Vincy Quadros : Bala Sahitya Academi award winner for Konkani literature|(2017)

 Vincy Quadros is this year’s Bala Sahitya ward winner for Konkani literature. His book, Jaduche Pettul(Magic box) is a fantasy middle grade novel which was first published in 2011 and won the award in 2017.

 The Konkani language has five scripts- Devnagri, Romi, Malayalam, Kannada and Perso Arabic. Vincy’s award winning book has been written in the Romi script. The story revolves around Abdul, a poor boy who find a fairy in a box. Abdul inherits a kingdom without an heir and resolves conflict between kingdoms, fostering brotherhood between warring kings and promotes the message of peace.  He never returns home. The story ends when Abdul becomes an adult.

 The main character of Abdul was named after a school student Quincy met in one of his school workshops.  He was teaching the process of ideating stories and posed a question, “What will you do if you find a magical treasure box?”  A student named Abdul started the story about a boy inheriting a kingdom with no heir and a world without wars. The moment Quincy heard the answer he knew it would make a good story.   He promised Abdul he would write the story and name the main character after him.  Quincy has not met or heard from the boy again. Abdul remains immortal in the pages of Jaduche Pettul. 

 Not only does Vincy write books and articles for magazines, he also edits, translates and transliterates (from Devnagri to Romi) Konkani literature. He is also credited to be one of the translators of the Konkani Bible.  He writes Konkani in both, Romi and Devanagri scripts.  Vincy believes in unity through diversity.   He is working towards the recognition of all five scripts of Konkani language. “If these scripts are not recognized, they will be neglected and die.  People will switch to writing in English.” 

Apart from being a full time accountant in a private company, Vincy heads the Dalgado Konknni Akademi(DKA) in Goa. It is through this organization that he has taken many initiatives for the promotion of Konkani books.  One of the initiatives is the Kombri scheme for first time authors. DGA puts in the 100% investment into publishing their first books. The print run of the first edition is a modest 500 copies. The authors are given 300 copies as royalty.  The rest remains with DGA. Institutions in Goa support Konkani children books by buying them from authors and DGA.  The government of Goa, Central library, departments of education, art and culture are regular buyers. Since there are no middlemen involved in the sale of books, they are sold at nearly 50% discount.  

Pikoll(harvest) scheme is another initiative of DKA  to encourage authors to publish more books in Konkani.  Translations, research work in Konkani literature is also part of DKA which is funded by the Government of Goa.  Every year the government of Goa gives 30 lakhs to DKA of which 30% is spent to meet administrative costs, 30% is spent on the publication of books, and 10% on awards for authors and people for cultural contribution, the rest is spent on promoting Konkani literature through literary activities in villages and towns across Goa.  The organization tries to rope in as many volunteers as it can to bring down administrative costs from 30% to 20% and use the extra monies to promote Konkani books.  

  Schools in Goa teach Konkani in Devnagri script. Most Konkani children books are written in the Romi script making it difficult to market them.  Vincy suggests introducing books as a part of compulsory reading in schools. “Marketing children books is not a one man show. People should come forward and support all forms of literature. Children should be involved in regional literature through writing stories, narrating poems and elocution competitions after they finish schooling. The world of a Goan is incomplete without the Konkani language.  Children should feel honoured to write, speak and read in Konkani.”