Frederick Noronha
‘Nouchalok ani Tachi Kola’. If you saw only the title of this book, it might leave you guessing. But when you see the accompanying pics on the cover, it becomes easier to comprehend what this title contains.
Subtitled ‘Notes on the Elements of Shipping’, this is a 2026 release from the Dalgado Konkani Akademi (ISBN 978-81-996743-1-8). It is the 107th publication of that organisation whose focus is to promote Konkani in Goa’s long-used Romi script.
Getting technical terms and concepts into a small language that grew up in rustic times presents its own challenges. For one, translating tech terms in a way that the reader will easily understand is not an easy task. For instance, does ‘nouchalok’ mean seaman, navigator or navigation?
Its author, the Vasco-based Capt. Eddie Viegas says that the marine industry in Goa too has grown by leaps and bounds. That is, from humble dhows of the mid 1900s to the almost sea-going sized vessels of over 2500 metric tonne DWT (dead-weight tonnage, or the maximum weight it can carry). Yet, on the other hand, “very little has happened by way of the training and upgrading the knowledge of the men who man these vessels.”
His book aims to “fill in the vacuum of knowledge”. To help crews work with greater safety and efficiency, Capt Viegas says he has undertaken the task in the local mother tongue, Konkani. He admits though: “Several difficulties have been faced during the process of writing this book due to the lack of availability of precise terminology.”
One interesting section comes as Chapter 6. There, the book attempts to translate (complex) navigational terms into Konkani. It’s fascinating to see how this is attained. Could you guess how terms like Length All Over, Loaded Displacement, or Deadweight-Carrying Capacity are explained in Konkani? Surely, a good attempt has been made.
Given the bilingual explanations in this book, even someone knowing a little of Konkani could gain a lot of knowledge. This is where creating and sharing useful Knowledge in Konkani plays multiple roles.
It is not just about sharing information. It enriches the language, expands our vocabulary and expressive possibilities, deepens our own understanding of Konkani, encourages us to explore subjects we might otherwise overlook, makes knowledge accessible to more people, preserves and develops our intellectual heritage, and helps us understand, interpret and shape the wider world around us.
The slender book starts off with a simple introduction. Then it sails into deeper waters. Its drawing, etc, get quite intricate towards the end of the book. Obviously, this is a book for the specialist; but it can be easily recommended to many more. That includes anyone wanting to either support the creation of more knowledge in Konkani, or someone just curious to see what’s possible on this front. (Hint: get a good discount if you buy direct from publishers.)
Talking about which, we need to give importance to the need for generating more non-fiction works in Konkani.
There is no reliable, comprehensive figure for the total number of nonfiction books either in Roman (Romi) or Devanagari (Nagari) script. This is a significant bibliographical gap. We have some useful publishing statistics and catalogues, but they do not consistently distinguish nonfiction from fiction, poetry, drama, religious publications and children’s books.
We are talking about just two scripts of Konkani. Leave aside the Kannada script, and two old, historic scripts (Malayalam script and Perso-Arabic) which are on life-support system when it comes to being printed and published today.
The Krishnadas Shama Goa State Central Library’s legal-deposit records provide some hint. On paper, the number of Konkani books produced looks good–2019 (120 in Nagari, 34 in Romi), 2020 (67 and 26), 2021 (59 and 34), 2022 (99 and 37), and 2023 (91 and 25). These are books deposited with the Central Library.
The Romi tradition has a particularly interesting body of religious, historical, linguistic and cultural writing. But much of that was from the past.
Many non-fiction books deal with the Konkani language and literature. Such as Olivinho Gomes’ Konkani Literature in Roman Script: ‘A Brief History’ (2010), the language learning guides from the TSKK and the Goa Konkani Akademi. There are many books for children too. Nagari has its own travelogues (by Ravindra Kelekar, Dilip Borkar and others). There are quite a few collections of essays too.
There is also a substantial body of nonfiction dealing with Konkani grammar, language history, folklore, Goan social history, religion and cultural traditions.
One particularly important resource is the 1963 bibliography compiled by Ravindra Kelkar, FJ Martyres and AA Saldanha, ‘A Bibliography of Konkani Literature in Devanagari, Roman and Kannada Characters’. A later academic survey by N.B. Desai points out that this was an early attempt to document Konkani publishing across scripts. It also notes that Malayalam- and Urdu-script publications were not adequately covered, and that no continuous script-wise or region-wise count was maintained subsequently.
In the early days of Konkani publishing, quite a few works dealt with non fiction–language, religion, plants (though not published in Konkani), and the like. We have lost count, or forgotten some of the early works.
Much of the attention given to Konkani publishing tends to focus on novels, poetry, tiatr and literary awards. Yet there is a separate, maybe smaller or less noticed tradition of writing about religion, language, history, education, music, theatre, social life and Goan identity. The latter needs to be focussed on too.
A worthwhile project would be to create a consolidated bibliography of Konkani nonfiction, classified by script, subject, author, year and place of publication. It could reveal not merely how many books exist, but also how much intellectual and historical writing has remained outside the mainstream bibliographical record. For anyone up to the challenge, this create a useful resource for identifying older, neglected works deserving of digitisation or republication.
Non-fiction is particularly important for a language like Konkani because it proves that the language is not merely meant for poetry, songs, stories, humour or nostalgia, but can be a language capable of dealing with the full complexity of modern life. Any language grows when people can use it to discuss history, science, medicine, law, technology, economics, politics, the environment, education and everyday practical knowledge.
Non-fiction also creates the vocabulary needed to describe new ideas, encourages precise writing and reading, and makes the language useful across generations and professions. It preserves local knowledge, oral histories, livelihoods and ways of understanding the world that might otherwise disappear.
Moreover, it gives Konkani readers access to knowledge in their own language rather than making them entirely dependent on English or other dominant languages. For Konkani, this task is especially important because its publishing world is divided across scripts, regions and communities: a stronger body of non-fiction can help build bridges between them too.
This 153-page book is priced at Rs. 600, which is on the higher side. This kind of suggests that its publishers expect to be a book that draws a niche readership. Yet, the DKA appears to have stepped up its publications of late, and part of the credit for this should go to its new(ish) president Fr Myron Jeson Barreto and his team.
