Students attend 15-day workshop on Mando, participate in first-ever Mando Utsov at the St Aloysius College in Mangalore
Being rooted in the rich cultural heritage of one’s land provides fertile soil to grow and flourish in life. Goans spread around the world are known for carrying and promoting their culture in their land of domicile.
Over the centuries, cultural performances were handed down to generations through mere observation and interpretation and hence, the originality and form were at times lost.
For the Konkani cultural populace of Mangalore, ‘Gupit Mog Bhurgeaponnailo’ is a song close to their heart and they sing it with great emotions.
But a 15-day workshop on Mando conducted by Michael Jude Gracias, Goa’s renowned tiatr and folklore ambassador, gave the 40 participants an insight into Mando singing, its rhythmic beats and dress code as they became part of the first-ever Mando Utsov held at the St Aloysius College Mangalore, in the annals of its history spread over nearly two centuries.
CONCEPT
The concept of a Mando Utsov in Mangalore first began in 2022, when Gracias was presenting ‘Cavelchi Sundori’, the first Tiatr penned by Pai Tiatrist Joao Agostinho Fernandes in 1893, as part of the 150th birth anniversary of the writer.
Prof Flora Castelino, HOD of the Konkani Department of St Aloysius College Mangalore, thought of introducing Goan Tiatr at an academic level to her Konkani students. She appealed to the Tiatr Academy of Goa to help them in this venture, but then with no help coming forth, her resolve to stage the Tiatr grew stronger and treading new paths to tide the expenses, the Tiatr was staged in the college with a few students participating in it!
Gracias then invited the Konkani department to Goa to attend the third international convention in January 2023 and hosted 46 members who came down to attend the convention.
WORKSHOP
The bond between the cultural enthusiasts grew stronger and fonder and soon, the college principal Dr Fr Praveen Martis SJ and the Registrar of the autonomous college Dr Alwyn D’Sa, requested Gracias to conduct a Mando workshop for the students. The deliberations that followed led to a historic decision of holding the Mando festival on the college campus, the first of its kind in the nearly two centuries of history of the college.
The workshop was purely for those students who were committed and dedicated to Konkani culture and who gave the undertaking to attend the workshop classes which were conducted before and after the college curricular timings.
Accordingly, the workshop would be held from 7.30 am to 9 am and from 4 pm to 6 pm, which later on ran till 7.30 pm! Not a single class of their curriculum was missed by the 40 students who participated in the workshop.
Working on Mando during the sessions and learning the right way of singing, the group decided to compose a Mando on their college and incidents occurring on the campus found a place in the Mando.
The students narrated incidents about how the security would not permit entry to students without the identity card hanging on their neck and how the students called this ‘ID card hanging’ as ‘mangalsutra’. The incident featured in a Dulpod of the Mando as follows:
Nottun sozun toyar sundori
Catwalk korta dista ramp-ari
Security ghena bhitori
Without mangalsutra No Entry”
The Mando was greeted enthusiastically by Konkani students present and others in attendance.
FESTIVAL
In all five Goan Mandos, ‘St Aloysius College amchi’, ‘Gupit Mog Bhurgeaponnailo’, ‘Doriachea lharari’ (an all-girls Mando), ‘Yo Yo Moga’ (the Mando that bagged the first place at the 54th Mando festival) and ‘Adeus Korcho Vellu Pavlo’ were presented by the students.
Dr Jaywanta Nayak, Coordinator of the Konkani Adhyayana Peeta of Mangalore University, was the chief guest for the occasion. He urged other colleges present to replicate such activities in their college and promised all help in reviving the rich cultural traditions prevailing among the Konkani people.
In his presidential address, Dr Fr Praveen Martis SJ complimented the participants for their dedication, commitment and discipline and further assured of taking up more cultural projects for the benefit of the Konkani-speaking students.
He along with the Registrar Dr Alwyn D’Sa, Chief Guest and Project Coordinator Prof Flora Castelino then felicitated the chief conductor Michael Gracias for his dedicated services in the promotion of Konkani culture to the college students.
