GOA is being perpetually written about. It's past, present and even the future is being discussed by people knowledgeable or otherwise. For some writers, one brief visit to Goa is sufficient to churn out a large article. Others spare no pains to research and delve into history and refer to reliable sources while selecting material for publishing. At the Central Library we saw two books published by the Institute Menezes Braganza, Panjim. Quite relevantly the series have been labelled Govapuri and on checking the publications, which bear the imprint of Manohar Shetty's editing, we could not resist purchasing the smallish volumes--Short Story Special and Traveller's Trail.

SHORT STORY SPECIAL

In the Foreword to Short Story Special dated April-June 2000, the editor mourns, quite justifiably, the fact that the short story is not enjoying it finest hour today. "There are a great many short story writers around but it is the leap from magazine to book form that has been elusive. It would seem that the magazine or odd anthology is the only suitable format for the short story…Goans may feel justifiably proud of their harvest in this field," Manohar Shetty says.

Shetty, a renowned poet and a former editor of Goa Today, states that most of the 16 interesting tales, which are included in the book, use a "conventional mode" and are rather "old fashioned" in "their scope and structure. But they are free of fashionable literary trends and are authentic in spirit and place. They have a pristine quality as cool as spindrift in the face".

The stories flow from the fertile imaginations of literary men like Peter Nazareth and Victor Range-Ribeiro (Tivolem) besides popular Konkani story-tellers like Meena Kakodkar, Mahableshwar Sail and others. The translations have been done expertly by Vidhya Pai for Konkani and Heta Pandit for Marathi.

TRAVELLER'S TRAIL

The collection encapsulates the observations and perceptions of several European travellers and chroniclers from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Figuring among them are Maurice Collis, Fr Pierre du Jarric. Dutchman John Huyghen Van Lischoten, Pietra Della Valle, Francois Pyrard, Fr Monserrate, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, Richard F Burton and Denis Louis Cottineau de Kloguen. But Goa's Jose Nicolau da Fonseca has the lion's share in all the collected matter.

Since these are the main writers, whose distinguished works have been referred to by most of the scholars and researchers where Goan history is concerned, the Traveller's Trail will prove a worthy guide for many.

The second line of Maurice Collis' account--"The Land of the Great Image"--sports the much discussed term "Goanese". But what really attracted my attention was Richard F Burton's "Goa and the Blue Mountains". You have to read it to decide whether you agree with Collins and his description of our ancestors.

JD