A scholar from Goa

Yours truly missed interacting with you, dear readers, as I had been away from the country during the past month or so and thus missing the cultural activities in Colombo.

However, I have news for you as I report interesting information gathered on my recent visit to neighbouring India. Yes, I was in Panaji, the capital city of Goa, an island in the north western part of the great country India.

Goa had been under the rule of the Portuguese for more than 450 years and is presently one of the states of India. It is a small state with a population of less than four million. There is a floating population of one million people in the city.

Goa is a tourist destination for many foreign tourists as it has many beaches and pleasing natural surroundings. It is relatively quiet and less crowded. There are many places of historical interest in the state. The majority of the people speak Konkani, a language related closely to Marati.

The state is nestled between the Arabian Sea and the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. There is a stroing South Indian influence in the cultural traits of the people who are very friendly and hospitable.

Marati, Kannada and Hindi are widely spoken, while English is understood by many educated persons. Some of the senior citizens still use Portuguese in homes. Some of these languages have a close affinity to Dravidian group of languages and thus traits of Dravidian culture is discernible.

Catholicism

Most of the people are Hindus and a substantial number of people follow Christianity, mainly Catholicism. Although I could not find time to tour the state as I had to remain in the capital and the capital itself was a fair representation of what was true Goa.

The carnival spirit, the enjoyment of life with exuberance, music, dancing, and the abundance of sea food and a trouble free atmosphere make it all enjoyable while you stay there.

I was an invitee of the Directorate of the IFFI (Internatinal Film Festival of India) which functions under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in New Delhi to attend the 36th International Film Festival with press accreditation.

I had been a regular invitee to the Festival with hospitality provided between 1991 and 1997.

But after a break of seven years (since I was not in Sri Lanka during this period) the Directorate invited me to attend the Festival in Goa, but with no hospitality provided this time, as the recommendation from the Indian High Commission in Colombo did not reach the Directorate on time. (The Directorate informed me that they did not receive anything at all from Colombo. Pity)

The IFFI is a Government sponsored festival of international repute. Since of late regional international festivals are being held in Maharashtra, Bengal and Kerala, but they are basically of a private nature.

The central Government with the assistance of State Governments used to hold this festival in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Thiruvanathapuram and last year in Goa. But from 2005, it would be Goa that will host as a permanent venue of this popular International Film Festival.

In this festival, not only the best of films from Europe, America, Africa, Australia, Asia and Canada are shown, but also a Panorama of artistic films from different states in India like films in Bengali, Marati, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Thamil, Oriya, Assamese, Gujerati and others are exhibited.

There is also a segment of Mainstream of Indian blockbusters (Masala Bollywood variety) for the box office hits lovers. The festival also pays homage to great contributors to the art of cinema and retrospectives of films that are of artistic qualities.

My purpose here is not to give elaborate reviews of films seen at the Goa festival except to give some broad details about the IFFI, but to spotlight on a Goan scholar that I met in Panaji, the capital of Goa. He is the Member Secretary of Kala Academy in Goa. The Kala Academy is the apex body of art and culture in Goa.

His name is Pandurang Ramachandra Phaldesai. He is assisted by Srikant Bhatt. The Media centre at the Festival functioned in Kala Academy and films were also shown there. The main venue for the festival films was the Ionex Theatre Complex with four theatres. Mr. P.R. Phaldesai has doctorate in Cultural History, a master's degree in Sociology and a bachelor's degree in History, Education and Political Science.

He knows Konkani, Marati, Hindi and English with a working knowledge of Sanskrit. Thus we see he is a valuable source to know all about of Goa as he had been working in the Kala Academy of Goa - the apex body in the State established by the Government for all round development of Arts and Culture - for more than 27 years.

Scholarly papers

Relatively young in age (53) for a scholar, he has authored many books in Konkani and Marati, besides several papers on the culture of Goa. One of his scholarly papers was on "The Music of Goan Aborigines".

This article is found in "Wind of Fire: Music and Musicians of Goa by Mario Cabral E Sa (1997) But the greatest contribution in English by Dr.Phaldesai is the "Kaleidoscopic Goa - A Cultural Atlas" based on cultural anthropology of Goa. I happened to glimpse over the book with illustrations, photos and other details. I could not afford to buy it.

Two of his interesting lectures were on "Festivals, Folklore and Rituals of Goa" and "Socio-linguistic analysis of the biodiversity related terms as reflected in Goa's folklore" plus "The Cultural - Geographical analysis of place-names and their etymology with reference to Canacona taluka".

The erudite researcher has also written on "Multicultural Ethno-musical Tradition of Goa" and "Rural Tradition of Goa" and innumerable articles on aspects of Goan culture. He had visited the former Soviet Union, Singapore, Malaysia, Kuwait and Gulf countries on cultural assignments.

Simple (as many Indians are), unassuming and knowledgeable, Dr.Phaldesai impressed me a lot in the brief conversations I had with him and Srikant Bhatt.

The latter is very knowledgeable on Sri Lanka. I wish that Emeritus Professor M.H.Goonetillake, who has an abiding interest in Portuguese influence the culture of Sri Lanka, would write on Goan - Sri Lankan relationship in culture and arts. In fact some of our notable cultural figures like the late Doric de Souza, the late Jeanne Pinto (just to mention two names) were originally from Goa.

Pronunciation

The educated Goans speak English very well and their pronunciation is akin to standard pronunciation. I must add that the Goans particularly those in their 40s and above are endearing listeners to the All Asia Service of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in English and Hindi (just as many listeners in other parts of India). One such listener was Xavier Thottan, a Malyalee, married to a Goan and living in South Goa.

Thanks to the SLBC English presenter, Roshan Abeysekera and his friend in Mumbai (another Goan), Robin Vergas, Xavier met me at the airport in Vasco, Goa and chaperoned me to the venue of the festival and back again to the airport on my return.

He had not heard me over the airwaves (I am on the Panel of English Presenters of the SLBC) and yet he was kind enough to see that I was not a stranger on new ground. He and his family listen to the SLBC frequently. And so is Robin.

Robin, Jungoo Siganporia, Alfi Carvalho (he had visited Sri Lanka and met all the announcers here) and Godfrey Raymond (he could speak in Thamil too) - all came to see me at the Mumbai airport while I was in transit to catch the plane to Chennai.

Except for Jungoo (he is a Farsi), none of them had listened to me over the air and yet they were enthusiastic in meeting a radio personality from Sri Lanka. Such was their enthusiasm.

I must thank Roshan and Robin for keeping the communication lines flowing in connection with my visit to Goa as if I was worthy of being showered with friendliness.

I was a courier to carry their messages and little gifts to my colleagues at the SLBC: Indrani Senanayake, Niranjan Abeysundare, Dudley Jansz, Kumar Samuel, V.Rajendra, Roshan Abeysekera (who has been serving as a bridge between Lankan presenters and Indian listeners) and others. I enjoyed being so.

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