FREDERICK NORONHA :fred@vsnl.com

Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendra, the Jesuit-run Konkani research centre at Miramar in Panjim has sent in the following updates, through its recent newsletter:

RAMKRISHNA ZUARKAR received the Jezvit Antonio Pereira Konknni Puroskar for 1997. He has been chosen to receive this award because of his zealous work for the promotion of Konkani over a long period. He began translating French plays and went on to translate a few classical plays of Kalidas and Shakespeare. He has also written plays of his own, which have been successful on the stage. He is best known for his religious poems, *abhangs* and *artis*, with which he did pioneering work of introducing Konkani for purposes of Hindu worship.

FR. MATTHEW ALMEIDA is working on a new course in the Roman script to teach Konkani to beginners. This course will try to cater to the needs of repatriate and NRI Goans, and those who are not familiar with the Devanagari script. Matthew has also begun the work on the advanced course in Konkani in Devanagari, with the help of Manoj Kamat. This course is meant for those who have completed TSKK's Konkani Basic Course.

FR. PRATAP NAIK has been fully occupied with the supervision of the new TSKK building at Porvorim. Consequently, his lexicographic and other research work has temporarily come to a standstill. Given the situation, he does not expect to restart work on his Konkani dictionary till September.

LAST SEPTEMBER, Matthew, Manoj and Sannita Marques conducted a ten-days intensive course in Konkani literature and Konkani structure for a small group of Jesuit scholastics from Pune. The participants were glad to receive, in their words, "an understanding of Konkani culture, its historic dimensions, prose, poetry and grammar... It was really an intensive course."

IN THE TSKK LIBRARY, the total number of books at the end of the past year were 10,350. This is not counting the many volumes of periodicals.

ONE PAPER PRESENTED by Mathew Almeida in the past year dealt with 'The peculiarities of Konkani phenology', highlighting certain aspects which are unique to the Konkani language, compared to other Indo-Arian languages. Last August, Almeida broadcast a talkk titled *Konknnichem Somrud'dhikoronn*, on the means of developing the Konkani language.

THREE ARTICLES written by Mathew Almeida were abandoned for similar reasons. He wrote two articles on 'Jesuit and Franciscan contribution to Konkani' at the request made on behalf of the Comissao Nacional para as Comemoracoes dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, by the coordinators of an ambitious project to write 'A History of the Portuguese in India' in three volumes. The project has been dropped even without notice to those who had contributed to the project. Similarly, the research article on an aspect of Konkani phonology, written by him for the Boletim do Instituto Menezes Braganza, seems to have been abandoned after the Goa government 'took over' the prestigious institute run by scholars.

IN MAY LAST YEAR, R.S.Bhaskar, a Konkani poet from Kochi (Kerala), visited TSKK on his cultural tour of Goa in search of his roots. "It is heartening to see that so many of the small Konkani community of Kochi take so keen interest in everything that has to do with the Konkani language and culture," says the TSKK report. In August, a Konkani lover from Kochi, N.S.Manikantan, visited the centre. He brought alongwith him Dr Nozomi Kodama of the Department of Linguistics of Kumamoto University in Japan, who is studying the Goud Saraswat Konkani of Kochi and Mangalore.

AMONG THOSE TSKK THANKS are the editors of a number of active (but, unfortunately, not widely acknowledged) Konkani journals including Raknno, Poinnari, Divo, Kulagar, Chitrangi, Konkan Times, Jai Konkani, Sandesh, Yuvak, Darshan, Ujval, Jivit and Jivan.

IN THEIR NEW BUILDING PROJECT, next to the XCHR in Porvorim, the TSKK's work has reached final stage of completion. "We have planted hundreds of trees and plants to enhance the beauty of nature. Every type of local fruit-bearing trees known to us have been planted... Next monsoon we plan to plan selected local varieties of flower plants," said the TSKK. Since there are varieties of pooisonous snakes in the surrounding, a snake pit is being prepared to preserve poisonous snakes safely. Local and migratory birds enjoy the greenery of the campus. TSKK has plans to provide bird baths with fresh water for drinking and bathing.