. Ixtt and kaim firgoz-potrancher uzvaddak ailam. Nibon’d, kannio, kovita, kantaram oxe sahityache sabar prokar tannem hatall’leat.  Arso hem tachem poilem nattkuleanchem pustok.

            Hea pustokacher nodor martoch amkam disun yeta ki him nattkulim bori dekh ani xikovnn diunk boroileant. Kannio sompeo asat ani hakach lagun borovpeak bori dekh diunk adar ditat. Bhurgeponnavoilo mog, vhoddilank respet ani man divop, promannikponn, Kristi mul’lyam , soimacho husko, adi osle mud’de hea pustokant borovpian ghetleat. Gõychi osmitay ani daiz, bhailo lok ani tanchea probhavank lagon je bodol ami onnbhovtat, osle-i mud’de Pri. Michael Fernandes-an amche mukhar manddleat.           

            Hea pustokant amkam oxem dison yeta ki jim patram vaitt monis mhunnon dakhoileant tanchem kalliz ani mon rokddench bodolta. Je toren – ani sompeponnim – him patram apunn borea rostear choltole mhonn utor ditat tantum kholay disun yenam. Punn ek-anki nattkuleank vell ani zago unno asta hem monant dhorun, borovpeachi hi oddchonn amcheamni somzum yeta.

Bãym hea nattkuleant Pri. Michael Fernandes amchea paromporik bãychem mhotv dakhoita ani ami udok kiteak chotrayen vaprunk zai temvui dakholl korta. Hea nattkuleant Saxtti boli vapurlolean ruch anink vaddlea. Dusrea-i kaim nattkuleamni Gõycheo her bolio vapurleat ani haka lagun borovpeak porbim! Kaim nattkuleamni je sonvad (dialogues) vapurleat te padriche sermanv koxe distat. Dekhik: Advogad. Sogllea suvatancher Povitr Pustokantle nomunne diupachi goroz asa,  hoi?

            Zantteanchi ani kheritponnim amchea avoy-bapaychi ami seva korunk zai hem dhoronn ak’khea pustokant amkam mellta. “Dor eka putak ani dhuvek mhozo ulo – tumchim avoy-bapuy kitlim-i zanttim pasun zalear, tankam pois korum nakat, nhoi mhonn azilant-ui ghalum nakat. Kiteak, je tyag ani koxtt tumchim avoy-bapuy tumche khatir kaddtat te sonvsarantle her khuinchech monis kaddchenant.” Pri. Michael Fernandes-achem hem dhoronn zorui hanv mandun ghetam torui hea rostear cholunk sodanch vatt meklli asta kai?

            Kaim nattkuleancho hangasor hanv ul’lekh korunk sodtam. Maim hea nattkuleant, Alroy-ak  sirvis mellunk ek lak farik korunk zai asta. Punn te itle duddu taka  mellttole zalear tannem poilim Saibinn mãycheo murteo moddunk zai asta ani Saibinnicher bhavarth dovorpant kaim boreponn ani faido nam oxem soglleank kollit korunk zai asta. Alroy oxench korta ani rokddoch taka aksident zata. Toxench Tallnni hea nattkuleant, ji zaun asa kanni dog supurlea bhavanchi, tanchi avoy tankam promannikponnan lisanv korunk sangta ani apunn bazarant veta. Eklo bhav tallnnek sampoddta ani aplea ixttam barabor khellpak veta ani thoimsor buddun morta.  ‘Devan-khast-laili’ osle vichar Pri. Michael Fernandes-a sarkea tornattea padrin soddun diunk zai. Amchea jivitant unneponnam asat, chuki ghoddtat hem monant dhorun ami amchem jivit jiyeunk zai, oslem novsorlolem  chintop khub gorjechem.

Hea nattkuleanchea jheleant zaite vixoy (themes) portun portun distat tori tanchi vachta asatanam addkholl zata oxem disonam. Kovorachem chitr Alvito D’Costa-n bore bhaxen kelam. Xevottak, hem pustok vachpak ruchichem asach ani iskolamni ‘Annual Gatherings’-a vellar machier haddunk khub faideachem poddtolem oxem hanv sobhemazar sangtam. Pri. Michael Fernandes-a sarkea tornattea borovpeank oslench protsahon mell’llear Konknnichem Sahitya pormollun, aninkui borovpi  mukhar sortole nhoi?

