SACHI NAIK: “There is a saying in Konkani – ‘Mor nachta mhunun kutture nachta’. Until now I had not known what Kutture meant. During my research for the book I found out that Kutture is a Red Spurfowl,” says Konkani writer Harsha Shetye who brought out a research book, ‘Goenchi Sukni’ in collaboration with photographer Vedang Sawant, published by the Goa Forest Department that will be released on November 11 at the inaugural of three-day Bird Festival of Goa at Bondla.
Harsha Shetye has earlier written travelogues, short stories and poems in Konkani, however, ‘Goenchi Sukani’ is first Konkani book on birds. “This is the first time someone has documented the Konkani names of birds found in Goa,” she says.
Harsha has always been passionate about bird watching. “In my childhood, I spent my holidays at Sanquelim. In the evening my grandfather would take us up the hills and point out at birds, naming them. My cousins have forgotten the names, but I remembered a few. Around seven years ago when I shifted to my new house, I found many uncommon birds around. This intrigued me and I began reading Salim Ali’s books or searching the internet to identify these birds.”
Harsha has been researching the original Konkani words for varied thing like old Goan furniture and utensils as a hobby. “I like researching Konkani names of anything I come across, so I mixed my passion of bird watching and Konkani names and eventually got out this research book.”
She credits Facebook for the idea of a research book on birds. She says, “A Facebook group called Konkani Speaks is to be credited. Photographer, Vedang Sawant would post photos of Goan birds and caption each with ‘guess the bird’. Since I would always guess it right, he suggested that I put my knowledge of Konkani bird names into a book. He said that he has a lot of photos of birds that could go into the book,” she says.
Prior to this book, Harsha has written several articles on birds for Konkani magazines like ‘Jaag’ and ‘Bimb’. Each page of ‘Goenchi Sukni’ includes a picture with the Konkani, Marathi, English and Scientific names of the bird, along with a short description; Harsha has also added Goan folklore associated with that particular bird. There are 432 birds in Goa though she has only found the names of around 182 birds till date. “I have just found 25 per cent of names of local birds. Mostly, I found these birds in Sanguem, Canacona, Sattari and a few in Bardez,” says Harsha.
She says that several Konkani folklore mentions the names of local birds that have faded into oblivion and these find their way into the book. “There were several folklores that I heard or learnt in my childhood; many are based on birds, their sound and their appearance, and I have included them in my book,” says Harsha.
She says that it was difficult to compile the names of the birds, taking her about five years to complete her compilation: “During my research, I would find the Marathi, English and Scientific names of the birds in the written word, but people helped me to find the Konkani names. However, the same bird is sometimes called by different names by different communities. This was the most difficult part.”
The book that has more than 130 photographs by Vedang, also has pictures by Deepa Kamat, Arabinda Pal, Vivek Naik, Justinho Rebelo, Omkar Naik and Sudhir Inamdar. About the dwindling bird population, Harsha says: “It is sad that people cut trees. We fail to understand that trees are a basic need for birds. It is their food as well as their home.”
This book is just a start, says Harsha. “Further, I want to find Konkani names of all the local birds of Goa. I have been collecting the names of old utensils and furniture too. I want to do something about that too. But for now, birds are my priority,” says Harsha with a smile. Source: http://www.navhindtimes.in/
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Goa’s first Konkani book on birds
