Konkani fragrance in Dubai soon

MANGALURU: Fragrance of Konkani could soon waft across the Middle East if a project drawn up by Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy in this regard bears fruit. Titled ‘ Halliyinda Dillige,’ ‘Dilliyinda Dubaige’ (From village to Delhi and from Delhi to Dubai), the academy under its Konkani awareness campaign already launched to promote speaking of Konkani in villages in Uttara Kannada, is looking to expand its scope to Delhi and beyond.
Disclosing this on Friday, R P Naik , president of the academy, said his team of office bearers will take up this project of promoting Konkani in the national capital and Dubai at its own cost.

“We are looking for sponsors who could take care of travel and lodging arrangements of the artists that the academy intends to take to Dubai,” he said, adding artists have already started making enquiries and expressed their willingness to be part of this initiative.

The project, the finale of which will be held in Dubai, will also mark the culmination of Vishwa Konkani Jagruthi abhiyan. The academy has drawn up plans to hold 100 such awareness programmes in Karnataka and outside, the first of which was launched by revenue minister R V Deshpande at villages in Joida taluk in Uttara Kannada district on December 6, said Naik. Plans are being firmed up for a grand finale to the campaign in Dubai, he noted.

The campaign, in addition to promoting Konkani among youth, is also striving to let parents know that the government has permitted teaching of Konkani as a third language in schools. “If this message percolates among the stakeholders – parents in this case— it will empower them to request schools in Konkani speaking pockets to demand the same from schools where their children study. This will help the students study their mother tongue,” he said.