            Arso: 26 Nattkuleancho Jhelo borovpi Pri. Michael Fernandes (Bann’nnavle: Micferns Prokaxon), 2010; panam IX+237, Rs. 100/-; Fon: 91-0832-2221688 (Mellta: Dalgado Konknni Akademi, Ponnje)

            (Ho lekh Amcho Avaz-acher uzvaddak aila, tarik: 17 Agost, 2013, pan 10)

            Inglezint hoch lekh vach hanga.

MATRIMONIAL TRADITIONS IN SNAPSHOTS

Sankoll, a novel by Bonaventure D’Pietro, one of Konkani’s great novelists, dwells on the theme of Goa’s bygone traditions in Christian marriages. This novel is a departure from the signature style of the writer who is well-known for writing thriller novels in Konkani. Often referred to as the James Hadley Chase of Konkani literature, D’Pietro has a unique novel to offer to his fans and lovers of Konkani in the form of Sankoll.

            The story of the novel which tries to give its readers a glimpse of traditional Christian practices across Goa, unfolds through weddings in different regions of Goa: Bardez, Saxtti, Quepem, etc. The aim of the author is also to document the various practices, and hence a CD too of some traditional songs such as zoti, vers and saud is also appended to the book.

            The author has taken immense pains to research (with the help of many others acknowledged in the book) minute details about his subject in the writing of the book. Indeed, the reader would be immediately transported to a time when weddings were celebrated by erecting a mattov (pandal) and everybody danced through the night with the aid of petromax lamps and the ever-obliging muzg (musicians or band). D’Pietro’s concern here is to narrate the step-by-step events leading to the marriage. This includes the seeking of life-partners through a raibari (match-maker) to the planning and preparation of food such as voddes and the end of the celebrations.

            D’Pietro is much more comfortable when talking about the traditional practices of his native place and hence he is able to provide the reader with many sensory experiences when he talks about the preparation of food: how it smells, how it boils, how it looks and tastes and how it is eaten! A section where he deals with the making of soda in the bygone days is truly enjoyable as well. Thus, after reading the book the reader is able to get a fair representation of the traditional Christian wedding practices across Goa. The story flows freely and needless to say this novel is another great addition to the corpus of Konkani literature by one of Konkani’s finest writers.

            This book, unwittingly or not, becomes a project of interrogating modernity (to use the term very broadly) as our traditions and our past is projected as having a quaint beauty and charm which gets ruptured in our contemporary (or modern) times. Thus, there is a definite separation between traditional practices of the past and those of the present. One gets the sense that this book looks at traditions as fossilized and ossified entities. But traditions always change and a project of interrogating modernity also should interrogate traditions or traditional way of life and vice versa.

            If we are going to discuss the matrimonial traditions of the past one of the major issue that cannot be overlooked is caste. One need not look further than the matrimonial classifieds of today to realize the importance of caste. The author acknowledges the importance of caste in his preface when he is accounting for the differences in practices within different vaddes or wards in a village. But in the novel the categorization is regional rather than caste-based; aren’t and weren’t alliances sought on the basis of caste rather than region? Thus, what is the justification for a region-based classification?

            The social standing of the family of the protagonist Isidor (also the narrator) is nebulous. One doesn’t really know where they are located in the hierarchy despite them owning a big house. D’Pietro has included the tribal Christian wedding as well, devoting an entire chapter to it. This chapter which contains the wedding of a person from the render (toddy-tappers) community does not specifically deal with unique practices of this community. Later in the book, the author very briefly hints at these differences when a gavddi woman (whom the author calls kunnbi) tells the narrator’s mother how certain practices of theirs differed from the community of narrator’s mother and how these practices have changed and there is no difference between them now (p. 245).

            Isidor has four sisters and one of them gets married into a rich, landed family. The family of the narrator has to make a lot of compromises and sacrifices to accommodate the traditional practices of the landed, upper-caste family vis-à-vis their own. It is only here that notions of ‘purity and pollution’ are broached by the author. Isidor’s mother says, trying to explain to her husband why the rich wear gloves, “Those people wear gloves because, in the festive mood anybody can shake their hands at the function. They are aware that they can be polluted through such an act. To avoid this ‘pollution’ they wear gloves and simpletons like you consider them great.” Thus, if notions of ‘purity and pollution’ exist can we really talk about Christian weddings occurring in a Christian community?

            This book comes with a wonderful CD as well giving a sample of how the vers, zoti etc. are sung. Obviously such a project of recording and documenting traditional practices should be welcomed with open arms. But tradition is not something that is confined only to the past; it lives in us and changes continuously.

