Domnic's Goa

Thanks to Domnic’s book we realize what we need to preserve: Wendell Rodricks

PANJIM, April 27: Domnic P F Fernandes, who has a fan following of thousands on the internet, had his book “Domnic’s Goa” released at the hands of eminent fashion designer Wendell Rodricks at the Black Box of the Kala Akademi this evening. Describing his experience after reading the book Wendell Rodricks said, “I cannot say what a pleasure it was for me to experience and live through those days through Domnic’s eyes.” He admired the author’s clarity of thought and sense of vision and said that we are still blessed to live in a place through these scenes in the rural areas, which “we should continue to preserve and fight the establishment however hard they may try to run over us and destroy Goa... To prevent the taking away whatever is the essence of Goa, we need to stand together and fight”. “Thanks to this book we can realize what we need to preserve for the future generation,” he added. He hoped that whoever comes to Goa and cherishes the stay here returns home with a copy of this wonderful book.
Author Domnic Fernandes said, “I am glad to give you whatever I cherished from my good old days. I never dreamt that I would write this book, but it just happened and it was the internet that did it since I began writing in August 2003 and the encouragement given to me by Goans throughout the world.” He read an illustrative passage from the book which referred to the good old days of cow-dung smeared flooring in Goan houses, and all that reminded one of Goan environs during the pre-1961 days.”
Musicologist-writer Victor Rangel Ribeiro, moderating the panel discussion, asked the writers present on the dais to explain the role of nostalgia in their respective writings. He took off with Frederick Noronha whose initiatives have snowballed interesting discussions on the internet, particularly Goanet.
Savia Viegas, author of “Tales from the Attic” said, “We didn’t want to museumised into a Goa that lived in the past”. Margaret Mascarenhas, who authored “Skin”, said that her first novel was set partly in Goa, but she could not say that she wrote nostalgically, despite the fact that she enjoyed every bit of her stay in a Goa found in Domnic’s book. Jose Lourenco, author of “Amazing Goa”, talked about the “clicheing of culture” which is often found in novels about Goa, “which tends to be more nostalgic, rather than conveying a message of social issues as in the present”. Willy Goes, writer of “Altoddi ani Poltoddi” and “Khand”, recalled that it was at a writer’s workshop conducted by Victor Rangel Ribeiro that he was inspired to write. Wendell Rodrigues said that he came to “writing by accident”, while Domnic said that probably most of his work "emerged from a sense of nostalgia". Summing up the interesting session, Victor Rangel Ribeiro recalled that they had one of the first meeting of writers from different languages in Goa several years ago, and that it was expected that the movement would continue, which unfortunately has not happened. But he hoped that something positive would emerge in the near future in this connection.
Before the start of the release function, Domnic’s co-village and Konkani novelist-musician regaled the audience with music from the past on his saxophone. Cecil Pinto, on behalf of the publishers - Abbe Faria Productions - referred to the incidents which resulted into such an interesting book on Goa. [GoaNewsClips]