Stocked with books, and fuelled on ambition, the ‘Mobile Konkani Bazaar’ will start its tour of the district hoping to take Konkani literature and music to a wider audience.
Over the next 10 days, the van — stocked with a collection of Konkani novels, works of non-fiction, dictionaries, and music CDs — will travel across Dakshina Kannada. While sale of the books and CDs is secondary, the primary objective is to allow the Konkani community access to the publications, said officials of the Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy, at the flagging-off ceremony of the vehicle here on Wednesday.
Having started its journey in Bangalore on May 24, the van has traversed through Mysore and Madikeri before reaching the city on Wednesday. Academy officials said it was “encouraging” that books worth Rs. 58,000 had been sold in South Karnataka.
After touring the district, the mobile bazaar moves to Udupi, Uttara Kannada and then, on June 22 to Dharwad for the Academy’s award ceremony, said officials. Based on sales, books will be sent to the mobile bazaar from publishing units in Mangalore, added officials.
Release of books
The official launch ceremony held at Kadri Park also saw the release of two books: the novel ‘Asthamana’, authored by Academy member K. Sharada Bhat, and linguist Vareeja Nirebail’s compilation of poetry for children “Balageetha”.
As a gesture of “cooperation and harmony” between the three state language academies headquartered in the city (Tulu and Beary apart from Konkani), Janaki Brahmavara, president of Tulu Sahitya Academy and Mohammad Haneef, president of Beary Sahitya Academy, were felicitated by the Konkani Academy.
Jonisha Lobo and Daphny D’Souza, both of whom scored full marks in Konkani subject in the recently-concluded Standard X state examinations, were awarded by the Academy.
The programme was followed by a Konkani music concert by Srikant and team.
