*GULAB AWARDS 2016*
At the recently held meeting of Fr. Freddy J. da Costa Memorial Trust the names of the personalities to be felicitated by Gulab, the popular Konkani monthly and Fr. Freddy J. da Costa Memorial Trust have been declared: Noted environmentalists *Norma* and *Claude Alvares*, president of Goa Foundation have been selected as the Gulab’s personality of the year for their meritorious service towards safeguarding Goan environment. Renowned senior tiatrist, writer-director-composer-singer *Pedro Caitan D’Silva* alias *C D’Silva* to be felicitated as this year’s ‘Gulab Tiatrist’ and noted Konkani writer and novelist *Wilfred Eusebio Goes* alias *Willy Goes* has been awarded the ‘Gulab Writer’ of the year. The award presentation function will be held at Ravindra Bhavan, Black Box, Margao on 20th July 2016 at 4.30 p.m. to mark the 63rd birth anniversary of late Fr. Freddy J. da Costa. The function is jointly organized by Fr. Freddy J da Costa Memorial Trust and Dalgado Konknni Akademi. Besides the presentation ceremony Fr. Freddy J. da Costa Memorial Lecture on the subject ‘*Aichem Gõy ani Amchi Sonskrutay*’ will be delivered by Dr. Pandurang Phaldesai, Ex-Member Secretary of Kala Academy, Goa which will be followed by a cultural programme consisting of Fr. Freddy’s own compositions. *GULAB: PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR* * NORMA AND CLAUDE ALVARES * Norma and Claude Alvares are well known fighters for Goa's environment. This work they have been doing for over 25 years, mostly through the Goa Foundation. Claude Alvares is a Ph.D., and Director of the Goa Foundation since 1986. The organisation has functioned as Goa's environmental watch dog, and has taken the government of Goa and several private parties to Court over negative environmental impacts of projects. These involve projects threatening the status of Goa's beaches, mangroves, turtle nesting sites, sand dunes, private forests, wildlife sanctuaries, etc. The most important case fought by the Goa Foundation in the Supreme Court was to bring a halt to illegal mining. As a result of the petition, mining was halted for 4 years. The Supreme Court also ordered that in future 10% of all mining proceeds will be deposited in a special fund for future generations of Goans. This fund is called the Goan Iron Ore Permanent Fund. The Goa Foundation also publishes *Fish Curry and Rice*, a detailed report on the environment of Goa, in addition to other publications and reports. It has taken on serious problems that Goa faces, like the Sonsoddo garbage dump which it ran effectively for two years. It is now training people to prepare and argue their cases before the National Green Tribunal without using lawyers. Dr Claude Alvares is editor of *Other India Press*, in addition to being coordinator of the Multiversity project. Adv. Norma Alvares began practicing public interest environment law in Goa from 1988. For the past two decades she has argued, entirely free of cost, over a hundred and fifty Public Interest Litigation (PIL) cases in the Bombay High Court on environment issues, human rights, including women’s and children’s rights, animal welfare etc. for the Goa Foundation, other Goan NGOs and citizens groups. Smt. Alvares is also a well-known animal welfare activist. She is the President and Founder Trustee of People for Animals-Goa, which has established several animal shelters in Goa to assist the authorities to control stray dog population and provide shelter to animals injured in accidents. She has filed public interest litigations in the Bombay High Court in 1997 to stop bull-fights in Goa, and in 1999 to stop the killing of stray dogs and succeeded in obtaining favourable judgements to ensure prevention of cruelty to animals. For her publicly acknowledged work in relation to animal welfare and the protection of the environment she was conferred with the *Padma Shri* from the Government of India in 2002 and for her work for women’s empowerment she was awarded the *Yashadamini Puraskar* from the Government of Goa in 2003. *GULAB TIATRIST OF THE YEAR:* *C. D’SILVA* Pedro Caitan D’Silva was born on 26th March 1936 in Per-Seraulim-Colva, Goa and is widely known on Konkani stage as C. D’Silva. His first appearance on Konkani stage as a child artiste was at the age of 15 years in the tiatr APOUNNEM, written and staged by late Felicio Cardoso. From then on there was no looking back. C. D’Silva went on to act and sing for popular directors of the time like C. Alvares, M. Boyer, Remmie Colaco, John Claro, Prem Kumar, Jacinto Vaz, Kid Boxer, Young Menezes and others, performing major roles and singing duets, trios and quartets. To date he has acted in almost 300 tiatrs with each having over fifty plus shows. At the ripe age of 80, C. D’Silva still continues to perform and produce his plays. D’Silva has written and directed more than thirty plays, his first being KAZARI IRMANV in 1953. His other popular tiatrs, to name a few, are: MOG, PIXEM, MANNKAM MOTIAM and BHANGAR. He has to his credit 2 video films and six albums of Konkani songs, which have become very popular among tiatr lovers. It is not only that he excelled in Goa and other cities in India, but has performed in Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Doha Qatar, Bahrain and London as well. In recognition of his contribution to the Konkani stage, C. D’Silva has received numerous awards such as State Cultural Award 1999-2000, Kala Academy Award in 2000, Kuwait Konkani Kendr Award in 2002, Young Club of Goa Award, Coca Cola Award, etc besides a publication conferred upon him the title ‘Man of Thousand Faces’ for his versatility in performing various types of roles on stage. *GULAB WRITER OF THE YEAR* *Willy Goes* Wilfred Eusebio Goes was born on 28th March 1963 at Panjim, Goa. Popularly known as Willy Goes in the field of art and literature, he is a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Applied Art) and presently Asst. Professor in Department of Applied Art at Goa College of Art, Panaji Goa. Willy regularly contributes for magazines like ‘Gulab’, ‘The Goan Review’, ‘Goa Today’, and others and has written and published seven books in Konkani and one in English. He served on Konkani Advisory Board of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. Willy has a flair for music and plays the guitar, harmonica, flute and trumpet. He has worked as a photojournalist and HRD Trainer of Junior Chamber International. Willy has been bestowed with inumerable awards for his contribution to art and literature. He has been awarded State Art Awards for Photography and Graphic Design. He bagged Konkani Bhasha Mandal’s Literature Award 2006 for his novelette ‘Khand’ and Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendra’s Jack Sequeira Award 2012 for his contribution to Konkani Literature. His Konkani novel ‘Kotrin’ was adjudged as the best novel by All India Konknni Writers’ Organisation in 2014. He has won Dalgado Konkani Academy’s awards for his manuscripts of two Konkani novels ‘Kantto’ and ‘Kotrin’. His novelette ‘Khand’ is the first Konkani book, and so far the only one, which is available in audio format on the internet. Fausto V. da Costa Editor – Gulab Coordinator: Fr. Freddy J. da Costa Memorial Trust
