Mangalore-based Konkani Language and Cultural Foundation has taken up the task of digitising Konkani literary works—classical as well as contemporary— in order to preserve the heritage of the language and pass it on to future generations.
The foundation intends to finish this task within six to eight months.
At a meeting of Konkani litterateurs here on Sunday, the foundation also decided to form a coordination committee under the chairmanship of its president Basti Vaman Shenoy. Kerala Konkani Sahitya Akademi chairman Payyanur Ramesh Pai will be the coordinator.
According to foundation member and retired medical professor Mohan Pai, the works to be digitised include classical works—works based on mythology like the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bible - value-based literature and contemporary literature.
However, works translated into Konkani would not come under the digitisation scheme, he clarified. Various works will have to be collected over the next six months.
The process will also include voice-overs of the work and it would be hosted on the internet, he said. Guidelines for the scheme were also fixed during the roundtable, he said.
The foundation ventured into this task after the President Pranab Mukherjee during his recent address to the joint session of the Parliament spoke about digitisation of works in languages that were included in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. Foundation patron T.V. Mohandas Pai took this forward culminating in finalising the scheme, Mr. Pai said.
Besides Mr. Shenoy, about 20 writers including Goa Konkani Sahitya Akademi president Pundalik Nayak, Goa University professor Kiran Budkule, Rocky Miranda, Melvin Rodriguez and others were present.
