JOIN USSahitya Akademi Award winner Melwin Rodrigues released multilingual writer J F D’Souza’s 13th book in Konkani language for children, ‘Robin Hood and Adventure Stories of Yesteryears’ at Patrika Bhavan on Thursday.
D’Souza’s first book had won him the Konkani Sahitya Akademi award in children’s literature category.
London-based Konkani friends.com, in recognition of D’Souza’s contribution to Konkani literature, had presented him with the title, ‘Konkani Star’. His 90 poems in Tulu were telecast on Namma Kudla channel.
D’Souza is also a recipient of Konkani Sahitya Academy honorary award for 2018 and has written nearly 6,000 letters to the ‘Letters to The Editors’ column in all English and Kannada newspapers.
Melwin Rodrigues, who is also founder-president of Kavitha Trust, preferred to describe the novel with two stories on Robin Hood and Pied Piper as ‘Long short story’. “It is not a direct translation but a concise version of the original stories,” he stressed, adding that such books will instil a pride for the language in children who are the future for languages.
J F D’Souza said that, since his school-going days, he was inspired by the adventurous stories of Gulliver, Ali Baba and 40 thieves. “I intend to translate more adventurous stories and publish minimum seven books in Konkani language with illustrations for children,” he said.
D’Souza’s wife Tressy Pintol, brother Marcel D’Souza and Apolinaries D’Souza were also present.