GOA BOOKS GET A FILLIP FROM A NEW SOURCE...

By Frederick Noronha

PANJIM: There's a bonanza for authors of books in Goa: a number
of books dealing with local subjects are seeing the light of day
because of sponsorship and support from the Panjim-based
Portuguese cultural foundation, FundaCao Oriente.

Many new books are being released by authors, mostly from the
state itself, dealing with various aspects of local life -- from
Konkani to the cullinary art, Goan music, laws, memoirs,
literature of the region, and many other subjects.

Taking stock of its achievements on the completion of five years
of operation, the FundaCao Oriente put informally on show a
number of titles that were published with support from this
organisation.

Prof Dr Olivinho JF Gomes has recently come out with a bulky 924-
page tome on Old Konkani Language and Literature -- The
Portuguese Role.

This "four-in-one" book gives an outline of his "relentless
research" in libraries and archives in Europe of India, in what
he terms a revealing account of the plight of Konkani in the
first two centuries of Portuguese rule in Goa.

Gomes evaluates the "genocidal onslaught" on Konkani's cultural
substance, and also the tremendous boost it received from a
"select brand of their missionaries who endowed it with robust
sinews in lexicography, grammatical and discourse matters, the
last rising to considerable literary heights".

Panjim-based Maria Fernanda Noronha da Costa e Souza has
published a book on recipies, aptly titled Cozinha Indo-
Portuguesa, receitas da bisavo (Indo-Portuguese cuisine, great-
grandmum's recipes).

Late Aleixo Manuel da Costa, the long-time senior official of the
Goa library who died earlier this month, also recently published
a three volume Dictionario de Literatura Goesa, a giant
bibliographical work on Goan writing.

Maria Jose Palla has put together an artistic work on the walls
of Panjim and Old Goa, photographically portrayed, and titled
Parades de Pangim-Velha Goa.

Another title is Descricao da Fortaleza de Sofala e das mais da
India, a work on the forts of Sofala in Mozambique, and others in
India. Likewise, Dr Bailon de Sa has published a work titled
Pontos de Vista.

Some of the works supported by the FundaCao Oriente are in
English too. Dr Gomes' work is both in English and Devanagiri
Konkani.

Joseph Velinkar's India and the West: The First Encounters, Mario
Cabral e Sa's Winds of Fire: The Music and Musicians of Goa and
Prof Carmo D'Souza's Legal System in Goa are some of the
prominent publications.

Charles J Borges and Helmut Feldman have edited Goa & Portugal:
Their Cultural Links. US-based Sanskrit scholar and musicologist
Dr Jose Pereira and the recently-expired maestro Michael Martins
put together a fascinating study titled Song of Goa: Mandos of
Yearning.

Pereira and Martins' title looks not just at music in Goa but
also sociological aspects of this state.

Carmo D'Souza's Calangute: In Search of Sands, Carmo de Noronha's
Contos e Narrativas, Maria da Lourdes Bravo da Costa Rodrigues'
Tasty Morsels: Goan Food Ingredients and Preparations and Joao da
Viega Coutinho's memoirs titled A Kind of Absence: Life in the
Shadows of History are some of the other regional titles
published with support from the FundaCao Oriente.

Says FundaCao Oriente delegate in India, Dr Adelino Costa: "We
look at the proposals we receive to publish books, and then
consider what the costs would be, how important it is, the
quality of the writing, the size of the book, and how many copies
would be required. We want to make our funds stretch furthest. We
welcome proposals for new books." (ENDS)