Mangaluru, December 20: The “Konkani Sahitya Sammelan-2014”, was inaugurated by Kum Veerabhadrappa at Scouts and Guides Auditorium at Lalbagh Mangaluru, on Saturday December 20th, organized by the state Konkani Sahitya Academy.
Kum Veerabhadrappa, veteran writer addressing the audience said, “If one visits Kerala or Tamil Nadu, we can find people who do not speak any language other than Malayalam and Tamil, respectively. They do not allow other languages to grow. But our State Karnataka is not like them. We enable other languages to grow in our state”.
He said, during the reign of Cholas and Pallavas, there were Konkani and Tulu speaking people in the state. More than 70 lakh people across the world speak Konkani. It is a matter of pride that, out of 15 languages, Konkani is in the 6th position. To know more than 4-5 languages is a privilege for an individual, he added.
Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy president Roy Castelino gave a call to the Konkani speaking people to strengthen Konkani’s base in the film industry. The contribution of Konkani to the film industry is almost negligible. Our love towards Konkani has reduced, we require more writers, he added.
On this occasion, a novel ‘Unya Bhavadtache’ by Edwin J F D’Souza and ‘Ayeraso Book’, a collection of poems by Andrew D’Cunha were released.
Fr Denis Moras Prabhu, Dr Devdas Pai, Dr Shobha Neelavar, C G S Taccode, and A D Netto were present among others.
