TRIBUTE: Felicio Cardoso, Fr Freddy J Da Costa (from TSKK)

THOMAS STEPHENS KONKNNI KENDR
B.B. Borkar Road, Alto Porvorim, GOA - 403521
Tel: (0832) 415857, 415864
E-mail: skk_goa at sancharnet.in
17 May 2004

Dear Sir,

We will be grateful to you if you could give publicity to the following
note. Kindly refer to the New Age Printers, Verna, for details about the
accident and arrangements for the funeral. We are giving you their
biographical details and their contribution to the Konkani language.

Tragedy hits Two Konkani Stalwarts

Mr Felicio Cardoso and Fr Freddy J. da Costa died on 16 May night in
a tragic accident on their way to Bangalore by road. Both of them
were recipients of the Antonio Pereira Konknni Puroskar of Thomas
Stephens Konknni Kendr (TSKK), for 1992 and 1996 respectively. TSKK
condone the death of these two champions of Konkani, and convey our
sympathies to their families.

Mr Felicio Cardoso

Mr Cardoso was born on 30 August 1932 at Suravli, Salcette. His
primary and Liceum studies were in Portuguese. He did his high
school studies at Model English High School, Margao. Discontinuing
his high school studies he took part in Goa's liberation movement.
He was arrested on 16 June 1954 and was sent to Aguada. When in the
prison he learned to read and write Konkani in Devanagari and
Kannada scripts. He was released on 31 January 1958. He completed
his SSC in 1976, and his B.A. in History in 1980.

Mr Cardoso was a Portuguese teacher before Liberation. He was a
Konkani teacher at Rosary Higher Secondary School, Navelim. He was
a member of the Board of Studies of GBSHSC, and a member of their
textbook committee, and a Konkani examiner of the same board.

From 1949 he contributed articles regularly to Konkani periodicals
published from Bombay, such as Sot, Goa, Goemkar, Konkan Times,
Golden Goa and Sontos. After Liberation he was the editor of
Goencho Sad, a Konkani weekly in Roman script from 1962 to 1963. He
started and edited Sot, a Konkani daily in Roman script 1963 to
1967. From 1967 to 1968 he edited the Konkani daily Divtti.
1968-69 he was the editor of Loksad, a Konkani weekly. 1983-85 he
edited the Konkani daily Novem Goem. Besides this, he contributed a
number of Konkani articles to periodicals such as Suria, V. Ixtt,
Uzvadd, Goencho Avaz, Rashtramat, Sunaparant, Porzoll, Gulab, Vishal
Konkan, etc. After his retirement from Rosary H.S. School he was
associated with Fr Freddy in editing Gulab till his death.

His first book Fulanchi Bag is an anthology of his Konkani poems
published in 1952. He has written or edited ten Konkani books such
as Tufan, Tiatrancho Zhelo Bhag I & II, published by Goa Konkani
Akademi. His last book was Utpot'ti (a translation of Genesis, the
first book of the Bible) in 2002. He has written, produced and
acted in a number of Konkani Tiatr from 1950 to 1962. He has
produced a number of one-act plays. His programmes were broadcast
on AIR Panaji and Bombay. He acted in the Konkani film Jivit amchem
oxem.

He was the President (1984-86) of Konkani Bhasha Mandal, Goa. He
was on the Executive and General Council of Sahitya Akademi, New
Delhi, as a representative of Konkani.

Fr Freddy J. Da Costa

Fr Freddy J. Da Costa was born on 20 July 1953. He did his primary
studies in his native village Varca, Salcette. He joined the Minor
Seminary of Saligao at the tender age of nine, completed the 6-year
Humanities Course there and joined the Major Seminary of Rachol for
Philosophical and Theological studies. He was ordained priest on 24
April 1976. After finishing his Pastoral Training Course at Pius X
Institute, Old Goa, he was appointed Prefect of Saligao Seminary.
He did his special studies in Hindi, and taught Hindi and Konkani to
the seminarians for 14 years. He has an M.A. in Sociology. He was
a member of the Board of Studies of GBSHSC, and a member of their
textbook committee.

Fr Freddy began his literary career at the tender age of ten with a
poem entitled Maim in V. Ixtt. From then on he contributed a number
of articles, poems and short stories to Rotti and Uzvadd. For a
number of years he had a regular feature article on V. Ixtt under
the title 'Oxem mhaka Ievzota'. From 1983 he has been editing and
publishing his popular Konkani monthly magazine Gulab. He edited
and published the Roman script Konkani daily Goencho Avaz for a year
and a half. Then it was made a weekly, later a fortnightly tabloid,
and later still it came out occasionally. He has also contributed
articles to English dailies and periodicals in Goa.

Fr Freddy was the author of 11 Konkani books such as Kanniam Zhelo,
Utth Goemkara, Onit. His Bap'pa series of one-act plays are still
popular. He wrote and published over a dozen tiatr, which include
Devachi Khast, Niz Mog, Ghorabo, Utth Goemkara. Songs of some of
these Tiatr are produced as audiocassettes.

He was the first President of Dalgado Konknni Akademi, and took
active interest to promote Konakani in Roman script. Just last week
he was involved with others to revive this akademi, and was
appointed a member of a core committee. He had many dreams and
plans to preserve and promote Konkani in Roman script, which remain
unfulfilled with his untimely death.

In 1980 he was the recipient of 'Man of the Year' award instituted
by President of Maharashtra Congress. In 1995 he received the
Kulagar award. His plays and talks were broadcast by AIR Panaji.

When he was the parish priest of Bambolim church, he was
instrumental in getting a majestic and beautiful Shrine of the
Miraculous Cross - Fulancho Khuris - built at Bambolim. Besides his
manifold work for Konkani he set up and ran a printing press, New
Age Printers.


Pratap Naik, S.J.
Director TSKK