Sankoll by Bonaventure D’Pietro (Ponnje/Panjim: Dalgado Konknni Akademi), 2013; pp. 348, Rs. 250/-; Phone: 91-0832-2221688 (Available at Dalgado Konknni Akademi, Panjim)

(A version of this article appeared on Gomantak Times, dt: July 6, 2013).

OF MORALS AND FABLES

 

Our childhood was replete with stories where animals spoke and acted like humans and as the story ended there was always a ‘moral’ to be drawn from it. Be it Aesop’s Fables or the Panchatantra, these didactic narratives which were a part of our childhood days have stayed with us even today. This review will focus on the translation of a hundred of Aesop’s Fables into Konknni by Fr. Pratap Naik SJ and Shilpa Salvi titled Isopacheo Kannio. Many of these narratives are used as ‘lessons’ in our textbooks and reading them made me remember many of my textbook ‘lessons’ once again!

 (L-R) Shilpa Salvi, Fr. Pratap Naik SJ, Vincy Quadros, Fr. Feroz Fernandes, Dionisio N F Carvalho, Premanand Lotlikar, Isidore Dantas, Anita Pinto at the release of Isopacheo Kannio on Children’s Day, 2012 in Children’s Park, Campal, Panjim.

            Aesop’s Fables are believed to have been composed somewhere around 6^th century BC by Aesop who was a slave and a story-teller in ancient Greece. These short fables not only served as “entertaining anecdotes” but also taught “a pointed lesson by indirect means.” Scholars point out that the genre of fables is fundamentally concerned with relations of unequal power between individuals and groups: in terms of money, prestige or power. Fables were believed to be an expression or cultural form of the lower classes and that it articulated their disadvantaged position. But such fables are also found in aristocratic writings as well.

            Naik and Salvi have done a wonderful job. The translation is crisp and the editing is tight. But most importantly, the language and choice of phrases used in the book will not be a bother for the children reading this book. The translators have taken immense pain to be concise while remaining true to the structure of the story.

           Translation is a tricky business. Sometimes the flavour of the fables can be lost in the process of translation. Take the example of Konkani Folk Tales retold by Olivinho J. F. Gomes (National Book Trust, 2007) from Konknni to English where one gets the feeling that the translation is too academic. Fables and/or folk tales whether in English or Konknni are fun to read in the original and somehow the flavour has to be maintained. In this context, one can also mention Venchik Lok-Kannio, a collection of folk-tales (not a translation) by Dr. Jayanti Naik, which were rendered into Romi a few years ago by Felicio Cardozo. The flavour and mellifluous flow of a Konknni folk-tale is best introduced to the reader through this book. 

            In Isopacheo Kannio all the hundred stories are accompanied with illustrations by Dominic Cordo. It must be said that each illustration is carefully thought out and the crux of the story is ably depicted. However, this book could also have benefitted from a better cover, one that immediately appeals to the kids and filled with complementing colours. 

As mentioned earlier, fables convey a “political message” and when put in the context of ancient Greek city-life, the message that is given is of unequal power-relations where the weak must obey the strong. But there can also be another possible reflection on these fables, that is, if one does not want herself and others to suffer from the situations and power-relations described in the story they can strive to create a social universe to prevent the narrative of the story from playing out. One can also ask, “Why should we choose to act like animals when we can choose not to and when we can create an environment in which acting like animals is unnecessary?”

Since these stories do not take place in any particular context and share many structural features with the Konknni folk-tales such as the extraction of morals from the stories, the process of rendering and understanding Aesop’s Fables in a distinctly Konknni register has not created any problems. Thus, as pointed above, these fables could have multiple ‘morals’ derived from them and hence the translators could have provided more than one ‘moral’ (even if they are contradictory to one another) for the reader to reflect upon.

This is a wonderful addition to the corpus of Konknni literature. Isopacheo Kannio is a must read for all young readers.

All quotations from:   

Clayton, Edward. “Aesop, Aristotle, and Animals: The Role of Fables in Human Life.” Humanitas 21, no. 1 and 2 (2008): 179–200.

Rothwell, Jr., Kenneth S. “Aristophanes’ ‘Wasps’ and the Sociopolitics of Aesop’s Fables.” The Classical Journal 90, no. 3 (1995): 233–254.

For more on Romi Konknni see here.

Isopacheo Kannio translated by Fr. Pratap Naik SJ and Shilpa Salvi (Ponnje/Panjim: Dalgado Konknni Akademi), 2012; pp. 206, Rs. 100/-; Phone: 91-0832-2221688 (Available at Dalgado Konknni Akademi, Panjim)

(A version of this article appeared on Gomantak Times, dt: June 4, 2013).