World Konkani Centre to digitise and preserve Konkani classics

World Konkani Centre to digitise and preserve Konkani classics

Mangalore Today News Network

Magalore, July 29, 2014:  Speaking at a round table meet with writers, scholars and researchers from Karnataka, Kerala and Goa here on July 27,  World Konkani Centre President Basti Vaman Shenoy, said the centre  has initiated a move to collect classic Konkani literature and digitise the same with voice-over to preserve it.

  He said the available Konkani literature will be classified into four forms. The classifications are oral literature in written form, transliteration of literary works of ancient classics, modern classics written in recent times and contemporary literature. The classical literature needs to be digitised to pass it on to the future generation, he said.

He said that the classical literature available in Devanagari, Kannada and Roman script will be collected. The centre has already received copies of books from personal collection of individuals, Shenoy said the centre will take up the process of digitisation with the help of writers, researchers in Konkani-speaking areas in the country.

The round table meets will also be held in Kerala and Goa. The centre will strive to collect all available Konkani classics, document, edit and publish it, he added.  Kerala Konkani Sahitya Academy President Payyanur Ramesh Pai said that the aim in digitising classics is to allow Konkani speaking people understand the text with the help of the voice-over facility.

Konkani literature is written in Devanagari, Roman Kannada and Malayalam scripts. The voice-over will do away with difficulty of a person to know a particular script, Ramesh Pai said.  TV Mohandas Pai is the mentor of the project . It was he who gave the idea of voice over.

Melvyn Rodrigues, Scholar Kiran Budkuley, Goa Konkani Sahitya Academy President Pundalika Nayak were present and an enthusiastic gathering supported.