Prutha Goa

Being a writer is a hard work and anybody who has dabbled in writing, albeit occasionally, will bear testimony to the fact. Imagine having the gumption to carry on with it alongside your primary source of income, or even adopting it as your only means of livelihood. Only the madness and passion that fuels the tenacity of writers presents us with a plausible answer to why there are people who have chosen to enter into writing professionally. From Mind to Keyboard , edited by Sheela Jaywant and published by Goa, 1556, is a book of stories from different writers living in Goa about their journeys as writers: what set off the spark and what kept them going despite any odds that presented themselves against their choice. The contributors are not all of Goan origin, and so they provide us with an insight into a writing world and its struggles that goes beyond the narrow confines of our State. It is, nevertheless, heartening to acknowledge the number of prominent writers Goa has produced. The

Alcoholism has been a killer and destroyer of familial peace hiding in plain sight. This is because we chose to ignore it if it does not affect us directly. Many in society still have an attitude of disdain towards persons encumbered by this disease as it is seen as a sign of weakness. The stigma attached to it has led to deaths because alcoholics could not come to terms with their problem and families have been left devastated and in social, emotional and financial turmoil. Maria Viency Cardozo’s maiden venture as a writer has resulted in a book Diamonds Under My Feet that offers courage to all those families and individuals afflicted by this insidious malady. She says, ‘The book is all about a message of hope for families suffering because of the problem of alcoholism.’ Even though alcoholism is termed AUD or alcohol use disorder by the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5), the awareness of the fact that it is a disease and that sufferers can avail of help

Rarely is such exuberance displayed for one’s art as evinced by Chandrakant Redican’s enthusiasm for spoken word poetry. Chandrakant and his sister Priyam have Indian-Irish parentage and together have started the Bullock Cart Cafe Spoken Word Project. They are part of the Pune Poetry Slam and endeavour to underscore the impact of performance poetry and encourage its permeation to all sections of society. While they have built their base in Pune, writing and performing original poems, organising poetry slams and workshops, they have furthermore extended their reach outside Pune by holding workshops and performances in Goa, Mumbai, Kharagpur, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. They are planning on having the first spoken word festival in the country too. Priyam was a qualified psychologist before she decided to resign from her job as a corporate trainer to write a book and finally devoted herself to performance poetry. Chandrakant is a self-confessed geek with a background in science but eventuall

India has been grossly misrepresented by diasporic writers, and Indian writers who seek to voice the authentic India through literary means are often drowned out in the cacophony of the former. Elucidating her topic of discussion, which was Writing India Right: Indian Writing in English and the Global Market, Professor Vrinda Nabar (Visiting Research Professor Programme under the Baakibab Borkar Chair) notes the story of an Indian poet who managed to have his work accepted by a Western literary journal by adding that his writing had been translated by him from an Indian language. ‘This story, whether apocryphal or otherwise, captures the experienced realities of Indian writing from the ‘margins’, a term which has ironically increasingly come to mean India, even in today’s globalised world. Ironic because it is Indian writing you speak of and it is India that has become the margin,’ says Prof Nabar. In this age of globalisation, however, the Indian poet mentioned would have had to meet

When we look back on history, we are able to perceive the effect a particular era has had on the people living in that period to the extent of colouring the character and thought of individuals. Women are singular in the bearing history has had on their lives and the lack of acknowledgement of their recordings of their times. Women have written from the earliest years, but they have received no place in a male dominated world. Despite the presence of the Buddhist theris’ literary works thousands of years ago, they became accessible only in the 20th century. The Bhakti poets Mirabai, Bahinabai and Janabhai were stylistically unique but they wrote in the vernacular about the everyday routine of life and their devotion. For example, Bahinabai recounts having a low caste mentor in Tukaram, while she came from a Brahmin family, and the repercussions of the situation. Dalit Marathi poet Hira Bansode’s poem in the late 20th century, Yashodhara, brings back before us the travails of the abando

Reading Shorty Gomes: Vintage Crime Stories immediately transported me to a black and white TV era, where detectives were gritty and unafraid of gore. He is quite unalike Christie’s Poirot and, as his creator Ahmed Bunglowala will attest, ‘I perceive the British school of crime writing as too passive and plot-heavy. I write in the American school of hardboiled fiction, made famous by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.’ Bunglowala recommends the reading of Chandler’s essay, "The Simple Art of Murder", to connoisseurs of the crime genre. The stories in the book consist of three long-short stories that appeared previously as The Days and Nights of Shorty Gomes , published by Rupa &Co, whereas the fourth short story, 'Nagpada Blues', was published by HarperCollins India in the crime anthology Mumbai Noir in 2012. The stories, titled 'The Dark Side of Diamonds', 'The House on St Peter’s Street', 'Long Shadows of the North', and 'Nagpad

Author Jessica Faleiro ’s maiden novel, Afterlife: Ghost Stories from Goa , was published in 2012. She remembers suppressing her latent talent as a writer for as long as she was a student and untill she had graduated in Environmental Policy as an environmental scientist. She worked in research and policy and as a lobbyist before engaging her desire to write as a hobby. Soon it became evident that writing was an intrinsic part of her being and she says, ‘I’m happiest when filling a blank page with words, and creating stories and poems generated by something deep within myself. …at some level within myself I did always want to be a writer.’ Born in Goa and brought up in Kuwait, Jessica is a globetrotter of sorts having lived in Goa, Mumbai, Miami, Paris and London, and travelled to Afghanistan, Haiti, the Philippines and other countries for work. Her many travels have naturally given her the impetus to write travel features. She also writes essays, poems and articles which have appeared