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GOA'S CURRENT GENERATION IS GROWING UP IN AN 'INTELLECTUAL ORPHANAGE' DATTA DAMODAR NAIK, apart from being a South Goa businessman, has been long involved with public issues and social life here. Among the landmarks in his life he lists his involvement with the student movement (1971-75) and his links with the Jayaprakash Narayan movement from 1975-79. In 1985, he supported the electoral campaign of Uday Bhembre against Babu Naik. Later, he has spells in the Congress (1989-90), and the Samata Andolan, a local organisation working for social reform (1993 onward). Recently, Naik published a collection of essays titled 'Zai kai Zui?' He explained to FREDERICK NORONHA <fred at bytesforall dot org> about his priorities and concerns. Naik sees his book as a "collage of multiple experiences in day-to-day life". Excerpts: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FN: How would you describe this book? What is its focus? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Zai kai Zui' is a collection of short essays and short stories. It has 24 essays and stories on wide range of subjects. The first essay is on the 'afternoon' which captures the mood of that time of the day when alone at home. The second essay is on the marigold flower, which has a special significance in Goa's cultural life. It is a symbol of agrarian Goan society and can be appropriately termed as flower of Goa. (Other essays deal with the craving for Goan food, sleep and sleeplessness, the stages in the life of a girl child, a short story on social activist and poet Safdar Hashmi and his sister, the accidental death of a dog, the death of schoolboy-acquaintance Mandar, female foeticide, Santa Claus and Christmas which the author terms his "favourite Indian festival", etc.) One is an essay on various aspects of sleep, and sleeplessness. (My view sees) death as an unending sleep. I don't believe in rebirth and heaven or hell and the existence of a soul. Death is the end of life. In the Hindu community, there is a practice to close the eyes of a dead body if they are open and put sugar in the mouth after death. (This is a ritual I like as it) signifies the desire that the unending sleep be sweet and peaceful without any awakening. The essay on 'gol-gumat' (Goa's traditional round drum) takes a philosophic turn. It compares the philosophy of the straight line and the curve. Every straight line has a dream to be a curve and every quadrilateral or triangle has a dream to be a circle. I like the 'gol-gumat' more than the Taj Mahal because every time one looks at Taj Mahal it is the same, while the 'gol-gumat' like Picasso's painting reveals different dimensions each time one looks at it. One essay is on the 'Cross of Flowers (Fulancho Khuris)' which was there on Bambolim Plateau without any roof overhead. (Personally, I) dislikes the huge church built to accommodate the cross and feel that the cross should have been under the sky and part of nature. 'Naggva' is a short story about a daughter of a migrant worker. It ends on a very optimistic end when Siddapa's wife Kaveri, after the death of Siddapa, leaves Goa for her distant village in Karnataka with a sole determination that she will enrol her daughter in a primary school in her village. Naggva promises the author's daughter that she will send a postcard in Kannada when she is able to write. We are eagerly waiting for that postcard. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FN: What prompted you into writing it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My love for my mother tongue: Konkani. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FN: To the reader who is not aware of your work, could you please give a short background of your writing? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I started writing as a columnist for Konkani daily, 'Sunapranth'. In the initial phase, I use to write about cultural, political, social issues, atheism, the need to oppose the caste system and sometimes about philosophy and psychology. In order to lend variety in the column I started writing travelogues and later short essays and short stories. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FN: How does this compare with your earlier writing? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- My very early writings were in Marathi. Early writings in Konkani were about the Goan economy and one also wrote series of articles on the subject of management. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Since your days as a student leader, do you feel that your writing reflects a similarity of concerns; or have there been any major shifts? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- After completing my education I joined in my family business. I had a privilege of meeting leading industrialists in the country. I had an opportunity to travel all over India and abroad. I was also in politics for a brief period, and in the Konkani movement and established (a campaign) for eradication of the caste system and superstition. I feel that this background is reflected in my writing from time to time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FN: What do you think are the three biggest problems facing Goa today? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (a) Poverty of thought and vision of our social and political leaders (b) Failure of the education system (c) Corruption and (d) Lack of adequate infrastructure. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FN: It would appear that social criticism and dissent is a dying breed of writing in Goa today. Do you feel that the newspapers and the academic climate encourage this? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- They don't encourage social criticism. Our new generation is growing up in an intellectual orphanage. There is a dearth of intellectually stimulating activities in Goa. Controversy is personality-focussed and not issue-based. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FN: If you had all the time necessary to complete three books in quick succession, at this point of time and given your current priorities, what would be the themes of these titles? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I would love to write on the philosophy of atheism, about globalisation and the current economic scenario, and a novel on the matriarchal system in (the south Indian state of) Kerala. ENDS FOOTNOTE: Zai kai Zui? is by Datta Damodar Naik. To contact the author write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or on phone 2736846 or 2734090. It is priced at Rs 50, 89 pages paperback.
